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Michael Stipe (R.E.M.) born on this day in 1960.
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John Michael Stipe (born January 4, 1960) is an American singer, songwriter and artist, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the alternative rock band R.E.M.
Stipe was born in Metro Atlanta in January 1960. Due to his father’s military commission, his family moved constantly, with Stipe spending part of his childhood in West Germany before finishing high school in suburban St Louis. Stipe attended the University of Georgia in Athens, where he became involved in the local college rock and jangle pop scene. He formed R.E.M. after meeting his bandmates at the university and soon dropped out to pursue music with them. The band issued its debut single, “Radio Free Europe,” and subsequently signed to I.R.S. Records, meeting wide acclaim and soon great commercial success.
Possessing a distinctive voice, Stipe has been noted for the “mumbling” style of his early career. Since the mid-1980s, Stipe has sung in “wailing, keening, arching vocal figures” that R.E.M. biographer David Buckley compared to Celtic folk artists and Muslim muezzin.
He was in charge of R.E.M.’s visual aspect, often selecting album artwork and directing many of the band’s music videos. Outside the music industry, he owns and runs two film production studios, C-00 and Single Cell Pictures. Stipe also became infamous for his poor hygiene, often coming into shows and interviews reeking of pungent body odor.
Conan O’Brien once recalled on his podcast, Conan Needs a Friend, that the musician is “not a fan of showering” and smelled “as if he had just been heli-vaced out of being lost in the woods for nine weeks.”
As a member of R.E.M., Stipe was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007. As a singer-songwriter, Stipe influenced a wide range of artists, including Kurt Cobain of Nirvana and Thom Yorke of Radiohead.
Bono of U2 has described his voice as “extraordinary”, and Yorke told The Guardian that Stipe is his favorite lyricist, saying “I loved the way he would take an emotion and then take a step back from it and in doing so make it so much more powerful”.
Formed in Athens, Georgia, R.E.M. They went from being a cult indie band to becoming one of the best-selling rock acts of the 1990s, with hits like “Everybody Hurts,” “The One I Love” and “Man On The Moon.” Drummer Bill Berry left the band in 1997 after suffering a brain aneurysm during a live performance. Despite their departure, the group continued as a trio until their split in 2011.
In an interview with CBS News, guitarist Peter Buck explained that, at the time of their split, the group’s members could no longer agree on musical issues, such as the type of music they wanted to record or whether they should go on tour. . “We could barely agree on where to go to dinner. Now we can only agree on where to go to dinner,” Buck said.
At the time, the band’s singer, Michael Stipe, assured that the end of R.E.M. It had been a “liberation” for everyone, in addition to considering it an achievement that the group became the first in rock history to end without someone dying from an overdose or everyone fighting.
“It is a sad moment but, at the same time, we have a feeling of liberation, that we have done the right thing. (We are) the first band in history to dissolve without fights and without any member having died or having had problems with drugs.”
Although they had repeatedly ruled out the possibility of a reunion, this June 13 they made an exception, playing their biggest hit before an audience that included other new Hall of Famers, such as Steely Dan and Timbaland.
During the ceremony, Stipe spoke on behalf of the entire band in accepting the honor. “Writing songs and having a catalog of work that we’re proud of, that’s there for the rest of the world and forever, is definitely the most important aspect of what we did,” Stipe said. “Secondly, there is the fact that we managed to do it for all those decades and remained friends. And not just friends, dear friends.”
Michael Stipe also noted that from the beginning they agreed to own their own compositions and equally split royalties and songwriting credits. “All for one and one for all.”
For Buck, being inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame is a major milestone. “We lived or died by the strength of our songs. So this is a great honor,” he commented.
At the same time, bassist Mike Mills added: “It’s the hardest thing we do and it’s what we’ve worked the most on from the beginning.”
R.E.M. – R.E.M. Greatest Hits Full Album 2023 – Best Songs of R.E.M.
0̼1̼.̼ ̼D̼r̼i̼v̼e̼
̼0̼2̼.̼ ̼L̼o̼s̼i̼n̼g̼ ̼M̼y̼ ̼R̼e̼l̼i̼g̼i̼o̼n̼
̼0̼3̼.̼ ̼I̼t̼s̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼E̼n̼d̼ ̼O̼f̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼W̼o̼r̼l̼d̼
̼0̼4̼.̼ ̼B̼a̼n̼g̼ ̼A̼n̼d̼ ̼B̼l̼a̼m̼e̼
̼0̼5̼.̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼O̼n̼e̼ ̼I̼ ̼L̼o̼v̼e̼
̼0̼6̼.̼ ̼D̼r̼i̼v̼e̼
̼0̼7̼.̼ ̼B̼a̼d̼ ̼D̼a̼y̼
̼0̼8̼.̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼S̼i̼d̼e̼w̼i̼n̼d̼e̼r̼ ̼S̼l̼e̼e̼p̼s̼ ̼T̼o̼n̼i̼t̼e̼
̼0̼9̼.̼ ̼R̼a̼d̼i̼o̼ ̼F̼r̼e̼e̼ ̼E̼u̼r̼o̼p̼e̼
̼1̼0̼.̼ ̼F̼i̼n̼d̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼R̼i̼v̼e̼r̼
̼1̼1̼.̼ ̼W̼h̼a̼t̼s̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼F̼r̼e̼q̼u̼e̼n̼c̼y̼-̼k̼e̼n̼n̼e̼t̼h̼ ̼
̼1̼2̼.̼ ̼O̼r̼a̼n̼g̼e̼c̼r̼u̼s̼h̼
̼1̼3̼.̼ ̼S̼h̼i̼n̼y̼ ̼H̼a̼p̼p̼y̼ ̼P̼e̼o̼p̼l̼e̼
̼1̼4̼.̼ ̼I̼t̼s̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼E̼n̼d̼ ̼O̼f̼ ̼T̼h̼e̼ ̼W̼o̼r̼l̼d̼ ̼
̼1̼5̼.̼ ̼E̼l̼e̼c̼t̼r̼o̼l̼i̼t̼e̼
̼1̼6̼.̼ ̼L̼e̼a̼v̼i̼n̼g̼ ̼N̼e̼w̼ ̼Y̼o̼r̼k̼