OLD R.E.M. 12" SINGLES ON VINYL (Part 2)

At the end of November 2010, I went through a lazy period of putting up music without saying too much within the posting. One such effort was the 12" version of Stand by R.E.M.

I did hint that there I might shove up a few other 12" singles by the best-known band from Athens, GA but it has taken me until now to do so.

The third and last single lifted from Document, this reached #50 in the UK singles chart in April 1988. But the version released as a single was quite different from that recorded for the LP, featuring a horn section.

mp3 : R.E.M. - Finest Worksong (Lengthy Club Mix)
mp3 : R.E.M. - Finest Worksong (Other Mix)
mp3 : R.E.M. - Time After Time etc (live)

I played this last year at one of the Blog Rocking Beats nights and someone came up and asked who it was. They refused to believe it was Stipey & Co until I showed them the sleeve.....

The live track is an 8 minute medley of two R.E.M. songs - Time After Time and So. Central Rain, with a snippet of the Peter Gabriel track Red Rain.

The single also turned out to be the last thing the band released on the IRS label, moving upwards and onwards to world domination with Warners the following year.

I've found a demo version kicking out there:-

mp3 : R.E.M. - Finest Worksong (demo)

Happy Listening. (and apologies for anyone who particularly likes the '5 of' series. It will return next week when I've a bit more time)