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Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years
Begin the Begin is the first biography of R.E.M. wholly researched and written since they disbanded in 2011. It offers by far the most detailed account of the group's formative years--their early lives, their first encounters with one another, their legendary debut show, early tours in the back of a van, initial recordings, their shrewdly paced rise to fame. The people and places of the American South are crucial to the R.E.M. story in ways much more complex and interesting than have previously been presented, claims Robert Dean Lurie; he explores the myriad ways in which the band's adopted hometown of Athens, Georgia--and the South in general--shaped its members and the character of their art. The South is much more than the background here; it plays a major the creative ferment that erupted in Athens and gripped many of its young inhabitants in the late 1970s and early '80s drew on regional traditions of outsider art and general cultural out-thereness, and gave rise to a free-spirited music scene that produced the B-52's and Pylon, as well as laying the ground for R.E.M.'s subsequent breakout success. Lurie has tracked down and interviewed numerous figures in the band's history who were underrepresented in, or absent from, earlier biographies--they contribute previously undocumented stories and cast a fresh light on the familiar narrative.
- GenresMusicNonfictionBiography
309 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 14, 2019
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137 people want to read
About the author
Robert Dean Lurie
7 books17 followersRobert Dean Lurie is a writer and musician based in Tempe, Arizona. He received his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina Wilmington and is the author of "Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years," "We Can Be Heroes: The Radical Individualism of David Bowie," and "No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and The Church."
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
March 31, 2020
I wish I could give this book a higher rating...as an REM fan there’s a lot to enjoy, the interviews, the minutia of the bands recording and songwriting process, and the backstory of its members and formation, but all of the juicy bits are swathed in the books mess of a narrative. The author attempts to tell the story year by year but within each chapter jumps around through time and space, and tries to tie things together through these long, personal musings on various topics or conjectures on peoples motivations and feelings. A good third of the book is descriptions of videos, concerts and recordings, reviews of records that needent be reviewed, as we are already fans of REM or else we wouldn’t be reading a book about them, mixed in with the authors non authoritative opinion about practically everything.
One of the most egregious of these is the entire chapter devoted to the authors somehow incredibly in depth yet shallow opinion of the political relevance of Document, where he spends an entire page summarizing Reagan’s legacy and pondering whether or not REMs complaints about him are justified. An essay on the political stances of Document could be an interesting read if it were written by someone who’d actually researched and had any complex ideas about the Reagan administration, unfortunately his analysis reads like a pros and cons list lifted from Wikipedia, and he has the gall to accuse Stipe and Bucks opinions of lacking nuance when he was born a decade later and remembers Reagan as being “avuncular and comforting.” It would be easier for me to ignore or skim over these long winded defenses of Reagan if this wasn’t the bulk of the last chapter in the book. One last send off after a long misguided exercise in uncalled for stance taking. In an earlier chapter he asks the reader “was Stipe justified in blaming Reagan’s administration for his anxiety during the AIDS crisis? I, personally, do not think so.” Literally, who asked you. Did this book have an editor? I, personally, do not think so.
I should have seen this coming, honestly, when in one of the earlier chapters the author pontificates, poorly, on Stipes sexuality, comparing him to Samuel R Delany, calling both of them “generally homosexual in nature” though they both had long relationships with women, and he adds that prior to researching this book, he believed Stipe to be “obfuscating his sexuality because he didn’t want to admit that he was gay.” Apparently his research for the book did not include a simple google search for the sexuality of these two men or he would have found that they are both outspokenly bisexual, and he might have been able to just use that word in the book, even once.
This, plus the ongoing lauding of Reagan, plus the unnecessary page where he described in vivid detail not really knowing how to smoke pot, makes me wonder, why did this man, who moved to Athens in 1992, long after the events of the book take place, think that fans of REM wanted to hear any of his personal opinions about any of this. The book could have been more successful as an oral history, or at the very least, a strict band biography. The dissonance of reading about REM from a Reagan defender who doesn’t know what bisexuality is was so utterly confounding...as my partner eloquently put it, “REM’s popularity creating a market where a guy that is fundamentally at odds with them is able to write a book about them is a perfect example of why capitalism is bad.”
