THE NINETIES-IST
Welcome to another edition of Brook Pridemore’s The Nineties-ist. This edition discusses 1995, those crazy workhorses in R.E.M., the blessed union of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee, and the slew of tragic musician deaths that hit the world halfway through the nineties. For earlier installments, go here.

Perhaps I was a tad too hard on Hole last week. In January 1995, former “college rock” darlings R.E.M. embarked on a massive world tour to support Monster, their hard-rockin’-est album since Green, their 1988 Warner Bros. debut (and their first tour in six years). Less than two months later, drummer Bill Berry suffered an aneurysm onstage in Lausanne, Switzerland. Shows were postponed, and the tour ultimately resumed (friends of mine attended when the band came to Detroit in May, but I missed it for some reason), but R.E.M. were plagued with more and more problems as the tour ran on: bassist Mike Mills had to undergo abdominal surgery to remove an intestinal adhesion in July, while singer Michael Stipe had to undergo emergency hernia surgery the following month. Berry ultimately left the band in October 1997, citing lack of enthusiasm for pop stardom. The band has soldiered on as a trio, to middling commercial and critical success, acting mostly as a vehicle to play R.E.M.’s (more popular) back catalog.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. R.E.M. still trundle out decent records every few years, and their fans remain happy. Never having played in front of even one stadium full of people, let alone playing stadiums night after night for years, I cannot begin to imagine the incredible pressure that must have squeezed these people to the point of exhaustion. And then I think about the amount of money, man hours and preparation spent in getting a band of R.E.M.’s caliber on the road, and I cannot remain unhappy with that band’s decision to soldier on through health crises, nor can I fault any member of the band for deciding to quit or keep going. A gigantic rock band like R.E.M. is ultimately responsible for a lot more peoples’ livelihoods than their own, so a lot more than “somebody doesn’t feel good,” (or in Berry’s case, somebody’s on death’s door) has to be taken into account.

I do sort of wish, though, that the members of R.E.M. who kept going would make albums that compared to Automatic for the People, though. I’m not just a little tired of these big bands putting out albums and their fans going, “Have you heard the new (Insert fading Gen X band name here) album? It’s not bad!”

Not bad=not good, people. Please don’t forget that.
More on #12: 1995