The Time's Still Ripe to Rhyme with Stipe Quiz

Answer: They're leading the blind with their international glories

"Daysleeper," the first single from 1998's "Up," their first work after drummer Bill Berry left the group.

The song is about people who work the night shift then have to sleep during the daylight hours using blindfolds and sound machines to cut them off from outside sensation. Michael Stipe said that the members of R.E.M. are a bunch of daysleepers.

Answer: I'm not sure all these people understand

The beautiful "Nightswimming" from 1992's "Automatic for the People."

Strings, a piano, a recorder, and Stipe's vocal worked beautifully together, virtually forming images from words and sound.

Answer: All the birds look down and laugh at me

"Let Me In" from 1994's "Monster."

This was Michael's plea to his friend Kurt Cobain, the lead singer for Nirvana, who'd killed himself earlier that year.

Answer: I might have been turned around

"Leaving New York" from 2004's "Around the Sun."

Answer: Maybe you're crazy in the head, baby

"Drive" from "Automatic for the People."

The version on the album was slow and brooding; in concert, it's played at a stepped-up pace in a "punk rock" fashion.

Answer: I'm prepared to look you in the eye

"Walk Unafraid" from "Up." The song starts quietly, then gets loud and jarring, and has inspirational lyrics that leave me feeling like I can run through brick walls.

Answer: But I want to turn you on, turn you up, figure you out, I want to take you on

"Strange Currencies" from "Monster," eerily similar in its sound to "Everybody Hurts."

Answer: This life that pass before my eyes

"Find the River" from "Automatic for the People," the beautiful concluding song to that album, about finding one's path in life.

Answer: If this is what you're offering

"I'll Take the Rain" from 2001's "Reveal." Another beautiful song.

Answer: Practice my T-rex moves and make the scene

"The Wake-Up Bomb" from 1996's "New Adventures in Hi-Fi."

A glam-rock song that would have fit nicely on "Monster," the song was performed on the latter part of their 1994/95 "Monster" tour before being included on "New Adventures in Hi-Fi."

Answer: There is nothing up my sleeve

"The Great Beyond," theme for the 1999 movie "Man on the Moon" about the life of Andy Kaufman.

Answer: A hotline, a wanted ad, it's crazy what you could have had

The thoroughly depressing "Country Feedback" from 1991's "Out of Time," about someone who realizes they've deprived themselves of something good.

Answer: I couldn't even hear

"Half a World Away" from "Out of Time," a forlorn-but-hopeful, mandolin-accompanied song that they used to open their 1991 appearance on "MTV Unplugged."

Answer: Oh my kiss breath turpentine

"Crush With Eyeliner" from "Monster," a crunching rocker intended by Stipe as a tribute to the 70s punk/glam rock band the New York Dolls.

Answer: See you in heaven if you make the list. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

"Man On the Moon" from "Automatic for the People."

The song is full of references to kitschy pieces of Americana from the 1950s and 1960s, all wrapped up in a tribute to the late quirky comedian and performance artist Andy Kaufman.

Answer: Happy, happy

"Out of Time's" "Shiny Happy People," for many fans the most-reviled song in R.E.M.'s catalog because it was their most blatant attempt at writing a mass-appeal pop song.

The band appeared on Sesame Street with the Muppets, singing a funny parody of the song, called "Furry Happy Monsters."

Answer: Bring my happy back again

"Lotus" from "Up."

"I'm still trying to figure it out," was how Michael responded on a promotional tour for "Up," when asked about the song's meaning. Okay...

Answer: Richard said, "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"

"What's the Frequency Kenneth" from "Monster."

The title comes from a 1986 incident in which a stranger attacked CBS broadcaster Dan Rather, repeatedly beating him and asking him "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" Although Rather has not enjoyed discussing the incident, he was a good enough sport about it to appear with the band on David Letterman's talk show, singing backup as they performed the song.

Richard, incidentally, is Richard Linklater, in whose movie "Slackers" the "withdrawal in disgust" quote appears.

Answer: Anything to thin the blood, these corrosives do their magic slowly and sweet

"E-Bow the Letter," from "New Adventures in Hi-Fi."

Another extreme "stream of consciousness" song from R.E.M., supposedly the title comes from the fact that the lyrics are excerpts from a long letter that Stipe wrote to a friend while touring, and guitarist Peter Buck uses a E-bow - a device to draw out the duration of a note played on a guitar - in this song. So by applying musical E-bow accompaniment to Michael's reading of his letter, we get the title "E-Bow the Letter."

Answer: Like a hurt lost and blinded fool

"Losing My Religion," the song that put R.E.M. on top of the rock world in 1991, off "Out of Time."

The title comes from a southern US expression meaning "at one's wits' end" (i.e., frustrated). Stipe has called the song "an obsessive love song," much like the Police's "Every Breath You Take."

Answer: Don't point your finger, you know that's not my thing

"Monster's" "Bang and Blame."

The song is often cited as having an anti domestic violence message, although according to Michael Stipe it is more about people who manipulate others into taking blame meant for them.

Answer: Trying to look like you don't try

"Imitation of Life" from "Reveal."

They almost didn't include the song on Reveal, but were encouraged to by their record company. Its jangly guitar sound and fairly upbeat lyrics are more similar in style to their older material than to the rest of that CD. Especially in Europe, the song enjoyed more commercial success than anything else they'd done to that point after Bill Berry left the band.

Answer: Well hang on

"Everybody Hurts" from "Automatic for the People."

Most of the song was actually written by drummer Bill Berry, even though on the recording, it's a drum machine playing, rather than Berry. The song's strong anti-suicide message won R.E.M. commendation from the legislature of the state of Nevada.

Answer: I'm Steve McQueen, I'm Jimmy Dean

"Electrolite" from "New Adventures in Hi-Fi."

Like oh so many R.E.M. songs, this one defies easy explanation. One that I like has been offered a few times by Stipe while introducing the song in concert: while flying over Los Angeles at night, the lights below looked like stars, inspiring him to write a song wrapped around a chorus of "You are the star tonight, your sun electric out of sight, your light eclipsed the moon tonight, electrolite."

Works for me!

Answer: Make my make-believe believe in me

"I've Been High," a stark and lovely song about confronting one's own disillusionment and forging ahead. My own favorite song from the underrated "Reveal."