Friday, July 3, 2009

R.E.M. "Tourfilm 2.0: The Audio, enhanced"

I just can't help it. The alluring melodies of Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe have been refusing to leave my ears of late. I go through these periods where an artist captivates my entire attention for sometimes weeks on end. I might switch to a different artist for an album or two, just as a mid-session palate cleanser, but I end up coming back to the original artist. And not until the next one dislodges the original artist do I stop.



I happen to be amidst one of these R.E.M. periods - not a bad period to be stuck in, I admit - and keep coming back to their live stuff. Of late I've been watching a lot of their 1990 live video Tourfilm, an exercise in "guerrilla filmmaking" that is so far outside the typical "you saw the gig, now here's the live video" it's an artpiece in itself.

Not only is the video itself great, the performance is spectacular. Coming at the end of 1989's yearlong Green World Tour, the band was as tight as they've ever been, and the songs themselves are fantastic.

Some time back I made my own Enhanced version of the video's audio soundtrack. What was presented on the video aren't all the songs that were released from these same several gigs filmed, there are a couple live tracks that saw release elsewhere but for whatever reason not included on the video. Also, the tracks have been somewhat resequenced on the video - while this video was assembled from five different gigs, the set staples tended to be performed in the same order from night to night, and I was able to resequence the out-of-sequence tracks into what was performed on those particular nights.

Additionally I also tracked separately some of Stipe's intro musical snippets, at least where it made sense to do so. And I also detailed out the two new-at-the-time tracks "Belong" and "Low" - neither of which were listed or mentioned on the video itself, but were indeed filmed and snippets of each included in the video - which would ultimately be recorded the following year for the 1991 album Out Of Time.

So here it is, the Power of Independent Trucking's Tourfilm 2.0 - The Audio, enhanced - enjoy!

As usual, lossless requests will be considered.....

R.E.M.
Tourfilm

Recording dates/locations:
7 November 1989 - Civic Center, Roanoke, Virginia
8 November 1989 - VA Coliseum, Hampton, Virginia
10 November 1989 - Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina
11 November 1989 - Macon County Coliseum, Macon, Georgia
13 November 1989 - L.E.A.F. Benefit, Fox Theater, Atlanta, Georgia

- - -

Original video tracklisting:

Stand / The One I Love / These Days / Turn You Inside-Out / World Leader Pretend / Feeling Gravitys Pull / I Believe / I Remember California / Get Up / It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) / Pop Song 89 / Fall On Me / You Are The Everything / Begin The Begin / King Of Birds / Finest Worksong / Perfect Circle

Not listed on the packaging: Snippets of "Belong" and "Low", the mini intros "We Live As We Dream, Alone" / "Future 40's (String Of Pearls)" / "With The People", and the closing track "Afterhours"

- - -

Tourfilm 2.0 - The Audio, enhanced

01 Stand
02 The One I Love
03 So. Central Rain (detail)
04 Turn You Inside-Out
05 Belong (full version from 10 Nov. 1989)
06 Orange Crush
07 Feeling Gravitys Pull
08 These Days
09 We Live As We Dream, Alone / World Leader Pretend
10 poem ("I'll Believe in Anything When I'm There...")
11 Future 40's (String Of Pearls)
12 I Believe
13 I Remember California
14 Get Up
15 It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
16 Pop Song 89
17 Fall On Me
18 You Are The Everything
19 Begin The Begin
20 With The People
21 King Of Birds
22 Low (detail)
23 Finest Worksong
24 Perfect Circle
25 Afterhours

sources:
Tracks 5 and 6 from the "Radio Song" Collector's Edition CD Single

All the rest from Tourfilm DVD


09 "We Live As We Dream, Alone" intro - Gang of Four

10 "poem" - unknown poet

11 "Future 40's (String Of Pearls)" - Syd Straw and Michael Stipe

20 "With The People" - Kevn Kinney


Sequencing assistance: The R.E.M. Timeline

Oh, you want the music?

