REM singer Michael Stipe recently said he was surprised that “Losing My Religion” became a hit. In his opinion, the piece would be rather “strange”, reports the 62-year-old and also chats about a change in the lyrics that changed the meaning of the text.
REM and the meaning of their super hit
In 1991 “Losing My Religion” appeared on the REM album “Out Of Time”. The title brought the band numerous gold and platinum records in addition to a Grammy. It’s been known for a long time: The lyrics of the song are not – as might be easily assumed – about turning away from faith. Rather, the title is based on the American phrase of the same name, which means “fed up”. According to Stipe, it’s more about a romantic ambition.
Losing My Religion’s success was unexpected
In the podcast “Broken Record” the singer tells how minor he thought the hit was at the time: “We released it as the first single because we thought it would be a good introduction to the next song.” Stipe further reports that the band had “none I had no idea the song was going to be so well received.”
The lyrics have been changed
He also remembers making a small change to the lyrics in the chorus. Previously the lyrics would have read “That’s me in the corner/That’s me in the kitchen”. Those lines referred to the notion of a “shy wallflower” who “holds back at a party and doesn’t approach the person she’s madly in love with.”
From Kitchen to Spotlight
The REM founder goes on to explain the meaning of the original text: “The whole relationship is only happening in the person’s head, and they don’t know if they said too much or too little.” The person “is sitting in the corner of the dance floor and watching everyone dance and the love of his life dancing with everyone on the dance floor because that’s the most exciting person,” Stipe continues to describe the imaginary scene, adding, “Or he’s in the kitchen behind the fridge .”
He then changed the word “kitchen” to “spotlight” and “immediately the song was about me, which was never meant to be,” says the songwriter. In other interviews, Stipe had repeatedly emphasized that the title was not autobiographical.
Comeback ruled out
The band had already announced their dissolution in 2011, and Stipe reaffirmed this decision in an interview. A reunion is out of the question. A remastered edition of the 1996 album “New Adventures In Hi-Fi” was released in 2021 anyway. Eddie Vedder covered the REM track “Drive” for the soundtrack of the film Flag Day that same year.