One of the most egregious of these is the entire chapter devoted to the authors somehow incredibly in depth yet shallow opinion of the political relevance of Document, where he spends an entire page summarizing Reagan’s legacy and pondering whether or not REMs complaints about him are justified. An essay on the political stances of Document could be an interesting read if it were written by someone who’d actually researched and had any complex ideas about the Reagan administration, unfortunately his analysis reads like a pros and cons list lifted from Wikipedia, and he has the gall to accuse Stipe and Bucks opinions of lacking nuance when he was born a decade later and remembers Reagan as being “avuncular and comforting.” It would be easier for me to ignore or skim over these long winded defenses of Reagan if this wasn’t the bulk of the last chapter in the book. One last send off after a long misguided exercise in uncalled for stance taking. In an earlier chapter he asks the reader “was Stipe justified in blaming Reagan’s administration for his anxiety during the AIDS crisis? I, personally, do not think so.” Literally, who asked you. Did this book have an editor? I, personally, do not think so.
I should have seen this coming, honestly, when in one of the earlier chapters the author pontificates, poorly, on Stipes sexuality, comparing him to Samuel R Delany, calling both of them “generally homosexual in nature” though they both had long relationships with women, and he adds that prior to researching this book, he believed Stipe to be “obfuscating his sexuality because he didn’t want to admit that he was gay.” Apparently his research for the book did not include a simple google search for the sexuality of these two men or he would have found that they are both outspokenly bisexual, and he might have been able to just use that word in the book, even once.
This, plus the ongoing lauding of Reagan, plus the unnecessary page where he described in vivid detail not really knowing how to smoke pot, makes me wonder, why did this man, who moved to Athens in 1992, long after the events of the book take place, think that fans of REM wanted to hear any of his personal opinions about any of this. The book could have been more successful as an oral history, or at the very least, a strict band biography. The dissonance of reading about REM from a Reagan defender who doesn’t know what bisexuality is was so utterly confounding...as my partner eloquently put it, “REM’s popularity creating a market where a guy that is fundamentally at odds with them is able to write a book about them is a perfect example of why capitalism is bad.”
July 18, 2019
As a lifelong fan of the band (I found their music in 1985, when I was 14), and a visitor to Athens on multiple occasions, the first half of this book was a treasure trove of anecdotes and memories that made late 70's-early 80's Athens, GA, a mecca for young imaginations like mine. When you're a teenager in the era before the internet, growing up in the industrial Midwest, "scenes" and communities like the one described in the book take on a mythological, almost impossible, sense of magic. I will always have the Athens of my imagination, and this book does an incredible job of humanizing that place and time, making it more "real" to me than it ever had been.
The second half of the book, which spends less time in town as the band branches out, tours, records, and gets bigger, does a good job of staying rooted in the changing scene, but its analysis of the albums focuses more on the lyrical approach than the technical side of the songwriting and recording (although there is enough of each for fans to enjoy).
HOWEVER, the book has, for me, a real flaw, and that is its apologist approach to the Reagan-Bush era of national politics, which transformed the band, especially Michael Stipe. This issue comes to the fore in a particularly egregious section on Stipe's manifestation of mental health concerns during the recording of FABLES, which the author attributes to Stipe's confrontation with his sexual history and his legitimate double fear that he could have contracted HIV & that his privacy and rights would possibly be violated if he were tested for the disease. The legitimate terror and panic of this uncertainty at this time in our history is, in Lurie's telling (and possibly true), a galvanizing force in Stipe's political awakening, as it was in reality for an entire generation of HIV/AIDS activists who fought massive battles against government apathy, shame, hatred, and inadequate service for themselves and their friends and lovers, who were dying all around them.
Instead of painting this picture, Lurie instead writes:
"Is Stipe correct to link so much of his private turmoil from that time to the actions (or inaction) of the Reagan-Bush administration? At a practical level, probably not. The federal government did act quickly to fund AIDS research, and by the time Reagan left office, the annual budget for AIDS-related funding was $1.6 billion, having risen from an initial $8 million in 1982. The figure would increase exponentially under his successor, George H.W. Bush."
This paragraph is unforgivable coming in a section about the possibility of a personal death sentence in early 1985, when the album was recorded, but more than that, it lays credit for this investment at the feet of the very people who refused to act and were forced into confrontation by brave activists who risked everything to make change and find a cure. It is also hard not to think of the illness and death of B-52's guitarist Ricky Wilson from AIDS, which also happened in 1985, and not see how naive and troubling this analysis is. If the story of Stipe's fear of an HIV diagnosis is true, one would only need to look a few weeks down the road from this recording session to see the facts on the ground for what they were.
I am loath to type the next half of that paragraph, which praises C. Evertt Koop for sending a mailer on AIDS to every household in America.
