Driver 8

"Driver 8" was the second single from R.E.M.'s third album, Fables of the Reconstruction. Released in September 1985, the song peaked at number 22 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It was not released in Europe.

The song refers to the Southern Crescent, a passenger train operated by the Southern Railroad until 1979, and continues today (with fewer stops) as the Amtrak Crescent. The music video shows Chessie System trains running around Clifton Forge, Virginia.

Guitarist Peter Buck admitted in the liner notes for the band's 2003 compilation album In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 that the verse chords for the song "Imitation of Life" were unintentionally taken from the verse chords of "Driver 8."

In a Rolling Stone interview in 2009, Stipe said about his vocals: "It's like breathing - I don't think about it when I sing it. I was listening to these live tapes and thought it was a beautiful song with incredible imagery. I listen to our old albums and think, 'OK, this is where that went wrong, this is a way to improve that.' And 'Wow, that's really good. You're not the hoax you think you are.'"^[1] A harmonica was played in a mimicking fashion to sound like a train whistle.^[1]

Cover versions

It was covered by Hootie and the Blowfish in 2000 on their covers-only album Scattered, Smothered and Covered after the band performed a live version of the song with R.E.M. on the UK's TFI Friday in October 1998.
Dennis "Cannonball" Caplinger's bluegrass instrumental cover appears on 2001's Pickin' on R.E.M.: The Bluegrass Tribute.
Death Cab for Cutie played the song on their 2006 UK tour for the album Plans, although they have not released an official recording of it.
Old 97's covered it on their covers-only EP Mimeograph released on July 6, 2010.
Indie rock band The Walkmen covered the song as a part of The A.V. Club's A.V. Undercover series in August 2010.
Santa Cruz Bicycles produced a mountain bike model called Driver 8. It was first released in 2009.^[2]

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe unless otherwise indicated.

7": IRS / IRS-52678 (US)

"Driver 8" - 3:24
"Crazy" (Pylon) - 3:05

Charts

Chart (1985)	Peak position
US Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks	22

References

1 2 3 "Driver 8 by R.E.M.". Song Facts. Retrieved 3 May 2016.
↑ Andrew Dodd. "Santa Cruz Driver 8". BikeRadar. Retrieved 3 May 2016.

R.E.M.
Bill Berry Peter Buck Mike Mills Michael Stipe
Personnel	Nathan December Buren Fowler Peter Holsapple Barrett Martin Scott McCaughey Bill Rieflin Ken Stringfellow Joey Waronker
Managers	Bertis Downs IV Jefferson Holt
Studio albums	Murmur Reckoning Fables of the Reconstruction Lifes Rich Pageant Document Green Out of Time Automatic for the People Monster New Adventures in Hi-Fi Up Reveal Around the Sun Accelerate Collapse into Now
Compilations	Dead Letter Office Eponymous The Best of R.E.M. The Automatic Box Singles Collected In the Attic In Time iTunes Originals And I Feel Fine Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982–2011 Complete Rarities: I.R.S. 1982–1987 Complete Rarities: Warner Bros. 1988–2011 7IN—83–88
EPs	Chronic Town Not Bad for No Tour Vancouver Rehearsal Tapes Live from London Reckoning Songs from The Olympia
Other albums	Man on the Moon r.e.m.IX R.E.M. Live Live at The Olympia Unplugged: The Complete 1991 and 2001 Sessions
Singles	"Radio Free Europe" "Talk About the Passion" "So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)" "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" "Cant Get There from Here" "Driver 8" "Wendell Gee" "Fall on Me" "Superman" "The One I Love" "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" "Finest Worksong" "Orange Crush" "Stand" "Pop Song 89" "Get Up" "Losing My Religion" "Shiny Happy People" "Near Wild Heaven" "Radio Song" "Drive" "Man on the Moon" "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite" "Everybody Hurts" "Nightswimming" "Find the River" "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" "Bang and Blame" "Strange Currencies" "Crush with Eyeliner" "Tongue" "E-Bow the Letter" "Bittersweet Me" "Electrolite" "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" "Daysleeper" "Lotus" "At My Most Beautiful" "Suspicion" "The Great Beyond" "Imitation of Life" "All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be a Star)" "I'll Take the Rain" "Bad Day" "Animal" "Leaving New York" "Aftermath" "Electron Blue" "Wanderlust" "#9 Dream" "Supernatural Superserious" "Hollow Man" "Man-Sized Wreath" "Until the Day Is Done" "Mine Smell Like Honey" "Überlin" "Oh My Heart" "We All Go Back to Where We Belong"
Other songs	"Sitting Still" "Gardening at Night" "Perfect Circle" "Pretty Persuasion" "Begin the Begin" "Cuyahoga" "Ages of You" "Turn You Inside-Out" "Texarkana" "Country Feedback" "First We Take Manhattan" "Ignoreland" "Dark Globe" "Star 69" "New Test Leper" "All the Right Friends" "Out in the Country"
Videos	Succumbs Tourfilm Pop Screen This Film Is On Parallel Road Movie In View Perfect Square When the Light Is Mine R.E.M. Live This Is Not a Show R.E.M. Live from Austin, TX REMTV
Related articles	Discography List of songs Tours Peter Buck Hindu Love Gods The Minus 5 Tuatara The Baseball Project Tired Pony Filthy Friends Athens Andover "I Belong to You" Hib-Tone Surprise Your Pig: A Tribute to R.E.M. Drive XV: A Tribute to Automatic for the People "Homer the Moe" Scott Litt

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