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R.E.M. — All the Right Friends
Album: Vanilla Sky (Soundtrack)
Avg rating:
6.1

Your rating:
Total ratings: 747









Released: 2001
Length: 2:39
Plays (last 30 days): 2
I know you say maybe some day
I need never be alone
I know I say it's the right way
But you'll never be the one
I've been walking alone now
For a long long, long time
I don't wanna hang out now
With the friends that just stand mine
How did you party?
You've been looking but your search will never end
You've been hangin' with the wrong crowd
You've got all the right friends
I've been walking alone now
For a long long, long time
I don't wanna hang out now
With the friends that just stand mine and said
I don't wanna be with you anymore
I just don't want you anymore
I don't wanna be with you anymore
I just don't want you anymore
I don't wanna be with you anymore
I just don't want you anymore
I don't wanna be with you anymore
I just don't want you anymore
Comments (43)add comment
 Alien-at-Large wrote:

The VANILLA SKY version of the song is indeed a new recording, made with Joey Waronker in the studio specifically for the soundtrack. At least three older versions exist on bootlegs and one cleaned-up in-studio (I think) version that appeared on the "IRS VINTAGE YEARS" re-release of DEAD LETTER OFFICE. (In addition to CHRONIC TOWN, the IRS VINTAGE YEARS disc has two or three bonus unreleased tracks.) Not sure when or where the DLO version was recorded, but it's got a distinctive Bill Berry drum sound. Now if only they'd re-record and release some other 1981-era songs. I'm dying to hear a cleaned-up, in-studio version of "Mystery to Me."




Reposting (from 18 yrs ago!) for some of the recent commenters not knowing about this song.

I haven't heard this soundtrack version, though I do have one from "In Time" a Best-of compilation CD from 2003 - maybe the same version? This would have been post-Berry.
I have also heard all the bootlegs. Obviously prefer any of them to the modern re-do... and yeah it's a terrible song with terrible lyrics. So terrible in fact, it's one of my favorite (early) REM songs!


edit: just found I also have a version from "And I Feel Fine" another compilation CD from 2006, which is definitely an older studio version (labelled an "outtake") with 100% Berry on the tubs. May be the same one from the DLO re-release ?(not on my vinyl original..)
Nice to discover a new song by REM. This is a darn good song.
Man, I can't stand this band. Maybe without Michael Stipe I'd like them a bit better. His voice is like nails on a chalk board to me.
 maggierob wrote:
I am a big REM fan, especially of their early stuff, but this is just terrible. It was originally released as a bootleg? No wonder it didn't make Murmur. 
 

I also found it intolerable.  
 flyboy wrote:

REM was big when I was in HS.  I consider PF to be before my time.  Still, I think PF has more talent and ability in their little fingers than REM does in their collective bodies.  After what year do you propose that "the next generation" will need to be born to believe REM to be superior to PF?  I predict in 100 years they will still be playing Another Brick in the Wall and nobody will remember that REM was a thing.
 
These two bands are not comparable and you're both wrong.  As for me, i have almost all the REM records and none of the PF records.  But that's just my taste, YMMV.
 unclehud wrote:
OMG.  Theme from "Friends".
 

As it started I realized why so many people thought the Friends theme song was by R.E.M.
 Old_Pat wrote:
Perfect song for a Tom Cruise movie......... Solid 4 all day long. Or maybe a 3.
 
When I first opened this page, my first thought was "immediate -1 or -2 because it has Tom Cruise on the cover".
 mistermerp wrote:


The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. RP's users are mostly older folks who like Pink Floyd more than REM. But as time goes on, there will be fewer Pink Floyd fans around and REM will be the next generations Pink Floyd. It's kinda a sign that RP needs to start playing more new music and less crusty old classics.
 
REM was big when I was in HS.  I consider PF to be before my time.  Still, I think PF has more talent and ability in their little fingers than REM does in their collective bodies.  After what year do you propose that "the next generation" will need to be born to believe REM to be superior to PF?  I predict in 100 years they will still be playing Another Brick in the Wall and nobody will remember that REM was a thing.
Perfect song for a Tom Cruise movie......... Solid 4 all day long. Or maybe a 3.
OMG.  Theme from "Friends".
 Mark1970 wrote:
Wow..... no one has commented yet on how part of this song is a complete ripoff of Cheap Trick's "Way Of The World" "I've been running, I've been hiding.... it's the way of the world!"
 

There are similarities, especially with those suspended fourth chords, but "complete rip-off"?  No.
 dennis_chary wrote:

Thank you sir,I agree with what you say-except that R.E.M. were not even slightly overrated. Just on this forum,R.E.M.'s highest rated songs are only given 8.1s while Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in The Wall" is rated an 8.9. Seriously,I simply cannot comprehend how "Fall On Me" or "Find The River" or "Perfect Circle" do not rate as high as the above mentioned Pink Floyd song.
 