He goes on, in a fashion typical of this book, to give a little both-sides
"However, if we accept the long-standing convention that one of the President's duties is to reassure the public in a time of crisis... its hard not to conclude that Regan failed here, and may have done real damage with his silence."
I added the periods because I don't think the paragraph could sustain any more qualifiers.
The author goes on later in the book to offer that the Reagan of his youth didn't seem too objectionable, and spends a great deal of time critiquing, sometimes fairly and often using Stipe's own later reflections on his own effectiveness, the political content of the band's performances and albums.
All of which is to say, while this book does a fantastic job with the band as it existed in the Athens bubble, I really feel the author's curiosity and empathy arrives at a dead-end when dealing with the band's larger meaning and how, through a personal, political crisis, one that shaped an entire generation of LGBTQ+ people and their allies, Michael Stipe became an important voice, one of many at the time (see Minor Threat, Public Enemy, Dead Kennedys, The Fall, ad infinitum) that were challenging the systemic fracture between the greed/elites above and people of color/LGBTQ+ people/the poor below. This was the dawn of the great and ongoing era of American economic inequality (well, for white people anyway, for others it has always been thus), and many in Gen X felt (and still feel) that injustice deeply. How the book misses this, misses how the decision to embrace that discontent contributed greatly to the band's ascent, is a big issue for how the second half of this book is framed. R.E.M. may have been nascent in their impact and the way in which they delivered the message through performance in the years covered by the book (GREEN arrives outside of the book's scope, fair enough), but it was transformative for so, so many of their fans at the time, it was incredibly important and brave not to remain silent, and the band should receive praise for that, not retrospective eye-rolls.
Anyway, I really did enjoy the author's conversational style and the ability to elicit so many wonderful stories about a time that is now lost to us, but I really believe a proper context for the times, especially the way the times "felt" to the band members and to so many of us, would have done this book a world of good.
The second half of the book, which spends less time in town as the band branches out, tours, records, and gets bigger, does a good job of staying rooted in the changing scene, but its analysis of the albums focuses more on the lyrical approach than the technical side of the songwriting and recording (although there is enough of each for fans to enjoy).
HOWEVER, the book has, for me, a real flaw, and that is its apologist approach to the Reagan-Bush era of national politics, which transformed the band, especially Michael Stipe. This issue comes to the fore in a particularly egregious section on Stipe's manifestation of mental health concerns during the recording of FABLES, which the author attributes to Stipe's confrontation with his sexual history and his legitimate double fear that he could have contracted HIV & that his privacy and rights would possibly be violated if he were tested for the disease. The legitimate terror and panic of this uncertainty at this time in our history is, in Lurie's telling (and possibly true), a galvanizing force in Stipe's political awakening, as it was in reality for an entire generation of HIV/AIDS activists who fought massive battles against government apathy, shame, hatred, and inadequate service for themselves and their friends and lovers, who were dying all around them.
Instead of painting this picture, Lurie instead writes:
"Is Stipe correct to link so much of his private turmoil from that time to the actions (or inaction) of the Reagan-Bush administration? At a practical level, probably not. The federal government did act quickly to fund AIDS research, and by the time Reagan left office, the annual budget for AIDS-related funding was $1.6 billion, having risen from an initial $8 million in 1982. The figure would increase exponentially under his successor, George H.W. Bush."
This paragraph is unforgivable coming in a section about the possibility of a personal death sentence in early 1985, when the album was recorded, but more than that, it lays credit for this investment at the feet of the very people who refused to act and were forced into confrontation by brave activists who risked everything to make change and find a cure. It is also hard not to think of the illness and death of B-52's guitarist Ricky Wilson from AIDS, which also happened in 1985, and not see how naive and troubling this analysis is. If the story of Stipe's fear of an HIV diagnosis is true, one would only need to look a few weeks down the road from this recording session to see the facts on the ground for what they were.
I am loath to type the next half of that paragraph, which praises C. Evertt Koop for sending a mailer on AIDS to every household in America.
He goes on, in a fashion typical of this book, to give a little both-sides
"However, if we accept the long-standing convention that one of the President's duties is to reassure the public in a time of crisis... its hard not to conclude that Regan failed here, and may have done real damage with his silence."
I added the periods because I don't think the paragraph could sustain any more qualifiers.
The author goes on later in the book to offer that the Reagan of his youth didn't seem too objectionable, and spends a great deal of time critiquing, sometimes fairly and often using Stipe's own later reflections on his own effectiveness, the political content of the band's performances and albums.
