SPIKE Collection - R.E.M. Music-Video Retrospective

R.E.M. - Tongue

Singer Michael Stipe channels Smokey Robinson with a soulful falsetto, singing beneath a twirling disco ball in this slow-mo jam. Seemingly bored people watch on TV at home in tacky '70s clothes while they're scarfing some munchies. It's a very cool sparse track with a surprisingly molten guitar break from Peter Buck.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 15 sec

R.E.M. - Imitation of Life

It's a riotous Hollywood party that's not nearly as much fun as it initially appears in this video from the band's Reveal album. Among the endless activity on this human ant-hill: A guy catches fire at the barbeque, lovers and families quarrel, fights break out and it all seems to repeat endlessly, rocking back and forth through the same moments in time.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 04 sec

R.E.M. - Great Beyond

The band finds themselves trapped inside a giant TV screen until singer Michael Stipe realizes he can use his mike stand to bump the screen and nudge the band out of the TV studio, down the street and into the "Great Beyond." This sweetly surreal video features footage from Jim Carrey's Andy Kaufman flick, Man on the Moon, as well as a scene of the band throwing darts at Jim. We're sensing some tension here, but it's all good.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 15 sec

R.E.M. - At My Most Beautiful

A touching love song swims against the tide of the video, documenting a really bad day for our cellist protagonist. In a rush to an audition she gets splashed by a cab, knocked down by a cop and blown sideways by the wind. By the end, it's beautiful, in an ambiguous, very R.E.M. kind of way.

Runtime: 00 hrs 03 min 34 sec

R.E.M. - Daysleeper

Suffused with sadness that life is passing him by, Daysleeper Michael Stipe gets in touch with his inner business wonk, who works the Asian markets while everyone around him sleeps. Herky-jerky cityscapes in fast-motion Koyaanisqatsi-style telegraph the predicament of this man out of time.

Runtime: 00 hrs 03 min 46 sec

R.E.M. - Electrolite

This video begins upside down with a room full of inflatable plastic reindeer. And then it starts to get strange. Psychedelic shirts, insane plaids and strobing wallpaper are just part of the visual insanity that includes drummer Bill Berry growing to King Kong size while still keeping the beat. Take a trip right where you are with this adventurous and rockin' track.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 05 sec

R.E.M. - E-Bow the Letter

It's a starry night in the recording studio with dangling Christmas lights creating a magical, stellar effect. With one of their trademark audiovisual puns, crafty Michael Stipe croons "This star thing, I don't get it." But we know he gets it. The song is a rambling talk-rap rolling over an organ drone and, yes, e-bow, which is a device that bows a guitar like a violin. It is not a reliable means of mail delivery.

Runtime: 00 hrs 05 min 22 sec

R.E.M. - What's the Frequency, Kenneth?

Crime may not pay, but sometimes it translates into airplay . . . and weirdness. The title and impetus for this track comes from the mugger of CBS anchorman Dan Rather, who jumped the newsman from behind on a Manhattan street and repeatedly hit him in the head, asking over and over "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" Rather took it in stride, even joining the band as a backup singer for a performance on Letterman. R.E.M.'s frontman Michael Stipe called it the "premiere unsolved American surrealist act of the 20th century. But it gets weirder. Years later, when the mugger was caught he reportedly blamed the news media for beaming signals into his head--he's currently serving time for killing an NBC stagehand.

Runtime: 00 hrs 03 min 58 sec

R.E.M. - Nightswimming

Latenight used car lots and closing supermarkets give way to underwater footage of swimmers kicking off their shorts and breast-stroking toward the surface in this nostalgic paean to skinny dipping. Anchored by singer Michael Stipe's passionate tenor pipes, the track is swimming in strings and fluttery piano.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 21 sec

R.E.M. - The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight

With weirdly spinning lyrics about deadly snakes, Dr. Seuss, Nescafe, payphones and black-eyed peas--it all adds up to another bit of alluring, allusive pop by the lads from Athens G.A. Aided and abetted by one of their fave video directors, Peter Care ("Man on the Moon," "What's the Frequency Kenneth," "Electrolite"), R.E.M performs here in a strange shadowbox recording studio with images projected against colored screens as centrifuges whirl and strange flowers bloom. Whatever the heck it all means, though, it sounds great.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 06 sec

R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts

It's the roadside rapture for R.E.M.in this cut from Automatic for the People as a traffic jam gives angelic singer Michael Stipe a chance to do some mind reading, Wings of Desire-style. Subtitled lyrics dovetail into the desperate interior monologues of all the lonely people sweltering in the cars. Eventually, everyone decides that they're sad as hell and they're not going to take it anymore. So they just get up and leave their cars right there.

Runtime: 00 hrs 05 min 35 sec

R.E.M. - Man on the Moon

The title song for the Jim Carrey movie about prankster-comedian Andy Kaufman finds R.E.M. at an artistic peak in this cut off Automatic for the People. Moody and oblique, the video features singer Michael Stipe strolling movie-star handsome through the scrubby desert as split-screen montages cascade past in glorious black and white: an evolution-of-man flip book here, a slithering asp there. With playful lyrics about skepticism and belief, the video ends up at dusty St. Peter's truckstop where the weathered regulars sing along with the band: "If you believe, they put a man on the moon..."

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 45 sec

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

The song has no real chorus, it's steeped in borderline-creepy imagery and features the mandolin as the lead instrumen--yet it became the band's biggest hit and was a breakthrough video for director Tarsem (The Cell). Now THAT'S alternative. The vid starts with a pitcher of spilt milk and Michael Stipe spends the rest of the song crying over lost love.

Runtime: 00 hrs 04 min 45 sec

R.E.M. - Stand

This Sesame Street-style geography lesson reminds you that wherever you go, there you are. And not to worry, gravity will keep you grounded. A driving, propulsive guitar riff from axe-master Peter Buck gives things a nice sense of direction while singer Michael Stipe warbles the marching orders to a quartet of dancers hoofing it on a giant compass: "Stand in the place where you live, now face north..." Be here now.

Runtime: 00 hrs 03 min 12 sec

R.E.M. - Orange Crush

Maybe this song doesn't have much to do with Orange Crush brand soda pop, but this video is defiinitely cool and refreshing. Shot in sumptuous B&W by veteran director Matt Mahurin, it's awash in borderline creepy childhood nostalgia, as we zoom in on a battered old chest of drawers, catch a closeup glimpse of football laces, or bury a mysterious wooden box in some black, black dirt. Nobody does artsy-fartsy (sorta) fun times like the lads from Athens, GA, and this cut from the band's Green album showcase them at their evocative best, both visually and musically. Winner of MTV's not-at-all-coveted Post Modern Video award, but we like it anyway.

Runtime: 00 hrs 03 min 48 sec