''Succumbs'' is

R.E.M. R.E.M. was an American alternative rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and lead vocalist Michael Stipe, who were students at the University of Georgia. One of the fir ...

's first commercially available full-length

movie A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

. Released in October 1987 by UNI/A&M, it contains video footage shot by R.E.M.'s lead singer

Michael Stipe John Michael Stipe (; born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father's militar ...

dating back to the early-1980s, while the band was still recording under the

I.R.S. Records I.R.S. Records was a major American record label founded by Miles Copeland III and Jay Boberg in 1979. I.R.S. produced some of the most popular bands of the 1980s, and was particularly known for issuing records by college rock, new wave and a ...

label. Stipe collaborated with local

Athens, Georgia Athens is a consolidated city-county in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. Downtown Athens lies about northeast of downtown Atlanta. The University of Georgia, the state's flagship public university and an Research I university, ...

artist

James Herbert James John Herbert, OBE (8 April 1943 – 20 March 2013) was an English horror writer. A full-time writer, he also designed his own book covers and publicity. His books have sold 54 million copies worldwide, and have been translated into 34 la ...

, who directed Left of Reckoning. ''Succumbs'' offers a glimpse of the unique feel of the band before their commercial success. It was released only on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

and

laserdisc LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium. It was developed by Philips, Pioneer Corporation, Pioneer, and the movie studio MCA Inc., MCA. The format was initially marketed in the United State ...

, however, all the videos contained in this package are included on the '' When the Light Is Mine'' DVD, released in September 2006. An introductory clip at the beginning of the collection features guitarist

Peter Buck Peter Lawrence Buck (born December 6, 1956) is an American musician and songwriter. He was a co-founder and the lead guitarist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.; he played the banjo and mandolin on several R.E.M. songs. Throughout his caree ...

and the band's then-manager, Jefferson Holt, introducing "citizens of the future" to an "outmoded artform" called the "

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

", predicting it would have a staying power similar to that of Nehru jackets and other forgotten fads.

Videos

All tracks written by

Bill Berry William Thomas Berry (born July 31, 1958) is an American musician who was the drummer for the alternative rock band R.E.M. Although best known for his economical drumming style, Berry also played other instruments, including guitar, bass guita ...

Mike Mills Michael Edward Mills (born December 17, 1958) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and composer who was a founding member of the alternative rock band R.E.M. Though known primarily as the bass guitarist and backing vocalist of R.E.M., hi ...

and

. 1. (Peter Buck and Jefferson Holt intro)
2. "

Radio Free Europe Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) is a media organization broadcasting news and analyses in 27 languages to 23 countries across Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Middle East. Headquartered in Prague since 1995, RFE/RL ...

"
3. " So. Central Rain"
4. " Left of Reckoning":
.. (rain snippet)
.. (Written intro for ''Reckoning'')
.. (segues into) "Harborcoat"
.. (segues into) "7 Chinese Brothers"
.. (segues into) "So. Central Rain"
.. (segues into) "Pretty Persuasion"
.. (segues into) "Time After Time (Annelise)"
.. (snippet)
5. " Cant Get There from Here"
6. (Michael Stipe railroads monologue)
7. (segues into) "

Driver 8 "Driver 8" is the second single from American musical group R.E.M.'s third album, ''Fables of the Reconstruction'', released in September 1985. The song peaked at number 22 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. The song refers ...

"
8. "Life and How to Live It"
9. "Feeling Gravitys Pull"
10. " Fall on Me"

References

R.E.M. video albums 1987 video albums Music video compilation albums R.E.M. compilation albums 1987 compilation albums Warner Records compilation albums Warner Records video albums {{music-video-stub