The answer my friend is blowing in the wind. RP's users are mostly older folks who like Pink Floyd more than REM. But as time goes on, there will be fewer Pink Floyd fans around and REM will be the next generations Pink Floyd. It's kinda a sign that RP needs to start playing more new music and less crusty old classics.
I am a big REM fan, especially of their early stuff, but this is just terrible. It was originally released as a bootleg? No wonder it didn't make Murmur. 
College music?  REM rocks (evein in 2001), get over it.


 agreed

snowcat wrote:
The measure of a band's greatness is how many haters come out of the woodwork to say how much they suck.

 


Can't not like anything connected to R.E.M.
Can't like anything connected to Cruise!
 +1!

molson wrote:

Was just thinking the same thang!!!

 


 Jacques wrote:
I agree that REM may be past their prime.. but to call them the "most over rated band in America" is a bit much. They wrote some gems other songwriters would have given their eye-teeth to have penned. As for the "most over rated band in America... please, I can recall when the american record buyer thought "Hootie and the Blowfish" were the messiahs... REM may have gotten more than their fair share of critical acclaim, but the playing field was littered with so much dross at the time it wasn't hard to single them out as exceptional... you want over rated? Try "Pearl Jam" or "Nirvana"... great bands, yes, but ultimately angry little post-pubescent snotty-faced kids that were convinced they invented dark teenage angst... they were the "Pink Floyd" of their time... 15 year olds wrote their lives according to some heroin induced rantings of Kurt Cobain... for God's sake Kurt Cobain had no idea what the heck he was saying... They were over rated... come to think of it grunge was the most over rated musical genre in long while... but I digress. So, all of this to say... sure REM may be somewhat over rated... and this only when it comes to their weaker albums... but to call them the "most" over rated band in America is simply thinly veiled "I just plain hate 'em no matter what they do" rhetoric. Michael Stipe can be obnoxious.. and bit of a poser, sure... but I can separate his college drama queen persona from the excellence of their music. Hey, in 1982 I had two routes to chose from... Van Halen and Foreigner, or U2, REM and Costello... I chose the latter... I never looked back. Cheers
Jacques Radio Paradise - What Radio Could Have Been...Edited By Jacques at 9:59 am on 4/03/2002
 
Thank you sir,I agree with what you say-except that R.E.M. were not even slightly overrated. Just on this forum,R.E.M.'s highest rated songs are only given 8.1s while Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in The Wall" is rated an 8.9. Seriously,I simply cannot comprehend how "Fall On Me" or "Find The River" or "Perfect Circle" do not rate as high as the above mentioned Pink Floyd song.
 Mark1970 wrote:
Wow..... no one has commented yet on how part of this song is a complete ripoff of Cheap Trick's "Way Of The World" "I've been running, I've been hiding.... it's the way of the world!"
 
