The major-label debut from college-rock superstars R.E.M. — 1988’s Green, with its radio-friendly singles “Stand,” “Pop Song ’89,” “Get Up” and “Orange Crush” — will be reissued this month in a deluxe 25th anniversary edition, and the fine folks at Rhino Records have provided us with five copies of the expanded 2CD edition and five copies of the 180-gram vinyl reissue to award to 10 lucky Slicing Up Eyeballs readers.
TO ENTER: Drop a comment at the bottom of this post naming your favorite song on Green — and offer a few words as to why you think it’s so great. Plus, please specify which you’d prefer: CD or vinyl.
RULES: Contest is only open to residents of the U.S. (sorry, label’s rules). We’ll take entries until 5 p.m. EDT Monday, May 13. After that point, we’ll select the 10 winners at random and contact them via e-mail — so please remember to use legit addresses when you enter. One entry per person.
MORE: Check out full details and tracklist for the Green reissue, which will be released May 14.
UPDATE: The contest is now closed and all winners have been randomly selected and notified via e-mail. Thank you all so much for entering and sharing your memories of R.E.M. and Green.
“Orange Crush” is my favorite track. Was incredibly powerful and just a stunning track when it first came out. I remember it well. It was the first single since their big breakthrough with the “Document” album and “The One I Love” and instead of trying to formulate another chart success, they came back with something that was dark and ominous and utterly compelling. Great album overall.
My favorite song on Green is You Are The Everything.
The lyrics are spectacular. The song never fails to bring me to tears.
I would love the vinyl release.
perfectly put, yes
Orange Crush is my favorite. Listened to this tape until it wore out.
This is the last album that REM really sounded like REM, and like an actual band. Afterwards was always a bit off.
Vinyl for sure.
Oh, and Orange Crush was my favroite song–that riff!
My favorite on Green is the untitled song. It seemed so fresh and different at the time. Sidenote: I would name the song “Strong”. :)
Fall on Me
Vinyl
Wrong album. :-)
Brings back good memories! Stand is a great song!
I loved “Turn You Inside Out”. Up to that point, it was the heaviest song they’d recorded. It was a refreshing change & really rocked out. Great song!
“You are the Everything” because the first time I heard Green I was in the backseat, laying down, and the stars wrapped around to the sound of the travel and the engine. When this song came on, I knew Stipe was singing, not to me or for me, but as me.
Its hard to pick just one as this is probably REM’s best album, but I have to go with Turn you Inside out. The song just rocks !!!
“You Are the Everything” is one of my all-time favorite REM songs. Lovely.
Pop Song 89 is a great catchy tune. Played it for my young nephew and he was totally not into it. LOL.
My favorite song is the 11th untitled song. As a big REM fan, it shows the quirkiness and stubborness of the quartet. Buck on drums because Berry thought the rhythm line was terrible. No title. But still a straight-forward and uplifting song. That may not be the best or most fun song on the album, but it makes me think of what I love about the band every time it comes on Shuffle.
Pop Song 89. This song just accurately reflected the times. “Hello I’m sorry I lost myself…”, “Should we talk about the weather, should we talk about the government?” We were coming out of the narccisistic 80’s and starting to look outward at our place in the world.
I always liked “The Wrong Child”. Not one of the radio hits. Played in minor chords. The story of a disabled child watching the “normal” children playing is his neighborhood. He just wants to be part of the fun. “But it’s OK…” This song still makes me tear up when I hear it.
Oh yeah…and CD, please.
“Orange Crush”. When I first heard it on the radio in fall ’88, I immediately became a fan of the band. A screaming, wordless chorus, a guitar solo consisting of harmonics, a megaphone, and a friggin’ vibraslap – it’s still totally perverse 25 years later.
I’d say Green’s in the running with Monster as their most underrated album.
I love “Orange Crush” because of the geopolitical statements the song makes. Still timely today in the midst of the mess Bush left us. Obviously he is not an REM fan….
You are everything!
I love “Stand”
My company does “stand up” meetings every day and this song is a great soundtrack.
I’d love the vinyl.
Oh yeah….I want the CD…..sadly have nothing to play vinyl on…..
Pop Song 89 really was a great song to say the 80’s were over! and so memorable. vinyl
This album came out when I was a senior in HS and had already fallen in love with REM years before. I listened to this on cassette until it died! I would say that “Get Up” was my favorite song. This tour was the tour that I saw multiple shows. The album sits strongly in my history, I love it. I would LOVE this piece of art on vinyl!
Turn You Inside Out
My favorite song on Green is “You Are The Everything”.
It makes my feel young again.
I would like the vinyl.
Pop Song 89
REM harmonizing at it’s best – Should we talk about the weather. Brilliance!
HELLO!
My favorite song on GREEN is “World Leader Pretend”, (or “Orange Crush”).
VINYL ME, please.
In ’89, “Green” was on constant repeat on my college house floor. In fact, I put together a tape-n-glue photo collage that illustrated the lyrics to “I Remember California” on the door of my room.
The line: “I remember red wood trees, bumper cars and wolverines / The ocean’s Trident submarines / Lemons, limes & tangerines” is forever burned into my brain. Like South Park’s Cartman having a tic where he must sing all the lyrics to Styx’s “Come Sail Away” when he hears even a tiny snippet, I am similarly afflicted with “I Remember California.”
Seeing Michael, blue-striped smear across the forehead (like a Bladerunner replicant), his rat-tail flying, pounding out the rhythym on a folding chair, and belting out these lyrics over and over again on the Green world tour was positively transcendant – one of my most cherished concert memories.
Please Michael, won’t you sing again?
(Oh, and I’m interested in the CD version, if it comes to that.)
“Turn You Inside Out”. I love everything about that song, the intro, the drums, the riff. Always gets me going. CD!
Pop Song 89
REM harmonizing at it’s best – Should we talk about the weather. Brilliance!
Vinyl is my preference
My favorite song off “Green” is “You Are The Everything” because it is just so damn beautiful!
I REMEMBER CALIFORNIA. Saw them 4 times on the Green Tour….that was always my fave moment with Stipe’s dramatic striking of the chair. CD.
Pop Song ’89 holds sentimental value for me as this is the song that was playing in the background as I contemplated telling my parents, again, about my sexuality. I guess atching how androgynous Stipe was in the video gave me the much needed courage to do so, lol. CD please, if I win.
Orange Crush. Used to ride my bike listening to it on my Walkman. Then I’d rewind it and start over. “Rewind” haha
I’d have to go with “You Are the Everything” because of the imagery it conjures up. Voices talking somewhere in house, late spring and you’re drifting off to sleep. It struck me the first time I heard it back when the album first came out, and takes me right back to the spring of 1989 when I’d crank it up driving around the suburbs of Maryland. CD, please.
You are the Everything – it’s a thing of beauty! Also, preference is CD
“Turn You Inside Out”. One of those visceral songs that I love to crank up while driving in the car.
My preference would be vinyl if I happen to win.
Thanks!
something about the “untitled” song really gets me – i think it’s the purity of stipe’s voice on that track. VINYL!
“orange crush” it just brings back such awesome memories of HS. i wore out my cassette. cd please.
“You Are the Everything” has always been one of my favorites, always reminds me of hot summer nights-even more so, now that I live in Athens
forgot to add prefer CD
“Orange Crush” would be an easy answer for me, and I really do love it — especially performed live, with Michael calling out the Army’s “Be All That You Can Be” slogan through a bullhorn — but honestly I’m going to rep for “Stand.” It’s a great example of the band displaying what so many insisted they didn’t have: A sense of humor. It gets a lot of mileage out of a bog-standard chord progression, and it’s got a lot of fun little production details like the percussion hits in the choruses, and Pete’s wah-wah solo. Add in the completely unnecessary key changes at the end and you’ve got a winner!
Would love that 180g vinyl.
You Are The Everything
It makes me think of college and my wife. I cant help but smile everytime I hear it.
VINYL!
I love Pop Song 89. Something about that track makes me wanna boogie. This album has a special place for me, as it was my deceased cousin Adam’s favorite album from them. I would love to have the vinyl of this.
I have to pick a favorite song off this album? Okay, ‘Orange Crush’ for its… no, ‘Pop Song 89’ for its wry… no…
This is difficult. This album is burned into some part of my psyche.
Okay, I have to choose… I’ll go with ‘You Are The Everything’… Why? Just listen to the song. He says it better than I could.
Popsong 89 because it is a great pop song. Vinyl.
Orange Crush. It’s such a moving song…at the time this came out it was a very emotional video for my father, a vet. This would be great on vinyl.
“Turn You Inside Out” is my favorite track off Green. It’s a sleeper. A lot of people don’t know it that well, and you’ve never heard it on the radio. To me it is THE rock song on this album. It was the one that made me rewind it a half dozen times the first time I sat down with the album.
vinyl for sure.
Best song on Green? “Orange Crush” by a country mile. I still can’t listen to it just once.
“Orange Crush” is an all timer! Great production.
I’d love to get a 180 gram vinyl. I have the album from when it originally came out!
My favorite song from Green is Orange Crush. As a kid, I loved it so much that I suggested it as a name for my first soccer team. (We had orange uniforms, and my proposal met with success). Vinyl, please.
Favorite track is “I Will Turn You Inside-Out”—-
was a powerful song played live–the Green Tour was fantastic as well (check out Tourfilm to validate)—this album broke them into the mainstream after being college darlings —I would love to own this one on VINYL!!!!!!
cd
Orange crush, pop song 89. great album with upbeat songs that just makes you want to dance. we miss you r.e.m….
Pop Song 89. But that’s by only slight degrees. There’s not a bad song on this album.
Well, what can I say about this album. As a huge 20 year old fan of REM (had already seen them 5 times from Reckoning tour through Document tour) I can still remember to this day showing up for my 3-5pm DJ shift @ WCDB in Albany and seeing that the promo, vinyl record had just arrived!!! I believe I was the second DJ to have given it a spin that day! After quickly sampling which song I was going to play on my show, I settled on “You Are The Everything”. It is without a doubt one of my top 5 favorite REM songs. For a major label debut, it was exciting to hear something so out of step with what was on the charts at the time ( can we say, Guns and Roses, Poison, Jody Watley?). Not only was it out of step with what was going on, but it contained a Mandolin! This song pre-dates “Losing My Religion” by 3 years. To then hear it played 6 times live (yes, that’s how many times I saw the Green tour) was beyond magical. Never heard the song live again until, much to my amazement they played it live in Atlanta on the 2003 tour. Every memory I ever had associated with that song from before came flooding back, and I stood there with tears running down my cheeks! So there you have it. “You Are The Everything” defines Green for me on many different levels. If I were to have a copy of this album now, I’d like the CD version of it. Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Vic
Nice, Vic. :)
Favorite song has to be world leader pretend just because it really felt like it expressed what was going on in the world at that time. I would love to replace my original vinyl with the new 180g reissue
Although I love all this album as a whole, Orange Crush just takes me back to the 120 Minutes-era of “alternative videos”, when all my friends listened to top 40 and I delved deeper and deeper into better music. Orange Crush is the perfect soundtrack of that time in my life.
I prefer vinyl! But a 2cd will do too…
“You Are the Everything” has to be the best song on Green as it’s my favorite song of all time. It’s so perfectly beautiful in it’s music and lyrics while the mood is enchanting from the first cricket chirp to the last hum of organ. Definitely a song that has spoken to me deeply since my first listen. CD please.
I love the entire album, but I think I have always liked World Leader Pretend the most because I really identified with that sense of isolation around the time the album was released. Turn You Inside Out is a close second because it makes me feel bouncy :)
a vinyl copy would be very cool.
The power, both lyrically and musically, of “Orange Crush” has always made it not only my favorite from this album, but one of my overall favorites. I also have fond memories of Michael pulling out the bullhorn for this song live.
I’m a Compact Disc sort of guy.
The only time I ever saw R.E.M. live was on this tour. I always liked Pop Song 89 and Orange Crush – good pop songs, but never liked Stand at all. I Remember California because I am a native Californian and because it sounded like it could be on Document.
you are the everything is a gorgeous track. what a great album! Either CD or Vinyl would be enjoyed and cherished
CD.
My pick is The Wrong Child. The move into more topical lyrics starts to hit a stride on this album, especially on this song. The vocal arrangement in the verses creates an almost dissonant tension, reflecting the pain in its protagonist’s thoughts. I’ve always admired how open-ended the lyrics are in regards to this character; he could be an outcasted child (a the title suggests) or someone older, assumedly with a mental disorder either way. Sad but beautiful in execution. It also serves as a nice preview of the acoustic mood on Out of Time.
Vinyl, please.
Turn you inside out. Because its a truly rocking song. Made to be played loud live. CD
turn you inside out…I don’t know what it means, but it sure rocks the fuck out.
make mine vinyl.
I’d say “World Leader Pretend.” It outlines the self-sabotaging that I seem to fall under again and again, yet offers a glimmer of hope for redemption as well. And vinyl!
My favorite song on Green is “Turn You Inside Out”, because I always remember seeing R.E.M. perform this song when I saw them in November, 1989 at the Macon Coliseum. It’s a solid rocker of a track. CD!
You Are The Everything! Changed my life. This song got me HOOKED on R.E.M. for life!!!
I wanted to shoot myself everytime I heard STAND. But, now as I age gracefully, the song has grown on me. My favorite is “World Leader Pretend”. This is my mistake.. let me make it good. Love the lyrics!
SORRY CD!!!
You Are the Everything. There is just something hauntingly beautiful about that song. The lyrics and the music complement each other perfectly.
You are the everything
Whoops! CD please.
“You are the Everything” is one of those songs that only REM could have written, and so defined the band — evocative, transcendent, hinting at deep spirituality and suffused with an awe and reverence for life. One of their very best and most beautiful songs, by any measure.
If fortune smiles in this direction, i’d like the CDs please.
Pop Song 89. It is one of those songs that is a perfect start to an album–it starts with a bang of force that shows this is a record that will move. Get Up could do the same thing it it were the first track, but not as good at Pop Song 89.
vinyl, please.
thank you.
You Are The Everything – it always reminds of a good time and a good place and never fails to put a smile on my face…
vinyl, please
“Orange Crush” – love the vocal harmonies and the guitar has a darker sound that really makes the whole thing work for me.
Vinyl is my first choice – although CD works given the bonus concert.
You Are Everything. This song was the perfect culmination of all the folk-rock from Murmur era, and is one of the most poignant and beautiful songs of all time.
I’d love the Vinyl.
