R.E.M. Performs 'Radio Free Europe' & 'So. Central Rain' | Letterman

The Athens band makes their network television debut.
(From "Late Night," air date: 10/6/83)

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Welcome to the Letterman YouTube Channel, home to all your favorite clips from Late Night and Late Show - as well as conversations with the writers, producers and performers who helped make it all happen. The language may strike you as quaint & flowery, the clothing comically lacey & ornate — but that’s how things were back in this colorful and now bygone era.

[scottytherich]

When this aired I was in South Korea serving in the US Army. I had been a DJ in college before joining and was into all kinds of music. I had read the Rolling Stone review of "Murmur" and bought the album at the PX. I may have been the first person to play REM in South Korea! I forced alot of my friends to hear REM and made them alot of fans.

[robertst.claire]

Mike Mills plays bass like it's lead guitar. Bravo.

[chrissennfelder]

It's crazy how good they were right from the start.

[BillLedesma]

Mike Mills is the one who provides the drive and the hooks in both these songs....If there was any question of how important a bass player is in a band, this is the proof.

[malange]

It's hard for people to appreciate how radical this sound was in 1983. Where are the cold droning synths, the morgue vocals, the electronic drums, the hairspray? What a lifeline they were at that time. I've never fully recovered from Murmur.

[ThisSteveGuy]

Gotta love the matching Rickenbackers.

[darklordlc]

The purity of their sound at this moment was amazing. No BS, no effects. Amazing stuff that is timeless.

[jasoncinema]

I love that Stipe, even in those nascent days of their career, takes a step back and lets Peter and Mike have their moment in the interview spotlight.

[SavageDawgJoshua]

Man... So. Central Rain is so good and so quintessentially REM.... And they had the balls to debut it with no title on Letterman. Wow. Respect.

[UpstateMediaNY]

Easily one of the greatest Letterman music performances of the entire run. Legendary....

[Spitson]

This was the beginning of American Indie and Alternative rock.

[yeldarb]

Bill Berry was an absolute metronome. So precise and complimented the rest of the band so well.

[midwestlawyer]

I am a boomer and Murmur and Reckoning came out while I was in law school. One of my favorite bands of all time. Every so often I just have to put them on and melt into the music.

[mschwes]

As good as REM was here can we also appreciate how good Letterman was at finding and putting on acts like this over the years? He is a music fan and allowed a lot of us to get exposed to music like this before the days of the internet.

[rileyyyyh]

wow 2 fender amps and 2 rickenbackers. i love how simple yet big early alt bands sounded.

[dougtull]

I still remember discovering REM. They were a breath of fresh air and essentially "American."

[philyates]

I always enjoy listening to interviews with Mike Mills. He's such an interesting, enthusiastic, intelligent and charismatic person with no ego, no arrogance and no rock star swagger. You could meet him in a bar and not realise that he was a member of one of the most success bands of all time. He's always very generous and respectful to the interviewer even if they're poor with lazy cliched questions. I could listen to him all day.

[Walnutsasquatch]

Mike Mills looks like a little kid when he walks up to Dave at the end of Radio Free Europe, and it's awesome.

[Goatchild]

Murmur is one of the greatest albums of all time. A classic

[richardherring]

First tv performance and they slayed it like they had been playing for 30 years together!