(AND I FEEL FINE) Thirty-one years later, R.E.M. has decided to call it quits. Says the band, "To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening."
[Stipe adds: "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."]
Take them as synecdoche for the entire American underground music scene of the 1980s and its commercial evolution therafter, or just as a damn good band with a mountain of songs many of us will be listening to until we're old and grey, from mystical to loud to incomprehensible to vaguely political to the simple earnestness of "Everybody Hurts" and "Nightswimming." My favorite R.E.M. song is a list of at least ten R.E.M. songs, and I'm grateful to have had their music in my life.
