THE READERS WRITE BACK

I'd just like to comment that the song "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down", although popularized by Joan Baez, was actually written and recorded by the Band before Joan Baez covered it. While the point of the CD was to cover songs recorded by women in 1973, I think it appropriate to note that the song was not written by Joan, especially since there are people who feel that Joan massacred the song. - Chris K, Minnesota

In the review of Deep In The Jungle in #48, the writer refers to jungle (house). WRONG. Jungle is breakbeat. The lineage to house (frequently argued) is indirect at best.

And, Encendedor is also referred to as the Dambuilders' first album. It is their first American album; they had two or three released in Germany before Encendedor, curiously enough.

I just wanted to say thank you very much for the wonderful review of The Innocence Mission's album Glow in issue 49. Finally someone is taking notice of this amazing band from Lancaster, PA (and I'm not just saying that because I'm local). Jon Steltenpohl very aptly described just what it is that makes this album such a gem and gave the readers appropriate comparisons to other bands of the same style. (another review I read gave ridiculous comparisons like the Cranberries - not even close!) Thanks again.

REM's show in Israel can be divided roughly in 3 parts. They started with material from their Monster, which indeed sounded less energetic then on the album, plus 3 new tracks. Among them was a song called "Revolution" which impressed me the most; the other 2 were not too impressive, although they follow the spirit of Monster.

In the second part they mainly played old stuff. "Losing My Religion", which had a huge hit in Israel when Out of Time was released was very exciting, and "Everybody Hurts" was melting souls.

The best part howeverin my opinion, was the third, in which they played 4 tracks in a row from Green. It was amazing too see how good "Orange Crush" and the other hits from this album sounded live. It rocked!

Finally they played "Let Me In", my favorite song from Monster which lost its power, comparing it to the album) and ended with "It's The End of the World As We Know It".

Although Michael Stipe does not talk much between songs, I don't think he was bored. The show was very good, not incredible, but very good.

Oh, Radiohead opened for REM. They played all their goodies from The Bends and of course "Creep" (also a huge hit in Israel). They introduced "Fake Plastic" by saying that they probably would never make it without this song. Their music forced them into a static show. Since I love their music, it didn't bother me, but I can't say that they excited anyone who had not previously heard them. Ofer K., Israel