Gardening at Night turned into Imitation of Life; Radio Free Europe turned into Radio Song; These Days turned into Daysleeper.
And those of us who yearn for those brilliant IRS years bemoan REM's stretch, during the last 15 years, to the main stream and to our (non-college) radio dials. But what if this move to major label was absolutely necessary for REM to cement its place in American music -- and open up generations of music lovers today to the old IRS beauties?
Sound familiar?
Like most of you on the progressive left, I've cringed more than I've cheered over the last two weeks. Our presumptive nominee is moving towards the center in creaky, inartful (his words), and ultimately wonkily disappointing ways.
I yelled at the FISA capitulation; I screamed at the Death Penalty little death; and really the gun ruling in my beloved District delivered the final sobering parting shot.
Where have you gone, Joey D?
Where have you gone, BHO?
But as I sit here and listen to some latter-day REM (some of those post-IRS records were really amazing, by the way) and yearn for Murmur, Life's Rich, and Reckoning, my disappointment in our shiny new Democratic nominee fades with the last chords of "Country Feedback." For goodness' sake, let's let our man go major-label. Let's forgive him for straying from his indie roots for a while...well, specifically until November 4.
After that, if he creates the policy equivalent of REM's pathetic "Around the Sun," let's sock it to him.
But for now -- I'm doing everything I can (money, sweat, tears) to get him main-stream. That's the only way he'll get enough votes in Cuyahoga to get back to his indie-label roots.
"Let's put our heads together and start a new country up" -- REM, Cuyahoga