"Live" - R.E.M.
Album
U2 Related Content:
- "Walk Unafraid" (Live from Dublin, Feb. 26, 2005) - R.E.M. (05:02)
Full Track Listing:
Disc One:
- I Took Your Name
- So Fast, So Numb
- Boy in the Well
- Cuyahoga
- Everybody Hurts
- Electron Blue
- Bad Day
- The Ascent of Man
- The Great Beyond
- Leaving New York
- Orange Crush
- I Wanted to Be Wrong
- Final Straw
- Imitation of Life
- The One I Love
- Walk Unafraid
- Losing My Religion
Disc Two: - What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
- Drive
- (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
- I’m Gonna DJ
- Man on the Moon
Background Information
R.E.M. released “Live” as their first live album after a long career. It was recorded live at the Point Depot in Dublin, Ireland, on February 26 and 27 in 2005, but was not released until 2007. The shows recorded were part of the closing leg of the Around the World tour in support of the album “Around the Sun”. The “Live” album contained two CDs, and one DVD. It was released again in 2008 as a triple-vinyl set.
The song that has a U2 tie is “Walk Unafraid” originally from the 1998 album “Up”.
The song itself is credited as having been written by Michael Stipe and R.E.M. inside the lyrics booklet and on all other releases of the album, but Stipe himself revealed he had some writing assistance on the song. Bono assisted Stipe with the lyrics, and helped him come to a major breakthrough on the writing of the song. In a 1998 interview Stipe was asked who else could be considered as helping out with the album and answered, “Bono should be added to that list, too. He was definitely there. He helped me write the second verse of ‘Walk Unafraid’ which is my favorite song on the record. I told him what I wanted it to be, and I’m like, ‘I think I’m making these proclamations & I don’t want that.’ And he was like, ‘turn it into a question’ and it was like a light bulb went off. I would’ve never thought of that in the three more months of tearing whatever hair I have left, trying to get the lyrics finished.”
“Walk Unafraid” has been performed live on numerous occasions by R.E.M. and an acoustic performance of the song also featured on the 99X compilation “Walk Unafraid”.