Split my vote between “Untitled” and “Orange Crush”. Those two songs seem to “stand” the test of time better. I’ll take the vinyl please!
This ALBUM brings back the BEST COLLEGE MEMORIES EVER… CD-if picked. :)
I remember California, the guitar riff and lyrics seem convey so much controlled anger.
“Track !!” the untitled track at the end of the album. with the heavy subject matter of “hairshirt” and “the wrong child” (both overlooked gems) the untitled track at the end of the record clears the air and gives a lift. while most may think of ‘green’ as a major label slick pop debut — i see the album as a response to the unstable feeling 8 years of reaganomics left us. ‘green’ was released on election day in 1988 (i remember this because i ripped out the full page ad from rolling stone and hung it on my wall). ‘track 11’ represents the end of the reagan era and the beginning of a new one…unfortunately it wasn’t a dukakis victory. still, side be of the album tends to be dark (beautifully) and the simplicity of ‘track 11’ reminds us the nightmares don’t last forever.
vinyl please!
So many great tracks on Green, but I’m forced to choose so I’ll go with I Remember California. Bought the cassette the day it came out, which was also Election Day that year. I had the full-page Rolling Stone ad on my wall for years, reminding one that there were “Two things to do November 8” with a pic of a voting booth and the cover of Green. Since I don’t have a tape deck anymore, I’ll take the vinyl version.
It’s so hard to pick one favorite from such a perfect record. I’d have to pick Pop Song 89 because this song was so freakin great live. I was fortunate to see this tour twice as a teenager and this album changed the way I listen to music. I prefer vinyl because the music just sounds better.
Such a great album. “I Remember California” though is just haunting. Sad and spooky. The guitar melody just gets stuck in my head too. Like it is right now. I would love this on CD. I’ll be picking it up if I don’t win anyway me thinks.
“Pop Song” I love the video. I still find it funny.
vinyl
side note: I was born in Greensboro, but I did not see this show.
You Are The Everything. Such a beautiful and deep song. Perfect listening to it when everything around is completely quiet to really “feel” the song.
CD please. :)
Torn between “Turn You Inside Out” and “Orange Crush”. “OC” became a staple of indie rock and now is a staple of classic rock. Terrific hook and sing along chorus. “TUIO” is the band’s best foray in classic rock and kept recycling it every album since then. Underrated album and someone else mentioned how they would never sound (except for possibly Monster) the same again…
VINYL
Orange Crush. Just love all their songs!
Green was where I was finally old enough (10 years old) to appreciate R.E.M.’s music. “Orange Crush” was a good rocker, yet “Stand” was more of a upbeat pop song. After this album, I dove into their back catalog and was amazed. I have my original cd but it will not play through without skipping. Would love the 2cd edition!
My favorite song is Get up. It still to this day puts a smile on my face and fills me with optimism to face everyday. I would prefer the cd version. Thanks!
No votes for Hairshirt? One vote from me for Hairshirt then! I recall a deep discussion with my friends about that song: “Is it really about a shirt…made of hair?”
Brings back smiles every time I hear it.
Am flexible for format if I win, but would prefer the vinyl.
Webster’s definition of HAIR SHIRT
a shirt made of rough animal hair worn next to the skin as a penance
LOVE REM!!! Orange Crush
World Leader Pretend is my favorite; for the contrast of the beautiful piano playing, with the sense of stubborn paranoia described by the protagonist.
Also- first ever lyrics printed in an R.E.M. album (right?)
I think the Untitled song at the end is my favorite. It was one of the first hidden tracks I knew about.
CD if picked.
I Remember California. As a lifelong Californian, and knowing they are from Georgia, I always sang along wondering if it was a dis or an homage. Low ebb, high tide. Vinyl please.
“Stand” is the song that introduced me to R.E.M. as an eight-year-old so that one will always be memorable to me. CD, please!
“You Are The Everything” is my favorite – cd please!
World Leader Pretend is great, too – tough decision.
erm- CD
I’d have to go with Untitled. It has a great feel to it.
oops – Untitled, and on CD – I still have my original vinyl!
“get up”, made all the more brilliant by the fact they wrote it in 30 minutes.
Green is my favorite REM album by a long shot, so it’s hard to pick a favorite song. “Orange Crush” is epic. “I Remember California” is amazing. And I really, really love “Untitled”–what a sweet little tune.
Oh, I’d like the CD btw.
Gonna have to go with Turn You Inside Out. One of my favorite rockers of theirs. My other would be Wrong Child. I find it to be so incredibly sad…
Vinyl for me…
So many good songs, but my favorite would have to be “Get Up”. Such a great pop rock song and I have always loved the music boxes in the bridge. A melody and lyrics that were simple and catchy… but a song that had layers to it. On a simple level it was (as Michael would joke)a song about Mike Mills sleeping late through recording sessions…but on a deeper level it was a call for people to wake up in connection to the political climate in the mid to late 80s… that is what I have always loved about R.E.M., the layers.
On a side note, I used to work at a residential summer camp in the mid 90s and I would wake my campers up with this song by blaring it every morning. Even to this day, I have some of them contact me via Facebook to tell me that they own Green and became R.E.M. fans because of it.
(If I win…would like the CD version – THANKS)
World Leader Pretend. Just brings back good memories. Vinyl please!
This was a big change in sound for the band. It took a long time to warm up to it. Fav would be You Are The Everything. Prefer vinyl.
Toss up between “Turn You Inside Out” and “You Are The Everything.” These songs show the incredible range of the band and are two of my all time favorites. Vinyl
I’ve always liked the hidden track best. Hairshirt second. This is the album that got me into REM and the first one I bought with my own money. It still holds up!
CD please
I bought this album when I was like 12 because of the song “stand”, which I heard on VH1. it was the first album I ever bought. I thought of R.E.M. as a goofy pop band, but the album was actually really dark and compelling….and I loved it! my all time favorite song off of “Green” has to be “Hair Shirt”. such a wierd song. if I win I’d prefer a CD!
I always loved the last track. The inscrutability and instrument swapping… Such a romantic song.
CD, please!
This album is amazing start to finish, but one of my favorite tracks is “You Are The Everything”.
Vinyl please.
Fave: You Are The Everything. Just a fantastic song. CD por favor! Thanks!!
Stand is my favorite on this album. CD version please.
You Are The Everything…great song with great lyrics…CD please
“World Leader Pretend.” A beautiful and passionate song that is just as thrilling when the band performs it live! Vinyl, please.
Stand was the perfect lead off single and blew the charts wide open, it started the band’s journey into becoming one of the biggest bands in the world. What came after this album was legendary, they will always be one of the best ever.
This album started R.E.M version II, and yes, you are allowed to love every single incarnation of the band, because that makes you a true fan.
vinyl please, thank you for the great website.
This is the last Vinyl Album I bought. It spoke to me at a pivotal time in my life toward the end of college when I was single with no prospects of a mate and I was feeling alone and sorry for myself. The 2 lines at the end, “It’s a beautifle life my life, It’s a beautiful life your life” always made me snap out of my pitty party and realize how fortunate I was. If lucky enough to win, I would prefer the vinyl and will use it as an excuse to purchase a brand new turntable to replace my old beater, thereby stimulating the economy.
Fall On Me
vinyl
“I Remember California” is probably my favorite … I just loved the dark, creepy atmosphere of that one, it’s in line with some of their other darker songs like “Feeling Gravitys Pull” or “Oddfellows Local 151.” Mike’s backing vocals are great, too, and as another commenter mentioned, it was really powerful live (I was happy to hear it on the “Live in Greensboro” EP that just came out).
I would love the vinyl! :D
The whole album is great, but World Leader Pretend still moves me every time I hear it.
“Orange Crush” since it broke a lot of new ground in the early days of modern rock radio, vinyl.
“You Are The Everything” is my favorite Green track. I love the lyrics and Michael’s singing.
Man, tough one. No duds on that album. I remember Musician magazine naming “Hairshirt” as one the year’s best songs. But got to go with “Orange Crush.” I remember seeing the title before hearing the song and thinking, What is this one going to be about?! Then when I heard it…WOW. Kick-ass start and just soars from there. And always a highlight live. Oh, and I have a poster for the single hanging in my garage!
Vinyl, please! :)
“Stand” – it’s closest thing to a silly party song that REM ever put out. The video even gave us a dumb dance. Every generation needs a dumb dance or two.
“World Leader Pretend” – a mature outlook both lyrically and musically.
CD please.
Hairshirt – so different
‘You Are The Everything’. It took me a while to warm up to this album, the first on big-label Warner. But it grew on me and the simple beauty of this song was part of what won me over for ‘Green’.
World Leader Pretend..I love it still today as I often wondered if Saddam or Mo-mar were sitting in some sandy office somewhere planning our demise. It just so well written that it could also fit as a love song.
I forgot to mention that I would prefer the vinyl in the event my name is selected. Thanks for the great site and the number of opportunities you have for us readers to win music and books.
Stand would be my fave track. It came out and was the soundtrack for the greates summer of my life, so far!!
“Orange Crush”. It’s my favorite, but probably not the best track on the album. But it was an important track to getting me into R.E.M. as a young person. It also still feels relevant and fresh.
CD, please.
orange crush, maybe the best REM hit all time. CD
Pop Song 89 – I like the album and its sequencing from start to finish – so it’s hard to pick just one favorite – but this one might be it. Its bounce and punch provide a nice intro to the rest of the album. The acoustic version is amazing IMO…
CD for me please!
Get Up. Very appropriate track during some depressing times.
1988 was a memorable year for me. “Orange Crush” for some strange reason fit right in with the things I was experiencing at the time. School, love, life, etc. I would like to have this album on Vinyl…it would be geat to add to my collection.
Stand. Whenever I hear stand I think off Rock Torhout/Werchter, the first time i saw and heard REM. From that time REM was my favorite band. A few years later a friend and I went on a trip to the south of France. We were bouth tired and had a bad temper because we had our luagage and tent on our back. Then we heard REM with Stand and we started to smile and everything was good. But Stand is a record that makes you smile. It’s up tempo, good sound, you can immidiatly sing the song, because it’s easy. Forgive me my bad English.
“Turn You Inside Out” — there was a bad-ass swagger in this track that was unusual for R.E.M. at the time…loved it!
(Vinyl)
My favorite is the “untitled” track, with Turn you inside out as my second favorite. I remember taping the cardboard box of this CD up on my dorm room wall. Vinyl, please!
I really like the whole disc but having said tha, World Leader Pretend, Pop Song 89, Orange Crush, Stand, … Hairshirt , oh I don’t know.
This one of their most personal and emotional album. I pick “World Leader Pretend” which is like personal politics. The person is coming to grips with all the wrong he has done in his life, and now realizes their needs to make changes to be a positive person…and that their partner is the strength to keep their life together.
Like the best of the political and best personal songs they wrote…rolled into one.
Plus, the slide guitar gives it the perfect setting. Brilliant.
I prefer the C.D. version.
Orange Crush. Just a really great song with an added edge on Pete Buck’s guitar. CD.
Pop Song 89. Wonderful and cheeky (mock) statement of purpose to open their first major label release. CD.
World Leader Pretend is my favorite track on Green. Great lyrics and when the slide guitar sneaks in your heart breaks!
Orange Crush- My favorite
Vinyl
Orange Crush – themes still hold up today – CD version preferred
No. 11. I just love the emotion and simplicity of the song. I love that is essentially untitled. I great way to close out this classic CD. BTW – I would love the CD version. Thanks!
“World Leader Pretend” is my fave on the album. Would prefer CD.
Like Stephen from Pavement said about REM, “classic songs with a long history”. I have to go with I Remember California. A great way to end the album. That is if you count the untiled track. I’d like it on wax should I win. Great site by the way.
Hairshirt is just so captivating. It’s so simple, stripped and still full of life. Small song with a big beating heart.
Hairshirt is just so captivating. It’s so simple, stripped and still full of life. Small song with a big beating heart. Vinyl of course. Sorry for the repost.
World Leader Pretend – seems so full of regret, you can almost feel him hurting. CD
You Are the Everything. Beautiful song. CD.
“world Leader Pretend”is the best
“World Leader Pretend” is my favorite song on this record
“Orange Crush” is my fav! CD please.
Hard to come up with a single favorite but I’d have to go with World Leader Pretend. That was the one that grabbed me on first listen and still sounds fresh 25 years on. Would probably need to go with the vinyl version for nostalgia’s sake as well
“You are the everything” is my fave from Green, simply because it’s gorgeous lilting moodiness and the use of the mandolin is a preview of the direction the band was taking, leading up to Out of Time.
CD would be preferred.
Turn You Inside Out is my favorite from Green. Saw them for the first time in Philly on this tour and several times since. One of my all-time favorite bands. Double CD please.
Oranga Crush, Stand, Pop Song ’89, and Turn You Inside Out are all great songs! Though my favorite is “Life’s Rich Pageant, Green is another great R.E.M. album!
World Leader Pretend – because it shows that Michael Stipe can still be deep while being clear.
Oh, so many memorable tunes … but I’ll choose “Orange Crush” as my favorite song off the “Green” album. Great lyrics! And, my preferred format would be vinyl, please. Thanks!!!
11/Untitled because my lovely wife included it on a mix tape she gave me in 1994.
I would love vinyl.
“Orange Crush”…whenever I’d hear it live, it really was a charge of excitement in the set.
prefer LP, thanks!
I had discovered Document as a lonely teenager, and by the time Green came out I had thoroughly inhaled the back catalog. Green was the first R.E.M. album I was waiting for on the day it released. I nearly wore out that cassette listening to it over and over again. The whole album projects me back into that time of desperate loneliness, feeling like I was a freak in bumfuck South Carolina. R.E.M. spoke to me on every level, making me feel less alone. If I had to pick just one, I’d say You Are The Everything. It rips my heart out every time I hear it.
Crap. Vinyl, pleeeeeease.
I loved The Wrong Child and I Remember California most, just for the feelings I got from them… The Wrong Child reminded me that everyone is so different and although I was not an outcast as a child, as an introvert I could still identify with the feeling of being alone inside while the rest are outside having fun. I remember California was always a driving song to me, the heaviness of it appealed to me and it seems like the perfect song for a sunny road trip. Love it.
I’d love the vinyl, if I were to win it. :)
Hairshirt — 4 minutes of stream of conscious goodness. “I could walk into this room and the waves of conversation are enough to knock you down in the undertow. So alone.” Perfect summation of my isolation during high school and early college years.
