Kevin Bronson on September 21st, 2011

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This from R.E.M.’s website today:

“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.”

With that, 15 albums and 30 years after they recorded their first song, “Radio Free Europe,” R.E.M. goes quietly into the night. Everybody who was around for all three of their decades will have his or her favorite, but for me the 1992 album “Automatic for the People” was the pinnacle. Two dear friends who are no longer with us had spirited debates with me on this – Mike agreeing with me on “Automatic” whilst we drunkenly tried to fashion Stipe-ological lyrics out of our own prose, and Matt insisting that “Lifes Rich Pageant” prevailed, mainly, I think, because it was the soundtrack to his first romance. Oh, to raise a glass with them and butcher the words to “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite.”

[Here’s the link to the Warner-approved video, in case the other one gets taken down.]