Strange Currencies

"Strange Currencies" is a song by R.E.M.. It was included on the album Monster and was also released as a single in 1995. The single hit #9 in the UK singles chart and peaked at #47 in the United States.

The song almost didn't make it on the album, due to its rhythmic similarities to another R.E.M. song, "Everybody Hurts." Yet Michael Stipe's melody, the band felt, was too good to pass over, so the original rhythm was slightly reworked. Stipe has said that it's about "when somebody actually thinks that, through words, they're going to be able to convince somebody that they are their one and only."

The video, directed by Mark Romanek, was shot on the first anniversary of the death of Michael Stipe's close friend River Phoenix and features River Phoenix's last girlfriend, actress Samantha Mathis.

Read more about Strange Currencies:  Track Listing

Famous quotes containing the word strange:

    The thinking person has the strange characteristic to like to create a fantasy in the place of the unsolved problem, a fantasy that stays with the person even when the problem has been solved and truth made its appearance.
    Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)