Losing my religion

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Losing My Religion is one of the most successful songs by the American alternative rock band REM. It was the second single from the 1991 album Out of Time . Text and music are provided by William T. Berry , Peter Buck , Mike E. Mills and Michael Stipe .

instrumentation

Characteristic for this song, which has many folk elements, is, among other things, the use of the mandolin . Originally Peter Buck , the band's guitarist, came up with the idea for this song while drinking beer while watching a baseball game and jingling a little on the mandolin. Singer Michael Stipe quickly found a suitable text for this. Peter Holsapple, guest musician in the out-of-time sessions, played acoustic guitar , Mike Mills wrote a matching bass line and also played electric bass during the recording. Bill Berry provided the drum beat.

Text interpretations

Losing My Religion is an old southern expression that translates as “get out of your skin ” or “ have had enough ”. The song was meant not autobiographical, despite the line "That's me in the spotlight" ( " That's me in the spotlight "). Michael Stipe said he wished he had sung something else, such as "That's me in the kitchen" ( " That's me in the kitchen ") because there is nothing with him and the initial stage fright , which he in the early days of the band was often said to have to do. Stipe later pointed out several times that the text and also the metaphor of the title deal with unrequited love and desire, and thus with "what I thought to be the most clichéd of all pop songs".

Michael Stipe said in an interview that he was inspired by the song Every Breath You Take by The Police , whose opening act was REM.

Video

In the opening sequence of the video shot by Indian artist Tarsem Singh , Stipe can be seen sitting on a chair. Mills takes a few indecisive steps around him. Buck and Berry can then be seen walking through the picture. You seem to be chasing something that is not shown. Then a milk jug falls from the window sill of the room and smashes on the floor in sync with the first drum beat. In between, Buck can be seen at the mandolin. Cutscenes show a blonde African American with golden angel wings, a youth who appears to have been hit by arrows and is tied to a tree, and other actors.

Awards

Losing My Religion was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 songs that made the most of rock 'n' roll . The music magazine Rolling Stone also included the song in their list of the 500 best songs of all time , where it ranks 169th.

On the occasion of the MTV Video Music Awards 1991, the video for Losing My Religion also received several awards, including for:

Cover versions

The song was covered by the Preluders , Gregorian (on Masters of Chant ), Lacuna Coil , Graveworm , Hardwell , Tori Amos and Nicole Cross , among others . The cover version of Dia Frampton reached tenth place on the Canadian charts in 2011.

literature

  • REM - Inside Out. The story of their songs, Rockbuch Verlag Buhmann & Haeseler, 2005, ISBN 3-927638-23-4 .
  • REM - The Rolling Stone Files, Hannibal Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3-85445-211-X

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jeff Giles, June 27, 1991 in Rolling Stones ( http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/no-1-with-an-attitude-19910627 )
  2. https://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/13/arts/the-pop-life-122791.html
  3. https://www.today.com/popculture/rems-michael-stipe-couldn-t-go-anywhere-t105169
  4. Alexander R. Wenisch: The Police: Every Breath You Take in Rhein-Neckar-Zeitung , October 8, 2016