Hairshirt — 4 minutes of stream of conscious goodness. “I could walk into this room and the waves of conversation are enough to knock you down in the undertow. So alone.” Perfect summation of my isolation during high school and early college years. (LP, please)
I’ll go with Hairshirt. The instrumentation is so unique. The song just draws me in every time. I’ll go with the vinyl version – that would be cool!
“You are the Everything” – Beautifully written and arranged. Played it to my wife when I proposed to her. 18 years later, still married.
“Wolrd Leader Pretend” is what popped into my mind initially, but I’m pretty sure my answer would be different on another day. Green came out my junior year in college and it was in such heavy rotation that I have pretty strong memories associated with most of the songs on that album, not the least of which was seeing them on tour during Spring Break in ’89. I still have the T-Shirt.
Would love the CD.
Green was a huge influence on me. The political content as well as the songs lyrics were so important to me as a 17 year old who was so not like the other teenagers in her high school. An amazing tour and Micheal Stipe’s stage performance was legendary. Pop Song 89 was so important to me as a female just learning about feminism and that video really pushed the envelope for Generation X women. Vinyl for my choice, but just winning a copy would be fantastic.
Hard to choose but You Are the Everything gets the final vote. I remember playing this on guitar/vox around midnight campfires when working on a Greek sea turtle project some years ago. Think I got the chords about right! Also, any song with the word ‘eviscerate’ has to be epic, hey?
Vinyl as vinyl junkie still.
Solid album and last time I saw them on tour as well. I would have to go with ‘World Leader Pretend’ which barely edges out ‘I Remember California’. CD please.
Probably Pop Song 89
“Orange Crush” – My old band (back in 89′) used to play the mess outta’ this song. Eventually it became a live staple of ours.
Vinyl, please.
“The Wrong Child” because the only time it was ever played live in concert I was there!
CD please…
World Leader Pretend. I really like the key that this song is in and the lyrics are fantastic.
C.D. or vinyl Either would be nice; )
world leader pretend gets me everytime i hear it. even still, when it somehow makes its way back into my life so many years later. “this is my mistake. let me make it good.” is michael at his very best. it really spoke to me as a idealistic 22 year old when green came out. it still does at a cynical 45 year old.
i was lucky enough to see them april 29,1989 at the miami arena for the green tour. still one of my most cherished live music memories.
“World Leader Pretend,” because it’s perhaps the most “R.E.M.” of all their songs and ranks among their all-time best. It’s Stipe’s most poetic of political songs and is a precursor to the damaged country-music the delved into with “Country Feedback” — my all-time favorite R.E.M. ditty.
The band obviously knew how good it was because it marked the first time they published the lyrics to any of their songs. I’m pretty syre they wouldn’t do that again until “Up” … or “Reveal.”
If anyone asked me to summarize R.E.M. in a single song, “World Leader Pretend” would be my song of choice. (Plus it inspired a short-lived, but pretty awesome, indie band from New Orleans that played a mix of Gomez and Radiohead.)
p.s. CD set, please.
World Leader Pretend. Its a powerful song that stuck with me from the first listen. Plus its the first song that Michael Stipe was willing to print its lyrics.
CD, please.
Oooops vinyl please if I’m lucky
This might be the REM release that’s aged the best. Still rocks just right.
Oddly enough, I’d like the CD…
World Leader Pretend – I bought the cassette at a mall in Southern California. My family and I were visiting family over the Christmas holidays in 1988. After getting back to my aunt’s house, I stayed behind, popped the cassette into our station wagon’s radio. Listened to it from start to finish, while the rain fell quietly on the car. I was a freshman in High School and music was a key component in getting me through those weird-ass years. Green seemed to have it all, the care-free pop aspect, the love songs, the political statement. Even now Green takes me back to that afternoon in my dad’s car, fogged-up windows, the rain, trying to figure it all out.
I enjoy vinyl.
“Hairshirt” because, indeed, “it’s a beautiful life, your liiiife”.
This album was one of the watershed moments of my musical past. I had heard REM a bit on the radio up to this point, but GREEN was the first album of theirs that I bought. It resulted in me reaching out to buy up their existing catalog, and staying current with every release afterwards. My favorite song on the album is the haunting track Orange Crush. Succinct rage and frustration at powers beyond one’s control, and the attempt to maintain control of the few things the speaker has left. If I am lucky enough to win, I would like this album on CD. Thanks!
” You Are The Everything ” was mine and my late wife’s song to each other. Green brings so many memories of my wife and how we met at college, I still have the original vinyl album we bought together, but cannot bring myself to play it, don’t want anything to happen to our album. I listen to the cd daily, I have had to buy multiple copies because I wear them out from playing constantly. To win a copy of Green on vinyl would mean so much to me, to listen to it on vinyl and remember the good times I had with my late wife. Love and miss you Zoe so much, wish me luck !!
fuck, now i want you to win it.
)
you are the everything for that first line and for invoking a feeling of nostalgia and remembering what’s important in life.
and vinyl.
My favorite song -this week- on Green is the unnamed 11th, final track. It’s a beautiful song and preludes to what we would be hearing down the road from this great band… Vinyl.
green is my favorite r.e.m. record, which seems to not be the most popular view among diehards…a favorite song is so hard: for years it was you are the everything, for how romantic it is (my first g/f, who was 16 at the time and had AWESOME tastes, put it on the first mixtape i was ever given in ’92, along side camper van beethoven, the beach boys, the sugarcubes and–yes–barry manilow); my old band used to cover world leader pretend, which i felt must have deep meaning as the first lyric to be printed on an r.e.m. album; get up, to me, is among their most underrated songs, a single that would have been a hit in a perfect world; and the wrong child is just fucking devastating.
so what do i go with now as my fave? hairshirt. because it’s the most lovely of the three mandolin-based tunes on the record, and because of this:
“i am not the type of dog that could keep you waiting, for no good reason/run a carbon-black test on my jaw, and you will find it’s all been said before.”
vinyl, please?
The whole album has special significance to me. At that time, I was really getting into my art and this album always enabled me to get into that space for creating. “Orange Crush” is my absolute favorite track and video – back when videos actually meant something.CD please if I am one of the lucky 10!
“Turn You Inside Out” — I remember my brother picking this album up and telling me it was terrible compared to their earlier stuff. When I heard this track I had to smack him and let him know he was wrong. R.E.M. on a major label was still amazing and this track proves it.
I’d love the vinyl!
Thanks!
“You Are The Everything”.
The lyrics are amazing, the music is beautiful, but more than anything…this is a perfect postcard from my youth.
My favorite track off my favorite album of theirs.
Hairshirt. Vinyl please!
The best song on Green is: Turn You Inside-Out. The power and raw emotion in the song seams to pull the whole album together.
I would prefer the CD.
Orange crush
Great drums!
Get Up. Spring Break. A long time ago…vinyl.
“Green” is probably my favorite REM album so it’s hard to pick just one. Originally, my favorite song was ‘Orange Crush’, but then ‘World Leader Pretend’ really grew on me and after hearing Michael Stipe talk about that song, I appreciated it even more. I would prefer CD if I’m lucky enough to be chosen.
Untitled is my favorite song from Green. I would sing along to it for my kids at the end of the day as they got ready for bed. The words that Michael Stipe sang, rang true through the faces of my children.
I would like vinyl but not picky. Just a huge fan of REM and SUE.
“Turn You Inside-Out” because it f-ing rocks! CD please
My favorite song on Green is Orange Crush. I love the rush of energy it provides. I would prefer a CD. Thank you.
My favorite song on the record is “Hair Shirt”. What a great line: “It’s a beautiful life…my life!”
I would like vinyl :)
STAND ! it was like a nursery rhythm and playing HOPSCTOCH at the same time and the final D in stand is the funniest STIPE has ever been…I just entered US and was at Pittsburgh at the time attending University of Pittsburg at the time .
Even though I am NOT in US now, if I win, I want to stand UP and be counted and donate my copy of GREEN on CD to that due whowrote lyrics to I REMEMBER CALIFORNIA on his dorm room because even though I never lived in dorm, I always found people up at weee hours in morning listening to COLLEGE RADI inspiring !! Once I put DISPOABLE HEROES by METALLICA at 3 AM so I can just go to bathroom to take a leak!! Oh COLLEGE DAYS!! and my favorite band of all time? SOUNDGARDEN = R.E.M + Metallica / 2 !
I’m going with ‘You are the everything’ as my fav at the moment. It’s the song that introduced mandolin into the R.E.M. sound which became a big part of them for the next few years.
Vinyl please.
Christopher Csssidy I hope it comes to that and you win due because you are exactly my age also !!! Weird and Cosmic huh???
Orange Crush. Just a flat out great song.
Like many others posted, “Orange Crush”. IMO, it’s one of their absolute best songs and it’s also pretty underrated.
Pop Song ’89
because it asks these questions in a song: “should we talk about the weather? should we talk about the government?”
CD
“Orange Crush” for sure. I also like “You Are The Everything”.
Orange Crush. Had the lyrics on the wall of my bedroom.
“Turn You Inside Out” – It hits like a sledgehammer and worms into your brain.
Would love the Vinyl!
Turn You Inside-Out.
Because on the Green tour when Michael grabbed the megaphone you knew what was coming next. Great live song.
CD.
Thanks!
world leader pretend… “This is my mistake. Let me make it good.”
vinyl
Turn You Inside-Out. The hooks, the riff, the beat… It sounds like R.E.M. Vinyl, please.
Wow! I could pick every one… great CD! But today, ‘Get Up’ is speaking to me. I love the upbeat melody and really dig the background vocals by Mills and Stipe. And the message is right on for a society like ours where many people find comfort in apathy. Instead… Stipe tells us to become active members of society. Get Up!
You Are Everything
At first I thought it was sorta co-dependent and over the top. Then I figured out what love was and realized this song comes about as close to nailing that feeling as any other.
CD
pop song 89!
cd please!!
My favorite track off Green is probably World Leader Pretend. Great lyrics, singing, playing. Just an all around great song. I remember them playing it at Great Woods, MA in 1989 which was my first concert ever. Vinyl please!
Stand is my favorite on Green. I prefer the compact disk.
You are the everything ,,, great song , with mandolin and the sound of crickets
My favorite song on Green is “Untitled”/”11”, because it was such a surprise the first time I listened to the album. And who doesn’t love a song with lyrics like “I stayed up late to hear your voice” and “This song is here to keep you strong”. I’d love the CD copy. Thanks for having such a great site!
I was all about to post ONE favorite song from the Green lp then I started to recall ALL the GREAT songs from the album but I just can’t! One of those rare 80’s cassettes that you could just put on auto-reverse/repeat mode and play thru the whole thing over & over!
cd please
The whole album was fantastic, and that tour was when I got to see them live – I’ll never forget THAT experience.
Tough to pick just one, but I guess I’d have to go with You Are The Everything, just for the imagery it conjures and the intimate feel it engenders.
CD
Pop Song. Makes me want to talk about the weather!
Pop Song. Makes me want to talk about the weather! CD Please
The hidden track. It’s beautiful!
You are the Everything – still makes me cry after all these years. Turn you Inside Out would be a close second. CD.
‘The Wrong Child’ is my favorite song. I like it, because, while growing up as a gay child, I always felt like an “outsider” and that something was wrong with me, that I wasn’t like the other children. (I *like* being the “outsider” now). Upon hearing “The Wrong Child”, it really struck me how maybe other gay kids felt growing up but “it’s okay”, just hearing Michael sing those words in 1989 while realizing myself made a profound impact on me, that I was “okay”.
And if I win, I’d like it on CD. :-)
Orange Crush is my all time favorite. Amazing chord progressions, amazing lyrics, amazing music video.
Would like the CD version
Best song – ‘You are the everything’ because it foreshadowed the nest album and is memorable. But the whole album is solid.
CD please
The Wrong Child and then side two.
Vinyl copy would be nice, if not, a CD copy would also be great.
Thanks
Orange Crush, pure pop!
Vinyl would be great, thanks :)
“Untitled” – this song helped keep me focused in adolescence. So positive.
oops – vinyl btw
Get Up –
“Dreams, they complicate my life.
Dreams, they complement my life.”
Nothing more to add.
except to add vinyl would be cool.
“Orange Crush” — Heavy rotation on MTV. Gratified to see the band building on its critical accolades with increasing commercial success. A mesmerizing video.
It’s really hard to pick one favorite but “Turn You INside Out” always gets me going.
CD.
This is like choosing my favorite child…. Pop Song 89 is probably my favorite. It takes me right back to my high school days. And I would LOVE Vinyl. <3
Pop Song 89, hands down. Incredibly catchy, I think one of REM’s best.
CD.
I like The Wrong Child, because there were many times I felt like I was the wrong child. It and the other two acoustic driven pieces, “You Are the Everything” and “Hairshirt”, are my favorites. What is a hairshirt, however??
I prefer CD to vinyl.
Orange Crush is my favorite song. It was clever of them to make a war protest song in form of an army march. One of their most lively songs ever! I would like a CD version.
“Turn You Inside-Out”….I don’t know why, I just like it!
CD please.
Definitely “Turn you Inside Out” Great powerful song. I saw two shows on the tour in Florida and bought a shirt that was turned inside out with the band members names in cool script and the tag hanging out. The megaphone by Michael was awesome in the song. CD please.
Orange Crush is anthemic! Prefer cd.
Oh, You are the Everything is such a lovely song. This album is where they proved they could put together all their elements- pop, rock, grunge, political commentary, and lilting sadness – seamlessly. I’d like the vinyl, but be delighted with either.
Pop Song 89. The first time I saw REM in concert that’s the song they opened with. It’s stuck with me ever since.
Oh, I’d be happy with either, but would prefer vinyl, so that it will match my original copy. :)
“Untitled(Track 11)”. Stipe at his peak & Mills’ echo. Pure Briiliance. Either format is great !! Would be happy just to be picked !!
Picking a favorite song from this album is like picking favorite child! For now, I’ll have to go with “World Leader Pretend” because it was an absolute highlight of the show I saw on that tour.
Vinyl preferred, but I’d be happy either way.
Green was the first album I ever bought on CD, from Digital Only records in Roseville, MN, the day it was released!
Fave song: “Hairshirt” with “turn You Inside Out” a close second.
I’d love the CD edition of the reissue.
“I Remember California”
Part of the soundtrack to my college youth
CD please and thanks for the opportunity
My favorite track from R.E.M.-Green is “You Are The Everything”.
Something about the lyrics and mood of the song just reminds me of cool Summer evenings and being young again…there’s so much emotion in the vocals…I usually tear up EVERYTIME I hear it…it’s just such a beautiful song!
