I was shocked to discover that I’ve posted 3,808 Songs of the Day without once featuring a song from R.E.M.’s 1987 album Dead Letter Office.
This collection of B-sides, outtakes and loose ends was released between 1986’s Lifes Rich Pageant and 1987’s Document, which made an appearance on Random Weekends exactly one week ago.
The lineup is a mix of cover songs (The Velvet Underground’s ‘There She Goes Again’ and ‘Pale Blue Eyes,’ Roger Miller’s ‘King of the Road,’ Aerosmith’s ‘Toys in the Attic’) and original songs the band seems to value far less than their fans.
‘Ages of You,’ for example, is an early highlight as good as anything on Fables of the Reconstruction but relegated to the B-side of ‘Wendell Gee’ as a song they “got tired of,” according to guitarist Peter Buck.
Today’s track, ‘Bandwagon,’ is another fan favorite. Originally released as the B-side of ‘Can’t Get There From Here,’ it’s a gloriously infectious jangly pop confection. Yesiree Bob!
Come on aboard, I promise you you won’t hurt the horse
We treat him well, we feed him well
There’s lots of room for you on the bandwagon
The road may be rough, the weather may forget us
[Verse 1]
But won’t we all parade around and sing our songs
A magic kingdom, open-armed
Greet us hello, bravo, name in lights
Passing on the word to fellow passengers and players, passing in
Until you’re tired looking at all the flags
And all the banners waving
This is some parade, yesiree Bob
Could we have known?
Yesiree Bob, could we have known?
Look at all the flags and all the banners waving
Open up our arms, a magic kingdom, open-armed and greet us all
[Chorus]
Come on aboard, I promise you you won’t hurt the horse
We treat him well, we feed him well
There’s lots of room for you on the bandwagon
The road may be rough, the weather may forget us
[Verse 2]
But won’t we all parade around
And sing our songs and wave our flags
A magic kingdom, greet us all hello
Greet us hello, greet us hello
Meet Me In Montauk 
This is more in the style of the REM I like, which makes sense given when it was written, but I can also see why it might be relegated to a B side given the quality of the A side with “Can’t Get There From Here” and the rest of the songs on Life’s Rich Pageant and Document (though I am admittedly less familiar with Document).