Was just thinking the same thang!!!
The measure of a band's greatness is how many haters come out of the woodwork to say how much they suck.
The most obnoxious band of all time.
Wow..... no one has commented yet on how part of this song is a complete ripoff of Cheap Trick's "Way Of The World" "I've been running, I've been hiding.... it's the way of the world!"
OfficeUseOnly wrote:
end note: I miss Let's Active. Even though the founder helped produce Murmur, I still think Let's Active's Cypress(1984), was amply the best music that came from that era. REM was an instant success, and I've never quite understood why Let's Active didn't extract the same response.
I was going through some cd's this week that I hadn't listened to in ages, Let's Active, "Big Plans for Everybody" was one of them. I saw them open for REM in 1986 (Life's Rich Pageant Tour) right after that CD came out. Great cd.
Gotta like olde pre-Chronic Town REM gets recorded in the studio......they trotted out another notonanythingbutbootlegs song from 1980 on the current tour - "permanent vacation"! pk
Jacques wrote:
for God's sake Kurt Cobain had no idea what the heck he was saying... They were over rated... come to think of it grunge was the most over rated musical genre in long while... but I digress.
I agree; you digress with such force, your assessment appears as half-baked as the one you oppose. end note: I miss Let's Active. Even though the founder helped produce Murmur, I still think Let's Active's Cypress(1984), was amply the best music that came from that era. REM was an instant success, and I've never quite understood why Let's Active didn't extract the same response.
Bummer. Radioparadise does play crappy music.
The VANILLA SKY version of the song is indeed a new recording, made with Joey Waronker in the studio specifically for the soundtrack. At least three older versions exist on bootlegs and one cleaned-up in-studio (I think) version that appeared on the \"IRS VINTAGE YEARS\" re-release of DEAD LETTER OFFICE. (In addition to CHRONIC TOWN, the IRS VINTAGE YEARS disc has two or three bonus unreleased tracks.) Not sure when or where the DLO version was recorded, but it\'s got a distinctive Bill Berry drum sound. Now if only they\'d re-record and release some other 1981-era songs. I\'m dying to hear a cleaned-up, in-studio version of \"Mystery to Me.\"
Originally Posted by Johray63:
Originally Posted by Jacques: Hey, in 1982 I had two routes to chose from... Van Halen and Foreigner, or U2, REM and Costello... I chose the latter... I never looked back. Can pretty much agree with most of your comment, but weren't you a bit strict when you made that choice? I mean, why wouldn't you still like listening to some (old) van Halen or Foreigner too, every now and then? Of course, in another way than you once did, but nevertheless (or did you never really like those kinda bands in the first place?).
I am using those two as examples of a genre... I've always disliked Foreigner and Van Halen (all the while never discounting Eddie Van Halen's talent as a solid songwriter and exceptional guitarist). To me this material was commercial and predictable, written to be hits and not particularly rife with musical integrity... U2 and Costello were trying to say something, not just get the first row of seats wet with "Teen Spirit" hoping to get some themselves... Foreigner and Van Halen were the last of the old school... the last of "arena rock dinosaurs" of the 1970's, and at the time, Costello and U2 offered a fresh approach and a new sound... so I chose the new sound being completely bored with the old one... I could have given dozens of other examples of what was to me dull and unimaginative arena rock dinosaurs and similarly, dozens of other artists I felt were also in the vanguard of new exciting voices in music... I chose these examples because they were instantly recognizable as icons of their respective genres. But, I appreciate the comment and the chance to clarify what I meant. I've read other comments by you Johray63, and even replied to a few (I defended your remarks in another where you questioned the logic of a commentor named "Orbit"), I think we generally see eye to eye musically... Cheers Jacques Radio Paradise: What Radio Could Have Been
Originally Posted by Jacques: Hey, in 1982 I had two routes to chose from... Van Halen and Foreigner, or U2, REM and Costello... I chose the latter... I never looked back. Can pretty much agree with most of your comment, but weren't you a bit strict when you made that choice? I mean, why wouldn't you still like listening to some (old) van Halen or Foreigner too, every now and then? Of course, in another way than you once did, but nevertheless (or did you never really like those kinda bands in the first place?).
I agree that REM may be past their prime.. but to call them the "most over rated band in America" is a bit much. They wrote some gems other songwriters would have given their eye-teeth to have penned. As for the "most over rated band in America... please, I can recall when the american record buyer thought "Hootie and the Blowfish" were the messiahs... REM may have gotten more than their fair share of critical acclaim, but the playing field was littered with so much dross at the time it wasn't hard to single them out as exceptional... you want over rated? Try "Pearl Jam" or "Nirvana"... great bands, yes, but ultimately angry little post-pubescent snotty-faced kids that were convinced they invented dark teenage angst... they were the "Pink Floyd" of their time... 15 year olds wrote their lives according to some heroin induced rantings of Kurt Cobain... for God's sake Kurt Cobain had no idea what the heck he was saying... They were over rated... come to think of it grunge was the most over rated musical genre in long while... but I digress. So, all of this to say... sure REM may be somewhat over rated... and this only when it comes to their weaker albums... but to call them the "most" over rated band in America is simply thinly veiled "I just plain hate 'em no matter what they do" rhetoric. Michael Stipe can be obnoxious.. and bit of a poser, sure... but I can separate his college drama queen persona from the excellence of their music. Hey, in 1982 I had two routes to chose from... Van Halen and Foreigner, or U2, REM and Costello... I chose the latter... I never looked back. Cheers Jacques Radio Paradise - What Radio Could Have Been...
Originally Posted by zaknafein: It is old R.E.M. Before Vanilla Sky, the only place you could hear this song was on some old bootlegs circa 1981. The version that appears on Vanilla Sky was recorded in Seattle in October of last year. Joey Waronker is on drums.
Are you sure about the rerecording? I have a European copy of Dead Letter Office from a few years ago that has a version on it...I was under the impression that this was the same recording (even AMG states that is was an outtake from the Reckoning sessions).
Bit overproduced for my taste, which makes it sound like going nowhere. A wall of sound can be impressive, but only when the song is impressive too.
Yuck, This reminds me of the insipid TV show \"Friends\". Give them both the boot.
Originally Posted by Shimmer: God, it sounds like the old REM. When was this recorded? Who's playing drums?
It is old R.E.M. Before Vanilla Sky, the only place you could hear this song was on some old bootlegs circa 1981. The version that appears on Vanilla Sky was recorded in Seattle in October of last year. Joey Waronker is on drums.
...I agree - they\'re so far past their peak it\'s difficult to remember they had one.
God, it sounds like the old REM. When was this recorded? Who\'s playing drums?