Am I crazy? REM covers U2?
 

I was in a bar after work yesterday. This was a bar in the financial district, fairly conservative--ie, not a place that would likely play bootlegs or illegal downloads.

At any rate, I heard over their sound system, some band definitely singing U2's "One." It wasn't Johnny Cash. In fact, it sounded like REM. Am I crazy? It was live, I believe (crowd sounds at the end, I think). Does anyone know if I heard this correctly? It might be another band, since I did a search for REM covering U2. Does this exist, or was I mistaken?

It's R.E.M. (in whole or in part), most likely under the pseudonym "Bingo Hand Job" or "Automatic Baby." It's quite possibly from a performance at MTV's Inaugural Ball in the mid 90s and should be available on the second Live X charity CD (pediatric and adolescent AIDS I think). Unless I'm mistaken, though, that CD is looong OOP.

das

My Brother has it on a R.E.M. "MTV Unplugged" [1992] complete bootleg.

I think it was Michael Stipe singing with Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. as the rhythm section. I forget who played guitar - not Edge, but it might have been Peter Buck, or might have been someone else.

It was Stipe, Mills, Clayton, Mullin I believe. They were called Automatic Baby.