15 Oct
106: REM releases Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe, REM’s first single on their debut album “Murmur” in 1983 was actually a re-make of the song. They had done it originally two years earlier on a single. MTV wanted a video and I.R.S. Records complied, hiring director Arthur Pierson to make it. If you can’t understand the words to the song, you’re not alone. Michael Stipe’s lyrics — both their enunciation in the band’s performance, and their meaning — require some effort to take in. But the obscure lyrics of Radio Free Europe launched REM out of obscurity.
REM “Radio Free Europe” from I.R.S. Records
REM “Radio Free Europe” with David Letterman