I would prefer a copy on 180 Gram vinyl :)
Stand would have to be my favorite song on this album – i think that may be because I saw the video in such heavy rotation and enjoyed it so much (it was a very Talking Heads kind of video).
I’m a vinyl sort of guy…
Turn You Inside Out…this tour was the first time I’d seen the band live (Los Angeles)…they played a large chunk of this album…fantastic! And Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians opened.
Turn You Inside Out…this tour was the first time I’d seen the band live (Los Angeles)…they played a large chunk of this album…fantastic! And Robyn Hitchcock & The Egyptians opened.
CD please is preferred.
You Are The Everything is so amazing !!! Beautifully written, still gets me as Geary today as it did the first time I heard it.
CD please
You Are the Everything…Eight strings and the truth.
CD
I would agree that the whole album was fantastic, maybe their best ever. “Orange Crush” and “Pop song ’89” are my favorites, largely because they epitomize my freshman year of college. Those songs were part of the soundtrack to the best year of my life, and they make me happy every time I hear them. I never get sick of “Orange Crush”. So, so good. Anyway, if I win (please??!), I would be thrilled with either the CD or vinyl. Thanks!
You are the Everything-that song brings back a lot of good memories for me, and makes me feel good whenever I hear it. I would play that song, and Green, for friends of mine who weren’t big on REM, and I’m happy to say I was able to get a few converts! I woudl like the CD please.
My favorite song on Green keeps shifting as the years go on. These days, it’s “Hairshirt” – yearning turned sublime. Would love to hear that on a remastered CD.
I Remember California is my favorite song from Green, though World Leader Pretend and Turn You Inside Out are close seconds. California is another dirge like track, a sort-of sequel to Document’s Oddfellows Local 151, but perfectly summarizes the seamier, dirtier side of the sunbaked no man’s land that can at times be California.
Lyrically and sonically it is wonderfully dark to the point of wallowing in despair, and has been my personal favorite since first buying the album.(1st of many times of course)
Though I’m a vinyl nut, I have to go with the CD for the extra goodies.
“I Remember California” was (and is) on of my favorite REM songs. At the time it reminded me of a throwback to Fables of the Reconstruction, which is my favorite REM album. I remember buying the cd when it came out my freshman year of college. good times…good times. Vinyl please.
Vinyl: Turn You Inside Out – a great rock song from a great album!
You Are The Everything-“you’re drifting off to sleep
With your teeth in your mouth” best lyrics EVER!
Get Up-“dreams complicate my life”
Stand-“if wishes were trees, trees would be fallen”
Green & Life’s Rich Pageant…R.E.M’s FINEST!!! Still relevant today!!!
vinyl or cd…I would love either!!!
Pick ONE? I wore this one out twice on cassette and never could come up with one favorite. The Wrong Child is probably my fave because “I’m not supposed to be like this” either, “but it’s OK”…although every song on that album is a winner! CD for me if selected, please.
“Stand” by REM released in 1989 is my favorite song on the album because in that year I was a college student taking a “Stand” on various political and social issues. I spent the fall semester abroad in Paris and when the Germans decided to take freedom into their own hands and take a “Stand” by knocking the Berlin Wall down, I jumped on the next Eurail train to Berlin to be a part of it all. That song seemed to be playing alot that night and the rest of the year.
see first post above. I would like the CD please
Love the entire album. “Orange Crush” was the iconic song on the record. It was accompanied by a classic music video. From one of the greatest rock bands of our time. I would like the CD collection.
Pop song ’89
Great track!
You are the everything. I remember this song got me through a homesick period while living in Japan and playing in a band on military bases. Great album. CD please.
Orange Crush – the live version with Michael singing the Army’s “Be All That You Can Be” is an all time favorite of mine. That and his megaphone make this a memorable track. Either or is fine with me!
You are the Everything. I still think about that song more than the average.
CD please.
I was working in a record store off DuPont Circle in DC and we played this album a lot. Orange Crush was a great track that even today takes me back to DC what with the military/political feel of the song.
The new CD edition would be great to have.
This won’t help me win a contest I know, but to be perfectly honest I consider GREEN one of the weaker albums of R.E.M.’s Warner Bros years.
That said, I can’t help but to get caught up in the excitement of what others are sharing here. If I singled out my favorite song from GREEN it would be “World Leader Pretend”, which would even stand as one of their all-time bests. It’s the most DOCUMENT-like of the songs, which I really love.
I have GREEN on vinyl already, so I’d be interested in winning the CD.
YOU ARE THE EVERYTHING: crickets + accordion + old-school-R.E.M. competing vocals/harmonies = mighty fine. A tad haunting, but not enough to stop you from wanting to shake your booty.
CD
You Are The Everything was our wedding song. We were married December 16, 2000. It’s a very beautiful and very special song. CD please!
I love this record so much. I saw them on this tour and kept my tour shirt sacred.That is until my mom shrank it. Still harbour harsh feelings about that. “Get Up” is my favorite tune. Also the first song I learned to play on the guitar.
World Leader Pretend (haunting sound, smart lyrics)
Vinyl!
I Remember California. vinyl
“Orange Crush, fer sure. Cos it’s a four minute movie, complete with helicopters, and marching, and I think there may have been a car chase, but I’m not quite sure about that last one. R.E.M. BABY!
OH, AND VINYL, PLEASE.
I love GREEN, was always fascinated by an album called Green that was actually Yellow :) It still rocks tho. CD please – thanks!
“World Leader Pretend” because it captured that time when everything was changing and our leaders weren’t as powerful as they thought they were. Political without being preachy. “This is my mistake, let me make it good.” (CD)
World Leader Pretend. Awesome song, awesome message… also one of the few REM songs from the 80’s where you can clearly understand every word sung by Michael Stipe. I think he did that on purpose during the recording. CD please.
I wrap around to the sound of You Are the Everything. (CD, please)
Stand taught me everything I needed to know about geography.
Vinyl is tempting but CD is probably preferred.
“Get Up”
Straight up guitar garage w/great harmonies.
Also, awesome line: dreams, they complicate my life.
VINYL
World Leader Pretend. Was awesome to finally have lyrics to a REM song.
You are the everything. Such a great emotional song, and lyrically superb! I wore this out (as I did the whole tape) when this came out!
— vinyl would be awesome!
“Turn You Inside Out”: Found out about it through a Time Life compilation based around Modern Rock from 1988-1989.
CD for me, of course.
get up and orange crush ~ I think it was more radio friendly more poppy but this is my favorite REM release. I enjoyed the Hooks of popsong 89 and stand. Although the band had touched on this style before in a song or two but this Album was Alternative rock without alienation. You didnt have to be a REM fan to love this album. CD please
“World Leader Pretend”. It has always been my favourite song by them, there’s just something about it that always resonated with me. I remember seeing them play it in 1989 and just being completely awestruck. I’d prefer CD, but LP would be pretty fab as well.
Orange Crush is favorite tune off of GREEN. I always like the gritty edge of that song. Also a favorite is stand for it’s poppy goodness! If I am luck enough to win a 25th LP copy please! I miss the guys badly! I’ve been to more R.E.M. shows that any other band!!
Turn You Inside-Out! Peter Buck’s stuttering guitar sounds sinister. Vinyl was the way it was meant to be heard!
You Are the Everything…..Because it is quite simply beautiful…and I prefer CD…
This album came along during those coming of age years for me. A good friend and I were strangely into The Cure, REM, and KISS, I don’t know why either. For some reason my personal fav. always is “Turn You Inside Out”. Not because at face value it’s an angry rock song, but because it’s their angry rock song. On an environmentally conscious album, to me, it was always anger about destruction of some kind. Great record that made more people think about things they do than they would have without it. I LOVE VINYL!
It’s cliche, but I gotta say Stand. Hearing it brings me back to the 80s when things were simpler. I had no idea what a bill or work was back then – and Stand can make it all go away for a few short minutes.
I forgot to say I’d like the vinyl!!
Favorite song:
You Are the Everything
Reason:
The second verse contains some of my favorite REM lyrics –
Everything is beautiful
And she is so beautiful
She is so young and old
I look at her and I see the beauty
Of the light of music
Preferred format:
[x] CD
[ ] vinyl
I Remember California.
I remember girls with tans… One of my favorite R.E.M. songs in general. Maybe it’s because I live on the Pacific Coast and at the edge of the continent.
Vinyl please!
Stand is my favorite, because it was the first REM single (cassette single even) I ever bought. Turn You Inside Out is a close second.
I’ve always favored GET UP. I remember being very young and seeing a clip from the Tour Film performance — so buoyant and intense. It locked that song in my head as a power pop punch for the rest of my life!
Vinyl.
@vplus
I think Stand is a song that really gets me going
Vinyl please
Turn You inside out, Man powerful stuff, and one of the few songs in the Ether that would make me get up on my feet and grind it out. That vinyl would sure look pretty in my collection
Favorite track by a mile is You Are The Everything. The imagery of lying in the back seat in a moving car, watching the stars go by is just wonderful and a real throwback to childhood memories.
Vinyl would be excellent.
You are the Everything
Saw these guys a bunch of times, and loved this song live. Would love it on vinyl.
Stand. To me Stand is an anthem of individuality and celebrates life.
vinyl
Turn You Inside Out. It was one of the few REM songs I tried learning on guitar.
The cd would be great
You Are the Everything is my favorite. Beautiful melody and lyrics, probably my all-time favorite R.E.M. song.
CD would be great!
Love the entire album. It was put out my senior year in college. Saw the concert tour for this album atleast four times. I would say “You are everything” is one of my favorites. Would love to win the CD format!
It has a great bass groove.
Vinyl!
You Are Everything. Absolutely. Such a hard decision though since it is a solid album from beginning to end. This tune just speaks to the individual and to the world. It is classic and still stands the test of time. Yes, I am very scared for this world. Was then and still am..
CD would be my choice if I am a lucky winner! Thank you!
This CD was my gateway to discovering R.E.M. and soon after getting this one I ended up getting all that I could find. “The Wrong Child” is my favorite – seems to be a relatable song for anyone who doesn’t fit in. CD please.
Of the singles, I’d pick “Stand”. No doubt about it – so hooky and catchy. Every time I hear that song it takes me back to that point in time…
CD please.
when did so many people start visiting this site?
Ha!
It’s a trick question! I will have to say Turn you Inside Out – love the guitar intro and when Berry comes in it just rocks! Vinyl please!
25 years? Wasn’t just yesterday that I was listening to Green on a prerecorded cassette tap on my Walkman in art class?
“World Leader Pretend”
Beautiful, thoughtful, haunting lyrics sung with uncharacteristic (for Mr. Stipe, anyway) clarity.
CD, please.
I think my favorite track is track 11, the one with no name. Because it’s often forgotten about, and it really is a great track. I got pretty sick of all the hits, and felt Green wasn’t as good as the previous 5 records. I’m pretty excited about the reissue though, it’ll give me a chance to relive all the shows we saw on that tour!
“World Leader Pretend” – all around good song. Lyrics, melody, the piano and guitar and great. CD, please.
the wrong child
stood out with no drums, mellotron and mandolin.
cd please.
“I Remember California” is my favorite track. It has those mysterious qualities of early R.E.M. that I love so very much. Eerie and beautiful.
Vinyl, please!
Get Up – because dreams really do complicate my life.
Vinyl please!
“The Wrong Child” just slays me. The most beautifully heartbreaking song ever. Slays me everytime.
Vinyl would be my preference….and it should be yours too.
World Leader Pretend with I Remember California a close second. They both spoke to me at age 13 and still do at age 38. I think this was my first concert. I have a CD player.
“Turn You Inside Out” for the sinister guitar line, and the violence of Bill’s drums leading to the chorus, supported by that gush of organ. Love the whole album and the sensitive songs are tremendous. But this is the one I don’t think I could do without.
CD set, please!
It’s gotta be Orange Crush for me. Seeing the video on 120 Minutes really was one of the things that got me on the path to (what I consider, at least) good music. I taped the audio off the TV and must have listened to that song 500 times before finally getting the proper cassette. I’d prefer vinyl, please!
Not sure if it’s my favorite song, but I’ve always had a soft spot for “World Leader Pretend.” It’s definitely among my favorite lyrically by REM.
vinyl, please!
“Pop Song 89”: the perfect pop song ;-)
I’d prefer the CD
“Stand” because it was the theme song to the TV show “Get a Life” starring Chris Elliot. I loved that show. I love the album.
one (1) CD please
it would be a tie between untitled song 11 & you are the everything. both songs still mean a lot to me. i saw the tour in both toronto & buffalo. my life changed when i was given a taped copy of murmur.
i’d love the vinyl as i already ordered the cd!
World Leader Pretend, or Losing My Religion Part One as I prefer to think of it. Vinyl please
“Get Up” has always been my favorite song. I’m a musician, and the phrase “dreams they complicate my life” has always rang so true to me. I am an eternal fan of R.E.M., and this is the first record of theirs I ever heard.
“Get Up” has always been my favorite song. I’m a musician, and the phrase “dreams they complicate my life” has always rang so true to me. I am an eternal fan of R.E.M., and this is the first record of theirs I ever heard. I would prefer the CD.
Orange Crush because I discovered R.E.M. with this song. It was on MTV and I thought I really liked the bassline and Peter’s riff.
Oh yeah, and I’m not from the US bur I don’t care, I wanted to leave my comment !
Stand
That song got me to buy the cassette in 8th grade, and I wore it out! Green was my first introduction to R.E.M. when I was 13.
I would prefer the vinyl!
I was interested in the vinyl edition…
Hairshirt… I’m not the type of dog that could keep you waiting…
Orange Crush. I love that I can listen to that song anytime and it puts me in a better mood. Not because of anything in particular, its just one of those songs.
And vinyl would be great.
“You Are the Everything” in my opinion epitomizes the trademark R.E.M. song heard in previous tracks like Swan Swan H et. al. The lyrics – the arrangement and the intimacy of Stipe’s narrative and of course – the feeling of your teeth in your mouth. That’s my fav. track on the record – Wrong Child being a hauntingly beautiful second.
P.S. Vinyl or burst
You Are the Everything. Vinyl. This was my favorite songs. Played this album thin while on-air at WVUA College Radio. University of Alabama ..
Green was the first CD I ever bought, back in 1992. “Get Up” is probably my favorite song, because of the middle part with all the clocks is trippy.
Oh, and I prefer VINYL. Thank you!
You Are The Everything is probably my favorite track, though hard to pick just one. To me, there’s just this mystery about it. It made me want to know more about the story behind it and the characters in it.
I’d prefer CD, and thanks in advance (if I’m picked.)
