Editorial Review:

Amazon.com Review:
Now in its second edition, It Crawled from the South is an encyclopedic, non-linear, mostly non-hagiographic book about those enigmatic guys from Athens, Georgia. Marcus Gray furnishes thumbnail sketches of each member, as well as chapters on the band's recording history, politics, album packaging, and regional accent. The author is also fearless enough to venture into the black hole of Michael Stipe's lyrics. He doesn't, to be sure, make sense of Stipe's associative rambles, and the singer himself lets Gray off the hook by confessing that "three-quarters of my lyrics probably come from overheard conversations. I steal a lot, basically. Someone will say something really interesting, and I'll write it down." Okay. But we'd still like to know what a moral kiosk is.

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.

Average Rating:

Rating: - What ever happened to REM?
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.

Rating: - Terrible pile of crap
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.

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Rating: - IT CRAWLED FROM THE SOUTH: AN R.E.M. COMPANION
I HAD THIS BOOK AT ONE POINT. IT IS VERY INFORMATIVE! THE BEST R.E.M. BOOK I'VE READ. I USED TO HAVE 5 BOOKS. BUT, I'M BUILDING MY COLLECTION AGAIN. I'VE LOVED R.E.M. SINCE 1995.

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Rating: - IT CRAWLED FROM THE SOUTH: AN R.E.M. COMPANION
I HAD THIS BOOK AT ONE POINT. IT IS VERY INFORMATIVE! THE BEST R.E.M. BOOK I'VE READ. I USED TO HAVE 5 BOOKS. BUT, I'M BUILDING MY COLLECTION AGAIN. I'VE LOVED R.E.M. SINCE 1995.

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Rating: - well, it's a good book...
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.

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Related Items:

Reveal: The Story of R.E.M.

Remarks Remade: The Story of R.E.M

R.E.M. : Talk About the Passion : An Oral History (Updated Edition)

R.E.M.: Inside Out: The Stories Behind Every Song

R.E.M.'s Murmur (33 1/3)

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