All of which is to say, while this book does a fantastic job with the band as it existed in the Athens bubble, I really feel the author's curiosity and empathy arrives at a dead-end when dealing with the band's larger meaning and how, through a personal, political crisis, one that shaped an entire generation of LGBTQ+ people and their allies, Michael Stipe became an important voice, one of many at the time (see Minor Threat, Public Enemy, Dead Kennedys, The Fall, ad infinitum) that were challenging the systemic fracture between the greed/elites above and people of color/LGBTQ+ people/the poor below. This was the dawn of the great and ongoing era of American economic inequality (well, for white people anyway, for others it has always been thus), and many in Gen X felt (and still feel) that injustice deeply. How the book misses this, misses how the decision to embrace that discontent contributed greatly to the band's ascent, is a big issue for how the second half of this book is framed. R.E.M. may have been nascent in their impact and the way in which they delivered the message through performance in the years covered by the book (GREEN arrives outside of the book's scope, fair enough), but it was transformative for so, so many of their fans at the time, it was incredibly important and brave not to remain silent, and the band should receive praise for that, not retrospective eye-rolls.
Anyway, I really did enjoy the author's conversational style and the ability to elicit so many wonderful stories about a time that is now lost to us, but I really believe a proper context for the times, especially the way the times "felt" to the band members and to so many of us, would have done this book a world of good.
August 27, 2019
The author inserts himself into the narrative a little too much at times--do we really need to hear about his own various Athens adventures?--and there's a bit of redundancy with some stuff from previously published sources like "Party Out of Bounds", but the various interviews with lesser-known Athens musicians, friends, & related figures are interesting, though unfortunately R.E.M. themselves tend to remain as opaque and inscrutable as ever. Probably more of a 2-star book than a 3-star one on the whole, except that I generally enjoyed it, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt.
sounded_good_but_no
September 10, 2020I *LOVE* R.E.M., so when I saw that another biography had been released, I was all over it. Based on the reviews here on Goodreads and on Amazon, though, it doesn't sound like it's going to do much for me. A number of reviews talk about how the author strays, talks about irrelevant politics (or talks about them too much; since R.E.M. is political, all politics can be relevant, but maybe not to the extent that the author makes them), and projects what the band, specifically Stipe, might have been thinking. So I think I'll pass.
February 2, 2021
Great book going over the best era of the band. Although I wish he went into the Green album, which I know is a new era for the band. But an important one. My only disagreement is towards the end when the author compares other bands to REM’s success. He mentions the smiths not breaking through. But I disagree. If we’re talking from an artistic and influential perspective, the smiths blew away REM. I can’t count how many times I hear modern bands crediting the smiths as a huge influence. I also follow many blogs about the smiths and see their continued influence in young people. I love REM, but I don’t often hear the same about them. And even just a few pages later, the author seems to prove my point. In the epilogue he says something along the lines of REM fans are all who grew up with REM (myself included). Perhaps from a monetary standpoint point, yeah, they beat the smiths there. But not so sure on influence.
March 1, 2023
Best book about the band out there. Superb job of chronicling the early years.
June 13, 2019
Pure gold for R.E.M. enthusiasts and an absorbing look at artistic voice-finding generally, Robert Dean Lurie's BEGIN THE BEGIN is one fan's meticulous appreciation of a band’s success, blemishes unfiltered (un-Auto-Tuned?). Lurie focuses on the group's first half-decade-plus; and while his deeply researched positioning of R.E.M. within the Athens' music scene and Southern culture at large is impeccable, what most appealed to me was Lurie's confident, conversational style: I felt like a fellow traveler searching out how the magic kicked off. We get the illuminating but never showy mini-lessons on rock history and instrumentation and technique; eyewitness insight on the early days; and various attempts--by Lurie and his subjects--at accounting for the band's ascendance. But what I was left with was the pleasure of accompanying a generous, intelligent fan wanting to bottle an elusive buzz. I was never much of an R.E.M. follower during their heyday--but I'm hoping Lurie moves on to some kind of MIDDLE THE MIDDLE so I can keep tagging along with him.
