Monkinetic Weblog

quoteIt's crazy what you could had, crazy what you could have had...

I need this, I need thisendquote

country-feedback-live-in-atlanta-08-31-99 tags: "" tp_commentcount: "0" tp_favoritecount: "0" tp_urlid: 6a010534988cd3970b0120a55ce2a1970b

quoteIt's crazy what you could had, crazy what you could have had...
I need this, I need thisendquote

Country Feedback is one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. songs, from the album Out Of Time.

Of the 5 versions I have, the best one I think is a live recording from Atlanta, August 31, 1999. Michael Stipe's vocals are ragged and haunting, the live, loose, setting lends an even more desperate tone to an already impassioned lyric.

Peter Buck's guitar work goes on and on, with a lot more distortion, reverb, and yes, feedback than the (now seemingly) anemic album version. He plays all around the melody, lurching through his signature arpeggios, and even getting a decent solo feel to it, which was never his strong point.

One of the things I love about this song is it's determinedly languid pace. It flows and flows, Stipe's extra lyrics and vocalizations toward the end slide along on top of the music, drawing you in.

In my mind's eye I see the wooden shack above the bank slide by as the river carries me past - slow, green, and cyprus-choked...