To celebrate their excellent new album Accelerate, R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, Mike Mills and Peter Buck look back on their nearly three decades as one of America's great modern rock bands.

MURMUR (1983) [Listen] [Review]
Buck: The most enduring thing is the writing. We had been a bar band for three years. But our songs had become deeper, emotionally and musically.
Mills: I still don't know all the words. But with a voice as emotive as Michael's, it didn't matter.