R.E.M. calls it quits

I've spent the last two days home sick. It's the same nasty cold that I've been fighting with since early July. It likes to bring out the big gun of pneumonia so I'm not pushing my luck this time. I'm trying to coddle it, wheedle it into a lull in the hope of getting it to move on.

Bottom line is it makes me feel old. I know I'm not but I've started lately to FEEL old when I'm sick. Now I hear that R.E.M. is calling it quits, which kind of makes me feel old too. You see, I was finishing high school when I first heard of these four men from Georgia, just a few years older than me. What I love about music is while there's the sense that it's already been mined for the good ideas, there are still creative souls out there who have a sound that is theirs alone. R.E.M. was one of those discoveries. They were a revelation. In the small seaside northern California town where I lived, it was hard to find the gems in music at that time. Somehow I discovered and loved punk and these guys were the pivot between punk and alternative rock, just like Devo served that purpose between punk and New Wave. That got my attention. They springboarded me to the next music I'd love, and the next, and the next.

These guys, singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry, accompanied me during the many many years I spent on my own. They were a constant in my music library, a band I could always turn to when I couldn't stand listening to anything, when all the other tracks left me indifferent. And as I grew and learned, they did too, releasing tracks that resonated so hard and tapped into whatever personal zeitgeist I was living with at the time. So yeah, this band figures large in my history.

R.E.M. appeared to avoid the many of the traps and misfires of the rock and roll lifestyle. They continued to create music that was theirs alone, then released it to the world. For 31 years. It's inexplicable how they continued, let alone stayed interesting and meaningful. Of course critics haven't liked it all, but this band captured MY attention and interest, at least one cut an album, often many, sometimes all. Of course there will be people who are indifferent, who will comment on their lack of hits and cynically feign surprise that they were still around. Don't care. These guys didn't always have hits or great songs but they were a great band. Because they kept doing it. Until now. Which is okay. People are allowed to retire, even musicians.

My only regret is never seeing them live, especially around the time of the release of Document which, while arguably not their creative peak, certainly primed them for mainstream attention. Among Document's great tracks is "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." And so, as I started to write this, I played that song, setting iTunes to shuffle my entire library after it. I like starting off with such a fine song and following it with who-knows-what. Good beginnings are so important. As are good endings.

I feel fine.