Time Is An Abstract: Happy 50th, Michael Stipe
When he was young and full of grace: opening for the English Beat, 1982
Michael Stipe is 50. Fifty. 5-0. Half a century.
Shit.
Over the years, we’ve seen ol’ Acorn Head in a variety of incarnations – painfully shy art student, mustard-haired medicine man, agitprop provocateur, owner of the single-worst haircut ever sported by man, GAP-attired shiny happy person, Captain Scrummy, Elvis impersonator, Star-Bellied Sneetch, “equal-opportunity letch”, bald bandito, nattily-attired elder statesman, and most recently, purveyor of suspect facial hair.
And through it all, Stipe’s had one toe dipped in pretension, one toe dipped in absurdity, one toe dipped in cringe-worthy earnestness, one toe dipped in utter bullshit, one toe dipped in (self?) mythology… and the whole other foot completely submerged in conviction. Couple all that with pretty much the best goddamn voice you’ll ever hear and that’s why we’re raising our glass to him today.
Anyway, here’s three clips from a long, long time ago:
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