Customer Reviews

It Crawled from the South: An R.E.M. (Rock Band) Companion

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Beyond compare. Aside, obviously, from his accomplishments in ammassing a wealth of information and trivia the chief outstanding feature of the book is the author's ability to convey his admiration and enthusiasm for the band while remaining somehow detatched and clear-sighted enough to criticise and poke fun of them. Volumes of this sort are typically so laden by melodramatic praise that the fawning writer makes his work unreadable. In short 'It Crawled From the South', is not only a break from the norm, but is also a spectacular piece when viewed out of context and in isolation.

I've read this book cover to cover and then gone back to read my favorite bits later. It was my introduction to the details of R.E.M.'s history, and I think it certainly served that purpose well. And I enjoyed the writing style and the commentary almost as much as I enjoyed all the insanely random little bits of information.

Gray does a spectacular job, covering everything about the band, history, lyrics, even alternate names. Best of all are the very informative chapters on the lyrics. A great vaction read for students. It goes quickly despite its length.

A wonderful resource. Can be used as a reference, or novel-type of a read. Covers everything you wanted to know about R.E.M. and more. The revised edition is wonderfully thorough and well-researched. This is the R.E.M. Bible.

so it might be outdated. That being said, I do not care enough to find out if Mr. Gray's writing skills have improved since then, because, along with braces and eighties hair bands, it is not somehting I have any interest in enduring yet again. Lots of reseacch, plenty of insight (his analysis of "Kahotek" from Fables is extremely illuminating, but, man, what a miserable excuse for a writer...You'd be better off reading Talk About the Passion and the Rolling Stone compendium.

The one word that comes to mind when I think of It Crawled From the South is "tome." It is a massive collection of REM-emorabilia, as opposed to a chronological history (a definitive REM-ography has yet to be written). I actually managed to sit down and read the whole thing like a novel when it first came out a few years ago. It has much more information about the band than any other book. It has no rival, even. The man who wrote it clearly loves their music and his passion really comes through loud and clear. And I guess that's what you're looking for when it comes to any book.

Vastly improves over the rambling 1st edition. Not so many annoying allusions and insights by the author and an index to boot. Less pictures though. Solidifies its place as the definitive work.

I treasured this book when I was in my jangle pop phase, spinning Let's Active, the DBs, Dillon Fence and REM all the time. Clearly REM were the best if not the most prolific of the genre, and their thoughtful music made an indelible mark outside that particular subset as well.
This book covers REM right up until they utterly lost the thread -- after Bill Berry left and the self importance kicked in. There are some wonderful anecdotes included here, as well as enlightening little snippets from interviews. Most impressive is the collection of stage banter from a slew of shows the author attended. And did you know that Morrisey wrote "Found Found" about Micheal Stipe? Still not sure if I believe that.
A nice companion for a band that made a lot of great music before Monster came out and ruined it all.

This book is full of inaccuracies. I can't believe other reviewers haven't noticed this.

If I knew where it was, I would pull it out and point out some examples. But, since I can't, I will say from memory, that the author didn't know words to songs. He was quoting lyrics and trying to interpret songs, and quoting lyrics that were demonstrably incorrect.

Like, oh, "Can't Get There From Here". There was a music video released for this song, that was captioned by the band. Many of the lyrics were there, in readable letters, for all the world to see. I thought, "This guy must have never seen the music video. That's kind of sloppy research, to have not seen the videos of the band that you're trying to write a book about." Then, later, it became clear that he HAD seen this video, or at least had had someone else summarize it to him. And he still got the lyrics wrong. Mysterious, brain-shattering idiocy.

That is just one small example. The book is full of garbage like that.

And, god, the song interpretations. Laughable. Hilariously bad.

Not to mention, what is up with the author's snobby, bratty attitude? Not a very good tone to take, when your research is so bad and incomplete, and frequently shoddy.

The book is good for writing mocking notes in the margins. It's VERY good for that. It's also good if you like to circle or underline misinformation.

All i can say is, if you want to get into rem's head, then read this and you will be right in there. A pleasure to read, a great peice of rock and roll history