David Stubbs invites Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe to talk about the 20 greatest singles of their major-label era. But which one does Stipe find “gross and disgusting”? And why does Mills think, “It’s amazing how many songs we’re playing now that we could have written yesterday...
16 HOW THE WEST WAS WON AND WHERE IT GOT US
From the 1996 album New Adventures In Hi-Fi. Released: April 1997.
Chart position: none
A bold, even perverse choice of single, “How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us” was evidence of REM dabbling in a less four-square, more amorphous rock sound, with its avant-jazz piano break and spindly synth accompaniment. It was also evidence of their precipitous commercial decline – and perhaps their indifference to same. As the music delineates a vast, Monument Valley-style landscape, Stipe adopts the manners of a wandering balladeer, telling “the story of my life in trying times” in a series of typically oblique and elusive images. It was one of the last recordings made for New Adventures In Hi-Fi.
PETER BUCK: New Adventures… was generally an exercise in trying to write songs on the fly – it really conveys the feeling of what it’s like to be at the eye of the hurricane. You get the vinyl copy of that album and it makes more sense, with the double gatefold sleeve and the array of Michael’s photos.
MIKE MILLS: That was a fun song. I don’t believe it did anything as a single. We were in the studio in Seattle, it was one of the last things Bill [Berry] did with us. He was sitting there, tapping something away at the drums and I was sitting there at the piano saying, “Yeah, that’s cool,” and I struck up with something and, literally, that song took as long to compose as it does to play. It just fell right into place, it was amazing.
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15 ALL THE WAY TO RENO (YOU’RE GONNA BE A STAR)
From the 2001 album Reveal. Released: July 2001.
Chart position: UK No 24
With its rattlesnake rhythms and strangely un-REM musical colouring and glazed finish, “All The Way To Reno” could be seen as the wry musings of a band making their way back from the Sodom and Gomorrah of celebrity and high fame, contemplating a starry-eyed young wannabe skipping along the yellow brick road in the other direction. The song is full of ironic acid-drops, but kindly in its restraint towards the object of its attentions – she’ll soon find out what stardom is all about.
MIKE MILLS: Yeah, the idea of that song is that you already are a star. You can be as famous as you want to be, but that doesn’t necessarily make you a star.
MICHAEL STIPE: And the twist is, Reno, Nevada – I’m not dissing Reno, it is what it is, but it’s such a backward destination. The thought of being so backwater that Reno is the big city to them! We get it in Athens, people come in from the county of a weekend and Athens, Georgia is a big night out for them.
