Release date: 10/06/85 | Length: 4:06 | Release: Fables of the Reconstruction | SuE: #47

When you tire of one side, the other serves you best

First off, Life and How to Live It is such a cool title for a song. I’m not sure why it affects me like it does, but it just oozes coolness. It’s slick, and certainly does hold an interesting tale behind it.

In Athens, Georgia, there lived a man called Brivs Mekis who lived in a house of polar opposites. One side decorated in one way, the other on the contrary. The song effectively details this, remarking on how Brivs would live on one side until he got bored, and then move to the other area of his house: ‘Two doors to go between the wall was raised today,
Raise the walls to chide its flaws, the carpenter should rest’.

The opening chords of this song are a little misleading, perhaps in a similar vein to how I Believe opens with a deceptive banjo strum. We then get a moment of silence, before an almighty surge of energy bursts in and the track begins to really sound like vintage R.E.M. Probably the highlight of Life and How to Live It is that it’s such a turnaround from the typically grey feel of parent album Fables of the Reconstruction. The harmonies in the chorus are uplifting and the song feels, well, fun. Mike Mills’ bass work in the verses stand out and form a tight rhythm section with Bill Berry, and this song is a joy to hear.

Going back to the start of this entry, and that’s the title. The most curious aspect of the Brivs Mekis story is that after his death, hundreds of his books were found in his cupboards entitled ‘Life and How to Live’; a book described as being “at times racist and antisemitic” on the item’s eBay page. Yep, you can buy this piece of R.E.M. history for only $999, though quite why you would is beyond me. The book is obviously not authored by any of the R.E.M. boys, but I can’t imagine why you’d snap up a copy of an old man’s ramblings for any other reason, would you?