Michael Stipe: No Time For Love Like Now – az R.E.M.-énekes dala a National-tag Aaron Dessnerrel

Stipe a fent említett Fischerpooner-lemezhez hasonlóan első szólóalbuma dalain is régi athensi zenészbarátjának, a Now It’s Overhead indie rock zenekar egykori frontemberének, Andy LeMasternek a társszerző-produceri segítségével dolgozott, de a most bemutatott No Time For Love Like Now című szám megírásában a National-multiinstrumentalista Aaron Dessner volt a partnere, akit már szintén ismer egy ideje (már 2008-ban is turnéztak együtt, és a Courtney Love előtt tisztelgő 2018 októberi New York-i gálaesten is együtt vettek részt). Közös szerzeményüket Stipe élőben énekli a demó alapjaira ezen a múlt éjszaka közzétett videón.

FRISSÍTÉS: a dal újrázása jobb minőségben tíz nappal később Stephen Colbert műsorában, ahol kiderült, hogy Dessner ezt a Stipe-pal közös szerzeményét a Bon Iver-főnök Justin Vernon társaságában két éve indított Big Red Machine projektjének neve alatt jegyzi!

https://www.facebook.com/winston005/videos/3006282376061516

FRISSÍTÉS 2: Stipe és Dessner június 11-én egy karanténklippel közzétették az egy éven át formálódó dal hivatalos verzióját, melyen Justin Vernon gitárjátéka is hallható, a hangszerelés pedig Aaron ikertestvérének, a National-gitáros Bryce Dessnernek a munkája!

A bejegyzés megtekintése az Instagramon

I’ve spent the last year working on new Big Red Machine music with @blobtower and an ever-growing collective of friends. There are now more than 20 songs in progress. I’m excited to share the first song of this new batch, No Time For Love Like Now, which is a collaboration with a longtime hero and friend Michael Stipe. The last line of „People Lullabye” from the first @bigredmachineadjv record is „I miss Mike Stipe.” So somehow Michael already felt connected in my mind to this music. It’s quite surreal now to actually have written and finished a song together. I wrote this music last spring and Justin, @floortomjtbates and @bradleywcook later helped me develop it with @heyjonlow I shared it with Michael last Fall and we got together to arrange and record this song in November in Brooklyn. Michael kept working on the vocals with @le_master_andy in Athens and we ultimately changed the key and re-recorded elements in isolation in the past few months. My brother @brycedessner orchestrated the song recently (parts recorded remotely by @kresnick, @kiyukiyukiyuki and @claricejensen) and I’m thankful we can finally share it with you now. Michael wrote the lyrics last year before the COVID epidemic — but as social distancing and self-isolation descended, they felt as though they were written about this time. We’re hopeful the message of the song will resonate now. Please visit the link in my bio to stream the song and check out No Time For Love Like Now t-shirts and totes — all proceeds benefit the @eji_org and the COVID-19 Protest Relief Fund. Thank you to the incredible @michaelbrowndesign for putting this video together from iPhone videos and designing the single cover. And we will share more music soon!

Aaron Dessner (@aarondessner) által megosztott bejegyzés, Jún 11., 2020, időpont: 9:01 (PDT időzóna szerint)

no time for breezy
no time for arguments
no time for love like now

there’s no time in the bardo
no time in the in-between
no time for love like now

there’s no time for dancing
no time for undecideds
no time for love like now

where did this all begin to change
the lockdown memories can’t sustain
this glistening, hanging free fall

i turned away from the glorious light
i turned my head and cried
whatever waiting means in this new place
i am waiting for you

there’s no time for honey
no time for psalms and thresholds
whisper a sweet prayer sigh

where did this all begin to change
the lockdown memories can’t sustain
this glistening hanging free fall

i turned away from the glorious light
i turned my head and cried
whatever waiting means in this new place
i am waiting for you
your voice is echoing love love love love love
i hear it far far away
and i am here waiting for you
i am waiting for you
whatever waiting means in this new place
i am waiting for you
i am waiting for you

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Stipe március közepén közzétett videói, melyekben az Underneath The Bunker és It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) című nyolcvanas évekbeli R.E.M.-dalok részleteit éneklve buzdít otthon maradásra:

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Michael Stipe ezzel a közös tavalyi fotóval búcsúzott az R.E.M. utolsó évtizedének dobosától, a héten elhunyt Bill Rieflintől:

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Bill Rieflin (1960-2020) It is with heavy hearts we acknowledge the death of our dear friend and consummate drummer, Bill. Bill sent me this picture last week of him and Lenny Kaye earlier this month when the Patti Smith Group were in town and they got to hang out. He was elated to see such great friends and gather at his favorite weird Chinese-American diner. A forever memory is decades old, when I first met Bill at a late night Policeman’s bar in Seattle, sat at a greasy table drinking scotch, and we listened to ‘Birdland’ off the jukebox in reverent silence and awe. His attentiveness to that song then and there indicated a lot to me about what it would be to work with Bill— which commenced to create some magical and beautiful collaborations and life long friendships. And so to Bill now, he is among all the fine points of the stars and we are looking up with love— and with our own reverence for his beauty, his humor, his relentless curiosity and of course his incredible musical ear, his time here with us so precious and golden. —-Michael Photo of Bill and Michael, West Seattle, 2019

A post shared by R.E.M. (@rem) on Mar 24, 2020 at 7:59pm PDT