^ c

Over the years a certain misapprehension about

Fables Of The Reconstruction has

built up. For some reason, people

have the impression that the members

of R.E.M. don't like the record.

Nothing could be further from the

truth. It's a doomy, psycho record,

dense and atmospheric. It creates its

own strange little world, illogical but

compelling. It's a personal favorite,

and I'm really proud of how strange it

is. Nobody but R.E.M. could have

made that record. It took our four

twisted personalities and the leg-

endary Joe Boyd to make an album

that character-filled and vibey.

And therein lies the problem. Allfour of us were completely out ofour minds at the time. We had justspent four straight years on theroad; we were tense, impoverished,certifiable, and prime candidates forrehab. And it was cold. My mainmemory of that period is making thehour commute to Wood Green onthe Tube and then walking for twen-ty minutes through invariablyinclement weather, usually sleet.

All these elements of personalmisery, combined with a great batchof new songs and Joe Boyd's subtleproduction made the album what it is.Fables is unique in our canon. We'venever made another like it.

And then there are the demos.We toured all of 1984, finishing with aNew Year's Eve show in Atlanta. Thatgave us about three weeks to preparefor our trip to England, so we repairedto Jim Hawkins' studio in Athens. It'sthe usual story: you have a body ofsongs that basically last through yourfirst two albums. Then comes thepressure of writing record numberthree. We had written "Driver 8" and"Old Man Kensey" on the road, butaside from that, the cupboard wasempty. We spent a few weeks runningthrough all the fragments and half-fin-ished songs from soundchecks.The last day of rehearsal, I thinkwith Joe Boyd in attendance, JimHawkins recorded what we hadcome up with. We spent aboutfour hours recording all the newsongs live, with minimal overdubs.I hadn't listened to this stuff sincewe recorded it, and I'm kind ofstunned at how good it is. Mymemory of the rehearsals is usscrambling to finish songs. Thesongs on both Murmur andReckoning had been performed formonths if not years by the timethey were committed to tape. Iremember feeling dangerouslyunprepared when we flew toLondon, but on the evidence of thisrecording we must have knownwhat we were doing.

-Peter Buck

THE ATHENS DEMOSAuctioneer (Another Engine) Bandwagon* Cant Get There From Here Driver 8Feeling Gravitys PullGood Advices Green Grow The RushesHyenaKohoutekLife And How To Live It Maps And LegendsOld Man Kensey**Throw Those Trolls Away Wendell Gee

RECORDED BY JOE BOYD AND JIM HAWKINS AT BOULEVARD GARAGE STUDIOMIXED BY JOHN KEANE AT JOHN KEANE’S STUDIO

ALL SONGS (BERRY/BUCK/MILLS/STIPE)

EXCEPT * (BERRY/BUCK/MILLS/L.STIPE/M.STIPE)

AND ** BY (BERRY/BUCK/MILLS/STIPE/AYERS)

PUBLISHED BY WARNER-TAMERLANE PUBLISHING CORP. (BMI) / NIGHT GARDEN MUSIC (BMI)

ALL TRACKS: P 2010 CAPITOL RECORDS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Produced by Joe BoydReissue Curated by Sig SigworthReissue Supervised by Michael MurphyExecutive Produced by Dennis WolfeMastered by Ron McMaster at Capitol Mastering, HollywoodCreative Direction by Tom RecchionPackaging by Chris Bilheimer & Michael StipeBand Photography by Ed ColverPainting by Ron Scarselli (Page 9)Project Management by Stacey Freeman for EMI, Kevin O’Neil for R.E.M.

509996 46071 53

This compilation p 2010 Capitol Records, LLC. Manufactured by Capitol Records, LLC.

Unauthorized reproduction is a violation of applicable laws.