REM Breaks Up: Too Bad, But They Were Out of Time
I credit three artists with sucking me into the world of alt-rock: The Clash, Elvis Costello and REM. The music they made at the end of the 70s and the beginning of the 80s literally changed my whole outlook on life and launched me into a career in music and radio biz.
I was particularly evangelical about REM, especially with their Reckoning album in 1984. I’d never heard songs like “So. Central Rain,” “Pretty Persuasion” and “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville.” Mike Stipe’s Georgia plaintiveness, Peter Buck’s chiming guitar and the unadorned production stuck out amongst the slickness of big bands of the day like Van Halen.
REM essentially invented what was known for a while as “college rock.” Championed by campus radio stations (along with groups like Husker Du and Sonic Youth), REM became one of the most important indie bands in North America, long before anyone cared about what indie was.
Eventually, they left IRS and signed with Warner Brothers for millions, just so they could get off that endless indie band cycle of record-tour-record-tour-record-repeat. Some old-time fans branded them as sellouts, but because they were allowed to maintain creative control, REM kept true to their musical vision, cranking out their best stuff over the next half-decade: Green (1988), Out of Time (1991), Automatic for the People (1992) and Monster (1994).
I followed REM religiously the whole time. But when New Adventures in HiFi was released on September 9, 1996, I somehow felt something was wrong. Why the hell did they choose the super-downer “E-Bow the Letter” as a first single? It was in sharp contrast to the rawness and rockiness of Monster. Why didn’t they just start with “Bittersweet Me?” And THIS is how you repay Warner Brothers for re-upping your contract for $80 million?
Frankly, though, the real beginning of the end was March 1, 1995, when Bill Berry suffered that brain aneurysm during a gig in Switzerland (He’d later compare the pain to a “bowling ball falling on my head” during the falsetto bit in a song called “Tongue.”) That experience eventually led to Berry’s retirement in October 1997 to become a gentleman farmer outside of Athens. He still loves riding his tractors.
REM was never the same after Bill left. The chemistry was altered and the group never really found its groove again. There were some hopeful moments–“Daysleeper” and “The Apologist” from Up, “Imitation of Life” from Reveal, the “Bad Day” single from 2003 and a few more–but the band seemed rudderless.
Not that they can be blamed. Even the best bands start to run out of ideas after a while. Those fans who rabidly supported REM during their college years were now into middle age. Other interests–like Stipe’s involvement in film and photography–began to intervene. Hard questions needed to be asked about the future of the group.
If you ask me, REM should have called it a day when Bill Berry quit instead of playing out the string like this. They would have departed on a high and left an untainted legacy. But that’s hindsight.
No reason has emerged so far for the break-up, but whatever the motivations, it doesn’t matter. REM was simply out of time.
R.E.M.'s discography suggests it's really two bands: one of the most tuneful and infectious pop-rock bands ever with Berry, and something a great deal less catchy and more introspective afterward. The question is, how much of that change would have still happened if they had replaced Berry with another full-time drummer? Either Berry personally contributed to song creation more than fans tend to think, or the band would have benefited from enlisting someone else full-time to, in essence, advocate for rhythm and drive.
Very sad news, but I agree – they should have quit while they were ahead. Their albums became more and more of a struggle to listen to, and both of their tours in the 90’s (Monster & Up) were difficult for me to sit through given their setlists were so heavy on the new material (oddly enough, their tours actually got better in the 2000’s). When Monster was first released, I thought it was a terrible record…a perception that actually changed given the albums that followed. Of all the bands formed in the 80’s, I hold The Smiths and REM in the highest regard. Now if REM had broken up 10 years after The Smiths, that would have been perfect timing indeed.