memory connection is that ‘Everybody Hurts’, well…I thought it was pretty dorky. But there was a day when I was just so damn down and sad, and the song came on and it was like I had permission to just cry it all out. It seemed really stupid at the time, but the fact that I remember that 20+ years later says something, I guess.
I’d say that I’ll miss them, but…I won’t. They will always be around in their songs, and I am thankful for that.
Thanks, guys. You made a lot of memories.
---
### Author:  [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolak_of_Twilo)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/26 "2011-09-22T05:37:08Z")
> [@notfrommensa](#):
>
> It is little hyperbole to attached a link to [this song](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eyFiClAzq8)?
Well, I prefer [this version…](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-rvinasoak&feature=related)
---
### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/27 "2011-09-22T14:43:50Z")
I’d rather see them quit now than to lurch and wheeze into old age like the Who. I was on board from the moment Chronic Town came out (their most eerie release as it turned out-I left my original cassette copy in a bowling alley) on through _Monster_, which I hated, at which point I stopped buying their albums (except for _Reveal_ which I feel is criminally underrated). Somewhere I have the original “Radio Free Europe” single, which sells on E-Bay for some pretty pennies nowadays.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/28 "2011-09-22T14:44:43Z")
They were still together? Who knew…
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### Author:  [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/29 "2011-09-22T14:53:40Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#):
>
> They were still together? Who knew…
I was waiting for someone to say that.
I’m reminded of an anecdote Rodney Dangerfield used to tell. “When I was about 30, I left show biz, I just quit. And to show you how well I was doing at the time, I was the only one who KNEW that I’d quit.”
If REM had just stopped performing and recording entirely, without announcing it, how long would it have been until somebody noticed?
---
### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/30 "2011-09-22T15:05:41Z")
I think they really declined after Monster.
Good for them for ending it when they realized it wasn’t going to be worth it, anymore. Am I right that they end it on good terms?
---
### Author:  [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/31 "2011-09-22T15:09:54Z")
I saw them once. It was 1995 for the Monster tour and they hadn’t toured in six years (hadn’t toured since “Green” - no tours for “Out of Time” or “Automatic”). They did a show at The Gorge in WA and I had to line up early at a Ticketmaster outlet to get my tickets. I heard the show sold out in 20 minutes and the entire tour sold out in 45.
The concert was simply incredible. Bill Berry was back with the band after his brain surgery and their energy was off the charts.
By the time Stipe got to “End of the World” his voice was completely gone and he had to shout-sing the chorus. I’ll never forget it.
Wow, just found the setlist for the show on this REM Timeline site. Awesome!
> [@](#):
>
> 21 May 1995 - The Gorge Amphitheater, George, WA
> support: Sonic Youth
> set: I Took Your Name /\*\* What’s The Frequency, Kenneth? \*\*/ Crush With Eyeliner / Circus Envy / Welcome To The Occupation / Turn You Inside-Out / Try Not To Breathe / So. Central Rain / Strange Currencies / I Don’t Sleep, I Dream / Revolution / Tongue / Man On The Moon / Country Feedback / Bang And Blame / Losing My Religion / Departure / Finest Worksong / Get Up / Star 69
>
> encore: Let Me In / Everybody Hurts / Pop Song 89 / Fall On Me / It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
---
### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2011, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/32 "2011-09-22T15:25:57Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#):
>
> Am I right that they end it on good terms?
They definitely frame it that way, yes.
ETA: oh, and **Hippy Hollow** , nice write-up. They are worthy of acknowledgement and respect - they had a good run and left some great music behind.
---
### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/33 "2011-09-23T01:56:04Z")
> [@WordMan](#):
>
> They definitely frame it that way, yes.
>
> ETA: oh, and **Hippy Hollow** , nice write-up. They are worthy of acknowledgement and respect - they had a good run and left some great music behind.
Thanks **Wordy** , I think any props from you on a music thread is resume-worthy! 🙂
What I loved about R.E.M. is that they were pretty much doing what the hell they wanted to on their own terms - nobody in the band was pretty - you’ve got a guy with bad acne and hair in his face, a guy with a monobrow, a guy who looks like Marcie from Peanuts, and Buck, I guess (I remember seeing a cheesy ass Olan Mills type early publicity photo that just screamed discomfort), the front man didn’t sing clearly, they had songs in weird time signatures, and the guitarist was arpeggiating at a time when his contemporaries were power chording and whammy barring through the decade. But somehow, the world turned to them.
I have an ancient Rolling Stone from '87 or so discussing the band’s ascent to relative fame with “The One I Love.” Buck has this great quote: “We’re a weird band. The only thing out there weirder than us is Prince,” and he was right. Prince at least was good looking, could dance, and was as funky as hell. I don’t know what world events transpired to make R.E.M. popular for a time, but it seemed that the good guys won for a while, and substance triumphed over style.
---
### Author:  [@GovernmentMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GovernmentMan)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/34 "2011-09-23T03:25:03Z")
As we all know, Husker Du and R.E.M. were the two American post-punk bands of the '80s that changed the direction of rock & roll. R.E.M. mark the point when post-punk turned into alternative rock.
When their first single Album, Murmur, was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground. While there were a number of hardcore and punk bands in the U.S. during the early '80s, R.E.M. brought guitar pop back into the underground lexicon. Combining ringing guitar hooks with mumbled, cryptic lyrics and a D.I.Y. aesthetic borrowed from post-punk, the band simultaneously sounded traditional and modern.
