Retirement for musicians is a funny thing, especially when it comes to calling it quits from the concert stage.
Pete Townshend famously wrote the line "I hope I die before I get old," on The Who's debut album, and even though the spirit of that sentiment is understandable coming from a twentysomething art student, as time goes on life becomes a bit more complicated.
For example, how does one just pull the plug on something they have been doing for most of their lives? And in some cases, doing something that miraculously became incredibly rich and famous due to it.
How does one step away from something that magical, where all sorts of goodness flowed from, and stay away forever?
In 1980 Michael Stipe met guitarist Peter Buck at the nearby record store, Wuxtry Records. Buck knew bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry, who had grown up together down the road in Macon, Georgia. The quartet began jamming together and quickly formed R.E.M. He was 20.
It only took them a few years to get it together, get signed, and release their first album, which not only was spectacular and pretty unique, but didn't do too shabby on the charts.
1983 Murmur, reached #36 on the Billboard 200 and later went god. 1984's Reckoning peaked at #27 and was also certified gold.
Despite being the middle of synth driven pop music, hair metal, and Springsteen, jangly “Radio Free Europe,” “So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry),” and “Driver 8” found it's spot and hung in there.
Fables of the Reconstruction (1985) and Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) peaked at #27 and #21 respectively. The songwriting, singing, and original style was consistent and reliable. And somehow these four normal looking Georgians made you feel a little smarter the more you dug into the lyrics.
When they sent out a joint message in 2011 announcing their retirement, R.E.M. had won three Grammys and sold more than 85 million records... all without changing who they were in the slightest.
Indeed their best selling albums were in their second decade of making music: Out of Time (1991), Automatic for the People (1992), and Monster (1994).
On top of that their first MTV Unplugged session in 1991 helped establish what a great sound acoustic instruments could do to re-imagining pop hits.
How do you choose another path after thirty years of fame and fortune? No one would even demand they write new songs.
Who doesn't want to hear “Losing My Religion” (1991), “Everybody Hurts” (1993), “Man on the Moon” (1992), “The One I Love” (1987), “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)” (1987), “Drive” (1992), “Cuyahoga” (1986), “What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?” (1994), and “Nightswimming” (1993).
And what a day they played any of the number of fantastic covers they did like The Clique's "Superman," CCR's "Have You Ever Seen The Rain," The Velvet's "Femme Fatale" or There She Goes Again" or "After Hours."
These fools covered "Born to Run" 15 times.
And still broke up.
When they sent out their missive, they each also wrote something individually as well.
Stipe wrote: “A wise man once said–‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.
“I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.
"We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.”
Nearly two decades later character actor Michael Shannon and musician Jason Narducy have been doing R.E.M. tribute show, but one specifically honoring Lifes Rich Pageant.
Over the years they've done tribute shows giving loves to The Cars, Lou Reed, T. Rex, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. But when they got into R.E.M., they've really gotten into it.
They've done Fables 27 times, Murmur with Chronic Town 9 times, and Lifes Rich Pageant 16 times with two more coming.
It's such a good scene, every member of R.E.M. has played a few songs with Shannon and Narducy. In 2024 during a break in the show, R.E.M. joined the musicians on stage and Stipe said, "we are so fucking thrilled to be here tonight."
It was their first time together on a stage since 2007. Each of the members played on a number of songs. One guy on this one, two of them on that one. But Stipe didn't sing.
Because retirement is a funny thing, they did get together for the Songwriter's Hall of Fame and sang "Losing My Religion."
Things must have been ok because last year Stipe did sing with his longtime pals and with Shannon and Narducy.
"Pretty Persuasion" never sounded so good.
It sounded so nice that on Saturday (3/7) at Brooklyn Steel in New York, Stipe joined Shannon and Jason Narducy again and sang two songs he had not performed live since 2008.
The tunes were “These Days” from Lifes Rich Pageant and “The Great Beyond" which was on the Man on the Moon soundtrack and is also on their greatest hits cd, In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003.
Shannon and Narducy are accompanied by guitarist Dag Juhlin, keyboardist Vijay Tellis-Nayak, bassist John Stirratt, and drummer Jon Wurster. They not only do the featured album from front to back, but then add a bunch of other songs from the catalogue.
Saturday the second half of the show featured "Lotus" from Up (1998); "Gardening at Night" from the Chronic Town EP (1982); "Fretless" from the Until the End of the World soundtrack (1991); "Burning Down" from Reckoning (1984); "Fireplace" from Document (1987); "E-Bow the Letter" from New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996); and "Crush With Eyeliner" from Monster (1994) among others.
Will the rest of R.E.M. decide it won't be the end of the world as we know it if they all joined together to do a few songs together with Michael and Jason?
Will the quartet just decide to go tour again, do a Sphere residency, or even a few headlining gigs at some festivals? All would be warmly embraced. And the odds would be high that afterwards the band would feel fine.
Shannon and Narducy have several other dates for this tour on the calendar in March as well as in September. Get your tickets on their website.
Lifes Rich Pageant 40th Anniversary Tour remaining dates
3/09 Mr Small's Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA
3/10 Globe Iron, Cleveland, OH
3/14 First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
3/16 The Bluebird, Bloomington, IN
5/15-5/16 Evanston Space, Evanston, IL
9/12 Mandela Hall, Belfast, UK
9/25 The Riviera Theatre, Chicago, IL
9/26 The Majestic Theatre, Detroit, MI
