R.E.M. 11/09/1983
Set I
That Beat
Walter's Theme
Cushy Tush
Burning Down
All The Right Friends (Take 1)
Windout
Femme Fatale
Burning Hell
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Skank (Marble Table)
All The Right Friends
So. Central Rain
Letter Never Sent (Take 2)
Little America
Camera
Second Guessing (Take 1)
Second Guessing (Take 2)
Harborcoat
7 Chinese Brothers
Just a Touch
Pretty Persuasion
Pale Blue Eyes
Time After Time
Walter's Theme
Cushy Tush
Burning Down
All The Right Friends (Take 1)
Windout
Femme Fatale
Burning Hell
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
Skank (Marble Table)
All The Right Friends
So. Central Rain
Letter Never Sent (Take 2)
Little America
Camera
Second Guessing (Take 1)
Second Guessing (Take 2)
Harborcoat
7 Chinese Brothers
Just a Touch
Pretty Persuasion
Pale Blue Eyes
Time After Time
Set II
Set III
Comment
Excerpt from Adventures in Hi-Fi by Rob Jovanovic and Tim Abbott.
"On 9 November, the group were on the other side of the country in San Francisco for a one-day trial recording session with Elliot Mazer, known for his production work with Neil Young. They recorded a staggering twenty-three songs in that one day at Rhythmic Studios, many showing off their, sometimes hidden, humor. For a ridiculous version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” Michael sang at the top of his voice and Mike and Bill sang the “Wimowehs”. Other oddities included “Cushy Tush”, a mock commercial for an invented brand of toilet tissue (“Your family deserves the best in asswipe!”), and “Walter’s Theme”, an ad for Walter’s Bar-B-Q, a regular Athens haunt of the band, especially Peter. The rest of the material recorded was mostly newer compositions that were definites for the next album (“Letter Never Sent”, “Camera” and “Second Guessing”) along with some older songs (“Just A Touch”, “All The Right Friends” and “Pretty Persuasion”) which had yet to take their place on a commercial release. The band enjoyed working with Mazer and were more than happy with his results, though they still wanted to work with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. To make a compromise, they invited him to work with Mitch and Don for the next album, though later everyone agreed that having three producers might complicate things, so the original pair were once again booked for the new album."
"On 9 November, the group were on the other side of the country in San Francisco for a one-day trial recording session with Elliot Mazer, known for his production work with Neil Young. They recorded a staggering twenty-three songs in that one day at Rhythmic Studios, many showing off their, sometimes hidden, humor. For a ridiculous version of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” Michael sang at the top of his voice and Mike and Bill sang the “Wimowehs”. Other oddities included “Cushy Tush”, a mock commercial for an invented brand of toilet tissue (“Your family deserves the best in asswipe!”), and “Walter’s Theme”, an ad for Walter’s Bar-B-Q, a regular Athens haunt of the band, especially Peter. The rest of the material recorded was mostly newer compositions that were definites for the next album (“Letter Never Sent”, “Camera” and “Second Guessing”) along with some older songs (“Just A Touch”, “All The Right Friends” and “Pretty Persuasion”) which had yet to take their place on a commercial release. The band enjoyed working with Mazer and were more than happy with his results, though they still wanted to work with Mitch Easter and Don Dixon. To make a compromise, they invited him to work with Mitch and Don for the next album, though later everyone agreed that having three producers might complicate things, so the original pair were once again booked for the new album."
