The band who spawned the REM sound, according to Elvis Costello
There aren’t too many bands that had more of an impact on the sound of the alternative and indie rock scene from the 1980s onwards than REM. The Athens, Georgia, group were on top from the moment they released their debut album, Murmur, in 1983, and with several more acclaimed albums in just over three decades, they only went on to solidify themselves as being one of the most important bands to have emerged out of the period, paving the way for acts like Pixies, Nirvana and Radiohead to go on to push the genre in different directions.
While they claim to have been primarily influenced by US proto-punk acts such as the Velvet Underground, Television and fellow Athenians Pylon, there’s also a fair chance they had a keen interest in what was going on across the pond in the UK’s new wave and post-punk scene in the late ‘70s, with acts such as Elvis Costello, XTC and Buzzcocks being at the forefront in the corresponding movement. These acts can likely all claim to have significantly influenced future musical trends at home and around the world, just as REM can claim to have done themselves.
The Byrds, of course, predate all of the aforementioned acts, and while on the surface of things, they’re somewhat removed from the sounds of future decades, the folk-rock group were highly influential to countless bands, and even to this day, new artists are unwittingly referencing the songwriting of the band in their music. Releasing 12 albums in the space of eight years, their constantly revolving cast of members boasts in impressive list of alumni, with Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark and David Crosby being among the most notable in the original incarnation.
This might seem like an inexplicably disjointed list of different acts and scenes, talking about how important they are to the history of modern music, but a link can be drawn between all three. In a feature for the Australian publication The Courier-Mail in 1998, Costello drew an inextricable link between the impact of the Byrds and what REM went on to achieve, saying that there aren’t many bands of their kind that don’t owe a lot to the songwriting of McGuinn.
In the interview, Costello said, “McGuinn is still ahead of his times,” which is not an unfair comment about the principal songwriter in the American folk group. Going on a slight tangent, he would then go on to relay a quote attributed to jazz bassist Charles Mingus in reference to saxophonist Charlie Parker, telling the magazine that Mingus had said: “If Charlie was a gangster, there would be a lot of dead saxophone players.”
Despite misquoting Mingus and possibly missing the intended meaning of the quip, Costello would return to the initial subject shortly after, saying, “Well, if Roger McGuinn was a gangster, there would be a lot of dead REMs and groups like that. Not that they’re not good groups, but without Roger McGuinn, they wouldn’t exist.”
While the jangly psychedelic folk of the Byrds certainly did influence many bands for years after their disbandment in 1973, it isn’t entirely accurate to say that REM and all of the bands that came after them wouldn’t have existed since they clearly had influences coming from elsewhere. However, they and several others may have sounded radically different without the influence of the ‘60s, but then again, who wouldn’t?
