Superlatives
A Vulture series in which artists judge the best and worst of their own careers.
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R.E.M.has the uncanny ability to exist in and out of time.
We never thought of anyone as the leader, says Mills, the bands bassist.
Everybody had their strengths and it allowed us each to utilize those areas of authority.
Peter was the one who had most of the vision about direction.
Michael was the one who had vision about image and perception.
Mine was the strength of translating abstract ideas into musical reality.
Bills was the strength of economy, or knowing when wed gone too far and when to reduce.
Still, Mills was happy to go to bat for his R.E.M.
years in a recent conversation.
It can touch so many people so deeply.
When we write songs, generally speaking, we dont know what Michaels going to do with them.
We write songs that we, as musicians, enjoy and then give them to Michael.
So we had no idea what Everybody Hurts would become.
We actually laughed a little bit while recording it because it has that silly little drum-machine sound.
We thought that was funny.
I remember putting the electric piano on there and thinking it was a really cool sound.
Its nice when it’s possible for you to work an electric piano into a song.
But we were laughing our asses off at just about everything in the world.
About half ofDead Letter Officeis completely goofy because we goofed around a lot.
Good Lord, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite is pretty goofy.
It makes about as little linear sense as anything Michael ever did.
It riffs on The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
Michael actually laughs in it.
Id say that adds up to about as goofy as we got on primary release songs.
Were not talking about our personal selves and our private lives.
There was always speculation about this and that, most of which was untrue.
Most of it was directed at Michael because hes the inscrutable lead singer.
I think people didnt know how much fun we were truly having.
And it was alotof fun.
I think we gave out pretty much the proper amount of information.
Were all incredibly funny.
We crack each other up all the time on the road.
Were intelligent people with some wry outlooks on life.
There was a lot of dry humor in the back of the R.E.M.
When youre touring on any level, its incredibly demanding.
You have to make the rest of those 22 hours palatable.
So laughing and finding humor and band jokes was important.
I mean, all bands have their inside jokes.
When we toured with 10,000 Maniacs, they had so many inside jokes that they just gave them numbers.
Somebody would say, Oh, number six.
And theyd all start cracking up.
Thats the sort of thing that happens when you spend too much time together.
Most overworked song
Let me think this through.Murmurwent really fast.
So didReckoning.Fables of the Reconstructionwas, as has been well reported, a difficult time fora lot of reasons.
Life and How to Live It was a little tricky.
Not so much writing it, but recording it.
The band was in such a weird place.
ForDocument, we didnt have that much difficulty pounding out songs.
Peter and Bill and I all wrote well together, and we had some pretty fertile years.
Man on the Moon wasnt difficult for the band, but it was tricky for Michael.
We knew that it was a great song, musically, and we wanted it on the record.
We were coming down to crunch time.
That was more difficult for Michael than it was for us.
Thank goodness it came together literally at the very last minute.
I think our hidden gem isReveal.
Theres some true beauty on that record.
And thats fine, thats just the way it works.
All the parts work.
Peters composition is fantastic.
The bass line is cool.
The production is really, really good.
Its encapsulated in that song and Beach Ball, which is another favorite of mine fromReveal.
Theres this shimmery summer feeling that I get from these songs.
It encompasses joy and tragedy.
That song grabbed everything we were looking for.
Song you were surprised the radio embraced
Any of them.
When we started out, radio was still the dominion of what people disparagingly referred to as corporate rock.
It was safe and there was nobody taking many chances on it.
So the fact that we were able to break some of those doors down wasvery gratifying.
The big one was Losing My Religion.
It was just crazy.
Anybody that says they saw that coming is lying to you.
I remember the strangest time.
We were once in Paraguay well into the jungle.
We were going to help sign over 500,000 acres to the Indigenous Ashe people of northern Paraguay.
We were still getting reception from the local radio station and Losing My Religion came on.
That was pretty surprising.
Thats when we knew we had a worldwide hit.
Cleverest song for bassists
Cleveris a tricky word.
Most of the time, Id say being clever isnt a good thing.
Orange Crush is one of my favorites.
Its simple, but it was really fun to play and suits the song.
