REM Live in 85

It's old news by now, but if you haven't heard...this September, EMI is releasing a best-of CD and DVD of REM's early years at I.R.S.

According to MyRem.com:

The CD will be called And I Feel Fine…The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 and will be available in 2 formats: a 21-track single-disc collection of hits and band/fan favorites and a 2-CD Collector's Edition with a second 21-track disc of rarities including alternate takes, demos, previously unreleased mixes, and live recordings of classic R.E.M. The collector's edition will include 11 never-before released tracks. The DVD, When the Light Is Mine The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 Video Collection, includes the music videos from Chronic Town through Document, as well as live television performances and James Herbert’s short film, Left of Reckoning. DVD extras feature early interviews and rare acoustic performances.

It might look something like this:



In anticipation, I'm posting these REM songs, from their performance at the 1985 Werchter Festival, were recorded from an FM broadcast. The sound quality is excellent on all of these, including the cover of CCR's Have You Ever Seen The Rain. For me, these conjure images of the band, with a permed Stipe, in all their glorious thrift store frumpiness (see above). They were the counterculture of the times.

REM (Live at the Werchter Festival, 7-7-1985) (mp3s):

Feeling Gravity's Pull
Driver 8
(Don't Go Back To) Rockville
So. Central Rain
Have You Ever Seen the Rain (CCR Cover)
Can't Get There From Here

By the way, here's a video from that era, recorded from The Tube:



And here's the band playing Country Feedback, with Bill Berry, from a Minus 5 performance earlier this year at the Georgia Theater in Athens:



While I'm at it, here's the full-length version of Nightswimming (from the Parallel DVD), which Chris Martin called the best song ever written: