REMtrospective 4: Fables of the Reconstruction

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Released on: June 10, 1985

Favorite tracks: “Feeling Gravitys Pull,” “Old Man Kensey,” “Can’t Get There From Here”

Supposedly Fables of the Reconstruction (or would that be Reconstruction of the Fables?) is about the American South. The term “Reconstruction” harks back to Dixie following the Civil War, and there are little references to Southern geography in the songs. Rumor has it that “Maps and Legends” is allegedly dedicated to outsider artist Howard Finster of Summerville, Ga., who did the Reckoning cover. Stipe’s lyrics always pepper in bits of Southern vernacular, although I’m not sure that “Can’t Get There From Here” counts as a “Southern” expression. The song does refer to Philomath, Georgia, though. And the soft banjo in the album-closing “Wendell Gee” delicately evokes bluegrass.

I have a hard time interpreting Fables as some kind of alt-rock equivalent to a William Faulkner novel, though. (“Swan Swan H” on R.E.M.’s subsequent album, Lifes Rich Pageant, does have more of a Southern “literary” theme, however.) To me, its “Southern” mostly in the ways that Chronic Town feels Southern, and generally seems like a continuation of some of Chronic Town’s ideas. Someone could probably make a case that R.E.M., who helped turn Athens, Ga., into an alt-rock mecca, influenced Southern rock and roll more than Southern music influenced it.

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