“Begin The Begin” by R.E.M.

"Begin the Begin" throws open Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.'s fourth album, out on I.R.S. in 1986, and it announces a band stepping out of the fog: Michael Stipe's voice comes through clearer than ever, Peter Buck's guitar chimes and bites, and Mike Mills and Bill Berry drive it like a march. Don Gehman produced.

It started on acoustic guitars at Stipe's house as a baggier thing, a minute longer, with five separate choruses and neither a bridge nor much of a melody, before the band hammered it into shape. The title puns on Cole Porter's "Begin the Beguine", the words are thick with Americana and revolution, and Stipe has pitched it as a song about activism, personal and political at once. Never a single, it became a favorite set-opener, even kicking off their Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Georgia Music Hall of Fame induction performances.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.