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More On The Induction

From Access Atlanta

From Access Atlanta (link found on REMHQ)

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NEW YORK — The Athens-bred band R.E.M. didn't set out to become influential or important, or even popular.

In fact, guitarist Peter Buck said in a recent phone interview that if you had asked him the band's goal in the beginning, "I would've said, 'Well, it'd be cool if we could make a single and then maybe go to New York.' "

He got his wish — and then some. The four original members of R.E.M. were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday night in a black-tie ceremony at Manhattan's Waldorf-Astoria.

The festivities began Monday night with a cocktail party attended by noted author Joan Didion. The crowd then moved into a glowing ballroom for the 22nd annual induction dinner and ceremony.

The 2007 Rock Hall inductees included a girl group (the Ronettes), a tumultuous rock band (Van Halen), a punk-era icon (Patti Smith) and — for the first time in Rock Hall history — a hip-hop act (Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five). Aretha Franklin and Keith Richards were among the music VIPs who helped the honorees celebrate.

For Georgia music fans, however, the inductions can be summed up by three little letters: R.E.M., the long-running Athens band that introduced underground rock to the masses, brought intelligence to the pop charts, invigorated Southern music, embodied earnestness in the age of irony and survived the departure of a founding member.

R.E.M. played "Begin The Begin," "Gardening At Night" and "Man On The Moon". The band members were inducted by Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder, who said, "They helped us find things that we knew were inside of us, and I think they helped us find things that we didn't know were inside of us."

In addition to the inductions, the program also included a tribute to the late James Brown featuring a speech by the Rev. Al Sharpton.

In the days before Monday night's ceremony, bassist Mike Mills took his mom out to dinner, caught a production of "Wicked" on Broadway and helped a friend shop for a new faucet. Nursing a Bailey's and coffee in the hotel bar on Sunday , he kept the honor in perspective.

"For one day," Mills said, "I'll think back over the career and I'll look at all the stuff we've done. And I'll say, 'Yes, this is amazing that it got us to this point.' And then Tuesday, I'm not gonna think about it that way any more. I'm gonna go back to trying to write more good songs and trying to get ready for recording."

NEVER COMPROMISED

In its classic lineup, R.E.M. — which has sold 19.5 million records in the United States alone, according to the Recording Industry Association of America — had four equally important members: Mills, who played bouncy bass and sang boyish backup; Buck, whose jangly guitar stood out in a world of shredding soloists; Michael Stipe, a shy and sinewy frontman who would transform into a pop icon; and Bill Berry, a drummer who created beats you could dance to while Stipe sang lyrics you could think about.

"R.E.M.'s a perfect example of a group that never compromised their musical direction," said Rock Hall curatorial director Howard Kramer. "And slowly they won over their audience to the point where they became arguably the biggest band in America at one point, and certainly the most respected band."

R.E.M. also catalyzed a musical explosion in their hometown of Athens, a burg previously known for University of Georgia football — not rock 'n' roll. Mayor Heidi Davison credits R.E.M. with helping to transform Athens from a sleepy college town into a quirky mini-city with a wild artistic streak.

"Even when you travel abroad," said Davison, whose candidacy the band supported, "if you mention Athens or you mention R.E.M., people know who you are. And I don't think that was the case before R.E.M. In fact, I know it wasn't because I've been living here since 1973."

The Athens music scene has had multiple boomlets since the famous late-'70s/early '80s explosion that brought the world R.E.M., the B-52s, Pylon and Love Tractor. The scene was so important that it continues to reverberate today.

"I'd say every interview I do, I talk about R.E.M.," said Parker Gispert, who leads upstart Athens rock band the Whigs. "It's just unavoidable."

Although Buck now lives in Seattle, Mills and Stipe still reside in Athens. The musicians, Davison said, manage to be public figures without being splashy. Not long ago, Mills served as grand marshal of the town Christmas parade.

A LOYAL FAN BASE

The band's influence has reached Atlanta, too. When the local adult-alternative radio station Dave FM went on the air at 5 p.m. July 22, 2004, the first song it played was R.E.M.'s "Orange Crush." The station's Radio Free Lunch program, a show with varying themes, is named after the band's first single, "Radio Free Europe." Plus, Dave FM promos have bragged about the station playing so many R.E.M. songs that even Stipe doesn't know them all.

"I grew up here," said Dave FM director of programming Michelle Engel. "And when you grow up here, these are your boys. This is the sound that really changed what rock sounded like in the '80s, and it was local to us. And then to watch them grow — I remember seeing them on the cover of Rolling Stone as band of the year, and it was like, 'Those are our guys.'"

Their early material, on the independent label I.R.S., rattled a rock establishment more accustomed to macho posturing than nervous, toe-tapping new wave pop. R.E.M. stayed independent for five albums and then made the move to major label Warner Bros.

R.E.M.'s active members have maintained a long association with manager Bertis Downs, and they remain amicable with Berry, who retired to a farm outside Athens in 1997 after suffering a brain aneurysm. Berry has rarely rejoined his bandmates in public, but he made an exception for the band's 2006 induction into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame, and there was no doubt that he'd also participate in Monday's Rock Hall induction.

"He was really happy to join us for the Georgia Music Hall of Fame," Stipe said via phone a few days before the induction. "And that was a great honor for all four of us — all five of us including Bertis. It really felt great to be there, and to be inducted by Senator [Max] Cleland. And so the second we found out about this induction we called Bill and he was like 'Of course. Absolutely.'"

Still, it's funny how life can come full circle, especially considering the band didn't intentionally plot a course for mega success.

"I think we kind of famously never had a single goal at all — including putting out records," Stipe said. "That wasn't even a consideration in the beginning, but it was how we were able to continue touring. There were clubs that would not allow us to play unless we had a recording. So we made first a cassette that we sent around with three songs on it, and then took two of those songs and made them into the first single. And 25 years later, here we are being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."