Top 20 Favorite R.E.M. Songs: Gardening At Night (#13)

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Yawn, it's Monday. It's a beautiful day, though, here in the land of horses and baseball bats: frost on the ground, bright sunshine, and trees getting yellower and redder by the minute. It's also time for another song from my list of favorite by the legendary R.E.M. Here's today's entry. #13: Gardening At Night This is dedicated to all of you R.E.M. fans who got into them after they became successful. This is what they sounded like in the beginning of their career. Now if you hear a longtime R.E.M. fan make a joke about Michael Stipe sounding like he had a mouthful of cotton, you know what they mean. By the time I first saw them (1984) Stipe had less mumble to his vocal style. In fact, if you watch their performance at their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony they did this song...and you can understand every word. I'm glad he didn't make the transition suddenly. I might have thought they'd gotten a new lead singer. As for this song, from their debut EP, it came about during a drive to a gig. According to Bill Berry, someone asked him to stop because they wanted to do a little "night gardening." When Berry pulled the car over, the member (he doesn't remember which one it was) got out and, ahem, relieved himself on the side of the road. And a great song was born. Gardening At Night Written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe From Chronic Town, 1982 I see your money on the floor: