And I Feel Fine: The Best Of The I.R.S. Years 1982-87

I'll get it for Disc 2. Nothing much suprising included, but a good comp for post-I.R.S. younger fans to delve into. At least it not just Eponymous and Dead Letter Office repackaged.

DISC 1
1. "Begin the Begin"
2. "Radio Free Europe"
3. "Pretty Persuasion"
4. "Talk About the Passion"
5. "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville"
6. "Sitting Still"
7. "Gardening at Night"
8. "7 Chinese Bros."
9. "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)"
10. "Driver 8"
11. "Can't Get There From Here"
12. "Finest Worksong"
13. "Feeling Gravity's Pull"
14. "I Believe"
15. "Life and How to Live It"
16. "Cuyahoga"
17. "The One I Love"
18. "Welcome to the Occupation"
19. "Fall On Me"
20. "Perfect Circle"
21. "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

DISC 2
1. "Pilgrimage" (Mike's pick)
2. "These Days" (Bill's pick)
3. "Gardening at Night" (slower electric demo; previously unreleased)
4. "Radio Free Europe" (Hib-tone version)
5. "Sitting Still" (Hib-tone version)
6. "Life and How to Live It" (Live at the Muzik Centrum, Utrecht, Holland 9/14/87; previously unreleased)
7. "Ages of You" (Live at the Paradise, Boston 7/13/83; previously unreleased)
8. "We Walk" (Live at the Paradise, Boston 7/13/83; previously unreleased)
9. "1,000,000" (Live at the Paradise, Boston 7/13/83; previously unreleased)
10. "Finest Worksong" (other mix)
11. "Hyena" (demo) (previously unreleased)
12. "Theme from Two Steps Onward" (previously unreleased)
13. "Superman"
14. "All the Right Friends" (previously unreleased; later version released on Vanilla Sky soundtrack)
15. "Mystery to Me" (demo; previously unreleased)
16. "Just a Touch" (live in-studio version; previously unreleased)
17. "Bad Day" (session outtake; previously unreleased)
18. "King of Birds" (last song cut from The Best of...)
19. "Swan Swan H" (live, acoustic from "Athens, GA -- Inside Out")
20. "Disturbance at the Heron House" (Peter's pick)
21. "Time After Time (annElise)" (Michael's pick

No "Wendell Gee" or "Green Grow The Rushes," but I guess they couldn't include every frickin' song.

Is the I.R.S. output up for the remastering treatment? I should consider re-buying some of it as they were THE formative band for my current interest in left-of-center music. My bro introduced me to the band via Document.

Superman is one of my all-time favorite songs, but I'm not a large REM fan.

Edit: Nice avatar, Frosted! Man, I wouldn't mind a mound of that snow outside my front door right about now. 8)

I found out not long ago that "Superman" is a cover. The original was by The Clique, then it was popularized by Moby Grape.

I knew it wasn't penned by REM, but didn't know the history. Thanks for the info!

The random geeking out of an R.E.M. freak.

Yay! Non-chronological!

"Begin the Begin" into "Radio Free Europe" is a bad segue. (I'm too in love with the "Begin" to "These Days" segue on Lifes Rich Pageant.)

Yay! "Feeling Gravity's Pull!"

"Cuyahoga?" Meh.

Yay! Hib-Tone "Sitting Still!"

"Bad Day" is that old a song?

Peter Buck hates "Wendell Gee." He's very wrong.

Hmm, I've never heard the Moby Grape version, but I really like the Clique original.

I always thought "Fireplace" was one of the cooler songs from Document. But I never see it on any REM related comp.

Those are two unfortunate omissions.

True. With all that audio goofiness at the beginning of Radio Free Europe, it takes more than ten seconds to kick in. Not exactly primo second track status. Plus, this track sound so thin compared to Begin.

Nice to see We Walk included on the second disc. Not a terribly popular song, but it's always been one of my favorites.

I would've included Exhuming McCarthy and Letter Never Sent but that's just me.

"Time After Time was my least favorite song"

How very Mike Love of him.

they rank up pretty high on the list of band my brother loves that i assumed i would love, tried to love . . . but just couldn't care about.

uncle tupelo and REM share that place in my heart.

Gonna post "Voice Of Harold" as the great song of the day when I get home. At work doing a split shift right now.

Yes. The remastered albums will be out later (last I heard, in the fall, but don't be surprised if that slips into next year as they push this best-of instead) and will contain "previously unavailable material." I assume that it will not be material that's on this second-disc of the best-of. I hope.

If they turn out at all like their last reissues, I'll be disappointed.

I sold off all my later REM albums with the intent to buy the reissues, only to discover that the reissues were nothing more than a slight remastering and a bonus dvd-audio disc. I felt so ripped off.

Actually, the CDs weren't even remastered! They're the same audio pressings that they'd always been. It was only the DVDs that got any special treatment. That was a total crapfest of a reissuing campaign. I almost sold off the earlier WB discs to get those, then decided to wait and see what the concensus was. Glad I did!

These IRS discs will indeed be remastered, however. Have no fear. How well they will be remastered, of course, remains to be seen . . .

i thought IRS was an old label and that Bad Day was a new song?

'Bad Day' was written back in the day, around the same time as 'It's End Of The World' which is notable in the similarities between the two. It was scrapped but, when REM decided to release their greatest hits a year or two ago, they decided to re-record it and stick it and a new track ('Animal') on as bonuses.

Perfect Circle... hooray!

Why couldn't they have included Camera though?

No Maps and Legends? But I will settle for Driver 8.

Yeah, this sounds like something I would enjoy, when I want to remember the band fondly.

Bump to get get all three Radiohe...R.E.M. threads next to each other.

probably my favorite REM song.