Radio Free Europe - Hib-Tone Single

The R.E.M. Breakdown

jD and Rico begin their journey through the discography of R.E.M. starting at the start with the classic, Radio Free Europe.

Transcript:

[0:16] Hey, it's JD here, and I'm joined as always by Rico Borrego to discuss the work.

[0:22] Of seminal alternative band REM.

Every week we'll explore a different song in the band's catalog going in chronological order to better understand just why this four-piece was so influential, innovative, and downrightawesome.

We're from two different generational cohorts, so our experiences may may differ. So there's that.

How are you doing this week, Rico? Well, I'm doing great.

I've been very excited for today to finally start this podcast with you.

Yeah, me too. I've been thinking about it a lot this week.

I'm honored you picked me because I know there's probably a lot of other people maybe more qualify to co-host the REM podcast.

Oh, I disagree. I've been reading your, on the REM subreddit, I've been reading your song of the week, you know, not religiously.

I read the Tragically Hip one religiously, but the REM one I pop in on all the time, and you've got your thumb on the pulse.

I really feel as though you're a great representative for both your generational cohort and to represent this band.

[1:34] I appreciate those kind words, and you know, I've been listening to you for the last couple of years when you've done both your Tragically Hip podcasts.

So I'm just excited to be part of your next journey.

And yeah, REM is definitely my top favorite band. So no better other way to do this. Yeah.

So where do we start?

[1:58] I guess we start at the start, right? Yeah. You begin at the begin.

That's all nice. Nicely played.

[2:07] So that takes us all the way back to July 14th, 1981, when Bill Barry, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills all got together with Mitch Easter and recorded what is now knownas the hip-tone version of Radio Free Europe.

What are your thoughts on this song?

[2:34] You know, Radio Free Europe, when I first heard it, and I got into the band way after they broke up, you know, and I got into their later period stuff.

[2:47] Their Warner Brothers period.

And when I finally made my way back to Murmur and, you know, even back further, Chronic Town and to the single, I think the thing that surprised me most is how much energy theyhad.

Which makes sense i guess because they were all young back then but like they really were putting in a lot of work into these early songs and it's it's kind of actually incredible howpolished even this hip tone version is compared to what would later appear on murmur like it doesn't sound like a demo to me it sounds like a fully finished product i completely agreewith you it's it's It's a blueprint for what they are in the IRS years.

You know, it really, it's got a sound and a vibe that just resonates.

And the fact that they are that fully formed this early on is indicative of just how great this band is.

You know, to compare it to athletics, oftentimes there are people that just excel at their sports. And they've just, you know, they can't explain why they're so good, but they just are.

And I feel like REM is that in music, like they were a savant, like right off the bat.

[4:08] Yeah. And they really, you know, listening, especially to Radio Free Europe, it's like they were kind of taking like a post-punk sound.

And, you know, kind of weaving it into some like almost new wave and it's, it's a very sound and, you know, although I wasn't even alive when the song was released, like I can imagine,you know, if you're in your twenties and you're going to college, like this is the music to listen to at that time.

Well, I'm just trying to think going back to 1981, I was, I was seven.

Um, so it was before my time in terms of like finding music.

I was listening to top 40 music at that time, probably, you know, just whatever my mom and dad had on the radio or my sister, my older sister, listening to Kiss and things like that.

But I think that I've lost my train of thought. Shit.

[5:05] That's okay. We'll fly by the seat of our pants here.

You know, it's important to think about what was going on, you know, in that time period.

Period that's what i was that's what i was talking there's nothing else that sounds like maybe elvis costello maybe yeah yeah i can see that but like what else was going on at that time thatsounded like radio free europe and it's you know it's so funny too because like you know i know the band was you know like michael stipe uh and bill barry you know they wereinfluenced by I like Patti Smith and the Velvet Underground.

And it's like, you can kind of hear a little bit of that even in, you know, this first single, but they totally put their own spin on it.

And I think the thing I like most about Radio Free Europe is it kind of has all of those R.E.M. trademarks already.

[5:57] Yeah. You have, you know, those gorgeous Mike Mill backing vocals.

Yep. You have those trademark Peter Buck arpeggios in the pre-chorus.

That's right Bill's drumming is just like energetic throughout the whole thing and then you have Michael who's you know at this time maybe not delivering you know, coherent lyrics andeven he admits to that but like the melodies are just so catchy they're so hooky and i feel like that's kind of what they would run with for you know murmur and every other albumbasically going forward until they decided to experiment you know yeah it's very mumbly but it's it's you're right it's so melodic it's so melodic what he does with you know almostcreating like a soundscape with his voice yeah and people didn't you know people even today go oh i never knew what the words were and i didn't care because it's just it sounds so goodand you just kind of hum your own words when you're singing it and watching live performances.

