BEAU KNOWS…”Losing My Religion” by REM
I can go into the history of my music career right now and tell you where it all began, but I think I will save that for another day. Right now, I want to talk REM. That’s right, alternative rock heavyweights REM. I will not claim to be a full blown REM fan. I know a handful of songs. But, in Spring of 1991, when I was in the 7th Grade, and MTV was playing music videos instead of reality TV, I discovered REM for the first time when their hit song “Losing My Religion” took off and raced up the charts.
This is one of my earliest memories of really being drawn into a song. I wouldn’t get into songwriting or learning guitar for another 6 years or so, but this song had me hooked. It was the melody of that chorus. It grabbed your attention and I just wanted to sing it over, and over, and over again. I loved the emotion in Michael Stipe’s voice. It was authentic. It was real. It was how you should sing a song to tell a story.
That’s me in the corner
That’s me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
I feel like this song was a small part of building my foundation of music. It’s ironic that according to Peter Buck, “Losing My Religion” started with him learning how to play mandolin, a main melody instrument of the Celtic Rock world (a little foreshadowing I presume). I didn’t want to join a band after this song, but I cerebrally appreciated a great melody for the first time. I also was watching MTV more and more now, and REM was a big reason for it. This lead me to seeing two other bands years later that blew me away and made me want to start creating my own music. That is a story for another day.
That was just a dream
Just a dream
Just a dream
Dream