11. _________________________
Because _____________________.
(vinyl, please.)
“World Leader Pretend” – When Stipe’s lyrics became more and more decipherable album by album, they appeared to have more and purpose as well. This song, about waging war on oneself, benefits from its ultra clear delivery and its strength is that its not necessarily about the cold war politics of the late ’80s. It’s about something much more timeless, and the best of R.E.M.’s music was definitely that.
i remember california. 11 years before i moved to san francisco, this song made me long for the west coast and in 1999 i queued it up on my car stereo as i drove over the golden gate bridge with all my belongings.
My favorite song on Green is “Pop Song 89.” It is at once both thought-provoking and silly, self-deprecating yet, we’ll, rocking. It pokes fun at the supposed “seriousness” of music and lyrics by reminding us, as Peter once did in the liner notes for Dead Letter Office, that a single is “essentially just a piece of crap, usually purchased by teenagers.” The song rocks, and it makes you think. What’s better than that?
You Are the Everything. Normally I’m not a huge “love song” fan but the simplicity of that song is so beautiful. I always close my eyes (unless I’m driving!) and listen to the words, the mandolin, the bass, the crickets and just feel the music. As silly as it sounds, I imagine how wonderful it would be if someone felt that way about me and expressed it so poetically.
Get Up – because it is power pop at its finest! It’s happy and infectious – could easily be a Cheap Trick tune ;)
Vinyl, of course!
Wrong Child: It has always reminded me of the charter Boo Radley from to Kill a Mockingbird.
You Are the Everything. Normally I’m not a huge “love song” fan but the simplicity of that song is so beautiful. I always close my eyes (unless I’m driving!) and listen to the words, the mandolin, the bass, the crickets and just feel the music. As silly as it sounds, I imagine how wonderful it would be if someone felt that way about me and expressed it so poetically.
I would like this on CD IF I am lucky enough to be a winner.
Vinyl
“World Leader Pretend”…..Have you HEARD it?…..if decide I am worthy….I would LOVE the cd!
I always loved Get Up. Listened to Green while I was in highschool and was going through this weird thing were I would just sleep all day, sleep through school. It was a tough time and even though that song is kind of comical, it hit close to home. “Sleep delays my life…”
also, I’d love the vinyl edition
Pop Song 89. I heard this song twice at Crossgates mall in Albany. First when I was getting fitted for contacts, then when I went to pick them up. I was going through a rough break-up and I was just getting into R.E.M. There was this cute hippie girl who ran a bead stand in the mall. Both times I heard the song when I saw her and it was like time froze with deja vu.
CD please!
World Leader Pretend. Not only on Green but in my top 3 R.E.M. songs overall. I used to think the “razed” lyric was “raised” in the chorus which completely changes the meaning. Also, this song to me defines the R.E.M. sound: jangly minor chords, harmonies, and lyrical mysteriousness. CD please
“Should we talk about the weather? Hi Hi – Hi Hi Hi” became a favorite saying between my brother-in-law and me. He was about 12 at the time and has hydrocephalus and autism. He is obsessed with the weather and can grill you endlessly about all kinds of tornado and severe storm facts. He then became obsessed with all of “Green” and it was his favorite album for years. “The Wrong Child” in a more upsetting way makes me think of him, but “Pop Song ’89” will always make me smile as I raise my hand in Stipean fashion and salute him – hi hi, hi hi hi… hi.
P.S. CD please, if I am considered for the contest. Thanks!
World Leader Pretend, because it has a seriousness that made me REM my favorite – it wasn’t just a song, or an album, it was a cohesive way of thinking about and looking at life. It also has a cool rhythm, which made it stick in your head.
STAND is not really my favorite on the album but it hit a personal note. I was in Athens at the same time that REM got their start. Saw them play many times. Fast Forward – I am married with a small son that is watching show on Nickelodeon that uses STAND as the theme song for the show. It was like two parts of my self – free spirited college self and responsible mother self – crashing together
World leader pretend… always resonated with me when I was young. It was one of the first songs I ever heard, where the lyrics seemed to be about something deeper, than what they said at face value. From that point on, I started to listen to everything a little more deeply, i think. Vinyl would be a great thing to own.
I love You Are The Everything. It felt like one of their first real “post-mumble, statement songs”. I love the imagery and poignance of it…
world leader pretend, great track with a “message”
Vinyl would be my preference
Oh, and I would LOVE to hear it on 180 gram vinyl!
You Are The Everything! Saw it live in concert and Michael sung 90% of it with his back to the audience. He turned around during the last verse and it made you feel amazing! CD please!
That’s easy, it’s “Stand” for me. It’s that classic R.E.M. kiss between Stipe’s signature vocals and their jangly guitars sound. It’s like a party for your ears.
Would love a copy on vinyl! :)
“World Leader Pretend”
Such a powerful song. The fact that it was the only song on the album with the lyrics printed in it helped separate it from the rest.
CD
I guess if I had to pick one song, it would be “Stand.”
I was 10 when that album came out and an older cousin had a copy and she played that song while we were at my grandmother’s house.
It cemented my lifelong love of R.E.M.
If I’m lucky enough to win, I’d like vinyl.
World Leader Pretend…. this is a deep reminder of where I was in my life, and the people who were in it at the moment. Very powerful.
I Remember California…love the music and lyrics
Vinyl just sounds better!
It’s hard to pick just one. Green is one of my favorite REM albums. I will go with “Orange Crush” probably. I would love the CD. THANKS!
“You Are the Everything” is timeless, simple, graceful, and unmatched in its beauty in the R.E.M. oeuvre. One of the finest songs from my favorite band, now and forever.
CD, please.
Today my answer is “You are the everything”. this was the first REM album I ever bought–still love it !! CD is my choice..
Like all great R.E.M. albums, “Green” contains multitudes. “World Leader Pretend”, the first track with lyrics that Stipe deemed fit to reprint in the liner notes, is the song I most identify with, with its images of self-imposed isolation and creating emotional barriers. On the other side of the coin, the “Untitled” closing track ends everything on a high note; the opening lines are a sort of lyrical precursor to “Discoverer” (“This world is big / And so awake”). I’d love to own the 2-disc CD set, especially to hear the vintage Greensboro, NC show.
World Leader Pretend
It’s an honest, open song, where Stipe explains his social ‘weapons’ used to get by in life, using this beautifully appropriate metaphor of ultimate control. The use of the word ‘pretend’ to negate the entire thing, showing his perceived ‘phoniness’ adds poignancy to the song. Music wise, its insistent and odd drumbeat and slide guitar add a real eeriness.
Oops! CD, sadly…
Hairshirt: a haunting song of unrequited love that was a balm to my teenage soul and still moves me. Instrumentally, it (along with “The Wrong Child” and “You Are The Everything”) explores a terrain that they would explore further on “Out of Time”, which is one of my favorite R.E.M. albums. CD please!
I like Orange Crush i never heard this Album but love all the comments its a must have now!! ooh vinyl please
Before my daughter was born it was “I Remember California” because I can soooo relate to feeling utterly out of place in certain places….After 1990 it became “The Wrong Child”. My daughter has cerebral palsy. She doesn’t complain at all, but it sometimes breaks my heart to think of the longing she must feel from time to time.
“I Could Turn You Inside Out”-Why? Some of R.E.M.’s finest moments are when they are political and angry. I don’t necessarily agree with the politics all the time, but I admire the conviction. “This song goes out to the Exxon Corporation…”.
Vinyl please
You Are The Everything – reminds me of every John Hughes movie of the 80’s and my youthful unrequited stories of love. Vinyl, please.
“I Remember California”
It’s the perfect next to last song for this record. It’s an apocalyptic dirge, scary, foreboding and possibly the work of a seer. I never tired of it’s feeling, it’s mirth. CD PLEASE!
“Untitled.” Michael Stipe said that drum pattern came to him in a dream and Bill Berry was bored to tears playing it, but it makes the song.
CD please.
World Leader Pretend has always been my favorite on Green, and maybe my favorite R.E.M. song. The lyrics are just amazing; I think Michael himself said that they’re the ones he was most proud of up until that point. And the music/melody has this mystical quality to it that I can’t get enough of. I suspect my affection towards that song (and Green, which is actually probably my favorite R.E.M. album) is in part influenced by it being the first R.E.M. album I got and one of the first albums I heard in full when I was first getting into music. For whatever reason, it stirs up powerful emotions.
I would prefer a CD copy.
World Leader Pretend. It’s haunting, ’nuff said.
I really like “Get Up” because it’s fun loud, I love the rocking chords in the chorus and how it ends on the slightly tense A-flat before resolving back to A. Vinyl, please!
“World Leader Pretend” is may favorite, mostly because I like to sing in the car and the vocal is right in my wheelhouse! I remember seeing them perform this song live on the Green tour at the L.A. Form and Michael Stipe used a bullhorn to sing the chorus and banged on a steel chair along with the off-beat snare hits.
“You are the everything” I love all the songs but this one is my fav. I loved the crickets at the beginning and remember reading during the recording of the crickets they mic’d one that was louder than the rest.
Would love vinyl.
Thanks!
“Losing My Religion” is the song that got me into R.E.M. when I was 13…I quickly bought all of their albums…and Green became one of my all-time faves. It’s very difficult for me to choose one song off of Green…I am going to say The Wrong Child, because I really related to that song a lot. I was a very shy individual back then who was also bullied a lot in school…so I often imagined myself being the “wrong child” in the song…One of the most beautiful and bittersweet songs R.E.M. has ever done, in my opinion. I would like the CD set. Thank you.
CD. My fav song IS definitely STAND. Still listen to it each day, keeping me going!
This was one of my first tapes as kid, and I totally played it out. It’s hard for me to choose, but I’ll say Orange Crush or World Leader Pretend. This music really spoke to me, and still does all these years later. What’s awesome is that my teens are now into it.
Oh, and I’d love to have it on vinyl, if you please.
Love the sensibility of “GREEN” . My favorite song is the N°11.
I’veForgot My choice for CD edition .
World Leader Pretend.
This is just simply superb song-writing–astute lyrics, captivating melody, resolute vocals, accomplished instrumentation. Not to mention an unforgettable slide-guitar lament that gives one goose-bumps regardless of how many times it has been played and re-played. (A slide-guitar… in a rock song… in 1988. Unbelievable!) There is something about this song that is difficult to define and perhaps it is that very ambiguity that makes it indelible. A strange cardiac flutter overtakes me every time the opening synthesizer (or whatever the hell that noise is) kicks in and makes the undeniably truthful pronouncement that something vastly important is about to follow. And it does, as Michael calls his legions of followers to take up their crosses and follow… themselves.
Oh, and vinyl please.
Turn You Inside Out. Megaphone. All day.
Vinyl.
‘The Wrong Child’ continues to be my favorite song on Green, and really one of my favorite R.E.M. songs period. I really identify with Michael’s lyrics, as I can remember having similar thoughts when I was a child (I was quite shy and hesitant as a child, and felt isolated a times), and growing up gay often made me feel like I was somewhat of a ‘wrong child’. The song also has a haunting melody. It’s difficult for me to listen to it without tearing up.
-J
(CD)
You are everything. The beautiful mandolin intro followed by an evocative stipe, finally announcing himself as a frontman with something vital to say. This song tippified what REM were about to become. A global phenomenon, not ready or willing to achieve success the easy way or play by the tested formula. But by their own rules.
Election Day, 1988, voting in my first presidential election (for Dukakis) then running to Schoolkids Records in Ann Arbor for the cassette of Green–the 4 and the R switched and shimmering. Love You Are the Everything the most, especially “you’re in the back seat laying down . . .” So evocative.
I’ll vote for hidden track 11
In the mp3 world leaving a listing off an album cover doesn’t matter much, but somehow a “bonus track” that isn’t listed just feels special. Eleven is a sweet hug that caps off the record perfectly.
CD for me.
favorite song on Green is definitely “World Leader Pretend”. especially after seeing Tourfilm.
I’d love the vinyl!
CD I may add
My favorite song is You Are The Everything, because, as Michael Stipe mentioned at the Capital Centre in 1989, it is a song of great beauty and love and was written for me. Now I feel conceited.
Oh and vinyl of course!
“Turn You Inside Out” (followed closely by “Get Up” and “Orange Crush”) was a great call to arms that always made me want to get up and yell. It was a perfect blend of the personal and political.
CD
Vinyl. Worrrrrld leaderrrrr pretend. Hated Reagan.
I can only pick one song? The release of Green gave me every reason to cease being an R.E.M. fan – I mean, they were selling out, right? Of course I bought it on the day of release and popped it in my CD player…well now I can’t decide whether this, New Adventures in Hi-Fi or Lifes Rich Pageant would be my desert island album. My song choice (today) is The Wrong Child – this will change tomorrow!! I would prefer vinyl if I am picked!
Orange Crush. It’s just one of those great, driving songs that grabs hold of you…
Especially on vinyl!
you are the everything! every thing in this song is perfect. simple music, great lyrics and wonderfully sang. a truly perfect song. this track makes me smile :)
vinyl please :)
Great album overall and evokes great memories from my freshman year in college. This album helped me get a lot of other fellow freshmen to get into R.E.M., along with the tapes and boots (shhh…) that I had brought with me to school Favorite track is World Leader Pretend. I always loved the play on the words raise and raze in that track! Would love to win the vinyl please!
Pop Song ’89 is probably my favorite, as it takes me right back to standing at my Sophomore year locker, wondering when it would all make sense. I haven’t gotten much wiser (sadly), but Green still sounds fresh to me. And, should I win, I’d love it on vinyl. Thanks and love.
Fave song is the dark & brooding “I Remember California” followed by the ‘hidden’ track “Untitled”. What a pair to close out a classic R.E.M. work of art.
VINYL ALL THE WAY. Long live vinyl. So…I’m saying I prefer vinyl if I win.
-Matt
I love the whole album, too difficult to pick. But I guess I’d have to say that due to the test of time, my favorite is “turn you inside out” because it’s a great song both live and from the studio track.
vinyl please
I still remember hearing “World Leader Pretend” on WDBM (Michigan State University’s student radio) and having the world stop around me as this perfect piece of music played. The song still makes me stop like that sometimes. I can’t wait for the vinyl re-release.
It’s so hard to pick. Kinda like picking my favorite child (My oldest is my favorite).
I’ll go with “Orange Crush” It was my first foray into protest rock at the age of 13.
CD
It’s definitely “you are the everything”..my wife and I have signed every card to each other since we met in 1990 with Y.A.T.E. it’s just a perfect song and to see Michael perform it is amazing…with his back to the audience and when he slowly turns around, it’s quite moving….probably CD although either is fine….
