Electrolite

Infobox Single
Name = Electrolite


Artist = R.E.M.
Album = New Adventures in Hi-Fi
A-side = "Electrolite"
B-side = "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live), "Binky the Doormat" (Live), "King of Comedy" (808 State remix)
Released = Startdate|1996|12
Format = Compact Disc, 7" record, 12" record, Cassette
Recorded = November 4, 1995, Phoenix, Arizona
Genre = Alternative rock, piano rock
Length = 4:05
Label = Warner Bros.
Writer = Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Michael Stipe
Producer = Scott Litt & R.E.M.
Audio sample? =
Last single = "Bittersweet Me"
(1996)
This single = "Electrolite"
(1997)
Next single = "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us"
(1997)"Electrolite" is a song by R.E.M., released as their third single from their tenth studio album, "New Adventures in Hi-Fi". The song is a piano rockCitation |title=R.E.M. Set's Rundown The Act's Buck And Mills Discuss Cuts |author=Craig Rosen |magazine=Billboard |date=1996-08-10] ballad to Los Angeles and Hollywood icons. The single was released in December 1996 in the United Kingdom and on February 2, 1997 in the United States.

Initially, Michael Stipe objected to including the song on the album, but was won over by Peter Buck and Mike Mills. It has since become one of his favorite R.E.M. songs as well as one of Thom Yorke's;Citation |title=R.E.M. interview |magazine=The Big Takedown |date=June 2008] Radiohead have covered the song.Cite web| url=http://www.canada.com/edmontonjournal/news/culture/story.html?id=8a806c26-4961-46b4-8041-62a4b43e6e81 |title=Concert review: Radiohead casts hypnotic spell |author=Craig Rosen |publisher="Edmonton Journal" |date=08-26-2008 |accessdate=08-28-2008]

The single's music video, directed by Peter Care and Spike Jonze, "involved dune buggies, crazy costumes, and rubber reindeer."cite book |authorlink=Craig Rosen |title=R.E.M. Inside Out: The Stories Behind Every Song |publisher=Da Capo Press |date=1997 |isbn=1560251778]

Composition

The piano line for the song was originally written by Mills in his apartment before bringing it to the band.Citation |last=Caro |first=Mark |title=Mike Mills reveals R.E.M.'s songwriting process, sort of |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=2008-06-30] The lyrics were composed by Stipe about the two-year period he spent living in Santa Monica and the trips he would take to people-watch on Mulholland Drive.Cite web |url=http://tour.remhq.com/content/rem-electrolite-wintro-live-hollywood-bowl-52908 |title=R.E.M. - Electrolite w/intro - live Hollywood Bowl 5/29/08 |publisher=R.E.M. |date=2008-05-29 |accessdate=2008-08-24] During a June 21, 2008 performance in Atlanta, Georgia, Stipe mentioned that he was inspired to write the song after the 1994 Northridge earthquake. He told the audience that his home that he was living at was badly damaged and he went up Mullholland Drive and watched the lights from the city at night.

Like all of "New Adventures in Hi-Fi", this song was recorded while on tour promoting "Monster". This song was recorded by Joe O'Herlihy, Scott Litt, and Jo Ravitch during a soundcheck before their November 4, 1995 show in Phoenix, Arizona's Desert Sky Pavilion.

Lyrics

In June 2006, the website of the "Los Angeles Times" featured an article on Mulholland DriveCite web |url=http://www.latimes.com/classified/automotive/highway1/cars/la-hy-125mulholland21jun21,0,5087817.story |title='If you ever want to fly...' |author=Thomas Curwen |publisher=Los Angeles Times |date=2006-06-21 |accessdate=2008-08-24] including excerpts from an essay Stipe wroteCite web |url=http://web.archive.org/web/20061018051742/http://www.remhq.com/flash/news/news.html?news_id=2112 |title=06.22.06MICHAEL ON MULHOLLAND DRIVE |author=Michael Stipe |publisher=R.E.M. |date=2006-06-22 |accessdate=2008-08-24] about the 55-mile-long highway:

:"Mulholland represents to me the iconic 'from on high' vantage point looking down at L.A. and the valley at night when the lights are all sparkling and the city looks, like it does from a plane, like a blanket of fine lights all shimmering and solid. I really wanted to write a farewell song to the 20th century.

::20th century go to sleep.::Really deep.::We won't blink.

:"And nowhere seemed more perfect than the city that came into its own throughout the 20th century, but always looking forward and driven by ideas of a greater future, at whatever cost.

:"Los Angeles.

