Julie and khalid

Peter Buck particularly didn’t like it, but time has softened their attitude to it. It was the first song of theirs I'm conscious of hearing, and it led to me owning all their albums and nearly seeing them twice (long story). So it has special significance for me.

 

You weren't the only one for whom Shiny Happy People was an introduction to REM. I started writing about this yesterday but deleted it.

I'd been recommending REM to anyone who'd listen for a while. Along with dozens of other bands we used to pretentiously call 'alternative'. There was nothing alternative about it, it was just good, but back then most bands producing good music were ignored by mainstream media and just about everyone else.

And then Shiny Happy People came out and I could have died of embarrassment. It wasn't the deep, arty music I knew them for, it was some pop fluff and really quite annoying. It's probably not that bad, but I'll never be able to forget being young, naive, and intense, dressed in black wearing eyeliner, watching Michael Stipe with a stupid sideways baseball cap singing Shiny Happy bloody People and thinking What the actual F...

 

I got there towards the end of the questions just heard her say looking for a right back , everyone shouting UREDS and sad that Neighbours had finished ( she might not have said that )

 

Love REM. Indifferent to Shiny Happy People.

However I always thought it was a bit tongue in cheek. Michael Stipe has mentioned before he was depressed / suicidal in the early 90’s so I always took the song to be almost a bit of a dig at that type of song. If that makes sense?

 

I was 19, subtlety and irony sailed waaaaay over my head.

 

I'll be honest I thought it was pretty crass at the time, but years later I've decided that it's actually good. The melody and key changes in the verse and bridge are typically brilliant REM, it's just the chorus which is a bit too saccharine sweet. Stand is just as silly, but it never got the stick that Shiny Happy People attracted. Talking of saccharine, I never particularly liked Everybody Hurts, and still don't. I don't think that Shiny Happy People was supposed to be taken very seriously, whereas Everybody Hurts was, especially in the context of the album. For me it's a big lump of smelly fromage in the middle of an otherwise flawless record.

 

I’m 40. It still does.

 

The way this thread has gone is a reason quite a few posters don't post as much.There's a hand full of posters who are so bitter everything the club do they can't wait to attack or criticize.I always thought debate was looking at both sides of the story and forming sensibile opinion not just thinking the club as done this so I will attack it.Theres been so much good come out of Oakwell recently but the attackers have shyed away from these issuses choosing not to comment or praise.

 

Yesterday wasn't very good on the pitch either.

sitting in the West Stand you could hear that the bench wasn't happy with a lot of what was going on. Head in hands. Norwood got a verbal volley right before he came off. Connell failed to pick up the right man in defence set piece when he came on. Cole failed to pick up the right man from the defensive set piece when he came on.

I could go on and on. That isn't from me. That was from the bench. From Micheal Duff shouts.

Cheltenham had a few clear chances yesterday.

 

Glad you put 'new area' in that way as it really remains to be seen if it is. We are owned by the same people. We also have factions within that group going to court over money.
The stadium is part owned by council and 1 section of our many owners and continues to be neglected. As I've said often I'm willing to see if things change but not to part with any more money in the meantime.
I agree some people just want to moan about everything. But objectively i think there is still plenty to be wary of.
I'll finish with the positives though, great for the fans to be rewarded with a win yesterday and hopefully something to build on for the new coach, who I think is probably the most sensible appointment we have made in years.
Also very encouraging to see such a decent attendance, given how poorly the club was run last season and the ever increasing cost of living.

 

I'm a lazy sod, I leave the irony to the wife

 

That's because we're a league one club, not Manchester City. Our players will make errors. Small errors. Big errors. Were league one. We are not perfect.

 

plus ca change.......

 

Absolutely.

Fans getting on players backs for making mistakes is the single most stupid and counterproductive thing about football.

If one of my team makes an error at work, I work with them to improve ways of working so it’s not repeated. If all of our customers, stakeholders and competitors made a public noise about it and singled out the individual - does anyone think that’d improve anything?

Because oddly some football fans think that’s how the world should work. That there should be no mistakes ever, and if there are, the player deserves abuse.

 

Stand was easily ignored, no one had heard of them, Shiny Happy People was everywhere.

The thing I don't like about Shiny Happy People now, which barely even registered back then, is the backing vocal after the middle eight when it slows down. The constant monotone 'der, der, der, der, der, der, der'. I'm listening to it now and it's genuinely horrible. I don't understand why it's part of the song.

YouTube has just put Talking Heads' Once In A Lifetime on straight after Shiny Happy People as if to remind just how good music can be. REM are capable of getting to such heights, but Shiny Happy People isn't.

 

Well done Hemsworth. Managed to get a dig in at Norwood. Nought out of ten for the surprise factor there.
Yawn.

 

BBS: Julie and Khaled didn't talk to fans yesterday
Hemsteiger: no but Norwood got shouted at for being bin juice.