[7:03] Of them doing this song whether it's on letterman or you know their their early concerts michael starts kind of making up lyrics throughout the song he's kind of finding the words ashe's going and i think that's a really cool kind of aspect to this song specifically yeah yeah i agree, dude the bass work in this song is dazzling like he is all over the fretboard at some uhyou know uh it just sounds so great on on headphones you know and it's very interesting the way like he knows mike mills knows when to hold back and you know maybe let peter takeover and then there's other other times where he like knows when to start playing a counter melody you know that kind of gives the song a new life and peter does the same thing too likeyou know the beginning beginning of the song it's a lot of just down plucking and chords at the very end and then you get to that pre-chorus and he's doing those arpeggios oh it just itsounds beautiful it really opens the song up yeah yeah i agree it's uh it's a it's a nice piece of work it's a nice piece of work and it's really interesting too that they you know record thissong.

[8:28] And, you know, we'll eventually get to Chronic Town and to Murmur that it doesn't make it on Chronic Town.

[8:36] Very strange. And then gets re-recorded for Murmur.

[8:41] And I, I, from what I read, the band definitely preferred this version, the hip tone version over. Oh, really?

Yeah. They, they think even though they agree that maybe the production's a little outdated and it's not totally polished, they just liked the performance they got on this version and theyprefer, it's definitely a little faster.

[9:05] Yeah. It's, it's, the tempo is, is much more, uh, you know, swinging.

Yeah and um i want to say i read to peter at the time when they re-recorded it for murmur and he heard it he like broke the record in half because he was just kidding yeah no he he was hewas pissed at the way it sounded wow but you know i think at the time they're like we we probably can't really argue with you know these people who've just signed us right dad i have noidea i i do really like this version of the song uh and i another thing i like about it too is and they really the band this band does this a lot in their earlier songs is they really hold off on thatchorus they go verse they go pre-chorus and you think you're going to get a chorus they take you back to a second verse second pre-chorus then hit you then you get to pay off yeah it's alittle a reward you know yeah yeah i like that and and again going going back to the lyrics they don't.

[10:13] Really mean anything and in fact michael actually wrote he changed some of the lyrics when they re-recorded it from murmur oh and i went back and kind of listened to both andread along to what people posted online even what people post online isn't correct like some people think think in the pre-chorus he's saying ray beam and then other people think he'ssaying radio.

[10:39] And if you kind of go back and listen radio i i did too but then i was listening to the hyptone version and i'm like he does kind of sound like he's saying ray beam but i'm like thatwouldn't make sense but i mean the song to it's michael stein exactly like and radio free europe um i know in the uh i feel fine compilation set they released um and the liner notes Mikementioned that they chose the title Radio Free Europe not based on the actual U.S.

Broadcast system called Radio Free Europe.

They just picked that as a name because it sounded cool, he said.

It does sound cool. Yeah. It does sound cool.

It sounds both artistic and sort of mysterious at the same time.

Especially for your first song that people are hearing, you know? Right? Right.

[11:35] Yeah you you're like what what is this who is this band are and even like their name rem like, mysterious yeah it's mysterious it's not too weird out there like you know people knowrapid eye movement but it's like who's this band you know from athens georgia like, you know i i can't imagine what people first thought when they they heard the band they heard thissong and when they saw them live too because i know starting out you know a lot of of their career was based on their live shows you know well stipe is so enigmatic you know as a frontman it's he he he almost creates the template for the alternative front man you know yeah i you know reading online a lot of people you know think him and the band kind of paved waysfor like indie music you know sure 90s absolutely i mean not only did they influence you know uh like cobain and uh pavement bands like that um.

[12:44] But you know they they you're right they their irs years sort of formed a foundation for indie rock and then their warner brother years, they they made it clear that they weren'tgonna you know like even though they had taken a big money deal they didn't sell out like it's still great music and and and i think that that helped a lot of alternative bands sign majorlabel deals like because you know rather than stick around with sub pop or maverick or something like that um you know they were able to parlay their back catalog into a nice deal at thetime i remember it being one of the biggest deals in music history right like it was a five or six album deal for like i want to say 80 million dollars or something like that it's crazy yeah andas as someone who what you know wasn't listening to them at that time and you know just being born you know i think i was born the same year that new adventures came came out rightit it's crazy that like when i first heard of them i didn't know any of that history you know and i'm like just listening to the songs like i know their name and i've heard some of their songson the radio before but going back and reading the history it's like you know they were so important to so many bands to come and and just the way everything kind of was dealt afterthem yeah all right well let's spin the track uh this is radio free Free Europe, the hip tone version on REM Generations.