:"I name check three of the great legends of that single industry 'town,' as it likes to refer to itself. In order: James Dean, Steve McQueen, Martin Sheen. All iconic, all representing different aspects of masculinity—a key feature of 20th century ideology. It is the push me-pull you of a culture drawing on mid-century ideas of society, butt up against and in a great tug-of-war with modernism/rebirth/epiphany/futurism, wiping out all that that came before to be replaced by something 'better,' more civilized, more tolerant, fair, open, and so on ... [see 'reagan,' 'soylent green,' 'bladerunner,' current gubernatorial debates]

:"The 'really deep' in the lyric is, of course, self-deprecating towards attempting at all, in a pop song, to communicate any level of depth or real insight.:"Mulholland is the place in films where you get a distance, and the awe, of the city built on dreams and fantasy. Far away enough to not smell it but to marvel at its intensity and sheer audacity. Kinda great.

:"The title of the song came from flying into L.A. and/or seeing it from on high and it looking like a blanket of stars or those bizarre sea creatures that light up when you stir up the water. How I got 'electrolite' out of that I don't know, I still can't think of the word I was going for, but it is actually called 'phosphorescence' or 'bioluminescence.' I thought it was 'electro'- something, so I just used light/lyte, giving it the 'lite' of modern fad diet language."

During R.E.M.'s performance on "VH1 Storytellers", Stipe introduced the song by saying:

"I had a dentist in Los Angeles, who was also a dentist to Martin Sheen, and Martin Sheen was in the dentist's chair, getting his tooth drilled, when I went up to him and said, 'We have a record coming out in a couple of weeks and you're mentioned in one of the songs, and I just want you to know that it's honoring you; I don't want you to think that we're making fun of you.' And he was saying [impression of Sheen speaking with the dentist working on his mouth] 'Thank you very much!'. He was very nice about it."

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.
#"Electrolite" – 4:05
#"The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live) – 5:07 Recorded at the Omni Theater, Atlanta Georgia on November 18, 1995. Taken from the live performance video, "Road Movie".
#"Binky the Doormat" (Live) – 5:01 Recorded at the Omni Theater, Atlanta, Georgia on November 18, 1995. Taken from the live performance video, "Road Movie".
#"King of Comedy" (808 State remix) – 5:36

Release history

"Electrolite" was released as a single on 7" and 12" vinyl, cassette, and two-track and maxi-CD singles. The 7", cassette, and two-track CD releases only contain "Electrolite" and "The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live).

Chart history

Personnel

;"Electrolite"
*Bill Berry – Drum kit, percussion
*Peter Buck – Banjo, guitar
*Andy Carlson – Violin
*Nathan December – Guiro
*Mike Mills – Piano
*Michael Stipe – Vocals

;"The Wake-Up Bomb" (Live)
*Bill Berry - Drums
*Peter Buck - Guitar
*Nathan December - Guitar
*Scott McCaughey - Guitar, keyboards
*Mike Mills - Bass guitar, vocals
*Michael Stipe - Vocals

;"Binky the Doormat" (Live)
*Bill Berry - Drums
*Peter Buck - Guitar
*Nathan December - Guitar
*Scott McCaughey - Guitar, keyboards
*Mike Mills - Bass guitar, vocals
*Michael Stipe - Vocals

;"King of Comedy" (808 State Remix)
*Bill Berry - Drums
*Peter Buck - Guitar
*Sally Dworski - Background vocals
*Mike Mills - Bass guitar, vocals
*Michael Stipe - Vocals

Live versions

;June 8, 1997, New York City
*Mike Mills - Drum machine, piano
*Michael Stipe - Vocals

;October 27, 1998, London
*Peter Buck - Guitar
*Scott McCaughey - Keyboards
*Mike Mills - Piano
*Michael Stipe - Vocals
*Ken Stringfellow - Bass guitar
*Joey Waronker - Drums, percussion

;April 9, 2004, Wiesbaden
*Peter Buck - Guitar
*Scott McCaughey - Keyboards
*Mike Mills - Piano
*Bill Rieflin - Drums, percussion
*Michael Stipe - Vocals
*Ken Stringfellow - Banjo

;April 9, 2004, New York City
*Peter Buck - Guitar
*Scott McCaughey - Keyboards
*Mike Mills - Piano
*Bill Rieflin - Drums, percussion
*Michael Stipe - Vocals
*Ken Stringfellow - Banjo

References

External links

* [http://www.remhq.com/lyrics.php?id=317 Lyrics from R.E.M. HQ]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYzCU_cmFHo Full video on R.E.M. HQ's YouTube channel]