| "Nightswimming" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byR.E.M. | ||||
| from the albumAutomatic for the People | ||||
| B-side | "Losing My Religion" (Live) | |||
| Released | July 12, 1993 (1993-07-12) | |||
| Studio | Criteria,Miami[1] | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 4:16 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Songwriters | ||||
| Producers |
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| R.E.M. singles chronology | ||||
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| Music video | ||||
| "Nightswimming" onYouTube | ||||
"Nightswimming" is a song by the Americanalternative rock bandR.E.M., released in July 1993 byWarner Bros. as the fifth single from the band's eighth album,Automatic for the People (1992). The song is a ballad featuring the singerMichael Stipe accompanied only by the bassistMike Mills on piano, a string arrangement by the formerLed Zeppelin bassistJohn Paul Jones, andoboe by Deborah Workman in the latter part of the song. Mills wrote the music and Stipe the lyrics of the song, but it is credited to the entire band. Stipe sings about a group of friends who goskinny dipping at night, which draws from similar experiences in the band's early days. The accompanying music video for the song was directed byJem Cohen.
BassistMike Mills recalled he was playing a piano riff at John Keane's studio in the band's hometown ofAthens, Georgia; while Mills almost discarded the melody, it attracted the interest of singerMichael Stipe. Mills said, "I never thought it would amount to much because it was just a circular thing that kept going round and round and round. But it inspired Michael."[3] While the song was not included onOut of Time, the demo recorded during those sessions was used forAutomatic for the People, with a string arrangement byJohn Paul Jones added to the track.[4] According to Mills, his piano part was recorded atCriteria Studios in Miami, on the same piano used on "Layla" byDerek and the Dominos.[1]
GuitaristPeter Buck recalled in 2003 that "[Stipe] listened once, nodded his head to hear it again, and on the second pass he sang the lyrics. It was 'Nightswimming,' exactly like the record we would record a year later. I was standing in the corner, dumbfounded."[5]
According to Buck in 2003, "Nightswimming" was the only R.E.M. song for which the lyrics were written before the music.[5] However, in a 2019 interview, Stipe recalled that "E-Bow the Letter" was the only time this had happened.[6]
The basic track of "Nightswimming" was performed by Stipe on vocals and Mills on piano. Buck noted that the absence of drummerBill Berry and himself from the song was typical of many tracks onAutomatic for the People, where one or more band members would not appear on a given song.[7]
The inspiration for the lyrics has been debated by the band members. Stipe suggested an origin in a 2001Esquire article: "A few years ago, I wanted to write a song about night watchmen, so I hired one to guard the R.E.M. offices in Athens. I bought him a uniform and a flashlight and everything. He turned out to be kind of crazy and called me up in the middle of the night to tell me dirty stories about theKennedys. I wrote the song about him, but he was so paranoid he said he was going to sue me, so I changed the lyric from 'Night watchman' to 'Nightswimming.'"[8]
Conversely, Mills said, "It's based on true events", explaining that in the early 1980s R.E.M. and its circle of friends would go skinny dipping after the Athens clubs closed at night. "We'd go to parties, we'd go to the clubs and we'd go to the Ball Pump, and there would be any number of these same 50 people, so it was a very tight circle of friends."[3] Peter Buck holds a similar interpretation. Stipe says the song is about a "kind of an innocence that's either kind of desperately clung onto or obviously lost," and that it is only partly autobiographical.[9]
"Nightswimming" was released as a single on July 12, 1993, in the United Kingdom.[10] It reached number 18 in Ireland and number 27 in the UK. In Australia, it was released on September 20, 1993, and reached number 71 on theARIA Singles Chart.[11][12]
Steven Hyden wrote forThe A.V. Club that "Automatic for the People might be the most quietly serene rock record about loss ever made. There is no fear in this music; death is the album's main character, but he's presented as a vehicle for self-empowerment ("Try Not to Breathe"), immortality ("Man on the Moon"), and spiritual fulfillment ("Find the River"). On "Nightswimming", death returns to his home in the past, and memory is revealed as the last light emanating from a star that has burned out."[13]
In his weekly UK chart commentary,James Masterton wrote, "And still they keep on plugging. R.E.M.'s fifth hit from the album is in a similar vein to "Everybody Hurts" which became their biggest hit ever back in May. Similar success may be difficult for this song, not being quite as universal as the last and due to the fact that the albumAutomatic for the People is now one of the biggest sellers of the year so far."[14] Alan Jones fromMusic Week gave the song a score of four out of five and named it Pick of the Week. He declared it a "rather intense song" and added, "The usual assortment of exclusive live tracks will convert this into another big hit."[15] Paul Moody fromNME noted "the poignant, croaky vocal from Sir Michael, the gorgeous, gossamer piano accompaniment and the lyric dripping with adultennui".[16] Parry Gettelman of theOrlando Sentinel felt that "a repetitive piano riff and swelling strings overwhelm the slight tune."[17] In a 1992 review ofAutomatic for the People,Rolling Stone writer Paul Evans called "Nightswimming" a "masterpiece" and the band's most "gorgeous" song.[18]
In 2011, aRolling Stone Readers Poll ranked "Nightswimming" as R.E.M.’s second best song, behind "Losing My Religion".[19] The publication noted, “The track didn't do that well as a single, but in the past 20 years it's slowly become one of R.E.M.'s most beloved songs.” In 2021, it was ranked No. 160 on its list of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time."[20]
A music video was produced to promote the single, directed byJem Cohen. Two versions of the video were made, with the uncensored version of the video included on the band's 1995Parallel video compilation.[21] The British version was later made available onYouTube in October 2009, and had generated more than 10 million views as of January 2023.[22]
All songs written byBill Berry,Peter Buck,Mike Mills andMichael Stipe.
(All four acoustic live b-sides recorded live in Charleston, April 28, 1991, for theMountain Stage radio program. "Losing My Religion", "Belong" and "Low" all taken from the albumOut of Time)
R.E.M.[7]
Additional musicians[27]
| Production[27]
|
| Chart (1993) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia (ARIA)[28] | 71 |
| Europe (Eurochart Hot 100)[29] | 61 |
| Europe (European Hit Radio)[30] | 36 |
| Germany (GfK)[31] | 93 |
| Ireland (IRMA)[32] | 18 |
| New Zealand (Recorded Music NZ)[33] | 48 |
| UK Singles (OCC)[34] | 27 |
| UK Airplay (Music Week)[35] | 15 |
| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom (BPI)[36] | Silver | 200,000‡ |
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone. | ||
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
