R.E.M. achieved global success with the 1988 release of ‘Green’, the quartet’s sixth studio album and first for Warner Bros. Records, which would be the band’s label home for the rest of their recording career.
While R.E.M. was fast becoming one of the most acclaimed and revered acts in the U.S., ‘Green’ was their first album to gain the attention of a worldwide audience. Packed with tracks destined to be definitive additions to the band’s canon, including ‘Orange Crush’, ‘Pop Song 89’ and ‘Stand’, ‘Green’ was certified double platinum in the States and doubled the domestic sales of the band’s previous release. ‘Green’ continued R.E.M.’s dedication to the message of social consciousness, as evidenced by the album’s title, which would go on to became a ubiquitous buzzword for environmentally friendly initiatives.
To celebrate the landmark album’s 25-year anniversary, Rhino is releasing a two-disc deluxe edition that features the remastered original album accompanied by a disc of live performances taken from the penultimate show of R.E.M.’s 130-date Green World Tour. All twenty-one songs were recorded in Greensboro, North Carolina on November 10, 1989, just miles from where Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Bill Berry had their very first recording session at Mitch Easter’s Drive-In Studio in Winston-Salem.
The anniversary set is packaged in a hard clamshell box (similar to previous R.E.M. reissues) and comes with four postcards and a foldout poster, plus insightful liner notes by Uncut editor Allan Jones. ‘Green: 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition’ will be released on May 13th on double CD and digital formats set. The remastered album with original art and packaging will also be available on 180-gram vinyl.
Rhino will also release the limited edition five-track ‘Live in Greensboro’ EP on April 20th as part of Record Store Day. It features a handful of performances from the Greensboro show that, due to space constraints, are not found on the Deluxe Edition, including the ‘Green’ track ‘I Remember California’ and classics like ‘So. Central Rain’ and ‘Feeling Gravitys Pull’. Limited to just 2,500 copies, the disc comes with an original (non-reproduction) patch from the Green Tour which were recently uncovered in the band’s vault.
GREEN: 25TH ANNIVERSARY DELUXE EDITION
Track Listing
Disc One – Original Album
1. “Pop Song 89”
2. “Get Up”
3. “You Are The Everything”
4. “Stand”
5. “World Leader Pretend”
6. “The Wrong Child”
7. “Orange Crush”
8. “Turn You Inside Out”
9. “Hairshirt”
10. “I Remember California”
11. “Untitled”
Disc Two – Live In Greensboro 1989
1. “Stand”
2. “The One I Love”
3. “Turn You Inside Out”
4. “Belong”
5. “Exhuming McCarthy”
6. “Good Advices”
7. “Orange Crush”
8. “Cuyahoga”
9. “These Days”
10. “World Leader Pretend”
11. “I Believe”
12. “Get Up”
13. “Life And How To Live It”
14. “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”
15. “Pop Song 89”
16. “Fall On Me”
17. “You Are The Everything”
18. “Begin The Begin”
19. “Low”
20. “Finest Worksong”
21. “Perfect Circle”
LIVE IN GREENSBORO EP – Record Store Day Exclusive
1. “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)”
2. “Feeling Gravitys Pull”
3. “Strange”
4. “King of Birds”
5. “I Remember California”
