{"id":9400,"date":"2026-03-13T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/deep-cut-friday-7-chinese-bros-by-r-e-m\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:30:00","slug":"deep-cut-friday-7-chinese-bros-by-r-e-m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/deep-cut-friday-7-chinese-bros-by-r-e-m\/","title":{"rendered":"Deep Cut Friday: \u20187 Chinese Bros.\u2019 by R.E.M."},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.spinmagazine.com\/files\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-75503274.jpg\" width=\"1200\" height=\"782\" alt=\"R.E.M. on July 7, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois. (Credit: Paul Natkin\/Image Direct)\"><figcaption>R.E.M. on July 7, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois.<br \/>\n(Credit: Paul Natkin\/Image Direct)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><em>Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for our Deep Cut Friday series.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In R.E.M.\u2019s early years, Michael Stipe was comfortable with ambiguity, as a lyricist and as a public figure. His lyrics were dense and cryptic, but they wouldn\u2019t be printed out in the band\u2019s liner notes, and his vocals would sometimes be buried in the mix. He declined to lip sync in the band\u2019s music videos, and sometimes he\u2019d hide behind his hair onstage, mumbling the words that fascinated his fans. \u201cSeven Chinese brothers swallowing the ocean \/ Seven thousand years to sleep away the pain,\u201d he sang on the standout second track from 1984\u2019s <em>Reckoning<\/em>, an apparent reference to a parable about greed in Claire Huchet Bishop\u2019s children\u2019s book <em>The Five Chinese Brothers<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>More from Spin:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spinmagazine.com\/2026\/03\/bleachers-tour-opening-acts\/\">Bleachers Bringing Linda Lindas, American Football On Tour<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spinmagazine.com\/2026\/03\/ai-scales-info-irl-scales-trust\/\">AI Scales Info. IRL Scales Trust<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.spinmagazine.com\/2026\/03\/mike-mccready-graphic-novel-album\/\">Mike McCready Mines The Many \u2018Seasons\u2019 Of Seattle Music<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"7hGe2ao0yms\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Stipe\u2019s sexual ambiguity was also a subject of interest to the public, and he didn\u2019t begin to openly address his bisexuality in interviews or lyrics until the mid-\u201990s. In Michael Azerrad\u2019s 2008 <a href=\"https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=-mtlg-iLEtAC&amp;pg=PA61&amp;lpg=PA61&amp;dq=#v=onepage&amp;q&amp;f=false\" target=\"_blank\">SPIN cover story<\/a> on R.E.M., Stipe eventually revealed an unknown autobiographical element of that particular mysterious lyric. \u201cThere are songs I wrote in the past that were gender-specific. \u20187 Chinese Bros.\u2019 was about me breaking up a couple \u2013 and then dating both of them, a man and a woman, which is a terrible thing to do, but I was young and stupid. \u2018So. Central Rain\u2019 was about the same relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>R.E.M. had stopped performing \u201c7 Chinese Bros.\u201d well before the end of the \u201980s. It returned to the band\u2019s setlists in 2005, though, and remained a staple through their final shows in 2008.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-4-3 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<lite-youtube videoid=\"-kkLuSlOE3U\" style=\"bottom: 0; height: 100%; left: 0; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; width: 100%; max-width:100%;\"><\/lite-youtube>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Stipe initially had trouble getting a confident vocal take for \u201c7 Chinese Bros.\u201d during the <em>Reckoning<\/em> sessions. Producer Don Dixon handed him an album by the gospel group the Revelaires, and Stipe loosened up by reading the LP\u2019s liner notes over the band\u2019s performance in the song\u2019s vocal melody. The resulting oddity, \u201cVoice of Harold,\u201d was released on the B side of the \u201cSo. Central Rain\u201d single, and later the band\u2019s 1987 rarities compilation <em>Dead Letter Office<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-three-more-essential-r-e-m-deep-cuts\"><strong>Three more essential R.E.M. deep cuts:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-feeling-gravitys-pull\"><strong>\u201cFeeling Gravitys Pull\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Peter Buck expanded from his signature jangly guitar sound with the jagged post-punk harmonics on \u201cFeeling Gravitys Pull,\u201d the striking opening track from 1985\u2019s <em>Fables of the Reconstruction<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-you-are-the-everything\"><strong>\u201cYou Are the Everything\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Buck first started experimenting with mandolin on 1988\u2019s <em>Green<\/em>, resulting in gorgeous album tracks like \u201cYou Are the Everything\u201d and \u201cHarborcoat\u201d a few years before the mandolin took center stage on the band\u2019s biggest hit, 1991\u2019s \u201cLosing My Religion.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-sweetness-follows\"><strong>\u201cSweetness Follows\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Half of the band considered this <em>Automatic for the People<\/em> track to be R.E.M.\u2019s pinnacle, at least at one point in time. \u201cThis is me and Peter\u2019s favorite song,\u201d Stipe said while introducing \u201cSweetness Follows\u201d at the Glastonbury festival in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spin.com\/2021\/07\/the-greatest-rock-stars-of-all-time\/?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=bottomlink&amp;utm_campaign=yahoolink\">click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R.E.M. on July 7, 1984, in Chicago, Illinois. (Credit: Paul Natkin\/Image Direct) Each week, SPIN digs into the catalogs of great artists and highlights songs you might not know for&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2152,24,2325],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deep-cut-friday","category-pushly","category-r-e-m"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}