[17:59] So my immediate thoughts are, it sounds more, there's more room noise in this version than there is on the other version.

And that might be what you meant by the production earlier.

Like it sounds reverby, you know, like it's almost sounds like it's recorded in a bathroom, you know, like a lot of bands used to do, um, tiled walls, that kind of thing.

But I kind of think that's the charm of it. You know, I think that's probably why a lot of people prefer this version.

Because you know it it just it sounds true to them probably at that time right is that the consensus most people like i know you said the band prefers that but the fans prefer a lot of fans doi don't know if i would say the majority but you know from what i've seen online a lot of bands do now a lot of fans who grew up with it the original version i think that's why they preferit, uh it's one of those things i think the one you heard the one you listen to first is usually the one you prefer is yours yeah and i can't even decide which one i prefer but it seems like a lotof people who you know heard the band the first time through the original version they they prefer that one um both have a interesting intro though and this one i read was um they theycreated this intro with like a synth.

[19:23] Oh, I don't know exactly how they did, but it has that really kind of weird.

That's how I always know which one is which. Cause this one has like a faster kind of weird synth intro.

Murmur one has its own kind of longer intro. Oh.

[19:37] Who plays the synth on it? I want to say it was Mitch.

Oh, okay. Yeah, I think, because I want to say, too, in the Murmur version, in that bridge, there's some piano being played, and I think he did that as well. Oh.

But in this version, I listened back, and I don't think there's any piano in this version.

The bridge in this version, I think, it does have some extra kind of percussion in the back.

Okay. okay um yeah uh it's this one i think is a little bit like you said the production it's more stripped back there's not as much going on right um but i mean it's still like it's so good likethe second bill comes in with those drums like you're hooked and he's just doing simple like four on the floor beat but yeah it's i think it's like the the tempo i i really love when a bandstarts with was just a quick tempo something that can get your head moving yeah was there a b-side, on radio free europe yes the original disc the original one had sitting still which ohwould make it on uh murmur and um they actually last year for the what would it be the 40th.

[20:55] Anniversary they re-released the original Hip Tone on vinyl, oh my god and I got it and Sitting Still it's a different version of Sitting Still as well you can tell it's an earlier versionnot quite a demo but basically just like this version of Radio Free Europe right like a.

[21:18] Oh I don't know what the word I'm looking for um Um, yeah, it'll come to me. It's not a big deal.

Uh, but yeah, like this version definitely too, as we mentioned before, it's definitely faster in tempo.

Yeah. Which, which I do like.

Yeah. Um, and I really enjoy the way, cause I don't feel like a lot of REM songs do this where the beginning you really kind of have, you know, Mike Mills was playing those, those eighthnotes on the bass and he's really just in sync with Peter and they're just, they're playing really simple until you get kind of the pre-chorus where you know they change it up to kind of openthe song up and especially too when you get the pre-chorus that's where michael really takes the vocals and he's doing those those long notes and how like how great is this debut debutyou know like i i can't think of many debuts that are that a band comes out with this kind of swagger and this kind of uh.

[22:25] Power you know like right off the bat it's pretty it's pretty out there and it sounds similar to the rest of their work you know and that's really hard because you know and i'mprobably going to go back to the hip a lot just because that's a band you and i both love and you know your other podcast um their first ep i think sounds so different to their first debutalbum up Up to Here.

Yeah. And there's like a huge, I feel like, quality gap.

Not to say their debut AP, you know, is bad by any means.

I know what you mean. You know, it's just not there yet to Up to Here.

And I don't even think Up to Here is as good as, you know, the next two albums.

But here it's kind of different. Here, like, they kind of knew what they wanted right off the bat, which is impressive.

How long had they been a band, do you know, before they recorded this single?

Um i'm not long right no not long i mean i i want to say that they went in the studio.

[23:33] Um shortly after their first show which was uh april 5th of 1980 okay and um it was kind of weird doing a little research for this version because online it almost makes it seem likethey did a version with mitch and then it almost made they almost made it seem like one of the executives at hip tone heard it and didn't love the way it was like mixed or or somethingand it almost sounded like they they did like another version like a third word like the third version would be the one on murmur but i couldn't find anywhere online where there's morethan just the two that we know okay so i i don't know if that's just someone misremembering or or whatnot but i i do know hip tone where it kind of seems like the band maybe didn't loveworking with them, oh um but you know it also seems like i think they you know again with murmur they also had some issues with with production and when we get to murmur it'sinteresting because there's i think there's one or two songs where they actually had another producer produce the song.

