Is R.E.M. underrated by new music nerds?

I regularly see and hear the 1980’s disparaged, but that’s a sentiment with which I don’t concur. Yeah, maybe the most widely heard and bought music was not the best, but on the cult level we had a completely different situation.

During the 80’s we had fantastic music being made by Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe, NRBQ, Ry Cooder, Los Lobos, Marshall Crenshaw, Chris Isaak, Richard Thompson, John Hiatt, John Prine, Tom Waits, Leonard Cohen, Paul Simon, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Little Feat, Elvis Costello, Leo Kottke, Loudon Wainwright III, Dire Straits, X, The Blasters, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Neville Brothers, Tom Petty, Dwight Twilley, Crowded House, The Records, The Bangles, The Plimsouls, XTC, Cheap Trick, T Bone Burnett, Peter Case, The Long Ryders, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Carlene Carter, Rosanne Cash, Nanci Griffith, Foster & Lloyd (great live!), Warren Zevon, Rickie Lee Jones, Tracy Chapman, Kate Bush, The Replacements, The Lyres (a great Garage Band, if that’s not an oxymoron ;-) , The Clash (I don’t like ’em, but you may), The Pretenders.

Do I need to continue? Not bad for a decade, imo.

@onhwy61: Don Dixon---NOW yer talkin'! I love his stuff, and his gal Marti Jones' as well.

As for The Ramones and The Byrds peaking out of the gate, I must disagree. The Ramones took a giant leap forward when Marky replaced Tommy on drums (the Road To Ruin LP). Marky is a much more muscular, punchy drummer than was Tommy, which really helped the band. By-the-way, they were the loudest band I ever heard live, far louder than even The Who.

The early Byrds albums are fantastic, but so are the middle and late period ones. Every musician I knew had the Sweetheart Of The Rodeo album, and the addition of Telecaster-master Clarence White turned them into a serious band (though drummer Gene Parsons was kinda lame, very sloppy, over-playing like crazy. He didn't understand how to play country music).

If you want to impress a young person, play he or she a Rockabilly song. Try "The Train Kept A-Rollin’", for instance. Jeff Beck got The Yardbirds to record their pretty good version of the song (the first one I heard), but in pales in comparison to the version by The Johnny Burnette Rock ’n’ Roll Trio, which is absolutely incendiary! The original is a 1951 Jump Blues by Tiny Bradshaw, also very cool. And then there is the embarrassing version by, ugh, Aerosmith.

By-the-way, the lead guitar playing on Burnette’s version is in dispute. The Trio’s Paul Burlinson is credited with the part, but some think it is actually that of Nashville studio guitarist Grady Martin. It didn’t matter to Beck: he loved the playing of both.

Another by-the-way: If you like the playing of Jeff Beck (and who doesn’t?), do yourself a huge favour and get some albums by Danny Gatton. Gatton’s Rockabilly (and Jazz, and Blues) playing is far hotter than that of Beck. IMO, as always, but every advanced guitarist I’ve played with also feels (or felt, if RIP) that way. THE guitarist’s guitarist.

When R.E.M. were hot I was already too old for them. By then I was listening to NRBQ, John Hiatt, Ry Cooder, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Los Lobos, Steve Earle, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blasters, Marshall Crenshaw, Nick Lowe, etc. You know.....adult music. Better songwriters, singers, and musicians than the guys in R.E.M. IMO, of course.

While the music of those I mention still sounds fresh and current (timeless), R.E.M. sounds of it's time: dated. Again, IMO. I know a couple of older musicians who are still stuck in 1966, to whom the music of the 60's (particularly The damn Beatles) is the best ever made. Just as older people in the 1960's felt the same about the Big Bands of the 30's and 40's.

There is no reason to expect current young people to be able to relate to R.E.M. any more than fans of the Big Bands could relate to the new music of the 60's. Just as the fans of the Big Bands didn't get or like The Beatles, young people now have no obligation to like R.E.M. We had our time, it's now their's.