Automatic For The People

Promo Variation 1: *Untitled* WB white label advance cassette. "R.E.M. / LP - FROM DAT" non-Dolby (No Dolby Noise Reduction) Like other WB promo cassettes, the cassette shell has a dot-matrix printed label on Side A only with the release title “R.E.M. / LP - FROM DAT" (Digital Audio Tape) Date (probably of duplication) appears on J card - An example of one from variation one would be 08/07/92 RH appears on J card (Possibly referring to the address for Reprise Records?) Address for what is now Reprise Records appears on the J Card, not sure if the address was reprise in 92. At least one copy starts in the middle of the countdown intro to Drive. Promo Variation 2: WB white label advance cassette. "R.E.M. Automatic For The People” NON DOLBY/FROM DAT (Digital Audio Tape) Same dot-matrix style printing on Side A only reading "R.E.M. AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE" Date (probably of duplication) appears on J card - These cassettes were made after the “LP FROM DAT” cassettes. Same address printed on the J Card of these cassettes. Additionally, the J Card also says “IHS/RS,” with IHS meaning In House Studio and RH possibly referring to the address for Reprise Records. Both promo variations use Type II high bias tape at 70μs EQ. The cassettes were sent out with record tabs left in. If your copy does not have one, a third party removed them. Both promo variations have a 65 printed on top of the cassette shell indicting roughly 32.5 minutes of recordable audio per side. At least one copy of variation 2 has a defect. The last 4 tracks, Star me Kitten, Man on the Moon, Nightswimming, and Find the River do not play properly. Star me Kitten starts out normal for about 1-2 seconds, then seemingly restarts, or cuts out, preceding to play through the rest of the album, including Star me Kitten, but only on the left stereo channel, and at a very muffled, low DB. The right channel doesn’t play anything. It is unknown if this defect is present on other copies of any variation, or how the defect got there. The defective copy was from 8/17/92 and has the copy number 51. The defective copy did not skip part of the countdown before Drive. Promo Variation 3: WB white label advance cassette. "R.E.M. Automatic For The People” has a 65 printed on top of the cassette shell indicting roughly 32.5 minutes of recordable audio per side. J Card same as the prior two variants with these changes: 1 - the title "AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE" is now present on front and spine. 2 - From DAT above side b replaced with catalog number 4-45055 3 - Back of J Card reads - R.E.M. "AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE" 9/15/92 (CASSETTE) IHS/JM