Day 22 – Take This Nickel and Make a Dime
The continuing adventures of “Eric’s Trip Around the Sun”. One final trip with the iPod.
Auctioneer (Another Engine) – “She didn’t want to get pinned down by her prior town”
R.E.M. – “They didn’t want to get pinned down by their prior album”
There are several songs in the R.E.M. catalog, which I could point to as for a reason for my addiction with bootleg shows. This would be one of those songs. The reason was the prelude to the song which many times would offer up Michael Stipe as a storyteller, weaving his own brand of fable to the fan in the audience. These stories were not all that linear, and many times the point to the story must have been lost on the audience as it was often lost on your truly.
An example of one of Michael Stipes fables prior to Auctioneer would be one that he told about Caroline who would be swimming in a man-made lake and look down into the water and see the tops of trees from this man made lake or a well-digging man who was looking to dig the deepest well with the purest clearest water imaginable.
For a fan like myself these types of stories became pure delight. The idea of having to interpret more verse, albeit not from the lyrics but the back-story proved intriguing.
Auctioneer is a song about change, in my opinion. The idea of a woman swimming on a man-made lake that used to be a valley. Also, it is the idea of moving on and preferring the unknown rather than the current situation.
R.E.M.’s ‘Fables of the Reconstruction,’ has this theme instilled in it. The band is at a crossroads as they admit that it was a very difficult album to make. I think that there were challenges at this point about what type of band that they would become and whether they wanted to become one of the biggest bands on the planet.
For me, the stories and lyrics keep me guessing but I do believe there is more here than just a story about a girl wanting to get out of town.
• Joy Division – Atrocity Exhibtion (Live
• R.E.M. – Auctioneer (Live)
• Guided By Voices – Auditorium
• Joy Division – Auto-Suggestion