With the release of Murmur, R.E.M. had the most impact musically and commercially of the developing alternative genre’s early groups, leaving in its wake a number of jangle pop followers
They’d shown how far an underground, punk-inspired rock band could go within the industry without whoring out its artistic integrity in any obvious way.
They invented a whole new ballgame for all of the other bands to follow whether it was Sonic Youth or the Replacements or Nirvana or Butthole Surfers. R.E.M. staked the claim. Musically, the bands did different things, but R.E.M. was first to show us you can be big and still be cool.
---
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/35 "2011-09-23T04:26:50Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#):
>
> So the declines in the history of R.E.M.:
>
> [ol]
> [li]Stipe becomes intelligible[/li][li]Scott Litt and the band part ways[/li][li]Stipe starts shaving his head[/li][li]Berry leaves[/li][li]Up[/li][/ol]
You left out one:
0.5 Mitch Easter and Don Dixon stop producing their music.
(In fact, if you want a pretty close approximation of that early R.E.M. sound, go listen to Mitch Easter’s band Let’s Active. Particularly their album Cypress. [Sample](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9PmbblR6NI&feature=related). [Sample](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjb6H6bgZ00).)
---
### Author:  [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/36 "2011-09-23T05:19:04Z")
> [@Spoke](#):
>
> You left out one:
>
> 0.5 Mitch Easter and Don Dixon stop producing their music.
>
> (In fact, if you want a pretty close approximation of that early R.E.M. sound, go listen to Mitch Easter’s band Let’s Active. Particularly their album Cypress. [Sample](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9PmbblR6NI&feature=related). [Sample](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pjb6H6bgZ00).)
True. I was just commenting on the difficulty they had in finding the right producers - Joe Boyd made them sound old and melancholy - which actually fits the feel of Fables, I suppose - and Don Gehman made them sound a little too Indiana-ey and Mellencampish. Again, still incredible albums. I think Scott Litt was the producer that moved them forward and after they parted ways, the band lost the plot a little. Kind of like Michael Jackson and Quincy Jones… why do these great producer - performer pairings fall apart?
---
### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/37 "2011-09-23T11:51:41Z")
[Well here’s an appropriate clip](http://youtu.be/jM88RslqN74).
---
### Author:  [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/38 "2011-09-23T18:47:39Z")
> [@Hippy\_Hollow](#):
>
> Thanks **Wordy** , I think any props from you on a music thread is resume-worthy! 🙂
>
> What I loved about R.E.M. is that they were pretty much doing what the hell they wanted to on their own terms - nobody in the band was pretty - you’ve got a guy with bad acne and hair in his face, a guy with a monobrow, a guy who looks like Marcie from Peanuts, and Buck, I guess (I remember seeing a cheesy ass Olan Mills type early publicity photo that just screamed discomfort), the front man didn’t sing clearly, they had songs in weird time signatures, and the guitarist was arpeggiating at a time when his contemporaries were power chording and whammy barring through the decade. But somehow, the world turned to them.
>
> I have an ancient Rolling Stone from '87 or so discussing the band’s ascent to relative fame with “The One I Love.” Buck has this great quote: “We’re a weird band. The only thing out there weirder than us is Prince,” and he was right. Prince at least was good looking, could dance, and was as funky as hell. I don’t know what world events transpired to make R.E.M. popular for a time, but it seemed that the good guys won for a while, and substance triumphed over style.
Been listening to a few songs and reminiscing. You know, for all of their weirdness that you describe well, it was clear that the pieces were there. As I mention upthread, Berry is such a groove drummer - simple and poppy. Getting his drums recorded right was a critical key to them sounding more up and poppy (in a good way) vs. melancholy or plodding. The other key to that was Buck - yes, he was a jangle/arpeggio guy - but NOT like, say Roger McGuinn of The Byrds (tight arpeggios with a folk feel) but more like a jangly Keith Richards - played jangly arpeggio’s, but was the driver of the groove who locked in with Berry to give the songs more of a rock than a folk-rock feel. I listened to Moral Kiosk - you want to think of Buck’s work as, I dunno, wispy or “jangly and ethereal” - but it’s not; it is locked in and groove oriented; especially with Berry providing a poppy backbeat. Mike Mills is an up-the-neck, melodic bassist who sits on top of the Berry/Buck groove and Stipe has a gruff-but-melodic voice.
So I think as Stipe got more intelligible, we were also hearing Buck move away from that type of groove-oriented arpeggio jangle - look at Losing My Religion with a mandolin - it simply doesn’t “rock” - and Berry toning down the simple groove drumming until he left the band for medical reasons. Mills didn’t change much and Stipe’s sense of melody didn’t change much - but they didn’t have that Buck+Berry foundation nearly as solid after maybe Fables or so…
---
### Author:  [@AndyLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndyLee)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2011, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/39 "2011-09-23T19:17:12Z")
They had one of my all time favorite songs - Shiny Happy People.
---
### Author:  [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)
#### Post date: [October 20, 2011, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/r-e-m-breakup-announced/597093/40 "2011-10-20T11:28:10Z")
> [@GovernmentMan](#):
>
> When their first single Album, Murmur, was released in 1981, it sparked a back-to-the-garage movement in the American underground.
1. They didn’t even release Chronic Town EP until '82.
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