My favorite Pete Buck story about their early gigs: ‘I’d go in with my tacky Fender amp and my little guitar and in every club we played the guy’d go, “Well, where’s your Marshall?” “We don’t use Marshall amps”. “You don’t use Marshall amps?!” You’d always have this guy with hair down to his waist, he’d go, “Tell me what songs you have your solos in so I can put the spotlight on you,” and I’d go, “I don’t have any solos,” and he’d go, “What, no solos?!” and I’d go, “I play rhythm guitar, y’know.”
Completely agree with your assessment of Peter buck. Vastly underrated as a guitarist. His ability to arpeggiate simple chords and bring out wonderful melodies places him among the best for me. Strange currencies exemplifies this technique really well. From murmur to Hi-Fi, never get tired of listening to that period of r.e.m albums - timeless music.
Thanks for this! I've been looking for REM tutorials, and there are surprisingly few of them. I recently learned a version of "Driver 8," that someone posted on RU-vid several years ago, but you are my trusted source for accurate versions of songs. Have a nice weekend.
I'd almost forgotten how brilliant those IRS years where, as beautiful and anthemic AFTP is, I think Reckoning will always be my favourite. Thanks for the coverage, Cheers!
I might be able to shed some light on the "mysterious jangly sound", although it may spoil some of the mystique. I don't know anything about this song, but Mitch Easter was kind enough to talk to me about some of his own songs one time and so I do know about a few of the things he liked to do. For a start like any studio recording, there is more than one guitar part. Not heaps, his own studio was only 16 tracks, so there aren't like a million parts, but still. Mitch liked to add a few 6-string acoustic tracks to go along with electric parts. Sometimes they were like double tracks of the electric part, other times more like interweaving harmonies. He could create quite a bit of sparkle just by layering up a few guitar parts playing slightly different variations of the same arpeggio, so that you hear notes from different tracks ringing out at different times. Sometimes he'd add a 12 string track, although he still balanced the sparseness and density and often a couple of 6 strings sounds like a 12 string, so adding another 12 string playing the exact same part can be too dense, so a lot of the 12 string parts were different harmonies and would sort of come in and out at different parts of a song. He also had a homemade mando-guitar, only 4 strings, a bit like the Fender Mandocaster that Big Star used. No idea if that appeared on any REM stuff. So you'll here these layered up 6 string electric and 6 acoustic parts and then over the top a part might come in played on a 12 string, and then later on another part might come in played on the mando-guitar etc. He played around with delay a lot too, and had access to good plate reverbs. Overall it's just making use of the multitrack format to create interesting arrangements and harmonies. He had lots of gear and heaps of different things that made all kinds of sounds, it's just in the way the arrangments were done and sometimes how the instruments are played. I think they used the Ampeg Gemini on Murmer and that sounds plenty jangly in the mix with all the other things that are twinkling and sparkling. John Leckie did something similar with the Stone Roses. Every electric part is double-tracked with an acoustic guitar, 2 tracks of acoustic, 2 tracks of electric, one panned left, one panned right. Leckie's tracks are pretty much exact doubles, whereas MItch would change up the parts a bit, leave a note out here, add a note there, mix it up a bit. So if you hear a Ric part that sounds astonishingly like a mandolin, it might not be some crazy effect, it might just be a mandolin and not a Ric at all.
Fantastic lesson, Adrian, and as usual you selected a wonderful song from a truly memorable album. Love Buck's sense of harmony and rhythm, and I think he's a fantastic composer. Pete Buck is so rarely mentioned in the pantheon of rock guitarists and I think he should be. I know people love to laud the masters of the ripping guitar solo, and sure, those can be great, but my ear tends to favor musicians who developed a signature style such that they are usually recognized within a few moments. Peter Buck's guitar does that for me. I can usually tell it's him quite early in a song. Andy Summers of The Police is another example: not mentioned often when people list out their favorite guitarists, but definitely recognizable as his own when he plays. I first saw REM play live when they opened for The Police in 1983, but that was such a zoo of a show because The Police had become so huge -- it was the tour in support of the 'Synchronicity' release -- and REM was just starting to get some attention, so they played very briefly along with a few other opening acts. I then saw REM a few years later when they toured to support the release of 'Lifes Rich Pageant' and it was great because the venue wasn't overly huge and I could really see and hear the band. If you can forgive my long-windedness, I have two quick final notes: (1) Really nice to hear you sing, Adrian; you are very good at it! and (2) yes, I am with you in that much as I love early REM, I also admire how they didn't stand still stylistically -- they evolved and experimented, often with really compelling results. PS -- Okay, fine, one more comment before I really do sign off here: You make me want to be a better guitarist and musician, Adrian, thank you. You have an amazing ability to get me to think about music differently; your musical tastes, preferences, and artist/song selection help open my ears and mind.