Collectors With This Show
| User (active/rating) | Media / # | Show | Sound | Details | DB Source | User Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tulum | FLAC / 25 | View | unknown | |||
| Notes: | The only song on this recording whose source I would question is That Beat. Michael can clearly be heard talking to someone called 'Don' in the control room. This would almost certainly have been Don Dixon, the co-producer of their first two records. The Rhythmic Studios were produced by Elliott Mazer not Don Dixon so... hmmm... that suggests that this may come from a different session than this one. Also the sound on That Beat is quite different to the sound of the rest of the songs. This is from UNCUT Magazine: "On November 9 [1983], R.E.M. demoed 24 songs at Rhythmic Studios, San Francisco, with Elliot Mazer, who'd produced Neil Young's 'Harvest'. They recorded nine songs that would eventually appear on 'Reckoning': 'So. Central Rain', 'Letter Never Sent', 'Little America', 'Camera', 'Second Guessing', 'Harborcoat', '7 Chinese Bros', 'Pretty Persuasion' and 'Time After Time (AnnElise)'. Mazer had first met [Peter] Buck, a long-time Young fan, at R.E.M.'s show on June 20, 1983 at the Keystone Berkeley, California. He remembers the sessions: 'The band called me as they wanted to demo some tunes and Mitch [Easter] was not in town. The band set up in the studio and when we had a sound, they started to play. Everything was done live to 2-track stereo. One take per song. They played a tune and, if they got through it, they moved onto the next one. It was intense fun'. Among the sessions were three covers -The Tokens' 'The Lion Sleeps Tonite', and 'Pale Blue Eyes' and 'Femme Fatale' by The Velvet Underground- that the band 'played to get sounds and warm up', says Mazer. 'We might have done one playback, if at all', he continues. 'They needed to record demo versions of these tunes'. The sessions never officially saw the light of day, though they were leaked online. When asked what happened to the tapes -and why the sessions weren't included on the forthcoming 'Reckoning Special Edition'- [R.E.M. manager, Bertis] Downs admits no-one's entirely sure where they are: 'They could be dust, or they could have been mislabelled and are sitting in a locker somewhere'". With the probable exception of That Beat, these were originally recorded live to 2-Track. They were circulating among collectors on cassette for a while and these are probably originally sourced from one of those unknown generation tapes. They were compiled onto CD-r and then extracted to flac using Exact Audio Copy. Everything else was done on TLH V 2.5.0. The sound quality is pretty damn good. You won't be disappointed (especially Manimal) | |||||
| Mike Marteny | cdr / 1 | A+ | View | ANA(1)>CDR(2) | ||
| Notes: | 75:52 | |||||
| Jack Warner | FLAC / 0 | View | Studio>?>FLAC | |||
| adorup | 2 CD / 0 | View | ||||
| Mary Bloom | cdr / 2 | View | ||||
| 220284 | cdr / 2 | View | ||||
| John Cook | FLAC / 1 | View | SBD>Cassette(n)>Adobe Audition>WAV>FLAC | |||
| Notes: | 436 MB, 83:34 | |||||
| Joe | CDR / 2 | B+ | View | |||
| Notes: | Reckoning Demos | |||||
| Patrick Grant | CDR / 2 | A | B+ | View | studio outtakes | |
| funkyratchet | CDR / 2 | B+ | B | View | SBD/studio | |
| Notes: | Elliot Mazer Reckoning demos. | |||||
| Evan Hulka | / 0 | View | ||||
| Eric H. | CDR / 2 | B- | View | |||
| Notes: | Reckoning demos | |||||
| Adam Gott | cd-r / 2 | b | View | |||
| slugline | / 0 | View | soundboard | |||
| cut_here | flac / 1 | View | SBD>Cassette(n)>Adobe Audition>WAV>FLAC | |||
| Notes: | untracked/unfiltered version | |||||
| thegreatdivide6 | flac / | View | ||||
| Notes: | studio | |||||
| Stuart Ferguson | CDR / 2 | View | Soundboard | |||
| Notes: | DVD 1526; lineage: SBD>Cassette(n)>Adobe Audition>WAV>FLAC | |||||
| Charlie | / 0 | View | ||||
| David Backus | DVDR/FLAC / 0 | View | Studio | |||
| Bill | WAV / 2 | View | ||||
| GtrPlyr | CD-R / 2 | View | ||||
| Notes: | Studio Sessions | |||||
| Shawn Wiley | FLAC / 1 | View | studio | |||
| Notes: | 2 discs audio -- Elliot Mazer demos | |||||
| -SoG- | Flac / 1 | B | View | |||
| Notes: | Studio Recording | |||||
| TCA | FLAC / 1 | W13 | View | Studio Soundboard | ||
| Daniel Mello | / 0 | View | ||||
| J Hetterly | CD-R / 2 | View | ||||
| Notes: | Elliot Mazer Demo CDs 1 & 2 | |||||
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