‘Maps and Legends’ is the first R.E.M. song that I remember experiencing. The year was 1988 and I was a sophomore in high school. My sister had discovered R.E.M. in college, I guess, and was obsessed with the song ‘Green Grow the Rushes’ on their third album, Fables of the Reconstruction. She has always been one to focus in on a single song and play the hell out of it (currently, it’s Vampire Weekend’s ‘Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa‘), a trait my daughter’s apparently inherited.
I bought my own copy of the album on cassette and listened to it in my parents’ basement. ‘Maps and Legends’ is the second song on the album but it’s the one that grabbed me by the collar and shook me like a rag doll. I was only just beginning to get into music and this song might represent the first time I really experienced that thrill of discovery.
Michael Stipe’s throaty mumbles, Peter Buck’s melodic but muscular guitar work, Mike Mills’ hypnotic bass and achingly sweet background vocals… this was a new sound, a sound all their own, and I think it’s when I first understood what it means for a band to have a signature sound.
To this day, I consider Fables of the Reconstruction the band’s best album and it may go back to the theory that an artist’s best-loved work is the one that first drew you in. They’ve certainly done marvelous things since then but this was their moment of transcendence.
Meet Me In Montauk 
I wouldn’t say I was “obsessed” with “Green Grow the Rushes,” but, yes, this album was in heavy (read sole) rotation on my old record player in Rawlings dormitory. I couldn’t agree with you more that this song (more than yesterday’s entry) IS R.E.M.
I also think it makes a lot of sense that the album that first draws you in – at least to the extent this one drew me and you in – is the one you’ll always hold in highest regard. Everything else the band does must invariably be compared to it. Perhaps unsurprisingly it is with the bands I discovered in college that I can most notice that trend (10,000 Maniacs, R.E.M., Indigo Girls occur off the top of my head). Maybe it’s a nostalgia for the time in your life when you discovered them as much as it is an appreciation of the music itself?
Regardless, this was a great way to start my morning, so thanks for “Maps and Legends.” Now I’m off to make my bed and put my sweater on.
Oh boy! Is this classic R.E.M. or what?? That sound is so recognizable and I can totally understand why this is the song that shook you up. It has so many layers. Love it!
Thanks for a great (so far) theme week. 🙂
Ditto the comments above. Love the song, love the album. To me, the only later album that might give this one a run as “best” is Automatic for the People. But Fables is REM at their finest. As for other standouts on this album, love Driver 8, love Can’t Get There From Here, love Green Grow and love Auctioneer, which is not to say that I don’t adore the other songs as well, because I do!
One of my all time favourite songs, i love the lyrics and the imagery the song conjures up. To me theres a sense of the mysterious deep south of another era in it, you could just imagine a video to it, mysteries eccentrics maps journeys legends etc, The bands song writing is amazing. Feeling Gravities Pull is another totally off the cuff track with its atmospheric and original guitar parts. I agree I think Fables along with Murmur are easily REMs finest moments. Lifes Rich Pageant is also up there, what a terrific album aswell.