R.E.M. - Shaking Through (Chronic Town outtake) (audio) 

R.E.M. early demos are so organic sounding. Like walking down an abandoned railroad track on a hot summer afternoon.

I was at the University of Georgia( in the very early 1980's) which is in Athens, Georgia, REM's home town. I was able to watch them first hand grow from a party, cover band to full national superstars. It was an exciting time. I'd see Stipe or Buck just walking around town. It was wild. I remember paying just $5 to see them at a small venue right after Reckoning was released. I probably have seen them 10 times. Great memories.

I especially love the bridge (in the studio version) where Stipe sings "in my life..." but doesnt finish his thought

I like listening to early R.E.M.! It's cool listening to them in their prime & seeing how they developed into the great world-famous band that they became!

That 60s' guitar riff will never die

What a great song!!!!!!!!

One of my favorite songs of all time!!!

I had the fortunate opportunity to meet and hang with Mike Mills and Bill Berry a few times in 87...both very very nice guys. Anyway, once I mentioned to Berry that my favorite REM song was Shaking Through, he seemed pleasantly suprised and said something like..."Really? Wow! Thanks! We don't hear that one alot".

I love this band!

wow interesting outtake -- rems best song on murmur.

Everyone telling cool stories here and I'm just like I'm one of the few young fans...

My favourite from 'Murmur' probably

Quite surprising that so many of you like this song so much. In the book "Murmer" by John Platt, he says the band had trouble with this one, saying "it never really worked live" and that "they sound like they're just vamping". Other early sources say much the same type of thing. I'm with you guys though, this was always a fave for me.

I don't put up audio recordings that are officially released and easily accessible...sorry :(

Love the lo-fi sound

Great hearing this version 1st time!

I've always loved this song. I think this version is quite a refreshing spin on an already great song. Part of being creative musically is to come up with new ideas or sounds from time to time. Bravo to the boys... Nice job with this one.

Wow...awesome! The Murmur version is probably my favorite R.E.M. song. It's really cool hearing outtakes and demos of these great songs. Excellent!

I like how back then he mumbled all his lyrics like he wasn’t sure what he was singing about so then you had to guess and interpret the song yourself. And it was usually wrong. So far I got, Shaking Thru, all I’m in, ha ha la di da, opposite. Something like that. Im not sure. Habla Hoo, bla bla blu! More Stipe lyrics!

Una obra maestra

They really nailed it.

Any way you slice it, this is great post-punk early college rock

I dig it! I like the organ/casio on it...perhaps the same instrument that did the intro to Boxcars?

I don't know how, but this has *even better* lyrics than the official version

@tjdude88 They recently rem-oved that version.

Could it be that one small voice doesn't count anymore?

yellow like a geisha gown

please put up the murmur version!

Chout, I really like this particular version. How about you?

me I always thought it's geisha dawn

Surely Geisha doll??

snare is too loud on this mix, only problem with it

what the fuck happened to the real version of this song?