Michael Stipe’s missed Underworld opportunity: “That particular moment passed me by”
Artists like Michael Stipe never looked at the music industry as any sort of competition.
The main goal of any artist is to try to make music that will outlive them all, and even if they aren’t necessarily the most commercial tunes in the world, it’s worth it to give the public something that they have never heard before rather than rehashing the same thing. But when Stipe tried his best to reinvent himself into other musical shapes, that didn’t mean that every one of them was a great fit, either.
Then again, Stipe was never going to jump into a project that he wasn’t at least a little bit comfortable with. He had to be the first person to believe in that song before he had any set lyrics or melody to work off of, and while not everything was a home run, it’s hard to think of any record that he made with REM that wasn’t at least some degree of good throughout its runtime.
But if there’s one thing that fans like to dwell on, it’s the thought of what could have been. Stipe may have been able to feature some truly wild collaborations on his records like with KRS One or members of The B-52’s, but there’s always going to be a wonder of what could have been had he been able to work with Kurt Cobain in any capacity before his passing or what he could have managed to work on with the remaining members before they decided to call it a day.
And that didn’t only apply to the world of music, either. The fact that he turned down the role of John Doe in Se7en might have made for a better performance, but it’s not like him being in the role and sharing that heated final scene with Brad Pitt would be harder to watch nowadays than seeing a pre-scandal Kevin Spacey.
In fact, the world of cinema wasn’t always that far away from Stipe. He had been interested in every creative medium that he could get his hands on, and while his time in front of the camera wasn’t always comfortable, he managed to throw away a shot at working on the Trainspotting soundtrack before the record even came out.
Although people like Noel Gallagher rejected the movie for the title alone, Stipe had a far more specific grievance when he was set to collaborate with Underworld for ‘Born Slippy USA’, saying, “I met with them and said, ‘Do you have a track that I can listen to and base melodies on?’ And they’re like, ‘No.’ I said, ‘Well, that’s not how it works. I need something to bounce off.’ They said, ‘We don’t have anything.’ So that particular moment passed me by.”
It’s not like this wasn’t a huge get, either. The fact that the band were even considered to be one of the greatest soundtracks of all time would have been great, but despite having songs by his heroes like Lou Reed on the record, Stipe has always been a lover of melody, and if he had to start from scratch and relearn everything he did, it probably wasn’t worth him trying to reshape his entire musical identity.
Then again, one of the best qualities about REM is them being a little bit left of the dial. They may have thrown away a golden opportunity for exposure, but they were never the kind of band that wanted to play those kinds of games every single time they walked into the studio. This was the group that felt like everyone’s best-kept secret, even when they were famous, and considering their pedigree, it wasn’t like they needed to gain anything more from being on the soundtrack.
If anything, Trainspotting ended up losing another great musician from their soundtrack roster.