I asked Mitch Easter how he got the sparkly sound. They used a lot of different equipment, but most of it was just double-tracking small harmony parts with a 6-string acoustic, sometimes he'd use a 12 string, but he felt that made things too muddled, so most of the time it's just two 6 strings, one electric, one acoustic. I did get to hear his Ric tracked on it's own and it is pretty jangly in isolation, but not as jangly as the acoustic parts. John Leckie did a similar thing with the Stone Roses, each electric part is doubled by an acoustic playing the exact same thing, two tracks on the left, two tracks on the right. What I learnt from MItch is that it's all about the arrangements and how you play them. And sometimes if you hear a Ric part and you're like "woah, that Ric sounds just like a mandolin", it's because on the album they just used a mandolin. Mitch also had this 4 sting electric mandolin thing that one of the band members made, it's kind of like the Fender Mandocaster that Big Star used, not sure if that made it onto any REM stuff, but the point is he had a lot of different things that made jangly sounds when you hit them.
Terrific lesson Adrian. As a kid I always thought it was either a 12-string or 2 guitar lines layered, especially with how fast it is played. Your lesson here makes it infinitely more attainable and playable. I remember British music critics favored Murmur over Reckoning in the early days for some reason (Murmur was more original, unique sound, Reckoning more referenced, derivative). Reckoning is filled with amazing melodies, this definitely one of them.
Reckoning is one of those CD's I have that never gets filed back on the shelf because I play it so often. Adrian you've done a great job here and your vocal performance was just super. As a fan of REM since I saw them at Boston University in 1983 I want to say Thanks.
Thanks for this! I absolutely love Peter Buck's jangly arpeggiated guitar playing from those early REM years. He moved away from that style on their later albums but he remained an inventive player none-the-less. I used to believe this song was done on a 12-string, it's so crystal clean and ringing. Also, I dig your singing on this, you captured Stipe's tone pretty nicely.
I’ve been in an REM mood lately and came back to this lesson. Fables of the Reconstruction came out my freshman year of college and it was such a meaningful album in my transition from teen to young adulthood. Keep the REM coming! Maybe a lesson on Radio Free Europe or Green Grow the Rushes.
Fantastic song - great lesson, Adrian. I often bookmark tuition videos, to come back to at a later date, but I got my guitar as soon as I saw this one! Thank you. 😎
My Roll Model and a source of inspiration for me ..... Learn Everything from you sir .... You deserve much more than what u have ...... Love and respect for u sir
I about crapped my pants! 1) never heard Adrian sing, 2) his timbre and tone and texture sounded remarkably like Michael Stipe. So now here’s what we have: Adrian is 1) coolest guitar teacher on RU-vid (undisputed), 2) great player, and 3) hot damn, son, the lad can sing like a boss!
You're an excellent singer. Front a band dude. I met REM in college. Michael was famous before he was famous. Like he always had an entourage and they all wore thrift store repurposed clothes and stood out from everybody else. The girls wore altered wedding dresses. One of them was his sister. I didn't get to know them but we spoke and they were friendly.
Jesus - your vocal timbre matches Stipe spot on. I about fell out of my chair. Unsure if im going to attempt this one with the Marr-esque string skipping and picking at speed.
Reading the comments below, let me second them! Excellent job Adrian, as usual. And what a voice - who knew? REM is one of the few bands I missed seeing in their height. Why? IDK because they certainly came through the DC region a few times. But then I also missed seeing U2 and Dire Straights playing at the Bayou in Georgetown - look up that PBS special - it is fascinating. I miss REM!
Sitting Still is my favorite R. E. M song, ingot into a lot of College rock in the late 80's and early 90's before I got into the pop and skate punk scene of the mid 90's.
Adrian, your lessons, playing, and song choices are great. This one is no exception. A bit of constructive criticism.. could your voice narration and the guitar sound be leveled a bit more evenly, please? (The guitar and singing is fine, so not that) I regularly find that your narration is a couple clicks lower than the guitar. Otherwise, keep on rocking, sir! Thank you!!
Peter Buck did play 12-string on certain tracks, for sure. And electric sitar too. I always assumed he was a finger picker - but I never checked. I thought I was starting to get good when I figured out how to play "Radio Free Europe" all by myself back in the mid 80s. That HAS to be finger picked, I think, which is why I just assumed he finger picked everything.
Awesome guitar as usual and your voice always delivers. On the singing stuff, I really love your teaching style, if you did a video giving some pointers on singing with guitar I would love to see! Thank you!
I love your channel, it's helped me improve by leaps and bounds over the last year, so first and foremost: "THANK YOU." Have you ever considered looking at a Parquet Courts song? A lot of their early stuff is an interesting combination of country licks and post punk, which seems up your alley.
Blimey Adrian you can do an Amazon Buck and Stipe combo. your right about the “rem were Better in the 80s”. They were different bands during their career. But I loved their first three albums for sure.
