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The 1975 song that made Michael Stipe a performer: “I never looked back”
Michael Stipe has described the exact moment he decided to become a musician, crediting Patti Smith's 1975 song 'Birdland' with setting him on the path that would lead to REM. The R.E.M. frontman discovered Smith not through the usual rock idols of his youth, such as David Bowie or Eric Clapton, but through a chance encounter with a magazine article while at school, which reshaped his ambitions and, ultimately, his life.
Stipe, then around 14 or 15 and living in Collinsville, Illinois, first read about New York's CBGB scene and Smith in a copy of Creem magazine left behind during a school detention. He bought her debut album, Horses, on its release day, and it was the track 'Birdland' that struck him hardest, prompting him to tell Pitchfork he had an "epiphany" about learning to sing and start a band. He later told Rolling Stone he "never looked back" after hearing it, a conviction that eventually led him to drop out of school and devote himself fully to music.
In short
- Michael Stipe says Patti Smith's 'Birdland' inspired him to become a musician
- He discovered Smith via a magazine left in school detention
- The 1975 song led him to drop out of school for music
Explained simply
Michael Stipe grew up in Collinsville, Illinois, and became known as the lead singer of R.E.M., an American rock band formed in 1980. Patti Smith is an American singer, songwriter and poet whose 1975 debut album, Horses, helped bring her music to a wider audience.
In the mid-1970s, New York clubs such as CBGB became known for a new wave of punk and rock performers. Music magazines helped introduce young readers elsewhere to that scene, including artists they might not encounter on the radio.