you set me up like a lamb to slaughter

Among these 39 live tracks, you'll find neither "Losing My Religion" nor "Everybody Hurts." You won't hear "It's the End of the World as We Know It." Same goes for "Stand" or "Man on the Moon" or "Nightswimming." In fact, to a casual or occasional R.E.M. listener, only a handful of tracks will sound familiar: "So. Central Rain," "Driver 8," "Electrolite," "Drive."

What you get here are the songs R.E.M. and its diehard fans love. "Wolves, Lower," for example, or "Carnival of Sorts" — tracks that were recorded shortly after art student Michael Stipe dropped out of the University of Georgia.

This is the sound of four twentysomethings figuring out who they were and their places in the world. It's the sound of a band making music for The 40 Watt Club in downtown Athens, Ga. It's the sound of subtle political music at the dawn of the Reagan era.

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