by Ethan Kaplan
"Eccentricity is an easy face to put on,
I certainly never want to fall into that"
—Michael Stipe
John Michael Stipe was born in Decatur, Georgia, in 1960. Growing up in a southern environment until the age of 15, Stipe's musical interest revolved around the music his parents had: country and show tunes. When Stipe was 15 and in high school in St. Louis, he happened upon an issue of Creem magazine under his chair in study hall. Patti Smith was on the cover, looking like "Morticia Adams." Stipe went and bought Horses, which he claims "tore my limbs off and put them back on in a whole different order. I was like 'Shit, yeah, oh my god!' then I threw up."
Citing Patti as his reason for entering music, Michael continued to admire her throughout REM's career. During the 1995 Monster tour, Michael helped introduce a whole new generation of fans to Patti's music, because he frequently played all of Horses as warmup music for the crowd. Also on that tour, he finally got to perform with his idol. Patti gave her musical support to REM in various cities, singing "Let Me In" with them and performing "Dancing Barefoot" solo. Later that year, Michael provided emotional support to her when she was touring with Bob Dylan. Stipe says that he will be present at any Patti concert, as he was on March 23, 1996, at the Wiltern, when he just about cried with happiness after the show. That same show, he said was one of the ten best experiences of his life.
Recent collaboration: Patti appears on the song "E-bow the Letter" on R.E.M.'s recent album, New Adventures in Hi-Fi. She also appears in the video for this song, which has been in "heavy rotation" on MTV. Here's an excerpt from an interview with R.E.M. band members about the song:
The first curveball to be thrown (Mike Mills is an ardent baseball fan) with the new album is the band's first choice for a single, the brooding E-Bow the Letter, which Buck is 'sure will puzzle people (as) it doesn't have a melody except in the chorus, when,' he points out, 'someone who isn't even in the band sings!'
PETER BUCK: Musically it's like a proto-total rock dirge; and lyrically... Michael was actually writing a letter to an aquaintence, so it's got that kind of stream-of-conciousness, first-person thing. We wanted to have Patti Smith on the choruses as relief from the monodramatic type of feeling of the verses. And Patti was great, she did a really fine performance.
MIKE MILLS: She came to see us when we were touring and we're all big fans of hers. She came up and did one of her songs - Dancing Barefoot - with us a few times. And so when we made the new record we asked if she'd like to sing on this song and she said 'yes'. We're very glad she did. We actually wanted her to sing on Everybody Hurts from the 'Automatic for the People' album, but she was busy with her family, and she was working, and being a mother and a wife.
Buck says to have Smith sing on a song he helped write 'was just amazing' as she changed his life 'in a literal way' when he saw he perform in 1976. This was around the same time Michael Stipe was listening to her debut album 'Horses', which he says 'was just the most important thing in the world'. Stipe admitted on the Internet that whenever REM played Patti Smith's hometown he'd 'always dedicate a song to her hoping she might be there. She wasn't.'
But now these two icons of the iconoclastic are together on this song where Stipe sings 'this fame thing... this star thing - I don't get it.' However strange it might seem as a choice of single E-Bow fits right in there as a signifier of 1996 version REM.
_________________________________________________________
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise
The bus ride, I went to write this, 4:00 a.m.
This letter
Fields of poppies, little pearls
All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed
Each and every one a little scary
I said your name
I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars
Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras
Dreaming of Maria Callas
Whoever she is
This fame thing, I don't get it
I wrap my hand in plastic to try to look through it
Maybelline eyes and girl-as-boy moves
I can take you far
This star thing, I don't get it
I'll take you over, there
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I'll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
I'll take you over
Will you live to 83?
Will you ever welcome me?
Will you show me something that nobody else has seen?
Smoke it, drink
Here comes the flood
Anything to thin the blood
These corrosives do their magic slowly and sweet
Phone, eat it, drink
Just another chink
Cuts and dents, they catch the light
Aluminum, the weakest link
I don't want to disappoint you
I'm not here to anoint you
I would lick your feet
But is that the sickest move?
I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow
And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange?
My loss, and here we go again
I'll take you over, there
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I'll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
I'll take you over
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise
I can't look it in the eyes
Seconal, Spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene
Cherry-flavored neck and collar
I can smell the sorrow on your breath
The sweat, the victory and sorrow
The smell of fear, I got it
I'll take you over, there
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I'll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
I'll take you over
Pulls us near
Tastes like fear.
Nearer, nearer
Over, over, over, over
Yeah, look over
I'll take you there, oh, yeah
I'll take you there
Oh, over
I'll take you there
Over, let me
I'll take you there..
There, there, baby, yeah
E-Bow The Letter by REM and Patti Smith
