The 500 - #462 - R.E.M. - Document

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

My plan (amended). 

• 1 or 2 records per week & at least 2 complete listens.
• A quick blog post for each, highlighting the important details and a quick background story.
• No rating scale - just an effort to expand my appreciation.

Album # 463

Album Title: Document
Artist: R.E.M
Released: August, 1987
My age at release: 22
How familiar am I with it: Very Familiar
Song I am putting on my Spotify Mix: Oddfellows Local 151
Great Lyric:
Vested interest, united ties
Landed gentry, rationalize
Look who bought the myth
By Jingo, buy America
It's a sign of the times
You're sharpening stones
Walking on coals
To improve your business acumen
(Exhuming McCarthy)

Another 1987 release has appeared on Rolling Stone's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. A few weeks ago, I wrote about Album #472, Def Leppard's Hysteria and a month ago I penned a post about #475, Tunnel of Love by Bruce Springsteen. I'll check the statistics but can confidently say that 1987 was a great year for albums.

This album is terrific. There are three versions of this record available on Spotify:

• The Original 1987 release
• The 1993 I.R.S. vintage release with bonus tracks
• The Remastered release with live tracks from1999 

I played every one of them multiple times.

I was a casual R.E.M. fan in the early 80s. Songs such as Radio Free Europe, Don't go Back to Rockville, Can't get There from Here and Fall on Me from their first four records were played regularly on our local university radio station CHRW - Radio Western (where I would later DJ) and Much Music (Canada's MTV).

However, I went through a heavy R.E.M. phase in 1992 when the commercially successful juggernaut Automatic for the People was released. 

Soon, the entire R.E.M. catalogue was in my collection - even more obscure releases, such as the live acoustic record Blue. I only managed to see the band perform live once...but I almost didn't

It was June 13, 1995 and I drove from London to Toronto with my future brother-in-law Danny and a couple fellow bartenders (Tim & Marcelo) to attend the show at the Molson Ampitheatre. 

We had booked hotel rooms in The Big Smoke and were going to make "a weekend" of it. The show was on a Tuesday night and, in the restaurant world, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are the weekends.

We left the hotel and piled into a taxi to take us to the outdoor venue. Driving in Toronto is always unpleasant - doing it near the waterfront area on the day of a concert and a Blue Jays game is downright masochistic. 

As we approached the entry gate, I reached into my back-pocket to find ... you guessed it...nothing. My ticket was gone. I checked my wallet and my pockets ... multiple times (I've never understood why I always repeat fruitless searches). Did I leave it in the room? Did I drop it in the cab? Was I pickpocketed? 

Regardless, I was sans ticket. The choices were few:

• Flag down a cab back to the hotel, then get another cab...(even as this scenario raced through my head, I knew it was ridiculous)
• Try to find the box office and see if there was another ticket available for a show already billed as "Sold Out".
• Find a scalper.

I chose the last option with a few advantages in mind.

• It was close to showtime - so any scalper would a motivated seller.
• We were in the General Admission section on the lawn - so I would remain with my friends and those were the least expensive tickets.
• I had a great pitch... I said "Hey, I left my ticket up the street at the hotel...can you sell me one for a good price so I don't have to walk back?"

It worked, I got a ticket for a little above face value.

The show was superb, promoting their latest release Monster. The set list can be found here. 

It was good to have seen them before the announcement of their break-up in 2011. Hopefully, they will reunite and tour again - when I will keep a tight grip on my ticket.