Life's rich pageant

Peter: "There was a time in '85 where we'd been on the road for 5 1/2 years and it was kind of tense. Everyone was tired of being away from home, and broke, and always in eachother's company." To get out of this depressing feeling, R.E.M. changed their producer again and came to Don Gehman. All of the new music for Life's rich pageant was written by Peter, Mike and Bill. Michael only wrote the lyrics. There was a lack of new songs on the record, and the band was forced to use two old ones- Just a touch and What if we give it away, known as What if we get in their way, until that point. The recording lasted for three weeks, in April of '86 in Bloomington Indiana, and mixed in Los Angeles. Gehman felt that his main priority was to provide more clarity to Michael's voice. The lyrics also changed into a more political manner. On the album sleeve, the songs aren't in order. That's because two extra songs were added in the last minute. The title Life's rich pageant was was found in a book by Peter Sellers A shot in the dark. The album cover combines a half photograph of Bill and a half drawing of a bison (i.e. Buffalo Bill). The album reached #21 in the US charts and sold over a half million copies. It was promoted with the Pageantry tour.