The tragically failed collaboration between Neil Young and R.E.M.
From Nirvana to Noel Gallagher, Neil Young has affected countless influential acts of contemporary music. His work in Buffalo Springfield, CSNY and as a solo artist rank among some of the most consequential in popular music. Affectionately dubbed the ‘Godfather of Grunge’, Young drew up the blueprint for the genre and broader alternative rock. Given his importance to alternative culture, there’s no real surprise that the Canadian-born musician is something of a kindred spirit to R.E.M, one of the most significant acts the genre has ever seen.
It is well known that Neil Young and R.E.M. are associates, notably that the latter performed ‘Country Feedback’ at the former’s annual Bridge School Benefit concert in 1998. Famously, the song is four minutes long on the 1991 record Out of Time but was stretched to over nine minutes during the show, with Young wholly ensconced in the soul of R.E.M. The band’s frontman, Michael Stipe, was visibly moved by what he saw, attempting to match his hero but breaking on some of the most emotive notes. In fact, that day, there was an exchange of covers, as R.E.M. helped Young to perform his maudlin On the Beach track ‘Ambulance Blues’, which was a moving take on the original.
Whilst this shared performance between Neil Young and his disciples was mightily impressive, there was a moment in the middle of the previous decade when the two had an opportunity to work together in the studio. However, as Young later revealed, he wasn’t permitted to enter the studio with the quartet without being sued by Geffen. The record label filed a lawsuit against him in November 1983 for the commercial failure of that year’s Everybody’s Rockin’ and its controversial electronic predecessor, Trans.
Famously, Young submitted a $21million countersuit, claiming that the label had breached their side of the contract, as he had been promised no creative interference. Ironically, R.E.M. were about to sign with Geffen around this time, but the label’s treatment of Young led to them signing with one of their rivals instead, Warner Bros.
When speaking to Mojo in 1995, the interviewer told Young that R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck once informed him that both parties had planned to record an album in the mid-80s, but it never happened because Young wasn’t allowed to enter a studio with them “without being sued by Geffen”.
Young responded: “There was certainly something like that going on back then. Actually, it’s funny: R.E.M. were going to go with Geffen, then they heard I was being sued and everything, they just dropped all contact with Geffen and signed with Warner Bros instead. Geffen actually lost R.E.M. simply for suing me over Everybody’s Rockin!“
