I cried to these songs, maybe a few more -
Leaving New York
Make it all Okay
I’ll take the Rain
This live version of - Time after Time etc.
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I wouldn’t say I cried, but ‘Uberlin’ still stops me and hits me right in my heart. When ‘Collapse Into Now’ came out I was going through a very dark time and my therapy was intense. I had a hard time trying to make it through the day. I had to focus on getting through each moment instead of letting myself get overwhelmed by my entire life.
These lyrics were a sort of mantra to me and reminded to just get through my life, my day, one part at a time:
I will make it through the day and then the day becomes the night
I will make it through the night
I told myself constantly I will get through the day… and I will get through the night. I would just focus on making it through each day… and the night… and the next day.
I wish Michael could know how these words gave me strength to just keep living.
-Hannah
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That’s a powerful post, thanks for sharing.
Have R.E.M. songs made me cry? Many, many times.
I guess it’s not the songs so much as the way my emotions react to the songs at a given time.
When I was about 14 I was being badly bullied at school. The bus ride home was the worst part. (You can’t walk away when you’re sitting on a bus.) I used to get home, run to my bedroom, put my headphones on, turn the volume up all the way, and listen to R.E.M. whilst crying into my pillow. Losing My Religion and Drive were my go-to songs. Those two songs are still very special to me.
As crazy as it sounds, it got me through it. I had R.E.M. and they didn’t.
It’s something that continued throughout my life. R.E.M. have always been my comfort in difficult times.
My favourite album is Up. I’m convinced that’s because I was going through a rough patch at that time. All those songs spoke to me. Falls to Climb, Sad Professor, Why Not Smile…
When my Mum died, I couldn’t listen to music for a while. When I did, it was Sweetness Follows.
The soundtrack to my life doesn’t do it justice. I’m with Hannah. I hope the band know how important they’ve been, and still are, to so many people. Wish I could tell them.
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From what I can remember, two R.E.M. songs have made me cry. I don’t think I have that much of an intimate relationship with them, but my reasons are special for me too.
First one was “Everybody hurts” being played live in front of me back in Rock in Rio 2001. They played “MotM” and went away. Then came back for the encore. That first song after a short break hit me like a brick, for some reason. I didn’t even like it that much back then, but I’ll never forget that moment.
Second one is “Country feedback” after I paid closer attention to one of its long live performances and the lyrics for the first time. I still can’t sing “It’s crazy what you could have had” without crying, both for personal reasons and for so much that little sentence encapsulates. No one can truly revisit the past, and missed opportunities are a reality for just about everyone. It’s so incredibly sad when you come to think of it.
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“At My Most Beautiful.” I realize it’s a love song but in my Mom’s last days the line, “I know you’re closed eye watching me” took on new meaning for me. When she passed away in 1999 my first thought was to have “Sweetness Follows” played at her services but one of my older brothers thought it too sad so “At My Most Beautiful” it was.
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Sweetness Follows and Drive will Always remind me of my Beautiful Late mother. The latter was the one and only song she ever sang along to. I’ll never know why, but she would only sing the line “Maybe you’re crazy in the head” perhaps she thought she might have been crazy herself? I could never agree with that. Or maybe she thought it was funny, and just liked to sing it to herself? No matter the reason, it will always make me remember the only parent that truly cared about me. Without her and the music of R.E.M. I wouldn’t be who I am today, and most likely wouldn’t be alive today writing this post.
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I don’t really cry from music, not to say I don’t feel strong emotions from listening to music, it just doesn’t manifest that way. I have however felt some MAJOR feelings listening to Sitting Still, Find the River, and Half a World Away among many many others tho
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Camera.
The first time I saw the lads (Reckoning tour at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco… funny enough they played a festival earlier in the day ~120 miles away. Their set was between Berlin and Ratt) they played the song. To me it was about the end of my first real relationship. Michael and I locked eyes and as he sang tears fell naturally from both of us. I thought it might have been my imagination, but when they came back for the encore Michael had a bunch of flowers someone had sent them. He started tossing some to the crowd, and then took a couple, reached over the person in front of me, and handed some flowers to me.
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That is beautiful Hannah. 
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@binky1978 That is true Michael, I find feeling & comfort too in R.E.M. songs.
@Sheafe Thanks for sharing. I see it’s your first post, welcome to murmurs! 
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I love being moved by music, movies… R.E.M soundtrack, this was like sitting around a campfire & everyone sharing stories & feelings.
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Thank you so much!
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I’m probably too weepy: You Are The Everything, Try Not To Breathe, Nightswimming, and Find The River regularly set me off (and the last is the one I want at my funeral), but they aren’t the only ones.
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I want a celebration of my life where “Live Forever” by Billy Joe Shaver, “Find the River” by R.E.M., and “Please Don’t Bury Me” by John Prine are played. Of course, when I posted that on FB not long ago, someone tried to hassle me about it, saying it was too many songs. When my oldest brother passed in 2009 we had a celebration of his life that lasted several hours that included a live band.
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I was weeping over “These Days” the other day. Just the total earnestness and the commitment, you know? That kind of sincerity is still so rare to hear in pop music or anywhere else.
If I can / And I can!
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Well there are so many I don’t really know where to start. As I write this “How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us” is running through my head. Leave gets me every time. I can’t listen to most of Monster because it upsets me too much. Everybody Hurts of course provides solace. I’m not sure I cry at “I’ll Take the Rain” but it moves me every time I see the video or it being performed live.And the list goes on…
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“Leave” is incredibly cathartic. The heights Michael reaches when singing about desperation: “I suffer the dreams of a world gone mad”. It usually gets me emotional too, not in the crying sense, but the enormity of it.
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Yes, they have.
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For sure. At various times over the decades these have got me:
Most of AFTP to be fair
EBow the Letter “here comes the flood, anything to thin the blood”
Country Feedback “It’s crazy what you could have had”
Low “I skipped the part about love, it seemed so silly”
The Wrong Child “I’m not supposed to be like this, but it’s ok”
King of Birds “Awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay”
Kouhotek “Courage built a bridge, jealous tore it down”
Camera “Alone in a crowd”
I struggle to trust people who never cry at a beautiful song. But then I’m an old sap, so…
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Are you kidding? I could fill one of those GA swimming holes over the course of their career. Photograph was probably the first, and over the years too many to mention. Like Donna, Find The River will be played at my last goodbye. Their music touches me in the most primal, beautiful way. I may have shed tears the first time I heard Everybody Hurts, but there are so many songs that just hit my soul.
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