REM have always put a few covers in their set and its interesting to see some of them recently appearing on their webpages, from Beat Happenings “Indian Summer” to Aerosmith’s “Toys In The Attic” certain songs make sense like Mission Of Burma “Academy Fight Song” and the jangly guitars of Television “See No Evil” .
On the autumn tour of 1987 the band became fond of playing the ex Foreigner singer Lou Gramm song “Midnight Blue” also contained in the song are lines of the Psychedelic Furs “Heartbreak Beat” lots of jangly guitars and Micheal’s great vocals. Blue Oyster Cult “Don’t Fear The Reaper” a tune they played in 1983 then again in 1995 on the Monster tour with the familiar chords from Peter Buck,the same venue the band played Fleetwood Mac’s “Tusk” . Fan club member used to get a 7″ single along with other goodies one such was Jay and the Americans “Only In America” with a most surprising B-side of Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” sombre and stripped down with just reed organ and acoustic guitars.Fan club members also got the track “Sex Bomb” by the San Francisco punk band Flipper raucous and abstract sound. Another strange punk cover was the “Where’s Captain Kirk” by the band Spizzenergi.
The band have always had a country flavour and covers like “Wichita Linesman, Galveston and the cover of Charlie Rich hit “Behind Closed Doors” which the band performed on a 1985 appearance on the German Concert Series “Rockpalast” on the end of “We Walk”. In 1983 the band did an all covers set at Halloween the band ripped through a collection of songs and influences like T.Rex, The Byrds and of course The Velvet Underground,Micheal is a fan of 60’s pop and a rare cover of Donovan’s “Atlantis” covered in the Halloween set in 1995. REM are huge Iggy and the Stooges fans covering “I Wanna Be Your Dog” but with the David Bowie produced and co written album “The Idiot” they picked off “Funtime”
CRAZY originally by “Pylon” released on “Dead Letter Office”
JESUS CHRIST originally by “Big Star” issued as a fan club only single released in 2002
GHOST RIDER originally “Suicide” on the B-Side of the “Orange Crush”
STRANGE Originally by “Wire” on “Document”
DARK GLOBE originally by “Syd Barrett” on the single “Everybody Hurts”
INDIAN SUMMER originally by “Beat Happenings” from the single “Hollow Man” in 2008
WALL OF DEATH originally by “Richard Thompson” on “E-Bow The letter” single in 1996
FIRST WE TAKE MANHATTEN originally by “Leonard Cohen” from the single “Drive”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1brqRtDjRI
SUPERMAN originally by “Clique” from “Lifes Rich Pageant” in 1996
PALE BLUE EYES originally by “Velvet Underground” from “Dead Letter Office” from 1987
The Fat Angel Sings 