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TAKING YOU BACK TO EARTH DAY, 1990

Taking you back to Earth Day, 1990– Merriweather Post Pavilion in suburban Maryland outside Washington DC, where Natalie Merchant’s 10,000 Maniacs, the Indigo Girls and Billy Bragg (and a bunch of other great bands) were playing a benefit and Michael and Peter came along (only a few months after finishing the final shows of the Green World Tour). It was a stellar spring day, not unlike today, and I remember a stunning version of John Prine’s “Hello in There” figured into the festivities. Well, all these years later, all we can find on YouTube to memorialize that day is sort of a shaky quality recording of Michael and Billy joining the Maniacs for Campfire Song but for good measure, we also located a clip of Hello In There from a bit later when Michael actually toured in Europe with Billy and Natalie (LINK).

Happy Earth Day, then and now. Peace, then and now.

The nonpareil R.E.M. Timeline calls the action:

21 April 1990 – ‘A Performance For The Planet’ – Earth Day, Merriweather Post Pavilion, Columbia, MD

other acts appearing: 10,000 Maniacs, Billy Bragg, Indigo Girls, Ziggy Marley, Crack The Sky, The Fabulous Tunderbirds, Jungle Brothers, Bruce Hornsby And The Range, Michelle Shocked

sets included:

10,000 Maniacs: What’s The Matter, Here? / Dustbowl / Trouble Me / A Campfire Song (w/ Billy Bragg & Michael Stipe) Billy Bragg: Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards / Hello In There (w/ Stipe) / Dallas (w/ Stipe) / Disturbance At The Heron House (w/ Peter Buck & Stipe) / Fall On Me (w/ Peter Buck, Stipe & Merchant) Indigo Girls: World Falls / Summertime (w/ Michael Stipe) / White House Blues / Hairshirt (w/ Stipe) / All Along The Watchtower (w/ Stipe) / Kid Fears (w/ Stipe)

notes: Earth Day show with Indigo Girls with Michael Stipe. 10,000 Maniacs & Billy Bragg, as well as Michael played other songs…