Oh the memories of my sophomore year at UGA this album brings back! Tough to choose between Stand and Orange Crush but I think I’m gonna take a stand and choose Stand :). I would love a CD please.
“Turn You Inside Out” is my favorite song on Green. It shows off the more heavy, rocking side of R.E.M. with a propulsive beat by Bill Berry and raw vocals by Michael Stipe.
CD, please.
Stand because I remember dancing in the aisles to it at their concert at the Spectrum in Philly way back when! Great album! CD.
My favorite song from Green is “Turn You Inside Out”. It’s ferocious and scathing. Always makes me want to seize the world by the nuts. I’m all about CD’s too.
World Leader Pretend. It always made me feel empowered. CD, please.
Hairshirt: I bought this album when I was 12, so 20 years ago, and I always thought that it was a nice break from the rest of the album. It was so removed musically and lyrically from the rest of the album, but I felt it held it’s own. As I’ve grown older, the lyrics make even more sense of feeling alone. Just a great song, wish they would have played it live.
“Orange Crush,” because that song probably did more to educate a generation about the threat that Agent Orange posed to everyone who served in the jungles of Vietnam. It still gives me chills to this day.
This is the album that introduced me to indie “college” rock (a gateway album, so to speak)…which is ironic because it was their first album on a major label. So many great tracks to choose from, but I’ll have to go with “Get Up”, a great, fun, rocking song that makes you want to…well, get up! Love the music box interlude.
And would prefer the vinyl!
My favorite song off the album is I Remember California.
I just love Peter Buck’s guitar on the track, it is just the right amount of distortion and jingling on it, that it gives me goosebumps, especially in the end of the song where “The edge of the continent” is being sang over and over.
CD
The Untitled song on Green has always held a special place in my heart. While I’m usually learn towards the more melancholy R.E.M. jams, something about the uplifting music (and the fade out at the end) closes this album perfect. Simple lyrics and just all around pretty. Sends Green out on a smiling note.
I’d love vinyl!
“You Are the Everything.” On the folk end of REM’s musical spectrum, it might be their most beautiful composition. Simple, elegant instrumentation with gorgeous layered vocals and some of Michael Stipe’s most moving lyrics. Not just my favorite on this album, but on ANY REM record.
I do vinyl whenever possible. Thanks!
World Leader Pretend
“I raised the wall and I will be the one to knock it down.”
Vinyl
Thanks.
Not an easy choice, but I’m gonna go with “Orange Crush.” Great song with great energy, plus it was nice to see Michael Stipe and company pop up on Rock Band. (And CD, please and thank you.)
I would have to say Stand. I know its cliche to do so but the tracks were layed down at Ardent studios in Memphis Tennessee when I still lived there. I knew girl on who helped out on the backing vocals of the song’s chorus. I also have fond memories of being the first to spin the record on the airwaves in Memphis. I did an aletrantive rock radio show called Dr. Zodiak’s Modern Musical Mayhem on WEVL FM 90 Memphis. I spun the Orange Crush 12″ on orange vinyl when it came an and then moved to the other album tracks when we received entire lp & cd. Id prefer to win the vinyl release.
“I Remember California”. Great job building tension and release within a slower, quieter song. Vinyl please.
The 11th, untitled track, a very sweet song. I used to listen to that a great deal when i was working all the time and missed my little ones. Brilliant!
“World Leader Pretend” this song is quintessential r.e.m. The word play the multiple meaning listeners can derive from the lyrics the tone all lead to something pure in it’s artistry one of my favorites.
I guess it’s a tie between You Are the Everything and Turn You Inside Out. Both lyrics are fantastic. YAtE is an intimate one, TYIO brings up great memories.
I’d prefer the CD version.
You Are the Everything…
“She is so young and old and I look at her
And I see the beauty of the light of music”
Vinyl for sure :)
“Orange Crush”. I have to say it was a tough call. Love this album to bits!
A vinyl copy would make my day.
Cd
You Are The Everything – such haunting lyrics and a melody that makes me want to waltz in a garden. CD, please.
My favorite song of “Green” is “World Leader Pretend”. I remember an R.E.M. concert in Ireland I believe, in 2005, where they played this song for Aung San Suu Kyi, I found it very touching. Michael, Mike, Peter, Scott, Bill and Ken performed this song beautifully.
I would like to have the CD if possible please.
Gotta go with Pop Song 89 for sure! Great stuff…
“World Leader Pretend” This is by far my favorite track on Green because I find it to be one of R.E.M.’s most personal songs. It’s really an extension of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self-Reliance,” which comments upon maintaining one’s individuality in the face of strong conformity. I also think the music and jangle guitar create a murky layer of muck that hinders the clarity for which the speaker is searching.
If I’m chosen, I’d prefer vinyl.
oh and CD is my preferred format by the way. Thanks for the consideration. :)
I love “wrong child”..It put such vivid images in my head.Still gets me choked up when i listen to it.I would prefer vinyl
“Turn You Inside Out”
Such a heavy, sexy drum & bass beat. I’d put this on whenever I had someone over that I wanted to get into the sack. Playing this song worked like magic.
Vinyl please.
Just like a lot of people You Are The Everything is my favorite track off of Green. The lyrics of this song always transport me right back to when I was in high school and heard it for the first time. One of the most beautiful songs I have ever heard. Vinyl please.
I would love to have this on Vinyl, You are the everything. Sometimes I feel like I can’t even sing.I’m very scared for this world
I’m very scared for me
Eviscerate your memory
Here’s a scene
You’re in the back seat laying down
The windows wrap around
To sound of the travel and the engine
“I could (turn you inside out)”
-the melody and the lyrics.
LPs.
My favourite song from Green is I Remember California. It’s sounds so deep, haunting yet very loud and powerful and has some beautiful lyrics.
“At the end of the continent
At the edge of the continent”
And I would like to have the 2CD Version please.
I could hear You Are The Everything every day for the rest of my life and not get tired of it. I’m planning on kicking around for at least another 60 years, too. I’d like it on CD if I win, please.
You Are the Everything. The lushness of the layered vocals is so beautiful and Peter’s playing is sublime. I would prefer the CD version.
World Leader Pretend is a favorite. Green has special meaning, I won back stage passes and got photos taken with the band! Great show.
CD
Green was the first R.E.M. album I purchased – I still have the original cassette that I bought! I love I Remember California now, but to an angst-ridden 15-year old, You Are the Everything was the best back then!
I would prefer vinyl.
My favorite song has always been World Leader Pretend. Just a fantastic mood and the lyrics always painted a comforting picture.
Vinyl would be awesome.
Turn You Inside-Out is definitely my favorite song on Green! The vocals are phenomenal, the constant guitar providing the back drop, the harsh-grittiness of all the other instruments, all flow together so well you could almost listen to the song on repeat and feel like it was meant to be that way. I would like the vinyl!
It’s hard for me to choose a favorite from an album full of so many great songs. If I had to choose, however, it’d be World Leader Pretend. Michael Stipe said he considered the song to be the high point of the album, and he’s right. World Leader Pretend is the centerpiece of the album, providing stunning lyrics and a primarily acoustic arrangement that points to the band’s future. Green was the first R.E.M. release to contain printed lyrics, although only World Leader Pretend’s lyrics were printed. As opposed to the earlier albums where the listener had to strain to understand just a few mumbled words, here Michael Stipe wants his message to be perfectly heard and understood. And if singing clearly and enunciating the words wasn’t enough, the lyrics are there for you to read. The lyrics themselves are filled with passion, anger, and most all, self doubt. “This is my mistake. Let me make it good,” Stipe says. The imagery of tearing down walls and and barricades reinforces the environmental theme of the album, and on a political level, the song is a commentary on the wrongs committed by contemporary politicians. The lyrics really are amazing. On another note, the song represents a glimpse of what the R.E.M. of the early 90s would sound like. Stipe’s personal, clearly sung vocals foreshadow the emotional lyrics of songs like Country Feeback and Find The River. The instrumentation also predicts the primarily acoustic nature of the next two albums, Out of Time and Automatic For The People. For all of these reasons, World Leader Pretend is the best song from Green.
I remember California.
So powerful, different, great guitar riffs and singing. Never heard a song like that before.
Vinyl preferred.
Possibly my favorite REM album. Stand was definitely a highlight, it has meaningful lyrics and is also extremely catchy… If I do win, I’d like the vinyl release please.
Orange Crush-one of the finest moments by the band.
cd version
Turn you inside out, the song still rocks as did the video (remember those?)
Fingers crossed for vinyl
My favorite song on Green is “You Are The Everything”, it’s just a perfectly beautiful song. I’d love the CD version. :)
Catapult which was the launching point!
Catapult which was the launching point! CD please!
You Are the Everything.
Just beautiful, and a harbinger of where they were going as a band.
Vinyl, please.
I love this album . The wrong child my favorite song.. This song is awesome and make me feel more sensitive and human….
Ptefer Vinil.
LOVE ALL THEIR MUSIC… ROCK ON…. HOPING & PRAYING TO WIN VINYL…. PEACE:)
My favourite track is World leader pretend, because I love to play it with my guitar! I prefer the CD edition. Thanks!
World Leader Pretend. It’s about choice, standing up for what you know is right, honesty, and it’s timeless. Still relevant.
Great album. Favorite from this – “World Leader Pretend”. I would like a CD, please.
HAIRSHIRT!!! It was never a big hit off this album, but it has been a theme song for me for ever. The randomness of abstract words…. “banks of light…. way up high…. all my life…. hairshirt…. here I am… I could swing my megaphone…. ”
The best way to listen to this song is driving with all the windows down. The trick is… no one else should be in the car with you.
I love the song “I Remember California” The guitar is fab. GREEN brings back many fond memories. I would prefer a cd.
My favorite track on Green is “Untitled.” I used to sing it for my kids before we had to spend time away from each other. I would like the vinyl.
You Are the Everything is just lovely. I put it on the first mix tape I made for my girlfriend who is now my wife. It worked.
CD
“11” is the perfect upbeat/offbeat way to end the rich emotional journey that is Green. I am still following Peter Buck’s drumming career to this day. I want the CD.
“Orange Crush”
I love every song on “Green,” but “Orange Crush” was loud but controlled. It reminds me of being off on maternity leave at that time and listening to the CD on my Discman.
Vinyl, please.
My very old and kind dad drove me and my friend Ben to see REM at the Worcester Centrum in 1989. It was a marvelous show, not least because it was the first I’d seen. Unfortunately, we’d not made plans to meet up with old kind dad afterward. Afterward we walked around for a bit. Eventually we saw him, standing on a corner with his hand raised. My old kind dad – for it was he – said that he’d been there for quite a while, arm aloft, and that people had said unkind things to him in passing.
Also, I paid $23 for a REM t-shirt, which seems too much even in May 2013 dollars.
Cassette, please. Or etc.
“Untitled” – I like the title – CD if you please
Hairshirt…love the interplay of Buck’s simple mandolin and Stipe’s vocal melody.
Prefer the CD.
Hairshirt – the song just hangs…in the balance of bittersweet and longing. The confidence unspoken in everyone’s head.
Beauty…
Vinyl please
“You Are the Everything“ is one of my favorite R.E.M. songs period.
Something of a whim, but “Get Up” – most energetic track.
Cd, thanks!
“I Remember California”: A haunting, post-Reagan era take on California dreaming. It is more about leaving, the dreaming unrealized in the Golden State. Youth fades with summer. It still accompanies me on my annual trips home to Oregon after camping in the Redwoods.
“I Remember California”: A haunting, post-Reagan era take on California dreaming. It is more about leaving, the dreaming unrealized in the Golden State. Youth fades with summer. It still accompanies me on my annual trips home to Oregon after camping in the Redwoods. Would love a vinyl please.
“Orange Crush” is my favorite. I believe it was the lead single from the album when it came out. I love the jangly guitar riffs in it and the quasi-military drum rolls. It took all that we knew of a good rock song of the 80’s and prepared that song for entry into the 90’s. I have the promo orange vinyl of “Orange Crush”–not many people got one of those! I’d love the new double set on vinyl, also!
Pop Song 89 for sure. Should we talk about the weather…hi or I…never knew all the vocals but felt the music and ideas flow together like so many REM songs that came before. Seven Chinese Brothers still brings me to tears just for the internal glow and insistence that pleads throughout the score and lyrics. So many memories. College. Downtown Detroit. Big old theatre walls and stages. Set the tone for a meaningful time in my young life. Thank you REM.
Say hello to Linda for me. It’s been a while since we worked together in Chicago at the art supply store. Last I knew she had moved to Mycanope(sp?) FL. Still think of her and her lovely hair today.
Vinyl please.
I would also say “You are the Everything” and the untitled were my fav’s on Green.
I love “turn you inside out”. Besides being a lifelong fan of REM, this album showed a different side of the band’s songwriting and sound. Peter Buck’s blending of the mandolin and electric guitars is haunting and memorable. As a former Memphian, I also love the fact Green was recorded at Ardent studios. Nothing like a touch of Memphis music on an REM album! I prefer a CD.
I was 17 and a junior in high school and two friends and I drove two hours to Denver on a school night in October 1989 to watch them in McNichols. NRBQ opened. I wanted to leave a package of Oreos for the band on the stage, if I could even get that close, but the person at the door said no food could come in. I had to throw the cookies away. The show was fabulous which included S. Central Rain, my favorite. I’ve also liked Belong live ever since. I got my haircut days after the concert. I had my head shaved but left just enough hair on the left side for the person to etch R.E.M. World Leader Pretend is a very underrated R.E.M. song. To me, the song proves R.E.M. strived to put intellect and thought in their work, breaking the stereotype of American popular music.
CD
Love the entire album, but mine would have to be World Leader Pretend. I’ve always loved the live versions of it, had the privilege of seeing it in 2003.
CD
“You Are the Eveything” was the early standout when I first got the album, but over the years, “Hairshirt” has become my favorite. I can’t define it, and whatever I can say about one is true for the other. Must have been a good album.
“World Leader Pretend” to this day is an amazing song. When I heard it 25 years ago it bugged me because the sound reminded me of something or some or some other band, yet it was incredibly innovative and fresh. I stopped trying to figure it out and just enjoy even a quarter century later. Vinyl would be great please.
Turn You Inside Out–R.E.M.–maybe an indie-Led-Zeppelin-esque track! It’s actually one of my all-time favorite R.E.M. songs in general. Green is their first Warner Bros. release and they delivered 110%!
