R.EM.’s “Document” It’s not a stretch to say that not only did this record change the trajectory of the band but also the “College Rock” landscape. R.E.M.’s “Document”, the Athens, Ga., quartet’s fifth studio release, was also their breakthrough album. Its first of three singles, “The One I Love,” the beneficiary of I.R.S.’s long game of career development for the band, And, of course, it was “Document” that catapulted them from “indie darlings” to full-fledged pop stars. Sadly, especially for employees of indie I.R.S. Records who had invested hearts, souls and long hours into R.E.M.’s build, it was also the band’s final effort for the label, before moving on to the greener and more global pastures of Warner Bros. Records.
In 1987, R.E.M was still very much an indie rock darling. That would change with the release of “Document”, “The One I Love” we all learned to say “LEONARD BERSTEIN!” at just the right time on “It’s The End of the World.” The sound is ever more confident.
The album, released on August 31st, 1987, was co-produced by the band and engineer Scott Litt, whose combined engineer, producer and remix credits include the dB’s (he produced their standout album “Repercussion“), Nirvana (remixed “Heart Shaped Box” and “All Apologies”) and Patti Smith as well as producing some of R.E.M.’s initial Warner Bros. albums.
“Document” continued to capture R.E.M.s live energy on record, in the tradition of its two predecessors, “Lifes Rich Pageant” (1986) and “Fables of the Reconstruction” (1985). Michael Stipe’s vocals grew more assertive, and lyrics easy to make out (compared with the murmured phraseology of the band’s debut 1982 EP and 1983 LP).
“Welcome to the Occupation,” which flows out of the lead track, “Finest Worksong,” reportedly about occupation in Central America: “Disturbance in the Heron House” was described by Stipe in 2009: “The song was my take on Animal Farm, an uprising dismissed by the powers that be.”
The song strikes a commonality with R.E.M.’s prior work thanks to Peter Buck’s guitar jangling once again. No stranger to an odd and unexpected cover song every now and again was one of the more whimsical moments on R.E.M.’’s Lifes RIch Pageant), “Document” includes “Strange,” a cover song by post-punk band Wire’s debut album, “Pink Flag“. Stipe refers to himself in the first line (“Michael’s nervous” replacing Wire’s line “Joey’s nervous”).
One of the standouts on “Document“—the song that seemed most relevant at the time, and ever since—was the side one closer, “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).” Based loosely around a then-unreleased song called “Bad Day (PSA),” the song seemed inspired by Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues,” with its own apocalyptic take. In the course of its mile-a-minute lyrics, the band references several historical notables with the initials.
The waltz-tempoed “Fireplace” found thematic connection with the topical songs of side one with its repeated lyrics of “crazy crazy world, crazy crazy times.” Los Lobos member Steve Berlin’s saxophone added a new hue to R.E.M.’s repertoire,
“Document” has not one but two songs referencing birds, at least in the abstract. Side one’s “Disturbance at the Heron House” is bookended by side two’s “King of Birds.” It has been interpreted as the natural instinct of birds to sense earthquakes and other natural disasters. Conversely, the song, which features dulcimer by Buck, might have addressed Stipe’s reluctant but by now indelible rock stardom:
The album closes with one of its deepest tracks, a rocker titled “Oddfellows Local 151.” The song is not literally about the Oddfellows—a social organization not unlike the Moose or Elks—but, as Buck revealed in an interview, rather a group of homeless individuals living not far from Stipe, whom the lead singer likened to such an organization: “Document” was the work of a band spreading its aural and lyrical wings, at once more understandable word-for-word, while in spots as opaque as “Chronic Town“. Only R.E.M. could give us an ostensible love song that’s really a funeral for a relationship.
The Fat Angel Sings 