Who Wrote What - Out of Time

R.E.M. (1980-2011)
1

What are the origins of these songs?

Radio Song - Mills
Losing My Religion - Buck
Low - ?
Near Wild Heaven - ?
Endgame - ?
Shiny Happy People - ?
Belong - ?
Half a World Away - ?
Texarkana - Mills
Country Feedback - ?
Me In Honey - Mills

I assume Mills started Radio Song as an organ demo, but it is interesting hearing Berry singing a verse in the acoustic demo.
I’m not sure who brought forth Endgame (since it started as an acoustic demo prior to Stipe adding the arrangement).

2

mills has talked about writing the riff for “shiny happy people.”

3

I think the chords for Country Feedback might have been Bill Berry.

4

I’d assume Half a World Away was Peter because he was the one fucking around with the mandolin back then

5

To be honest, I think everything apart from the last two songs were probably Buck songs to start with. At least to my ears. Obviously there’s heavy Mills involvement on the two that he sings.

As they said many times, by the time the songs are finished they’re all of theirs. But I think most start out as Buck.

6

Radio Song - Mills
Losing My Religion - Buck
Low - Buck
Near Wild Heaven - Mills
Endgame - Buck?
Shiny Happy People - Buck & Mills
Belong - sort of a group effort, started out from Bill…
Half a World Away - Buck
Texarkana - Berry
Country Feedback - Buck
Me In Honey - Mills

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7

I remember reading that Texarkana was a Bill Berry song, but oddly enough he didnt want to perform it live.

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8

Bill was also messing around with mandolin. Just because it’s a mandolin song doesn’t automatically mean it’s Peter’s song.

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9

I suspect Radio Song is more of a Berry song than a Mills song, as Berry sings a verse on the acoustic demo, not sure why he would have done that if he didn’t have a hand in writing it, and the overall funky/R&B vibe of the track echoes that of “Can’t Get There from Here,” which I believe is largely Berry’s. See also the unreleased and unheard “Bill’s Funky” from the Up rehearsal sessions. Pretty obviously Buck didn’t write “Can’t Get There from Here,” Berry was the one most comfortable in that idiom, I think.