While rummaging through his voluminous record and book collection the other day, Peter came across a rare copy of the book Life: How To Live, the basis for R.E.M.’s song “Life And How To Live It” from Fables Of The Reconstruction. Given Peter’s discovery of the book (above photo by Chloe Johnson), and the fact that it’s 25 years ago this very month that R.E.M. started recording “Fables” with Joe Boyd in London, we thought it would be a cool thing to revisit one of the classics from the early R.E.M. canon, a song which Mike Mills calls “the most fun R.E.M. song for me to play live.”
Enjoy the videos below– the first, from R.E.M. Succumbs is directed by Jackie Slayton and Jim Herbert, the second is from the Alabamahalle concert in Munich in 1985, and the third is from R.E.M.’s 2003 concert in Madrid. After the videos, be sure to read Matthew Perpetua’s excellent comprehensive analysis of “Life And How To Live It” at popsongs.wordpress.com.