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Dead Letter Office (album)

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Untitled

Dead Letter Office is a rarities and B-sides collection by R.E.M., released in 1987. The album effectively mops up many of the additional recordings R.E.M. made pre-Murmur to Lifes Rich Pageant that were outtakes or released as flip sides to their singles internationally. Many of the tracks are favorite cover versions indicating the band's disparate influences and musical tastes, including three Velvet Underground covers, and songs by Pylon, Aerosmith and Roger Miller.

Guitarist Peter Buck composed wry, self-deprecating (and, in one instance, apologetic) liner notes to the songs on Dead Letter Office.

The album was initially issued as a 15-song collection on vinyl and cassette, but when its CD edition appeared (now the only available edition of Dead Letter Office) the Chronic Town EP from 1982 was added to it.

Dead Letter Office originally reached #52 in the U.S. and #60 in the UK.

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, except as indicated.

  1. "Crazy" (Randy Bewley, Vanessa Briscoe, Curtis Crowe, Michael Lachowski) – 3:03
  2. "There She Goes Again" (Lou Reed) – 2:50
  3. "Burning Down" – 4:12
  4. "Voice of Harold"1 – 4:24
  5. "Burning Hell" – 3:49
  6. "White Tornado" – 1:55
  7. "Toys in the Attic" (Steven Tyler, Joe Perry) – 2:28
  8. "Windout" (Jerry Ayers, Berry, Buck, Mills, Stipe) – 1:58
  9. "Ages of You" – 3:42
  10. "Pale Blue Eyes" (Reed) – 2:53
  11. "Rotary Ten" – 2:00
  12. "Bandwagon" (Berry, Buck, Mills, Lynda Stipe, M. Stipe) – 2:16
  13. "Femme Fatale" (Reed) – 2:49
  14. "Walters Theme" – 1:32
  15. "King of the Road"2 (Roger Miller) – 3:13
  16. "Wolves, Lower" – 4:10
  17. "Gardening at Night" – 3:29
  18. "Carnival of Sorts (Boxcars)" – 3:54
  19. "1,000,000" – 3:06
  20. "Stumble" – 5:40

Note that tracks 16–20 were originally released on the Chronic Town EP in 1982 and added to CD edition of Dead Letter Office.

The IRS Years reissue

On January 26 1993, EMI (which owns the I.R.S. catalogue) re-released Dead Letter Office with two bonus tracks:

  2. "Gardening at Night" (Acoustic version)
  3. "All the Right Friends"

Notes

1 Features the backing track of "7 Chinese Bros." with Stipe reading the liner notes from the back cover of a gospel album (The Joy Of Knowing Jesus) by The Revelaires.

2 Buck says this track was recorded extemporaneously during a recording session while the band was drunk. It consists mostly of Stipe fumbling through the lyrics as Buck and Mills try to arrive at the same key.

Charts

Album

Year Chart Position
1987 The Billboard 200 52 (14 weeks on chart)
1987 UK Albums Chart 60 (2 weeks on chart)

Single

Year Single Chart Position
1987 "Ages of You" Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks 39
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