October 28, 2020
As a slightly obsessed R.E.M. fan, I found this book entertaining but ultimately frustrating. It has some good stories about the band's beginnings and the Athens scene, but the writer inserts his own experiences and opinions far too often (he REALLY doesn't seem to like Peter Buck much) and as other reviewers have mentioned, has some spectacularly bad takes on the band's political stance during the Reagan-Bush years. While he claims that other biographers lack an understanding of the influence of the American South on the band, his discussion of race in the South is superficial and his comment that when he was young, Ronald Reagan appeared to be a kindly, avuncular figure indicates a high degree of unexamined white privilege. It doesn't really explain what it is that propelled R.E.M. from being a"party band" in a small college town to worldwide fame, but I'm not sure even they could explain that. Unfortunately the definitive R.E.M. story is still to be told, and it may only be if one or more of the guys decides to write it down.
July 11, 2020
admittedly, r.e.m. are one of my all time favourite bands, so even if this had been a shoddy piece of journalism, i still probably would've enjoyed it to some extent regardless because of its subject matter. that being said, this three star rating is closer to the lower end more than anything.
things i liked:
- the sheer breadth of interviewees. lurie goes out of his way to seek out those that may have been snubbed or forgotten in the r.e.m. annals, and for that credit should be given where it's due. as a result, we get a more intimate, authentic viewpoint of the band
- the anecdotes that came from some of these people were really enjoyable to read - it's always fun to learn new tidbits about a group you love
- the depth of research in terms of sources: countless interviews, magazine reviews from back in the day amongst other things are constantly cited in this book, and they're conveniently listed in the back of the book as a bibliography for extra reading that nerds like me will inevitably look at
- i also really appreciated the photos of the band and their friends featured throughout (such as carol levy and that one photo of michael stipe in high school), most of which i hadn't seen before, as well as scans of lyrics, ticket stubs and set lists
things i didn't like:
- the main thing i disliked - hated even - was lurie's irrelevant opinions and personal anecdotes that had little to no relation to the band. he waffled on for pages and pages about the AIDS crisis of the 80s and the reagan administration to the point where he was beyond providing context and instead going off on a tangent i didn't ask for nor particularly cared to read about. he goes off topic a fair bit in this book and it makes you wonder whether or not this book was really overseen by an editor
- his defensive stance towards reagan also really rubbed me the wrong way; he calls him a "comforting" figure. there's a wonderful review on here that talks about how lurie doesn't really have much authority in commenting on r.e.m.'s political stance (whether that be the subject matter of the songs on document or stipe and buck's statements throughout the 80s). he ponders whether or not the reagan administration's lack of acknowledgement towards the AIDS crisis fuelled part of stipe's anxieties during the course of recording fables and regardless of whether it was, i don't think that's any of his business. his discussions concerning stipe's sexuality also made me a tad uncomfortable, and i don't think that's any of his business either
- not necessarily a dislike, but something i found rather amusingly ironic is how lurie mocks a certain group of people for overanalysing r.e.m. because a lot of their stuff seems vague and confusing enough to warrant a deeper meaning, when in reality it probably means nothing. lurie then proceeds to overanalyse the indiscernible lyrics on murmur and reckoning, pulling out every theory under the sun and grasping at straws half the time to make some sense of them, when stipe himself has said many of the early r.e.m. lyrics don't have any real meaning
overall, it was an engaging read that reminded me why i love this band so much. but i suspect my enjoyment of the book relied heavily on my attachment to r.e.m. and an ability to put aside the author's many unwanted interjections to enjoy the anecdotes and recollections of their i.r.s. years.
