Uberlin, R.E.M. and Us
by James Glazebrook
As both R.E.M. and ourselves have learned, Berlin is an easy city to fall in love with. When the band announced that they would record their 15th album in the legendary Hansa Studios (the birthplace of David Bowie’s Berlin Trilogy), they explained that
Berlin is a pulsing, exciting city with so many varied and distinctive neighborhoods, iconic history all around, great food at all levels and from every corner of the world… an excellent place to set up camp and make a great record.
Swap out “record” for “life”, and this echoes our feelings exactly. On one level, the name Überlin simply means “about Berlin” (über + Berlin). But, as “über” can also stand for “over”, “above” and “beyond”, this blog is about more than Berlin – and Berlin is more than just a city to us.
The song “Uberlin” capture the potential beauty of everyday life in a way that few lyricists other than Stipe can. He begins with the routine preparations for an ordinary day (“Hey now, take your pills… make your breakfast… comb your hair and off to work”) and ends up somewhere literally out of this world: “I am flying on a star into a meteor tonight.”
For us, the turning point comes in the second verse: “take the U-Bahn [underground/subway train] / Five stops, change the station… don’t forget, the change will save you.” Looking back, our move out here four months ago – which seemed so overwhelming at the time – was as simple as changing tracks, switching direction. But it may have saved us.
The original official video for the song told this wondrous, enigmatic tale by tracking something as mundane as the U-Bahn map itself, or at least a pretty close approximation of it:
The new (also official) video, directed by English artist Sam Taylor-Wood doesn’t move us quite so much – not least because it was filmed in the part of East London we just moved away from!
Either Wood didn’t fancy the flight out here, or she’s making a point – transcendent moments like the ones the song describes can take place anywhere, to anyone. While we’d have to agree, it’s here that we have finally found a rewarding life, one full of potential. It’s here that we “walk the streets to feel the ground”. If you want to know what’s so amazing about Berlin, feel free to explore our blog – it’s all we ever talk about! And this might be a good place to start…
PS – Thanks to Good Hard Working People for bringing the new video to our attention and making us realise that we had to blog about it!
Edit: the geniuses behind Normal in Shoreditch have uploaded a spoof version of the Taylor-Wood video that’s even more gloriously everyday. Now this makes us homesick:
[…] about the city, so it’s good to see everything represented from minimal techno to R.E.M (with our namesake “Überlin”), the Cabaret soundtrack to… er, “Take My Breath Away” (by LA band Berlin!). […]
I came to this post because of the google search description, declaring it’s not about REM. Still, very interesting post, I wish you good luck with your life in Berlin. I’ve been there twice and still have the feeling that I haven’t seen much of its real soul. Take care.
Thanks glad you like:)
does anybody knows where the film was filmed?
Yeah, both the original and the spoof were filmed in Shoreditch in East London. Why do you ask?
Beautiful post, thanx for sharing that.
i think u r very funny.
Maybe it’s a cunning marketing ploy. Do anything in/about Shoreditch and you generate automatic hipster buzz. Would’ve thought Notting Hill would be more their scene.
I love the Normal in Shoreditch take on the video. no idea why they filmed the original there, seems odd!
Really? I may not know all the details of your situation, but…. Stay!
Excellent post.
We’re definitely like-minded souls. Except that we still don’t know if we’re staying or going…
Thank you for the link back.
– Luci