Probably my favorite REM song ever. First heard it on the late night CBC radio show "Brave New Waves" in the mid-80s. The version on Dead Letter Office is great too.
This version is really energetic and raw, which probably makes it the best version available. However, I remember back in 1984 or 1985 buying the IRS benefit LP called LIVE FOR LIFE because it had one song by REM that I did not have: AGES OF YOU. This was the very first time this song was available for purchase...NOT DEAD LETTER!!! The IRS benefit version is much better than the DEAD LETTER OFFICE version, because it is much cleaner, and not drenched in a ton of reverb! Check it out!!!
At first I thought it was a masterpiece in hiding, but really it would have been the weak link in Chronic Town. Do appreciate the faster pace and rawness over the released version though.
@sashwap Yeah, between this song and it's musical counterpart (as Peter has described elsewhere) Burning Down, you would thing one of them would of made it to a proper album!
@REMchout this song is such an underdog! rejected for chronic town AND murmur. it's hard to pinpoint why, exactly. my guess is that in light of their material at the time in seems a touch more naive/simplistic. and i think it's more of a reckoning style tune, but by that time they were sick of it.
Prefer the DLO version, possibly because the production is so much better. Or possibly because it was my favourite track on DLO and played it for years and years, whereas I only heard the Chronic Town out takes a few years back.
Apparently it didn't fit the feel and atmosphere of CT as well as what they put on instead. I like this song, but I can see why they made that decision.I forget what it was apparently bumped for. Stumble, I think.
I think it sounds too echo-y and where's the bass? Too soft and tin. And like the original take on Wolves, it probably would've been better at a slower pace, allowing for more feel and mood.
The Guy who bought Live for Life back in 84 is a Stooge. IRS released it in 86 with a live version of Ages of you.Ages of you was on the 1985 UK released IRMD106 Wendell Gee 2 x 7" Side C Same Version is on Dead Letter Office released in 1987.
Why am I a 'Stooge?' The version released by IRS on the LIVE FOR LIFE LP in 1986 was not 'live' per se, but 'live in the studio', which is a version that is much cleaner (no reverb saturation), and more exciting than the version they released on Dead Letter Office in 1987...what are you talking about???