things i liked:
- the sheer breadth of interviewees. lurie goes out of his way to seek out those that may have been snubbed or forgotten in the r.e.m. annals, and for that credit should be given where it's due. as a result, we get a more intimate, authentic viewpoint of the band
- the anecdotes that came from some of these people were really enjoyable to read - it's always fun to learn new tidbits about a group you love
- the depth of research in terms of sources: countless interviews, magazine reviews from back in the day amongst other things are constantly cited in this book, and they're conveniently listed in the back of the book as a bibliography for extra reading that nerds like me will inevitably look at
- i also really appreciated the photos of the band and their friends featured throughout (such as carol levy and that one photo of michael stipe in high school), most of which i hadn't seen before, as well as scans of lyrics, ticket stubs and set lists
things i didn't like:
- the main thing i disliked - hated even - was lurie's irrelevant opinions and personal anecdotes that had little to no relation to the band. he waffled on for pages and pages about the AIDS crisis of the 80s and the reagan administration to the point where he was beyond providing context and instead going off on a tangent i didn't ask for nor particularly cared to read about. he goes off topic a fair bit in this book and it makes you wonder whether or not this book was really overseen by an editor
- his defensive stance towards reagan also really rubbed me the wrong way; he calls him a "comforting" figure. there's a wonderful review on here that talks about how lurie doesn't really have much authority in commenting on r.e.m.'s political stance (whether that be the subject matter of the songs on document or stipe and buck's statements throughout the 80s). he ponders whether or not the reagan administration's lack of acknowledgement towards the AIDS crisis fuelled part of stipe's anxieties during the course of recording fables and regardless of whether it was, i don't think that's any of his business. his discussions concerning stipe's sexuality also made me a tad uncomfortable, and i don't think that's any of his business either
- not necessarily a dislike, but something i found rather amusingly ironic is how lurie mocks a certain group of people for overanalysing r.e.m. because a lot of their stuff seems vague and confusing enough to warrant a deeper meaning, when in reality it probably means nothing. lurie then proceeds to overanalyse the indiscernible lyrics on murmur and reckoning, pulling out every theory under the sun and grasping at straws half the time to make some sense of them, when stipe himself has said many of the early r.e.m. lyrics don't have any real meaning
overall, it was an engaging read that reminded me why i love this band so much. but i suspect my enjoyment of the book relied heavily on my attachment to r.e.m. and an ability to put aside the author's many unwanted interjections to enjoy the anecdotes and recollections of their i.r.s. years.
April 12, 2020
As biographies of R.E.M. go (and I learned in the opening sentence of the introductory Author's Note that far more of these exist than I had realized previously), Begin the Begin gets high marks for its depth. A little over a year ago, I remarked in my review of Marcus Gray's
It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. Companion
that "Gray's research for this book was clearly exhaustive." Lurie puts that remark to shame, undertaking in-depth interviews with over 20 people who knew the band when. This lends Begin the Begin a first-hand perspective that It Crawled from the South sorely lacked, and makes this the definitive account of R.E.M.'s history up to the point that they signed with Warner Bros. in early 1988.
Weirdly, that first-hand perspective gets a bit undercut by repeated asides, speculation, and editorializing from Lurie. This pattern gets established early on, when, a few pages into Chapter Two, Lurie opens a paragraph with, "If I may break the fourth wall for a moment..." He then proceeds to do so liberally throughout the narrative, offering his own interpretations of events, lyrics, and sonic choices. Admittedly, Lurie lived in Athens for a good chunk of his life, but he didn't get there until almost five years after this book's timeline ends. All this leads to a book that shifts between recollections of those who were there at the time, and the impressions of one who came along later. Ultimately, this only becomes a problem when Lurie lets slip his clear disdain (or at least relative disdain) for R.E.M.'s later output. For this reader, who thinks R.E.M.'s output continued to be uniformly great for another eight years beyond this book's endpoint, the insertion of these views rankles a bit.
As I say, however, I did appreciate most of Lurie's first-person offerings. They kept the story conversational, even folksy, and served as a decent intermediary between native Athenians and this Yankee (me) who feels privileged to have even been able to spend a few hours in the town five years ago. If it were up to me, I would have continued the story up until Bill Berry's departure in 1997. That said, Lurie very plainly has a personal attachment to telling this story, and obviously has a right to tell it how he sees fit. And what he tells he tells very well, casting a brighter light on these years than I have ever seen in print (or perhaps anywhere) previously. To the extent I find myself wishing for more, I'll just have to see what these other R.E.M. books have to offer...
Weirdly, that first-hand perspective gets a bit undercut by repeated asides, speculation, and editorializing from Lurie. This pattern gets established early on, when, a few pages into Chapter Two, Lurie opens a paragraph with, "If I may break the fourth wall for a moment..." He then proceeds to do so liberally throughout the narrative, offering his own interpretations of events, lyrics, and sonic choices. Admittedly, Lurie lived in Athens for a good chunk of his life, but he didn't get there until almost five years after this book's timeline ends. All this leads to a book that shifts between recollections of those who were there at the time, and the impressions of one who came along later. Ultimately, this only becomes a problem when Lurie lets slip his clear disdain (or at least relative disdain) for R.E.M.'s later output. For this reader, who thinks R.E.M.'s output continued to be uniformly great for another eight years beyond this book's endpoint, the insertion of these views rankles a bit.
