R.E.M. - Great Woods

(Soundboard)

15 September 1989 - Great Woods - Mansfield, Massachusetts


1989 was a huge year for R.E.M. The band had just released Green which would be their biggest seller to date on their new label Warner Brothers. Green was a departure from their earlier work as the band initiated a “Pop” Sound from their previous rock records. The most popular single from this album ‘Stand’, was one of the self-proclaimed “Dumb Pop Songs” from Michael Stipe. For the first time, R.E.M. came to terms with the MTV Generation by providing fans with their first taste of some more “Fan Friendly” videos, Fans from around the globe would learn about the “Stand Dance”. They possibly got a laugh out of the video from ‘Pop Song 89’, which featured topless females along with Michael, an obvious dig on some of the scantly clad models that were featured in these videos. Both the sound and the change in labels created a bit of criticism from fans to claimed that the band had ‘Sold Out’. The argument against this is that the band had both never properly been promoted up to this point. While the arguments persist that they might not have put out fan-friendly entertainment for the mainstream, they still had very little support worldwide. The Green Tour would be the first tour that the band would embark and hit all the major markets, playing both Australia and New Zealand for the first time.Outside of touring breaks the band would be on the road from late January 1989 through November and in that time travel from Japan, New Zealand, then returing to America (March through early May), before embarking on a tour of Europe (Mid May through early July) before returning to America (Mid-September through Mid-November). The Green Tour was a perfect mix of Art and Stadium Rock. While the band had become much more inclined by this point to stick to the setlists, the choreography of the show was such that it was necessary. Stipe’s lead in’s to songs such as World Leader Pretend brought a different dimension to the song. The use of the megaphone on ‘Turn You Inside-out’ makes me question why the band never used that on the album. In my opinion, songs such as ‘Get Up’ and ‘Pop Song 89’ were given a sense of insurgency onstage that was missing on the album. Even Stipe’s cynicism to the lead in to ‘Stand’ is still something to giggle over. Even as the band’s popularity had grown to this point, they still had time to laugh at themselves and in the case of ‘Stand’, it was one of the first points where you can see them second guessing themselves. Since the Green Tour, ‘Stand’ has only been played on a handful of occasions. The Video ‘Tourfilm’, has long been regarded as the best of the R.E.M. live videos for making the video both an artifact of the tour as well as an artistic piece. By mixing both black and white and various editing features the videos stands above and beyond the other videos which tend to just record the events onstage.

CD 1:
01 - Stand
02 - The One I Love
03 - So. Central Rain
04 - Driver 8
05 - Turn You Inside-Out
06 - Belong
07 - Orange Crush
08 - Feeling Gravity's Pull
09 - Swan Swan H
10 - Sitting Still
11 - World Leader Pretend
12 - I Believe
13 - Fall On Me
14 - Pretty Persuasion
15 - Get Up

CD 2:
01 - Auctioneer (Another Engine)
02 - It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
03 - Pop Song 89
04 - Exhuming Mccarthy
05 - You Are The Everything
06 - Begin The Begin
07 - King Of Birds
08 - See No Evil
09 - Harpers
10 - Ghost Rider
11 - Finest Worksong
12 - Perfect Circle
13 - After Hours

>>Download Part 1<<
>>Download Part 2<<