R.E.M.- The End of an Era

The music world was shocked today by hearing that the rock-alternative group R.E.M. announced it was done as a band.  Wow.  I always liked music as a kid but in high school I took more of an appreciation of it and began to concentrate on musical artists and bands I liked and began to collect their music.  The Doors was the first to fall into this category but next in line were the boys from Athens, Georgia.  Bill Berry, Mike Mills, Peter Buck, and Michael Stipe formed in 1980 and gained early attention because of Buck's unique guitar play.  I remember 1988's Green was the first tape of theirs I purchased.  I loved "Stand", "World Leader Pretend", and 'Orange Crush".  I practically wore that tape out, I am so thankful  that CDs came around shortly after that.  Once I started buying CDs I started looking for older albums from the group at every record store I went to look at.  Remember record stores?  I did not have the internet to look up albums to see what I was looking for so every time I found something new I was in music heaven.  By the time I was going to college I had over 30 R.E.M. studio, import, and bootleg CDs in the collection and I love them all.

Their early days were under the IRS Record label and under them the band received more college and underground play time then mainstream radio stations but in 1985 the band's fourth album' Life's Rich Pageant' had some singles that started to the crack the charts. The band started to have great success and eventually signed with Warner Brother Records in 1988 and started selling out arenas instead of the local pubs.  The band changed their sound up a bit and endured their most critical and commercial success with 1991's 'Out of Time' and 1992's 'Automatic for the People'.

In 1994 the band returned to their roots in a way and churned out 'Monster' and toured for the first time in a while and three of the four band members suffered injuries during the tour.  Bass Guitarist Mike Mills had stomach surgery, singer Michael Stipe hand hernia surgery, and drummer Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurysm and all missed time during the tour at some point.  I remember when they rolled thru Dallas all band members were present but Stipe practically stood in place the whole concert and I learned about why in the paper the next morning.   In 1996 the band released one of my favorite albums 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi'.  The album did not have a big hit but is loved by the critics but only sold about half of what the previous albums sold.  The next year drummer Bill Berry decided to leave the band for health reasons as long as the band agreed not to disband just because of his departure.  The now trio agreed and carried on and the band's somewhat slide down began.

The band began preparations for the 1998 album 'Up' and could not get things going with all the drummers they were auditioning and some say came pretty close to ending the band then.  Cooler heads prevailed and some drummers were found and the album was released and it could be considered their worst release.  The band rebounded about the very next year and tried something different by doing the score for the Andy Kaufman biopic 'Man on the Moon' and the single 'The Great Beyond' was a hit.  I always thought they were robbed at Golden Globe and Oscar time, it is a fantastic song.

 

In 2001 the Band released 'Reveal' and it contained the hit 'Imitation of Life' and in 2003 Warner Brothers released their greatest hits of 1988-2003 and had the new singles 'Animal' and Bad Day'.  In 2006 the band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and released their first official live album, 'R.E.M. Live'.  Their best album of the decade 'Accelerate' came out in 2008 and was their best selling one in quite some time.  I cannot name any singles form the album but as a whole it plays great and really sounds like the old stuff and plays at a quick sixty something minutes.  

I read over the years that Mills and Buck had their own side bands and the group always hosted festivals in Athens, Georgia the bands hometown.  I was not shocked but sad when I read this yesterday on the bands fan page on Facebook: R.E.M announced that they officially conclude their career as R.E.M and call it quits after 31 years. "It was the right thing to do, we hope our fans never die and listen to us forever and they understand." Michael said "Things don't last forever, it was a hard decision to make for us but it just was the right thing to do."  Bravo gentlemen and I will listen to you forever.

From 'Losing My Religion':

I thought that I heard you laughing

I thought that I heard you sing

I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream

Try, cry, why try

That was just a dream

Just a dream

Just a dream, dream