My Three Favorite R.E.M. Videos

Late last month, when R.E.M. ‘‘called it a day,’’ as the band put it on its Web site, I had a semipublic meltdown on Facebook: ‘‘REM BROKE UP REM BROKE UP REM BROKE UP THIS MEANS THAT SOMEDAY WE’LL ALL DIE.’’

Last week’s Lives column, ‘‘The Right Moves,’’ is an expanded version of my feelings that day. It’s about how dancing at R.E.M. shows — goofing on Elvis like Michael Stipe, practicing my T-Rex moves — made me feel graceful, often in the religious sense. That is, it made me feel alive in a way that made life itself seem like a gift, freely given.

Onstage, Michael Stipe could dance in ways that other performers of his class, like Thom Yorke of Radiohead or Bono of U2, simply can’t. Bono hides behind his sunglasses and isn’t particularly nimble. Thom Yorke, like the late Ian Curtis of Joy Division, or even David Byrne of the Talking Heads, is simply too spastic. He dances, wonderfully but not gracefully, in a world of his very own. Stipe, on the other hand, always seemed to find himself. And if you danced along, you could find yourself, too.

Here are my three favorite R.E.M. videos, selected for the best dancing:

‘‘What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?’’


‘‘The Great Beyond’’

‘‘Man on the Moon’’ (live with Eddie Vedder)

Bonus clip: Michael Stipe’s version of robot