About Flagpole. (Athens, Ga.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2011)
October 21+22 Vanessa Briscoe Hay, singer of Pylon "R.E.M. surprised me today. I thought it was Leonard Cohen's birthday! Shopping day! The equinox! Then came the news. My friend Maureen ran upstairs to tell me, and soon I was checking my email and Facebook—and yes, it was true. The R.E.M. website had crashed. That said even more. Today the sky in Athens, GA is threatening lain at one min ute, with sunshine pouring down the next. I have mixed feel ings, just like that sky. Sadness on the end of an era. No more shows or records to look forward to. Happiness that it was not something sad that caused their demise. They chose to end their career on their own terms. Without movement or change, there is the true deatn. I remember the first time that I saw them perform at the Church for K.O.'s birthday party. (R.E.M.'s first show in April 1980.) Girls screamed and ran to the front of the stage. It was sweaty, hot and dark. The vines were growing through the walls of the sanctuary. Up on the stage, R.E.M. had that something extra right away. That mysterious thing. I watched from high in the rafters of the church as they shook it down. They never gave it up or sold it out. Let's remember them as one of the great bands of all time, and count ourselves lucky to have been there, too. Thank you, R.E.M., for 31 great years. You have made the world a better place." William Orten Carlton, AKA Ort, Athens icon "The old church was crowded. Three new bands were to debut that night... one was (or evolved into) Men in Trees; another's name I don't remember at the moment. The third was toying with their new name: r. e. m., in lower case, like that. Partly for the sleep-connected thing and partly in homage to visionary black-and-white photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard (1925-1972), who always signed his correspondence exactly that way: r. e. m. It was Kathleen O'Brien's birthday, and there were enough kegs for the masses. I crammed myself into the crumbling former sanctuary, plastic cup in hand and witnessed this near- Meatyardian band's first out-in-the-open clatterings. It was pure magic. Somehow, they had this three-way harmony going, from Stipe to Berry to Mills. It was celestial. They did a song, one of their earliest originals, named "Body Count." The vocals were like nothing I'd ever heard before... a stack of harmonies tastier than any flapjacks ever could be. Great, late Red & Black music writer Jimmy Ellison once summed them up in those early days by saying: 'two-thirds cool covers, one-third cool originals... can YOU tell the difference?' I could. And those originals grew to be 50/50 with covers, then 66/34. And they became better and better. And better. And better. Now, 31 years later, the chapel is gone and only the steeple remains. The band, minus Berry (who took early retirement) has decided to hang it up, to retire. They will never know how much of a better place they made my life, and for so many years." Kurt Wood, DJ "Hearing that R.E.M. is calling it quits makes me think back... way back, all the way back to their first ever show. That would be in April of 1980, in the Church, which was >■ continued on next page MIL V- \ *>*/*» N FOR BOYS AND GIRLS CLUB of Athens Join us on October 21st for a night under the stars with the music of Crosby Stills, Nash and Young by Deja vu Table of 8 Sponsorship: $500.00 . Includes dinner, wine, show and silent auction Time: 7pm Locos Mooseyard at 581 S. Harris Street To sponsor your table, please contact us at 706-548-7277 3 3 <D </> 3- O t 485 BALDWIN ST. - ( 706 J 548 3442 WWW.BUMPHCTflWEBN.C8li T SEPTEMBER 28,2011 FLAGPOLE.COM 17