[24:46] I didn't know that. Because I know when I do my Songs of the Week on Reddit, there are a couple of murmur songs where you can hear demos from another producer and theysound totally different.

And a lot of the time it's just the producer adding on stuff in post.

And the band didn't like that, like adding on synths and stuff.

Oh, yeah. And I think that would have made it outdated.

Yeah. Because this doesn't, besides the production, this song does not sound outdated to me.

No, I agree with you. it does not sound 40 years old uh it doesn't have that gated drum sound that was so prominent in the 80s you know it doesn't have like layers of mulch you know overtop of all these tracks it's it's just i don't know it's probably eight tracks and it's uh it's rock solid i i can't believe how fast it happened for this band their first show was what april 15th 1980you said yeah and then like Like less than a year and a half later, they've got a single on the radio.

Yeah. April 5th. Yeah. There.

[25:52] And then, yeah, I mean, it's, it's crazy how, how fast it happened.

And, you know, like it's from what I read, it seems like, especially with the college kids, they, they already had a big following.

Right. And I think those live shows definitely helped. Yeah. Yeah.

And there's definitely some really cool versions, live versions of Radio Free Europe that you can watch on YouTube that, I mean, again, the band, they look confident when they're playingthe song.

So wild. And I just, yeah. And they almost have more confidence than they even do albums later.

And maybe that's because they're wanting to experiment and change a little bit.

But this time period, they just knew what they wanted.

Yeah. Yeah.

[26:43] Uh, and I, again, I think the, one of my favorite things about REM is kind of Michael's evolution.

Okay. Talk to me about that. Because, you know, on this song, there's the lyrics.

They're great because they, the words that he's singing, you can just kind of sing along and, and sing a word that sounds similar. Right. Yeah.

And, you know, reading some of the lyrics, you know, where he's singing straight off the boat, where to go, you're kind of like, okay, is he referencing this or that?

And then, of course, you're like looking at the title Radio Free Europe and you're like, okay, is he making like, is this like a political statement or something?

And, but at this time, no, it was just whatever sounded good to him, whatever the band thought would work in a song.

[27:40] And you know i and i like that that that happens a lot on this first song because i think once once we even get into uh chronic town i think already michael's starting to like okaymaybe i do need to have some more substance in the lyrics um and that's something i always appreciate with any songwriter um you know same with with gore downey and the hip youknow like Like, his songwriting definitely changed from the first EP to the first album, then from the first album to the second album.

Oh, like light years. Light years.

But Michael's voice in this song, I think, I don't think he really changes his voice too much throughout the years.

And that's something I really appreciate, because there's some bands where sometimes the singer almost goes out of their way to change the way their vocals sound.

Right. But from the very beginning, from this song, he's singing, there's moments in the verse where he's singing kind of fast, and when he's singing the push that, push that.

But then when he gets to the pre-chorus, he's belting it. He's letting it all out.

Yeah. He's got a powerful voice. He really does. Yeah. It's very versatile, too. Yeah.

[28:56] It works with the band. They're all versatile. Oh, yeah. They're all so good at their instruments.

You know already at this point yeah i think i think bill barry is an extremely underrated drummer.

[29:12] Interesting he i don't think he gets talked about enough no probably not i mean i think you could say that maybe for every band member mike mills you know like like hisharmonies are just as important to any band who who's known for harmonies van halen you know like.

[29:31] He's right up there with being able to deliver the perfect counter melody or harmony to Michael's voice.

It's so strange that it works so well together. Like how did they find one another? You know?

Yeah. And it's weird too, because, um, Michael and Peter, they first got to know each other first.

They met at a record store that, uh, Peter worked at.

Oh, and he, Michael went in to buy the records that.

[30:01] Peter was saving up for himself like setting aside so they're like okay we like similar music patty smith velvet underground bowie and then um i think they they were some ofthrough a mutual friend they were introduced to to mike and bill afterwards and fateful it's yeah like it was just meant to be yeah the very last thing i want to say too with raider for europeis i love that it's almost it's like a dance song like when i hear it i want to dance but it's not like a disco song and it's not like a corny 80s song you know like it's it's has a little bit of thatpunk feel but not taken so seriously as punk you know i would agree with that and like you know it kind kind of they're hinting at new wave and they kind of get more into that i feel likewith murmur and and um chronic town but yeah this first single they were just able to to strike gold agreed.

[31:09] Well it's been great talking to you about radio free europe the hip tone version rico uh let's do this again next week and we'll talk about wolves lower oh yeah getting into the firstFirst EP. That's right.

Well, thank you so much for listening, everybody.

This is what we got for you this week. We'll talk to you real soon.

Track 5:

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