Texarkana

Mike Mills (1958–); Bill Berry (1958–); Peter Buck (1956–); Michael Stipe (1960–)

This R.E.M. song was started by Michael Stipe, but he couldn’t get past the beginning, so it was finished by Mike Mills. R.E.M. shared songwriting profits for all songs regardless of who wrote them: a wise way to prevent in-group animosity. It’s from my favorite R.E.M. album, Out Of Time, another heavy rotation, family favorite. In my opinion it has a broader variety of songs than their other albums (honesty check: I haven’t listened to all of them), as well as a greater density of songs that are break-your-heart beautiful. In 2016, Peter Buck said, “Sometime in the mid-‘80s, the record companies figured out how to do it. How to run the music business like it was selling beans. Once that happened, everything became a rule. And people started paying more attention. Now everyone knows how to do it, you form a rock band, record something, put it up on Bandcamp, do a little video for YouTube. I’m not putting it down. But it used to be like the Wild West. Now it’s Hollywood.”

Mark’s great suggestion for this one: slow it down.