Electrolite
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"Electrolite" was the third single to be released from R.E.M.'s tenth studio album New Adventures in Hi-Fi. The song failed to sell well, peaking at a mere #96 on the Hot 100 and #29 on the UK Singles Charts. "Electrolite" had the second-lowest peak on the British charts in R.E.M.'s previous 18 British releases.
The single's video, directed by Peter Care and Spike Jonze, "involved dune buggies, crazy costumes, and rubber reindeer" according to Peter Buck in "R.E.M. Inside Out: The Stories Behind Every Song" by Craig Rosen.
In June 2006, the website of the Los Angeles Times featured an article on Mulholland Drive. The article included excerpts from an essay Michael Stipe wrote about the 55-mile-long highway[link]:
- Mulholland represents to me the iconic ‘from on high’ vantage point looking down at L.A. and the valley at night when the lights are all sparkling and the city looks, like it does from a plane, like a blanket of fine lights all shimmering and solid. I really wanted to write a farewell song to the 20th century.
- ‘20th century go to sleep.
- Really deep.
- We won’t blink.’
- And nowhere seemed more perfect than the city that came into its own throughout the 20th century, but always looking forward and driven by ideas of a greater future, at whatever cost.
- Los Angeles.
- I name check three of the great legends of that single industry ‘town’, as it likes to refer to itself. In order: James Dean, Steve McQueen, Martin Sheen. All iconic, all representing different aspects of masculinity - a key feature of 20th century ideology. It is the push me-pull you of a culture drawing on mid-century ideas of society, butt up against and in a great tug-of-war with modernism/rebirth/epiphany/futurism, wiping out all that that came before to be replaced by something ‘better’, more civilized, more tolerant, fair, open, and so on... [see ‘reagan’, ‘soylent green’, ‘bladerunner’, current gubernatorial debates]
- The ‘really deep’ in the lyric is, of course, self-deprecating towards attempting at all, in a pop song, to communicate any level of depth or real insight.
- Mulholland is the place in films where you get a distance, and the awe, of the city built on dreams and fantasy. Far away enough to not smell it but to marvel at its intensity and sheer audacity. Kinda great.
- The title of the song came from flying into L.A. and/or seeing it from on high and it looking like a blanket of stars or those bizarre sea creatures that light up when you stir up the water. How I got ‘electrolite’ out of that I don’t know, I still can't think of the word I was going for, but it is actually called ‘phosphorescence’ or ‘bioluminescence’. I thought it was ‘electro’- something, so I just used light/lyte, giving it the ‘lite’ of modern fad diet language.
- Thanks,
- Michael
Track listing
All songs written by Berry, Buck, Mills and Stipe.7\", Cassette and CD Single
- "Electrolite" – 4:05
- "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live) – 5:07
12\" and CD Maxi-Single
- "Electrolite" – 4:05
- "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live) – 5:07
- "Binky the Doormat" (Live) – 5:01
- "King of Comedy" (808 State remix) – 5:36
- "The Wake-Up Bomb" and "Binky the Doormat" recorded at The Omni in Atlanta, Georgia on November 18 1995. They were taken from Road Movie. Additional musicians: Scott McCaughey, Nathan December.
Personnel ('Electrolite' only)
- Bill Berry – drums, percussion
- Peter Buck – bass, guitar, banjo
- Mike Mills – piano
- Michael Stipe – vocals
- Nathan December – guiro
- Andy Carlson – violin
External links
| R.E.M. |
| Peter Buck - Mike Mills - Michael Stipe |
| Bill Berry |
| Other musicians: Nathan December - Buren Fowler - Peter Holsapple - Barrett Martin - Scott McCaughey - Bill Rieflin - Ken Stringfellow - Joey Waronker |
| Management and producers: Joe Boyd - Don Dixon - Bertis Downs, IV - Mitch Easter - Don Gehman - Jefferson Holt - Scott Litt - Pat McCarthy |
| Discography |
| Albums: Chronic Town (EP) - Murmur - Reckoning - Fables of the Reconstruction - Lifes Rich Pageant - Document - Green - Out of Time - Automatic for the People - Monster - New Adventures in Hi-Fi - Up - Reveal - Around the Sun |
| Compilations: Dead Letter Office - Eponymous - - The Best of R.E.M. - In the Attic - In Time |
| Soundtracks: ''Man on the Moon |
| Videos: Succumbs - Pop Screen - Tourfilm - This Film Is On - Parallel - Road Movie - Perfect Square - In View |
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