The Story Behind the Often Misinterpreted “Brutal” R.E.M. Song That Michael Stipe Nearly Didn’t Record

Released on R.E.M.‘s fifth album Document in 1987, “The One I Love” may have sounded like a serenade, but its lyrics revealed something more heartless. Written by Michael Stipe, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and Bill Berry, “The One I Love” was often interpreted by some as a love ballad, but its lyrics stung of using people and leaving them behind—A simple prop to occupy my time.

“Too Brutal”

“It’s probably better that they think it’s a love song at this point,” Stipe told Q magazine of the single in 1992. “That song just came up from somewhere and I recognized it as being really violent and awful. But it wasn’t directed at any one person. I would never write a song like that. Even if there was one person in the world thinking, ‘This song is about me,’ I could never sing it or put it out.”

Stipe added, “I didn’t want to record that, I thought it was too much—too brutal. I think there’s enough of that ugliness around.”

Despite Stipe’s disconnect from the darker R.E.M. song, it became the band’s first hit, reaching No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, while Document peaked at No. 10 on the 200 chart.

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‘A simple prop to occupy my time’

Within the simple, sarcastic verses of “The One I Love,” Stipe sings of those he used. They were just a prop to occupy his time, yet he still insists that he “loves” them.

This one goes out to the one I love

This one goes out to the one I’ve left behind

A simple prop to occupy my time

This one goes out to the one I love

Fire

Fire

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Stipe’s roar of Fire in the song is tied to the recurring theme in Document, from “Welcome to the Occupation”—Fire on the hemisphere below … The forest for the fire—to “Fireplace,” and the closing “Oddfellows Local 151” and its Why do the heathens rage behind the firehouse?

Buck came up with the riff for “The One I Love” on his front porch. “I remember Peter, showing me that riff and thinking it was pretty cool, and then the rest of the song flowed from there,” said Mills. “We played the whole song as an instrumental until Michael came up with some vocals for it.”

Decades after its release, Stipe said the song is better off being misinterpreted as a love song.

“I didn’t like the song to begin with,” Stipe said in 2016. “I felt it was too brutal. I thought the sentiment was too difficult to put out into the world. But people misunderstood it, so it was fine. Now it’s a love song, so that’s fine.”

Photo: Anton Corbijn/Courtesy of the Songwriters Hall of Fame