Rock & Roll Birthday: R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe

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Rock & Roll Birthday: R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe

Music Editor
On Jan 04, 2012

I wanted to take a few minutes today to wish a very, very happy 52^nd birthday to former (sniffle) R.E.M. lead singer and lyricist Michael Stipe, one of my all-time biggest musical, political, and creative heroes. Born John Michael Stipe, he spent an army brat childhood growing up place to place, finally settling in Athens, GA where he studied art at the University of Georgia. There, he befriended a local record store clerk named Peter Buck—the two hit it off over a shared love of punk rock and obscure records and decided to form a band. They later recruited drummer Bill Berry and bassist Mike Mills and, well, you should probably know the story from there.

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Remembered best for many years for his marble-mouthed delivery and painfully shy stage presence, Michael Stipe blossomed into one of rock's greatest frontmen, largely thanks to his deeply artful, often impressionistic lyrics. His memorably spastic, out of control dancing didn't hurt, either.

You should already have everything R.E.M. ever recorded on your iDevices (we can't be best friends anymore otherwise), so I suggest spending a modest amount of time today revisiting their back catalogue (once through the discography should suffice) and checking out some of Michael Stipe's more "serious" career moments from the past few years below:

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