If I win–CD please! Thanks!
Orange Crush, Finally a song that is not about the Cola Wars. Huh
Hairshirt is my personal favorite on one of my favorite REM albums. In my opinion, the emotional high point of the album that more than just tugs at the heartstrings. It has some of the most powerful lines on the (or any REM) album: “Run a carbon-black test on my jaw
And you will find it’s all been said before” or “It’s easier and better
To just beat it from the chest
Of desire”
I would LOVE to have this on vinyl to add to my four other REM vinyls and keep growing the collection!!!!!
“Here I am here I am in your life
It’s a beautiful life
My life
It’s a beautiful life
Your life”
i love, love, love you are the everything. it’s just such a beautiful song. from the very first time i heard it, i was transported to that back seat…
vinyl
World Leader Pretend. Stipe sounds like he’s reading a lost Bible verse. Coupled with Wrong Child it is a perfect pause between the pop of Stand and the teeth rattling drums of Orange Crush.
(vinyl, yeah)
The eleventh, untitled song. Why? Because: “I made a list/of things to say/All I want to say/All I really want to say is/hold her/and keep him strong/while I’m away from here.” CD please.
Stand! Think about direction – wonder why you havent before… the best lyrics,my favorite from Green.. CD please!
You Are the Everything is my fav from the Green album:)
World Leader pretend is a great song perfect combination of lyrics and melody. The the snare drum and the piano line
I love numerous songs on Green but I will pick You are the Everything because it was such a beautiful song and a favorite of myself and my wife
I would love the 2cd
Couldn’t do it. Just sat and re-listened to the entire record over coffee. Too hard. Thought I knew the answer, but then it kept changing. Thought it might’ve been World Leader Pretend, but then along came Turn You Inside Out and Hairshirt, what a one-two punch that was. Looks like I am sitting at my table waging war with myself. I would absolutely love to win the vinyl copy of this classic.
You Are The Everything
Don’t know why this song always floats to the top of that awesome album. Just Stipe at his finest.
My favourite song from Green is You are the Everything. It’s haunting and beautiful and you feel pulled through the song like Stipe riding in the back of the car.
Turn You Inside-Out was my favorite. I was just introduced to alternative music the year before by a girlfriend at the time and was buying all the alternative music I could find. Was it the music or the girlfriend. Haven’t seen the girl in over 20 years but still love the music. Vinyl please. thanks
When I was a little girl we used to take a long road trip to Madoc, Ontario every summer for fishing and swimming at out cottage. I used to love to lay down in the back seat(57 Chevy) and feel the power of the car like I was flying over the road.I would sit on the porch when we got there and listen to the bullfrogs and crickets and my parents talking in the main room.YOU ARE THE EVERYTHING brings back all those good childhood memories when nature was pure magic and it made you feel like the center of the world!I love you REM! CD
Turn You Inside-Out, great music, great lyrics.
2-CD please
If I remember correctly, “Green” came out on Election Day. I picked up the cassette(!), voted for the first time, and then raced home to give it a listen. “Orange Crush” will always be a favorite; that one knocks me out every time. I also blasted “Get Up” many many days in college to try to wake up in time for class (sorry, neighbors!).
(vinyl!)
ORANGE CRUSH. Vinyl. Still fondly recall playing this while shooting pool and drinking beers in my parents basement with friends as a teenager and would always turn it up a notch when it came to this track.
The untitled 11th track, because I’m a sucker for closers.
My favorite song is World Leader Pretend. I remember when I was in high school and R.E.M. seemed to me so mysterious and almost magical, and when I opened the cd case and found the lyrics in the booklet and played that powerful song! I still feel that World Leader Pretend is one of their most powerful and emblematic songs!
I would like the CD edition please.
Popsong89 – It embodied the late 80’s and captured what the end of the decade was all about.
Vynil please.
“Your are the everything” – It’s that song that captures everything you love when thinking of a REM tune. When you listen to this now you can see the influence it had over so many of their later work.
Pop Song’89 Silly enough to enjoy. Would love to win a vinyl.
World Leader Pretend
Oops! CD please, if I’m chosen
I am an R.E.M.-aholic and this is one of my favorite albums!! Orange crush is my favorite. My little 3 yr old son also loves the song. We sing it together on the drive in to preschool everyday.
Stand -This song has been used by aerobics instructors for years to get people moving, and it works!
CD please
You Are The Everything, as it’s one of those rare songs where the sentiment and the resonance are perfectly synchronized, creating a devastatingly emotional, physically immobilizing entree to a band’s second act. It’s a major song in the R.E.M. catalog as it’s about regression rather than progression, about looking inwardly at what fuels your desire to put faith in others and put yourself out there for them rather than one about lashing outwardly at what you wish society would change.
Also, You Are The Everything is a song that is so haunting I was too captivated in its description to say I prefer CD.
You are the Everything. Makes me cry every time I hear it – takes me back to driving through town on a summer night in high school.
CD would be swell!
You R The Everything – As a young person (high school), it made me want to play a stringed instrument and sing:
“Sometimes I feel like I can’t even sing…
https://www.box.com/s/ognk62fj6gi5yavcg7ak
cdb ;)
C.B. vinyl ;) cdb
Orange Crush! Hands down! The song hits you on so many emotional levels it cannot be explained. Great vocals and musical arrangement. This is probably my favorite REM song of all time. CD please:)
Genius album, everyone should own.
CD. “You Are the Everything” is not just about the Earth and conserving it. It is also about my beautiful wife, whom I would cradle from behind
During the shows from the Green Tour and many tours afterwards. Although it slows the album down to almost a crawl, it is one of their most
Haunting songs.
Stand — “Get a Life” theme song…. Need I say more? Vinyl please
“World Leader Pretend”. Why ? Difficult to say for a frenc man who’s not speak english very well BUT the sound et the title! Also I don’t like World leaders! CD or vinyl ? I don’t mind! It’s up to you! And excuse my awful english!
The Wrong Child is my favorite song. His vocals were really out to the front of the mix and very memorable. Plus, I related to the song as I think anyone can. Just a great song with great lyrics. As a teenager, when I discovered the hidden ‘4s’ inside the Rs that was just facinating. CD is my chosen format if I win…
Turn You Inside Out. Because it promises and it delivers. The visceral reaction to Micheal’s voice through the megaphone, combined with that riff and with that lyric, almost menacing, definitely challenging…. It feels like I’m being turned inside out. It never fails.
Oh,and vinyl.
This album spoke to me the most and came at a pivotal point in my life. It seemed like almost every song was referring to some aspect of what was going on at that time. I completely wore that tape out. It is my hands down favorite out of all of their albums.
Favorite song is “Hairshirt”. Saw them on this tour at Merriweather Post in Columbia, MD. CD please.
World Leader Pretend seems to invoke me…god, I love REM!
“You Are the Everything”. Reason I love it so much? I think only a songwriter as great as Michael Stipe could write a love song like this which is actually intended for his grandparents. At least that’s what I seem to remember him saying in an interview many years ago. I would love to own the Green reissue on CD.
“The Wrong Child” is my favorite because it perfectly paints the picture of an outsider (INsider?) holding onto a thin thread of hope despite feeling left out and different.
Oh-and I would prefer the CD version. Thanks!
“Turn you inside out” – Meant a lot to me in college with what I was going through.
Vinyl please
“Hairshirt” Stipe’s voice on this is amazingly beautiful. Vinyl.
My favorite on this album is probably “Turn you inside out”…I like the edgy sound, and enjoy cranking up the volume to get amped up! CD would be great!
I have to agree with Jarred – favorites on this album are by slight degrees because they are all so great.
That said, my favorite is “Pop Song ’89”.
And I am a vinyl fan
“World Leader Pretend” has a special place in my heart because in my first year at college, a hallmate–a transfer student from Brazil–played this song at a beach campfire. Just his voice and his acoustic guitar and the flames–pretty magical. I’m pretty sure I’d owned the album by then, but it was the first time I’d really heard the song. Funny, he also played “You Are the Everything” but I don’t remember that one as clearly.
CD please
“You Are the Everything.” Simply beautiful. Beautifully simple. (Vinyl, please.)
My favorite song from Green is “Hairshirt.”
Why?
Because of this stellar line:
“Run a carbon-black test on my jaw
And you will find it’s all been said before”
… and because it reminds me of the day I left the U.S. Army. I played this song over and over the day I packed my things and drove away from the military base. It was the soundtrack to my moment of liberation.
P.S. I’d love the vinyl copy.
My favorite song from Green would probably be Get Up just because of the great mood that it puts me in. Need there be another reason?
I am looking for the vinyl copy of Green, preferably.
the wrong child- who can’t relate? great string arrangement. Vinyl please
Pop Song 89. Love the beat and rythem. The lyrics add too it.
Over the years, Green has steadily climb up the list of my favorite R.E.M. albums. It now sits at or very close to the top. Tough call on my favorite track, but I think I would go with “World Leader Pretend”. Would love the vinyl copy.
Green was released while I was living in California, far from my Boston home, and most definitely not loving it. So – no surprise – “I Remember California” is the song I dig.
VINYL
You Are the Everything is a great song. Vinyl, thank you!
Green was released when I was still married and still very much in love with my wife. My favorite song was “Orange Crush”, because I thought the lyrics said “This one goes out to the one I love: Diiiiiiiiiiaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnnnaaaaaaaaaaa.
Sorry, would appreciate vinyl if I win.
You Are The Everything is an awesome song, it made me stop and think about the lyrics. I had known of R.E.M. before, Document was my introduction, but this song really made me pay attention to the band.
As far as format I could go either way but for the extra concert I’d have to go with CD.
REMEMBER CALIFORNIA
eVEN THOUGH IVE NEVER BEEN THERE I STILL MISS IT..
vINYL
You Are Everything.It is such a beautiful song
You are the everything…….got me thru some very hard times when my mother died and continues to be a fav of mine
Oh my bad prefer c.d
you are the everything
so fun to sing along with
“You Are the Everything” because listening to it on headphones while walking around my neighborhood delivering newspapers is one of my clearest song memories. The lyrics paint a perfect picture of what it means to be completely immersed in your feelings for someone. (Vinyl)
Orange Crush
Vinyl
You are The Everything is my fav song, still to this day. The album is so full of energy and I love that, but this song for some reason stands out. The lyrics, the instruments, the harmonies. I often listened to and put on repeat. I LOVE it!
CD
“Stand.” Sure it’s overly poppy and not the strongest formt he labum, but it’s what turned me onto them in junior high.
“Turn You Inside Out” – Love Michael’s vocal on it and it just rocks.
“You Are The Everything”- When I was a kid and we would return home at night from wherever we were visiting I would lay in the back seat and watch the streetlights as they would rhythmicly flash theough the windows. My grandparents lived on Long Island and I would spend the summers there. Sometimes my cousins would stay over and we would be put to sleep in grandma’s bed. Among playing and fighting sleep we could hear the conversations the adults were having on the porch outside. From the bedroom you had to go down the hall and through the kitchen, so we could hear the voices from both directions. The song captures all those elements for me. Also, my first R.E.M. concert was in Phillips Arena, Atlanta on October 11, 2003. They performed that song for the first time in 12 years, and it was that performance that was included on the “Leaving New York” single. Vinyl please.
I’d have to say Orange Crush, I’ve always been
a big Bill Berry fan along with the rest of REM.
Bills drum hooks carry that song to a entirely
Different level. Michael Stipe’s use of the powered
megaphone was something that no other band
was doing at the time, and helped to define the R.E.M sound.
World Leader Pretend, I just like that song. CD me
please.
I love “You are the Everything” Simply put, it is
beautiful.. to “feel such peace and absolute. The stillness still
that doesn’t end, but slowly drifts into sleep.”
I love “You are the Everything” Simply put, it is
beautiful.. to “feel such peace and absolute. The stillness still
that doesn’t end, but slowly drifts into sleep.” VINYL
“Fall On Me”- CD- I always thought Mike Mills was among the best backing vocalist of the era, and his work in that song is amazing. I love the dual vocals, and the overall feel of the song encompasses their style. Ironically, I just found this site and usually cook while listening to this era of music. I discuss my listenings on my blog!
I love “Hairshirt” … even though this album came out before I was born, I listened to it all throughout high school, and Hairshirt will always remember me of high school loves lost. I would love to own this 25th anniversary collection on vinyl.
World Leader Pretend bc some of Stipes best lyrics. And an honorable mention to Turn You Inside Out bc it’s probably their heaviest rock song! I don’t know if listeners can read between the abstract lines of Green. However, it is filled with allusions to frustration over government policies relating to war, the environment, and corporate greed.
BEST SONG FROM THE ALBUM GREEN IS OF COURSE “UNTITLED”- SPENT MY YOUTH PLAYING THIS ALBUM OVER AND OVER AND CAN STILL SEE MYSELF AND MY FRIENDS AFTER INDULGING IN TOO MANY PSYCHEDELICS – SINGING THIS SONG AT TOP OF OUR VOICES WHILE MIMING PLYING THE INSTRUMENTS WITH AN OLD CRICKET BAT, MY MUMS TUPPERWARE BOWLS AS DRUMS AND A SKATEBOARD WITH PIANO KEYS PAINTED ON IT AS KEYBOARD, WISH I LIVED IN USA TO ENTER CONTEST BUT LOVE BAND SO MUCH WANTED TO SHARE MY THOUGHTS ON BEST SONG ON GREEN ALBUM. NIKKI – FROM UK ;0
You are the Everything, vocals fluttering and is as if the band is in your living room having a conversation.
vinyl please, autographed if you could swing it, saw the guys a few times at Friday,s /greensboro, then radford,roanoke,blacksburg, good times
I Remember California, perhaps their most strangely sexy song ever!
Every time I hear the REM song Orange Crush, I am transported back to 1989 when I just moved to New York and all things were possible. I still smile and sing along just as I did back then. What great New York and REM memories!
CD please
World Leader Pretend – CD collection
I saw the Green tour in Tampa, FL when I was in 8th grade and was beside myself. I love the entire album, but back then this song was very cool. In 1994, I managed to make my first trip to Athens, GA and fell in love with the little town. While living in Seattle I worked for Alaska Airlines, I managed to check in Peter which was awesome.
I love all songs of this album… it’s awesome! For strength, cadence and lyrics, my favorite song it’s Trun you Inside Out… Every time I hear this song, I find new energy!!
I love all songs of this album… it’s awesome! For strength, cadence and lyrics, my favorite song it’s Trun you Inside Out… Every time I hear this song, I find new energy!! PD: Vinyl!!!
