Covers for Sunday - R.E.M. edition

So far I've done four Covers for Sunday band editions and it occurred to me that of the four bands two are from New York and two are from London. Now I've got nothing against either of those cities, except that London's full of southerners of course, but I wanted something a bit different this time. So I went with R.E.M.



From Athens, Georgia R.E.M. have been one of my favourite bands ever since I started listening to music I wanted to listen to instead of whatever my siblings or parents were listening to. Automatic For The People was the first album I ever bough, on cassettes, and Monster was the first CD I ever bought. They've released 14 studio albums and despite a couple of mediocre efforts, Reveal and particularly Around The Sun, they've been a consistently excellent band.

Longevity, indie success, popularity and a huge song book should make them an excellent source of covers and by and large they are. However it was disappointing to see how many covers are of the same few songs, Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts in particular.

Having said that, I am pleased with the variety of covers I've been able to find, I've also been surprised by how many covers R.E.M. have performed, several of which are included below. I haven't included any of the covers that appear on Dead Letter Office, except the two The Velvet Underground covers that I've featured before, so if you want those you'll have to buy the album.

Enough talk from me, here are the covers. I hope you enjoy them.



First here are the covers by R.E.M. that I've featured on this blog before.

Pale Blue Eyes (live) originally by The Velvet Underground.

There She Goes Again originally by The Velvet Underground.

All I Have to Do Is Dream originally by The Everly Brothers

Wall Of Death originally by Richard and Linda Thompson

I Will Survive originally by Gloria Gaynor

Gentle On My Mind originally by John Hartford



These are the covers of R.E.M. that have been posted on here before.

Hairshirt by Glen Hansard

So Central Rain by Grant Lee Phillips

You Are The Everything by Redbird

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by Great Big Sea



Now for this week's new covers. I've tried to use different songs rather than repeating the same two or three over and over and I've tried to use covers of less well known songs as well as their more popular radio hits.

Fall On Me by Cry Cry Cry

Orange Crush by The Editors

The One I Love by Rosie Thomas

The One I Love by Sufjan Stevens

Losing My Religion by Tori Amos

Everybody Hurts by Vic Chestnutt

The Great Beyond by the Fray

Losing My Religion by Craig's Brother

The Apologist by Fink

Falls To Climb by Lizzy Banoffee

Try Not To Breathe by This Unique Museum

Wendell Gee by Klifton Filente

Country Feedback by Doug McKenna

It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) by ZSK

You Are The Everything by Go South



In 2007 Stereogum released Drive XV to commemorate the 15th anniversary of the release of Automatic For The People. The album featured covers of each track, some tracks were covered more than once and are included as bonus tracks.

Drive by The Veils

Try Not To Breathe by Dappled Cities

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite by Rogue Wave

Everybody Hurts by Meat Puppets

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 by Figurines

Sweetness Follows by Sara Quin (Feat. Kaki King)

Monty Got A Raw Deal by Catfish Haven

Ignoreland by The Forms

Star Me Kitten by Blitzen Trapper

Man On The Moon by Shout Out Louds

Nightswimming by The Wrens

Find The River by Dr. Dog

Bonus tracks:

Try Not To Breathe by The Narrator

Everybody Hurts by Amanda Palmer & Cormac Bride

Man On The Moon by Ferraby Lionheart

The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite by Oxford Collapse

Find The River by Blanche

Nightswimming by You Say Party! We Say Die!

New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 by Jana Hunter

Everybody Hurts by Elk City

Everybody Hurts by Frida Hyvönen

Everybody Hurts by Bodies Of Water



There are times R.E.M. have covered other bands, apart from the first song all of these are live covers.

Superman originally by The Clique (vocals by Mike Mills)

Favorite Writer (featuring Linda Hopper) originally by Magnapop. Linda Hopper is the vocalist for Magnapop, so technically this might not be a cover, but I don't care. My blog, my rules.

Love Is All Around originally by The Troggs (vocals by Mike Mills)

Munich originally by Editors

NYC originally by Interpol

California Dreaming originally by The Mamas & the Papas

Midnight Blue originally by Lou Gramm



Lastly, some songs that really aren't covers, even with the my blog my rules standard, but they fit in nicely with this post.

E-Bow The Letter by Thom Yorke & R.E.M. Thom Yorke does the vocals that Patti Smith performs on the New Adventure's In Hi-Fi version of this song. I believe this version is from a Free Tibet concert.

One by Automatic Baby. Automatic Baby were a combination of R.E.M. and U2 that performed only once and played just one song. It's Michael Stipe on lead vocals, Mike Mills on guitar, Adam Clayton on Bass and Larry Mullen Jr on drums. According to wikipedia this was played on MTV for Bill Clinton. I don't know if MTV had some sort of concert for bill Clinton or these four musicians decided to get together and perform One for him, neither sounds particularly likely to me.