It fills in the bottom in a melodic way without being too melodic.
Life and How to Live It is probably the most sheer fun bass line I ever wrote.
But Ill give you one that was maybe a little too clever.
Now, normally I take a stab at keep my bass lines a certain way.
When you hear a song on the radio its not for the hard-core music fans anymore.
So, of course, everyone was expectingAutomaticpart two, and we gave them something 180 degrees different inMonster.
That abrupt switch still left a lot of people puzzled.
Its really fun to break through to that different audience.
I do have a great story.
I met Justice William Brennan once.
I was on the board for the Brennan Center for the section of the First Amendment.
And Justice Brennan goes, Oh, Ive heard of you.
And I said, Justice Brennan, thats nice of you, but you dont have to say that.
And he responded, Oh, Ive heard of you just now.
Thats why youre on the Supreme Court and Im not.
I thought that was just a really, really brilliant moment.
Wouldnt it be great if he knew me though?
But I appreciated it nonetheless.
Its not a rock record per se, but its a beautiful-music record.
Its the one that might best reward a further look.
Its supposed to feel like summer.
I think its just joyful and captures that in a nice way.
Favorite harmonies to sing
I really loved singing on Orange Crush.
That was so much fun with the live show.
Theyre not in the background.
Theyre more like countermelodies.
So the countermelody I sing on Try Not to Breathe is one of my favorites because everybody else left.
I try all these different things and Im not finding it.
And then I hit the right thing and I locked eyes withScott McCaugheyfrom 40 feet away.
We just both knew that was the direction.
It was very thrilling to have that moment.
My voice is the culmination of a lifetime of enjoying harmony.
When I was a kid singing in the church choir, I was always finding harmony.
I usually got the tenor part.
I grew up around music.
There was always music in the house.
started playing, I sang.
Our approach was that my voice and Michaels voice were extra instruments.
It wasnt about a lead vocal and a backing vocal and a harmony vocal.
It was just more melody and more instrumentation to add to the mix.
That wasnt our conscious thought, but really when you look at it, thats how we approached it.
Sometimes my voice just annoys the hell out of me, to be honest with you.
Nobody likes hearing their own voice.
Very few people do.
But I like it when it works.
I sing well with others, lets put it that way.
So we were just lucky that those things worked out together.
He said, Oh, a little beer, huh?
And we responded, Yeah.
He said, Are you nervous?
We said, Yeah.
And he said, Dont worry.
Its not like its a real show or anything.
It was nice of Dave to put it that way.
So thats my main memory.
And then, all those years later,I broke the newshe was retiring.
So why not let it be somebody who actually has a history with Dave?
I did it and they were cool.
I spoke to Dave about it later and he said, No, it was fine.
If somebody was going to do it, Id rather it be you.
And I said, Well, thank you.
Theres nothing wrong at all with continuing to do what you do.
Youre a musician, you keep making music.
Youre in a band, you keep the band together.
A lot of people opine about us, Oh, they should have left here.
Oh, they should have left when Bill quit.
Oh, they should have done this, that, and the other.
Well, nobody has a clue what theyre talking about.
Its entirely up to the musicians whether they want to keep playing in that same form or not.
Id say if you dont want to quit playing, dont quit playing.
The main thing I took away was gratitude.
And that includes the time to break up.
We do it quite often.
Not all four of us at once, but we do hook up all the time.
Your Nudie suit masterpiece
The first is often the one you remember most.
I bought the green one with orange yellow flames at Nudies original location in Los Angeles.
He already died at that point, but when I went by his wife and his son were there.
That suit was one of the few that were still in the store.
I tried it on and it was a hair too big, but I didnt care.
So I bought it and then it was in the Whats the Frequency, Kenneth?
I dont like the wordiconic, but its a memorable use of the suit.
Thats the one that means the most to me.
has a climate-controlled storage space, but not just for my suits.
Its for tapes and gear and all sorts of other things.
I would never build something just for suits.
Thats where they stay because theyre all one-of-a-kind and unique.
They can all be damaged and theyre pretty much irreplaceable.
I venture to take care of them.
Not that Ill ever wear most of them again, but theyre still worth preserving.