World Leader Pretend – I learned to play this song on my guitar by playing it over and over. . . I still return to this album and this is the song that I start with. The last three tracks, together, are possibly the best three tracks R.E.M. ever lined up on a single disk. CD, I gave up “V” in 1988 by selling my collection and will never return to the pop and hiss.
Still love ‘Hairshirt’ so much to this day. Stipe’s vocals are so sincere and emotive in this track…
My favorite song is “Turn You Inside Out”. I have joyous memories of buying “Green” on cassette the day it was released. SO exciting to see this 25th anniversary edition! I’d be incredibly grateful to win the 180g Vinyl. Thank You :)
It has to be “World Leader Pretend”. That song was a quantum leap in songwriting for the band and for Michael. It was infinitely more incisive and astute than anything being said on the campaign trail by either side in 1988/89. And that has pretty much been the case since then. Also the music underneath Michael’s singing is really amazing. The sounds at the beginning of the song, make you feel you are on shaky ground or feeling a tide of forces pulling you to some confrontation, but the leader in the song is too arrogant to truly care about consequences of his actions. He is too enamoured with himself to beyond himself. Just brilliant.
Stand. Not only because it is an amazingly powerful and well written pop song, but also because it was the theme song to my favorite, and one of the funniest and most underated TV shows of all time, Get a Life. Since this is an awesome response, I prefer Vinyl.
CD, please. Album’s a great attempt at an R.E.M. version of Top 40 pop music, highlighted by my favorite song on it: “Get Up”.
World leader pretend
Orange crush because it is a catchy song. Vinyl
Orange Crush for sure. “We are agents of the free.”
Vinyl.
“You Are The Everything” has to be it. It’s the one. “Turn You Inside Out” as a close second.
On vinyl please!
“You are the Everything” is definitely my favorite. The melody is sad and haunting and the lyrics most incorporate the Beat influence on Michael Stipe’s lyric writing.
I like them all. All killer and no filler. No skipping a song ever!
“You Are the Everything.” It’s both a tribute to and a eulogy for the safety of adolescence.
On CD. I forgot to say that.
“Pop Song ’89” is definitely the strongest track on Green. Vinyl.
“World Leader Pretend”.
This was the album where my friends started to get it, and long time fans yelled “SELL OUT”. Typically in the arc of a band, this means it’s one of, if not the, best work they’ve done.
Vinyl rules!
Orange Crush – cool song with timely lyrics (CD please).
One of my favorites saw them on this tour. :-)
Favorite song on Green: Pop Song 89. Mainly because of the catchy guitar riff, and also because of the music video.
would like the cd version.
My favorite song on Green is “World Leader Pretend”.
Michael Stipe’s FIRST song where he felt the lyrics were worthy on being printed inside the album. And correct he was.
If this is my mistake… let me make it good.
CD please!
I like them all. All killer and no filler. No skipping a song ever!
Vinyl Please!
“World Leader Pretend”
This song flows like a warm bath. The lyrics are up there with some of he best REM ever penned. Even now, hearing this song give me goose bumps.
CD
Orange Crush… because it’s a cool song.
I’d like a copy on CD.
Fall on me. Because I said so. Vinyl.
There are so many good tracks on this album, but “World Leader Pretend” stands above the rest. I can relate to it on so many levels.
I would like the CD version if I win…
“You Are The Everything” is one of my favorites. (“Get Up” and “World Leader Pretend, too” ). I remember this came out election day, November 8, 1988. The guy I voted for lost. (weep) This album was the soundtrack to my winter that year. I was still an undergrad. R.E.M. are one of the greatest from the entire history of music.
love this,saw them on tour for it. :-)
My favorite song is Stand. It’s so cheesy and corny and I have fond memories of dancing to this song with a friend of mine from high school. I love the video and it just makes me so happy. I would love the vinyl version.
You are the Everything. One of most beautiful songs written in the 80s- the lyrics, the mandolin, the melody. All of it. Swoon!
“You Are the Everything” For me…this is just one of the most beautiful songs ever recorded. I can always listen to it and be moved.
If I win…I would prefer CD
Favorite song from “Green”? “Turn You Inside-Out.” It’s like the sexiest warning ever; I imagine it being sung by a vindictive stripper. LOVE.
luv luv luv
Untitled is my favorite. :-) I don’t know why it makes me smile but since I had it on cassette in middle school, this hidden song just made my day. I would listen thru the whole album anticipating the end. It was such a pleasant surprise the first time I heard it.
Orange Crush…best song on there.
“World Leader Pretend” because it’s lyrics (and music) are so beautiful. CD would be great!
I like the cover of SUPERMAN; that was their last good song; wait, that’s not on this LP? haha
great album
World Leader Pretend. As applicable now as it was then.
Vinyl me.
Turn You Inside-Out
The song sneaks up on you and then just rocks. Orange Crush warms you up and the Turn you inside-out comes out hammering.
POP SONG 89 – For the guys wore SPANDEX in the video. Vinyl please.
World Leader Pretend. I’ve just always loved the sound and melody of it. Vinyl.
Vinyl
Green was a really important album in my life at came out at the end of my sophomore year in school when I moved from Reno, Nevada to Scottsdale, Arizona. I could really relate with the alienation and despair of the album having moved from my home, my basketball team and my friends. World Leader Pretent really resonated with me because of the lyrics and I felt it was such a wistful track:
I sit at my table and wage war on myself
It seems like it’s all, it’s all for nothing
I know the barricades, and
I know the mortar in the wall breaks
I recognize the weapons, I used them well
This is my mistake. Let me make it good
I raised the wall and I will be the one to knock it down
World Leader Pretend’s Lyrics really represented what I was going through at the time and signified that I was the only one who could free myself of the situation.
Follow me, don’t follow me
I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush
Collar me, don’t collar me
I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush
I remember California. Love that one. I like the melody, and the lyrics.
Vinyl, please!
The Wrong Child chillingly strikes my nerves.
My favorite track, far and away, is Hairshirt. Beautiful, aching, and forgiving. Life affirming in a deathbed confessional way. This is the anchor that the rest of the album requires. I prefer vinyl.
“You Are The Everything” is my favorite track in this album. Songwriting at its best: uplifting, minimalistic, initmate. Green is a nice, solid album. Love the big radio hits in it, but I’ve always been a fan of the lesser known tracks that don’t get much (or any) air time. The double CD would make a great addition to my collection!
Orange Crush, because this was the first REM single I can remember catching at the time of its release. I was only 12 years old. At the time it reminded me of orange soda. Funny what songs can represent at that age. Vinyl all the way!!!!
Follow me, don’t follow me
I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush
Collar me, don’t collar me
I’ve got my spine, I’ve got my orange crush
Pick me, Don’t Pick me
I’ve got my Vinyl, I’ve got my orange crush
Orange crush, because back in the day that song became an anthem song at our 80s parties. Well… we didnt used to call them 80s parties, those were THE parties… CD
“I’m not supposed to be like this, but it’s okay” is still one of the most haunting verses I’ve ever heard, so I’d have to say “The Wrong Child” is the song that’s had the most impact on me since first hearing it in 1988. Vinyl would be glorious.
Orange Crush ! This was the First song from this album that I heard, and it will always will remind me of good memories around the beaches in Florida. A lot of the people I hung out with, at the time, used “Orange Crush” as slang for so many things, so it’s really fun to reminisce those days gone by! We use to “crush” on the surfing, and parting! Good times!
“Upside Down”, just for the part where the organ kicks in.
Vinyl please
“World Leader Pretend.” It presciently called the Bush (43) administration before it even existed. “This is my mistake.
Let me make it good/ I raised the wall and I will be the one to knock it down.” I could imagine W. warbling that late at night after sneaking a tumbler full of JD, just after Laura went off to bed falling asleep to the latest copy of InStyle. It’s the twin companion to “Mr. Richards.”
Vinyl.
Oops, I meant “Inside Out”. Wrong eighties indie band. Still like that organ though. And I still would like vinyl. *drinks more coffee*
Pop Song 89 is probably my favorite on that album, if forced to choose. It’s energetic and fun, but the words are incredibly poignant. It’s awesome because so many of their songs are fun, dance-able songs with really inspiring lyrics. I actually quote this Pop 89 all the time :) REM are one of my absolutely all-time favorite groups!!
I would love either CD or Vinyl. I guess CD if I had to choose one!
“Orange Crush” or “I Remember California.” Not really sure why. OC because it’s still a really powerful song and it kills live, IRC because I like the guitar line, I guess.
Orange Crush – I bought the 45 and wore it out.
Maybe this wont count since its on the new release but Cuyahoga is seriously one of the best rock songs of the last 40 years. The politics are perfect, the bass driven intro always makes the hair on my neck stand up.
I love “Orange Crush” , song is their best ever …..Hook me up with a vinyl copy please ……
My favorite song from Green is Turn You Inside Out. I like Peter Bucks’ guitar playing on the song and Michael Stipes’ bullhorn vocals on the track. I would prefer the cd version of Green. Thank you.
Hairshirt…………..Vinyl please.
My favorite song on “Green” is “Pop Song 89”. I’ve been a fan since seeing the band open for The Police in ’83. VINYL please. :-)
“Hairshirt” is my favorite – maybe because of my Catholic guilt! (CD please.)
Great album! Orange Crush is probably my favorite although top to bottom is this just a very fine album. I’m looking forward to hearing the re-issue. Thanks for the opportunity to potentially win a copy. Thanks Slicing Up Eyeballs!
Sorry….Vinyl or CD would be fantastic. Let’s go vinyl!
You Are The Everything because it is absolutely gorgeous and reminds me of driving around Montgomery in college
You Are The Everything because it is absolutely gorgeous and reminds me of driving around Montgomery in college. CD please.
I like ‘Hair Suit’. Mostly because when I first heard it I had no idea what the hell Stipe was talking about.
Vinyl please.
World leader pretend rock.
its a song that resonates
…Untitled…
Though You Are Everything is a close second, i love this sneaky song bringing an uplifting sugary optimistic coda to the album. Back in the days when hidden bonus tracks were unexpected surprises while letting the record run to the end…
CD, pls.
Have always loved Untitled #11. Had trouble playing drums to it because Peter played on this song and his timing is off. Adds to the charm.
Orange Crush, because it was on volume 2 of MTV’s 120 Minutes CD compilation. CD.
Tough to chooose but I would go with Hairshirt – there is just something so sad and yet quintessentially REM about it.
World Leader Pretend has been my favorite song this year. Unskipable on shuffle, hearing that song made me re-listen to the whole album many times. Its the last album I lack on vinyl and would love to hear the remastered edition.
Orange Crush ALWAYS pumps me up and gets me in a good mood. It especially helps while deployed to just get my mind straight before missions…and the cadence in the background reminds me of where I am…
CD PLEASE!
Cheers!
“You Are The Everything” is my favorite song of all time…and my daughter’s!
When my daughter was 1 year old, in the morning when I was getting ready for work I would dance around with my daughter to this song. I would put her on my shoulders and we would sing at the top of our lungs to this song. I wish I had it on video but it will forever be in both of our hearts. She is still the “Everything” to me.
I LOVE R.E.M. and Green has has a special place in my life.
For the longest time it was “You are the Everything” but now I have to say “Hairshirt.” It’s so simple and starts off (and in a way stays) so sad. There’s such agony and then the realization about how beautiful life actually is (like a reference back to “You are the Everything”) What a great album from beginning to end. Sigh.
CD, please, if I win. Thanks!
‘you are the everything’hauntingly mellow, i can get lost to this track on repeat. vinyl please.
Pop song 89
Orange Crush is my favorite. It absolutely rocks live. Stipe and the band really seam to bring it. I think they like playing this one.
My favorite song is “World Leader Pretend.” That song, and the whole album in general, is what really helped turn me into a big R.E.M. fan. I can remember listening to this album over and over on many a road trip in college. Would love the CD or vinyl.
I like the mandolin on hair shirt. I would want vinyl. :)
Orange Crush, for the helicopter/hi-hat breakdown. CD would be most excellent.
For a long time, I didn’t listen to REM because I was occupied with other bands like U2, Depeche Mode, The Slits, and The Clash. Now,I am rediscovering them as I am getting older, and getting more jaded about the music scene these days. My favorite song is Stand. It’s not my favorite REM song, but it is my favorite track of this album. I would love to have it on vinyl because…why not? Vinyl is sometimes better than a CD. :-)
My cat and i would love to have this treasure. REM brought me through the good and not so good times.
Orange Crush has that great mid-period REM sound. Lyrically it’s still cryptic enough that it provided something interesting to workout.
CD please
The song Get Up. Kinda rockin’ yet emotional at the same time. I got the cassette and CD. Need vinyl to complete my Green trilogy.
All right… time’s up, pencils down. This contest is now closed. Thank you all so much for entering and sharing your R.E.M. memories.
winners will be notified via e-mail in the next day or so.
My favorite song is You Are The Everything. I remember when i first heard the song, i was struck by the imagery of “you’re in the back seat, laying down, the window wraps around to the sound of the travel & the engine”. It reminded me of our family vacations in the back of our station wagon, looking up at the world passing by. “The voices talking somewhere in the house, late spring”. It’s my song of a beautiful, lost childhood.
And with that i’d prefer CD.
Thank you.
Pop Song 89 is perfection. Period. I would love the LP if I were to win……………………….
R.E.M. is one of my all time favorite bands and although I like the IRS years best. This album I enjoyed….my favorite track on here would have to be Pop Song 89, just because of how upbeat it is, you just listen to it and can’t help but smile. I also like Orange Crush very catchy song! It would be nice to win this, I’m such a fan! I have this on cassette never upgraded to CD. Having the CD would be great!! All the IRS albums I have on CD.
Orange Crush.
Stand. Get A Life cemented it. Vinyl!
Orange Crush! CD…
How can you ask me to choose a favorite? Seriously.
Turn You Inside Out
Bought all REM’s IRS albums and liked them very much – but something about hearing Green for the first time made me realize – they just blew up! :)
CDs please!
For sure Orange Crush – a dominating song for all my senses – I put two lines from the song as a prologue to a University Essay about Agent Orange. Got an A! CD please.
Won, but didn’t get 25th anniversary issue, got standard issue.
I Remember California for sure!
Pop song 98 cause I fell in love with the girls in the video
I was in the Navy in 1984, tour came through Honolulu Tower I believe. A now life long friend coaxed me into seeing the show, hesitant because I to mostly metal back then. A life changing experience and now lifelong fan. Ended up playing dodgeball with Mr. Stipe with the pumpkins they had on the stage as props.