My Sunday Song – “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.

Published on by 2loud2oldmusic

My Sunday Song #51 is my favorite R.E.M. song called “Losing My Religion”.  The song is off the 1991 album ‘Out of Time’ and it reached as high as #4 on the Billboard Hot 100.  It was probably the most popluar R.E.M. song at the time and maybe ever.  It was nominated for 4 Grammy Awards and won for 2 of them.  One of which was for music video and you can see it at the end of the commentary.

Why do I like the song?  I really love the guitar sound and that mandolin that Peter Buck plays.  It captures to essence of the song and helps bring to life the imagery of the lyrics.  Michael’s voice is so unique and for this song it was a little creepy which is perfect as the song was about obsession over another.

“Losing My Religion” is an old phrase meaning that you have lost it.  You are losing your wits or temper.  As this is an obsession song, the singer has lost their mind over this person and is fantasizing about them constantly.  Lyrically it is very disturbing.

What I also loved was the imagery in the video.  The video had a lot of religious imagery; however, losing my religion is really not about losing faith in god.  The video really encapsulated the song and gave it that extra punch that really stuck with me over the years and every time I hear this song, I have to stop and listen to it.  From songfacts.com,

the video is based in part on Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings. The novel tells the story about an angel who falls down from heaven and how the people who make money displaying him as a “freak show.”

The main instrument on the song is the mandolin.  Peter Buck bought his first mandolin while on tour in 1987.  He came up with the riffs for the song during his first attempts at learning to play.  And the rest is history.  Not bad to create the workings of a song out of playing around on an instrument that you had never played before.

I hope you enjoy the song and have a great Sunday!!

“Losing My Religion”

Oh life, it’s bigger
It’s bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I set it upThat’s me in the corner
That’s me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don’t know if I can do it
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I haven’t said enoughI thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

Every whisper
Of every waking hour
I’m choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt, lost and blinded fool, fool
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I set it up

Consider this
Consider this, the hint of the century
Consider this, the slip
That brought me to my knees, failed
What if all these fantasies come
Flailing around
Now I’ve said too much

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

That’s me in the corner
That’s me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don’t know if I can do it
Oh no, I’ve said too much
I haven’t said enough

I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
Try, cry, why try
That was just a dream
Just a dream
Just a dream, dream

Written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills & Michael Stipe

15 thoughts on “My Sunday Song – “Losing My Religion” by R.E.M.”

  3. Nice post I reviewed REM when they played Tbay….
    I recall when they started this tune you couldn’t hear Bucks mandolin for about a 1/4 of the song…..
    Great show considering they came here….

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  5. I used to really like this song, but it’s been overplayed over the years. Reckon I haven’t chosen to listen to it in about 15 years or so. I saw R.E.M. back in 2003, I think… I actually thought we were escaping without hearing this, but they played it mid-way through the set. It was good, though.

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  7. I’m continuing my REM project. Last weekend listened to accelerate a ton of times and now Automatic is on. Not going in order it seems. On the first trek went through most of IRS ones.

    Just ordered a punch of their anniversary stuff, not sure if the order holds since those boxes have long been sold out.

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