There’s a story I tell when people ask me who my favorite band is.
“Well,” I begin, “there was a time in the early ’80s where I couldn’t get enough of INXS.” Shabooh Shoobah was one of my favorite albums and I would play it over and over again, and for a good month that was all I listened to. I thought I found the one, my band of choice. But then I went into the record store where my friend Rich worked, and what came out of the speakers from every wall was a glorious sound.
“What is this?” I asked Rich.
“This is ‘Radio Free Europe’ from R.E.M. It’s off this album called Murmur, it’s really great.”
Yeah it really was.
From that day R.E.M. has never disappointed (OK, Around the Sun wasn’t the best of times, but “Leaving New York” is a great, great song), and my love affair with the band has lasted nearly 30 years. I always tell people INXS was the girl before I me the girl in my musical relationships.
Well now the relationship has ended, as Peter, Mike and Michael announced on their website today the band is calling it quits.
“One of the things that was always so great about being in R.E.M. was the fact that the records and the songs we wrote meant as much to our fans as they did to us,” Peter wrote on the site. “It was, and still is, important to us to do right by you. Being a part of your lives has been an unbelievable gift. Thank you.”
“A wise man once said — ‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it,” Michael wrote. “I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way. We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”
I’ve written plenty about this band, so I won’t go into all of that now, but I will say this: There was never a time in this band’s career where it didn’t create music that wasn’t pertinent or meaningful or excellent in every way. Sure, there are R.E.M. albums I treasure more than others, but comparing an R.E.M. album to a non-R.E.M. album is patently unfair to non-R.E.M. albums because R.E.M. wins every time.
So Mike, Michael, Peter and Bill, I say this: Who I am today has a lot to do with the music you’ve made, because it has affected me in a powerful and personal way. I can’t begin to thank you enough.