As I say, however, I did appreciate most of Lurie's first-person offerings. They kept the story conversational, even folksy, and served as a decent intermediary between native Athenians and this Yankee (me) who feels privileged to have even been able to spend a few hours in the town five years ago. If it were up to me, I would have continued the story up until Bill Berry's departure in 1997. That said, Lurie very plainly has a personal attachment to telling this story, and obviously has a right to tell it how he sees fit. And what he tells he tells very well, casting a brighter light on these years than I have ever seen in print (or perhaps anywhere) previously. To the extent I find myself wishing for more, I'll just have to see what these other R.E.M. books have to offer...
November 4, 2019
This biography of R.E.M.'s coming together in Athens, Georgia in the late 1970s/early 1980s aims to more firmly root the band in that university town as it really was back then. In his introduction, author Robert Dean Lurie claims that earlier biographies have been largely aimed at a British audience, and so R.E.M. was made out to be something typically Southern, and furthermore, that vision of the South was a somewhat mythical one. Lurie underscores that three out of the four members of R.E.M. were not actually Southerners themselves, and certain aspects of the Athens scene have not be examined in depth. Lurie himself arrived in Athens in the early 1990s, when members of R.E.M. and bands from the same era were still around, which he feels gives him a grounded perspective on the town that he can share with readers. Though no band members were interviewed for the book (due to the band’s preference to keep aloof from biographies), Lurie undertook some new interviews with other Athens figures who knew the members of R.E.M. well in the early days.
The biography ranges from the band members’ high school years in the mid–late 1970s to R.E.M.’s signing with the major label Warner Bros. in 1987. As a longtime R.E.M. fan and someone fairly familiar with previous press coverage and interviews, I found that Lurie’s coverage of the very first years is valuable. He explores how R.E.M. was part of a rich Athens scene, that its members were initially in several bands at once, and that R.E.M. first played to “drunken fratboys” instead of the artsy crowd that it was later associated with. I learned some new facts, like Michael Stipe’s ability to play a musical instrument (well, chords on a Farfisa organ), and the seemingly nerdy Mike Mills actually being one of the raunchier members of the band sexually and in terms of substance abuse.
By the time Lurie reaches R.E.M.’s second album, Reckoning in 1984, his history starts to become much more elliptical, and it didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know from other press coverage. Also, many of Lurie attempts to interpreter Stipe’s enigmatic lyrics on the early album are a bit of a reach. Consequently, this band biography left me with mixed feelings, but it may be worthwhile for fans.
The biography ranges from the band members’ high school years in the mid–late 1970s to R.E.M.’s signing with the major label Warner Bros. in 1987. As a longtime R.E.M. fan and someone fairly familiar with previous press coverage and interviews, I found that Lurie’s coverage of the very first years is valuable. He explores how R.E.M. was part of a rich Athens scene, that its members were initially in several bands at once, and that R.E.M. first played to “drunken fratboys” instead of the artsy crowd that it was later associated with. I learned some new facts, like Michael Stipe’s ability to play a musical instrument (well, chords on a Farfisa organ), and the seemingly nerdy Mike Mills actually being one of the raunchier members of the band sexually and in terms of substance abuse.
By the time Lurie reaches R.E.M.’s second album, Reckoning in 1984, his history starts to become much more elliptical, and it didn’t tell me anything that I didn’t already know from other press coverage. Also, many of Lurie attempts to interpreter Stipe’s enigmatic lyrics on the early album are a bit of a reach. Consequently, this band biography left me with mixed feelings, but it may be worthwhile for fans.
September 4, 2019
Having covered the Minnesota music scene for a while, I recognize characters like this. The guy who opened for Prince the first time he played First Avenue. The guy who recorded the Replacements' warehouse parties. The guy whose band backed Bonnie Raitt on her debut album. Bob Dylan's BFF. They're known to superfans, but not to casual fans. Some biographers will call them up, some won't. These are the kind of characters who Robert Dean Lurie looked up for his new book. I reviewed Begin the Begin: R.E.M.’s Early Years for The Current.
October 24, 2020
I don't know about anyone else but I got a real kick out of this narrative, which works as a life and times of the band, a memoir for Lurie (who spent most of the '90s in Athens), and a trip down memory lane for yours truly; I can remember seeing R.E.M. in Cleveland in 1983, but sort of thought that the Replacements upstaged them. Anyway, what Lurie does really well is to put R.E.M. back into the context out of which they emerged, as just one band that was part of a scene, but which just happened to have the drive to make themselves into one of the paradigmatic outfits of their era. Probably the best audience for this book is one of those folks who discovered R.E.M. during the '90s and are wondering how seriously they should still take the mythology of the band. About the only thing I have to knock this book down for is that an index would have been appreciated.
