12 Months Of Murmur: October
R.E.M. released Murmur, their fizzy, aching full-length debut, in 1983. It became Rolling Stone’s top album of the year and helped propel the band in a steady climb to become one of the biggest in the world. Murmur has 12 songs — at least two are serious contenders for best in their catalog — and as you’ll recall, years have 12 months. This project, 12 Months of Murmur, is my attempt to match the songs on the album (via mood or sound or narrative, etc.) with how I lived the months of 2017. Each entry is posted on the last day of the given month. Next up: October.
“Talk About the Passion”
First, an important announcement: I met Michael Stipe earlier this month. The story is long and I promise I’ll tell it in full soon, but the gist is this: I once told myself that if I ever got the chance to talk to him, I’d ask him to write his name on my arm, then get the signature tattooed. Well, I half-chickened out — I could only muster to ask for his initials, which he complied with. No ink though, but a t-shirt might be coming soon!
If you’ve read the nine other entries in this series, you understand that this matters to me. It means a lot. (Mike Mills was there as well, but by the time I had walked away from Michael, he wasn’t in sight anymore). We were all there to listen to a remastered edition of Automatic for the People, which sounds incredible and somehow new even after 25 years. The experience made me consider devoting 2018 to “12 Months of Automatic,” but we’ll see if that actually pans out.
Now that you know about this, it should be clear why October’s entry is “Talk About the Passion.” Bad segue alert! In the days and weeks after Michael wrote “JMS” on my left forearm, I told everyone about the experience. Before I went to sleep that night, I recorded myself telling the entire story into my phone so I wouldn’t forget a detail. I spent nearly two hours on the phone with my best pal, Nick, rewinding and pausing the story so he could ask questions as I went along. A college friend came to town that weekend, and I spilled it over several rounds of drinks. And of course, I’m writing a separate Medium post about it as we speak. (Stay tuned.)
Now, is it morally questionable to conflate a direct experience of my personal R.E.M. fandom with a song decrying world hunger, albeit via muddied imagery and French exclamations? Certainly. This track represents one of Stipe’s first political stances, and though it’s not as explicit as “Exhuming McCarthy,” “Ignoreland,” or “Houston,” it show how beautifully he could wrap a melody and a message around a series of picked chords and, eventually, a wash of strings. It’s also fitting to mention Automatic for the People when discussing “Talk About the Passion” as it sounds like it could’ve been a demo for a song that ended up on that album.
Played live in the 1980s, however, “Talk About the Passion” sounds like peak alternative. Peter Buck’s opening plucks merge with Bill Berry’s steady drums and Mike Mills’ bass burbles to form a sound that’s not all that far from another seminal alt classic of the era: “Can’t Hardly Wait” by the Replacements. If I ever met Paul Westerberg, I wouldn’t ask him to write his name, or even his initials, on my arm. I’d just tell him he can write a hell of a song. With Stipe, though, it’s different. There’s a passion.
