Ten Favorite Rock Who-What-Why Questions: What If We Give It Away? (#3)

@FourWalls (61319)
United States
March 20, 2017 7:26pm CST
Fro the general questions of country music I move on to the specific who/what/why questions of rock and roll. (Okay, tomorrow song's not "rock and roll," but I think you'll love it.). Here's the next song on my list of favorites that ask a who/what/why question in the title. #3: What If We Give It Away? - R.E.M. If you've noticed a lack of question marks in the titles, that's not me. The question mark here is listed as part of the title. I first heard of R.E.M. when I was stationed in Hawaii. I bought Murmur and was blown away, so I got the rest of their albums and continued to follow their career. I first saw them at the Aloha Ballroom in Honolulu the day I found out I was being medically discharged from the Navy (apparently answering your C.O.'s questions with lines out of songs is a disorder [just kidding]). Oh, what a blast it was! I ended up front and center (after most of the people who were there to see the local band open and didn't hang around for R.E.M. took off), and enjoyed it beyond belief...especially when Michael Stipe sat down right in front of me and morphed "We Walk" into Charlie Rich's "Behind Closed Doors." (And no, I did NOT have on a t-shirt that said, "I'm a country music fan, so sing some Charlie Rich to me." ) This was on the album that came out right before they got really popular. They had built up a steady following, with Stipe's mumbling becoming more coherent with every passing album (seriously, read some of the lyrics to the songs on Murmur or Chronic Town while you're listening, and you'll be saying, "Oh, is that what he's saying??"). This one had them poised for success. And with the single "The One I Love" off the next album, they achieved it, eventually ending up in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And the really cool thing about R.E.M. is that so many of their songs make no sense whatsoever. They just sound great. So I'll take the order, sew it on my tie, and enjoy the daylights out of this one. What If We Give It Away? Written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe Recorded by R.E.M. From Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986 (Guess they wasted their punctuation budget on putting the question mark at the end of this song's title and couldn't afford an apostrophe for "Life's" ) We're not moving:
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group What If We Give It Away? · R.E.M. Life's Rich Pageant ? 1986, 2011 Capitol Records, LLC. All rights reserved....
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2 responses
@JohnRoberts (109865)
• Los Angeles, California
21 Mar 17
R.E.M. must have a little country in them being from Georgia despite having Lost Their Religion drinking Orange Crush.
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@teamfreak16 (43451)
• Denver, Colorado
21 Mar 17
When I was at Ft. Gordon, a friend and I were determined to get to Athens to see if we could find Michael Stipe. Unfortunately, we never made it.
1 person likes this