January 12, 2020
A very enjoyable read. As an R.E.M. fan since I purchased "Murmur" at the recommendation of a record store at D.C.'s Dupont Circle (which had a "buy this immediately" sign on the album), Lurie's insights well-explains how the band formed and became who they were. Lots of insights and fun details, tips on other Athens bands and more. I had YouTube and Spotify fired up to accompany along the way. The author does insert himself in the story throughout, which was a bit much, for instance sharing his warmth for President Reagan as a kid.
January 2, 2021
This book has made me feel part of a scene I could never have been in, as I was too young and too geographically distant to be part of it. Lurie brings Athens GA to life, along with its most famous sons. And its less famous daughters and sons, for that matter.
A must-read for anyone, like me, who still values R.E.M., especially the IRS years. Lurie makes an excellent point though: they haven't captured the succeeding generations as yet. Odd, given their timeless sound and strong songs. Perhaps someday...
A must-read for anyone, like me, who still values R.E.M., especially the IRS years. Lurie makes an excellent point though: they haven't captured the succeeding generations as yet. Odd, given their timeless sound and strong songs. Perhaps someday...
February 22, 2020
R.E.M. introduced me to alternative music when they opened for the English Beat at my upstate NY college in the spring of 1983. I became obsessed with them and love them to this day. This book is wonderful, as it completely recreates that time while filling in enormous detail and color as to what the band was doing to make their way toward rock stardom. It is beautifully written, poignant, fair, and among the finest music books I have read.
July 13, 2021
It's a fine example of the genre. A little too gossipy and the author's fanboyishness peaks through a good bit.
The band's noncooperation with the book also feels a little glaringly obvious at times - you're often asking yourself "Hm. If only there were four people living who could corroborate this alleged historical anecdote?"
The band's noncooperation with the book also feels a little glaringly obvious at times - you're often asking yourself "Hm. If only there were four people living who could corroborate this alleged historical anecdote?"
September 19, 2020
A fantastic book about perhaps my favorite band. Wonderfully written and impeccably researched; dispels a few myths along the way. I wish the author would have covered the band's entire lifespan, but that obviously is not what he set out to do. Will absolutely read again.
July 31, 2019
Pefect for REM trainspotters.
March 15, 2020
Beginnings are my favorite part.
April 3, 2020
(It shouldn’t have taken me 4 months to read this book good lord)
I love this book and I love REM and I love the IRS years.
I love this book and I love REM and I love the IRS years.
January 31, 2025
Great for any fan of the band. Learned some interesting new stuff and got some clarification on things I thought I knew.
March 3, 2025
Fans will love reading about their formative years and how those early songs were developed.
January 14, 2023
Excellent on the early years, relying on eye witness interviews with those who were around at the time as the band started to grow. Lurie captures well the micro-climate that lead to an extraordinarily creative time in a small town in the South. It becomes weaker as REM's fame grew beyond Georgia, probably as those eye witnesses were no longer so close to the band, but this is a book I would recommend to any fan of the band.
July 21, 2019
Well written and fun, Begin the Begin is an insightful biography about the early years of R.E.M. This book wasn't just the same info that's been passed around for years but actually contained many things I didn't know. Good stuff and a very necessary read for fans.
February 25, 2020
As a decades-long R.E.M. fan, I became an avid fan in high school in Indiana, well after the band’s launch in Georgia at the tail end of the 70s but before the Internet. So I spent part of my high school years looking in microfiche articles from papers in the South to learn about the early years of R.E.M. Those printouts are probably still in my parents’ house. That said, this book offers innumerable details about the band’s early days that never made it into the press coverage. There are a lot of familiar stories about the making of the records, starting from the Hibtone single of “Radio Free Europe” and up to the end of their I.R.S. albums, but the more revelatory pieces are about the personalities of the Athens scene from that era, many of whom Lurie interviews. He tends to insert himself a bit overmuch in the storytelling, and there are some odd remarks about R.E.M.’s politics that detract from his narrative at times, but it’s still the most effective collection of stories available about the setting and inspirations for R.E.M.’s classic early records.
September 22, 2019
A very good read for those (like me) that spent their high school and college years obsessing over R.E.M. This will definitely appeal more to a die-hard fan than someone who is not. New facts and perspectives keep the early pages rolling along at a good pace but it does bog down a bit in the latter pages as the author starts running through each of the bands early albums. I wanted to love this book more than I actually did, but would still recommend to anyone that wants a new look at the early days of the band.
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