“He was strumming this C chord and as he leaned over to get his beer on the amp, he moved his hand…” Peter Buck's stately guitar work defined R.E.M.'s Man on the Moon – and it all started when his bandmate fell off a chair

Peter Buck performs onstage with R.E.M. in Milton Keynes, England in 1995.

R.E.M. found themselves at a bit of an impasse in 1992.

They had vaulted to the top of the nascent independent rock scene in the early 1980s with beguiling songs built on Michael Stipe's Southern Gothic storytelling, Mike Mills' kinetic, melodic bass guitar parts, and Peter Buck's chiming, Byrds-like electric guitar work.