It had the some of the trademarks of a Stax ballad, including an arpeggiated guitar part, electric piano and 12/8 time signature. Jones to Buck’s Steve Cropper, “Everybody Hurts” became something of a soul ballad. “I’m not sure if Michael would have copped that reference, but to a lot of our fans it was a Staxxy-type thing,” “We went through about four different ideas and how to approach it and eventually came to that Stax, Otis Redding, ‘Pain in My Heart’ kind of vibe,” Buck recalled, via REMHQ. As R.E.M.’s instrumental trio kept at it, the song began to develop a more soulful feeling. Let's demo it playing our own instruments, play it right.'”īuck described the initial version of the song, which had no chorus or bridge, as a country-ish ballad. We were actually playing with Bill on guitar, Peter on bass and me on drums.

“Bill wrote most of it,” Mills told Melody Maker.

(Singer Michael Stipe would enter the creative process later, which was standard operating procedure for R.E.M.) One day, the drummer, who also played other instruments, brought in a new idea. It was Berry who came up with the rough idea for R.E.M.’s most soulful original song, “Everybody Hurts.” In mid-1991, Berry, guitarist Peter Buck and bassist/keyboardist Mike Mills met up to begin working on music for the band’s follow-up to Out of Time.

Rem everybody hurts piano