Part I
Part II

(two RAR files, as usual, you gotta grab 'em both!)

16 comments:

  1. HELLO. I HAD THIS ON VHS YEARS AGO. THIS IS GREAT THANK YOU

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  2. Thanks again! Tourfilm is BY FAR my favourite official live release by R.E.M. (the only I dislike about it is that So. Central Rain is incomplete). It was one of the first VHS-recordings I transferred to cassette way, way back in the day.
    I was so in awe of the band's performances, Michael Stipe's moves and all those intriguing snippets with which he prefaced the songs proper. Incidentally the first piece before I Believe (i.e. the one right before the quote from Future 40's) is related to a piece of writing by one Tristan Tom entitled 'New As Life'. It's mentioned here: http://www.murmurs.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-113898.html. There is a link to http://www.tristantom.com/output/newaslife.htm there, but unfortunately that page isn't available any longer. Consequently it's impossible to determine whether Tristan Tom was quoting from Tourfilm or Michael Stipe from New As Life.
    Oh, and of course, I wouldn't mind having this in lossless...

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  3. Great film and one that I somehow never tire of. Saw them at Newcastle City Hall (2000 seater venue in UK) on this tour which was incredible so the film provokes some great memories of the gig. Remember Perfect Circle being transcendant.

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  4. Thanks so much for putting up these files! I saw this tour, and I've been looking for the audio for a very long time.

    Is it just me, though, or does the second part not work? That is, I get an error message when I try to open Part 2. It's probably me, but if there were any chance you could re-post it, I would be eternally grateful...

    Thanks, regardless.

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  5. Okay, now I...yeah, sure, right. You just have to download both parts, to make the thing...yeah. Sorry. It took me...five days. In my defense, I was on vacation, so really it only took me several hours. Oh, and also I'm stupid, so that was also a factor.

    Thanks.

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  6. Thank you so much for posting this. It's been a good while since you posted it, but I just now came across it. However, every time I attempt to download Part II (which has been for a couple of days now), it states that no server is available with the requested file. Is there any possible way you might be able to repost Part II whenever you have the time?

    Thank you very much for all of the great music!

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  7. I was at the Greensboro show way back in 1989. Can you fix part II? It is not available.

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  8. First saw R.E.M. in October '82, and many times since. I'd love a FLAC link, if you're inclined to post. Big thanks.

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  9. Can't get the second part to work right. Any suggestions?

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  10. it seems as if these mp3s have also been removed by media fire.

    i love what i see on this site for REM. it'd be great to have you re-up the links and add a 1985 show!

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  11. can you re-upload your REM Flacs? most are now not working

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  12. I'd love to grab the MP3s as well, if you have the chance to reupload...

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  13. Sorry, having been DMCA'ed once by these folks regardless of label, unless Peter Buck gives me the all-clear not reupping any REM.

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  14. funny i just saw this...when i bought the VHS in 90...maybe 91...i recorded it all to cassette tape...10 years later took that copy to cd....then that copy to MP3...god, it was terrible.
    But I just saw this today on Google Music:
    GREEN 25th Anniversary Edition..."Disc 2" is the entire
    10 November 1989 - Greensboro Coliseum, Greensboro, North Carolina show...

    https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=Bsc7n24sqsroyc5vlszuyzmfso4

    and since I am using Google Music unlimited I have it play listed and have been playing it nonstop...Maybe Spotify has it as well.
    either way...i'll probably buy this since I got 20+ years of enjoyment out of hacked rips :)
    Sure, not the exact Tourfilm shows...but I have seen/listened to this for so many years i can't pick out the differences...and although i love the chop up/cut off of some of the songs (like the couple that would end up on Out Of Time), you get it all here which is very cool....and stuff that didn't make the film like Life And How To Live It which is one of favorite songs ever....very cool.

    ReplyDelete