Hindu Love Gods was a band composed of Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, and…

Bryan Cook.

And also Michael Stipe.

But mostly Warren Zevon.

Okay, that probably requires some explaining.

Hindu Love Gods sprung up in 1984 as a side project of R.E.M. and performed a handful of shows that consisted mostly of covers. Berry, Buck and Mills made up the consistent portion of the lineup, and Cook, Stipe or Zevon (or combinations thereof) handled the vocals. During that period the band recorded two songs for a single, with Cook singing lead and Zevon as part of the backing band. That single is the only studio version of Narrator, a song written by Berry that R.E.M. never released but frequently performed live in their early years After that brief periods of activity the band members went back to their main projects and, aside from a one-off charity performance for the family of D. Boon from the Minutemen, that was that.

Berry, Buck and Mills reunited with Zevon in 1987, as the backing band on Zevon’s Sentimental Hygiene album. They finished Zevon’s album ahead of schedule, but still had studio time booked – so the Hindu Love Gods returned, as an extremely loose jam session. The album saw the light of day in 1990; Zevon was struggling and between labels, and his manager offered the album to Giant Records as an incentive to sign Zevon. The cover of Raspberry Beret was a minor radio hit and the album did boost Zevon’s profile again because R.E.M. was about to release the global smash Out Of Time. But (depending on who you ask, because Mills and Buck recount it differently) R.E.M. was either not asked about the release or felt pressured into it to help their friend. Either way, it led to friction between Zevon and R.E.M. and they eventually drifted apart. As an especially sad coda, R.E.M. tried to get back in touch with Zevon when they found out about his terminal cancer diagnosis, but only received a reply from his management. Time heals wounds, though, and in this interview with Peter Buck from 2025 it’s clear he still has a lot of affection for his old friend, even decades after their rift and Zevon’s passing. And it doesn’t diminish the power of the album any, with some amazing musicians making music for the fun of it.

BEST SONGS: Raspberry Beret is an easy choice, and I prefer this version to Prince’s original. But my favorite track on the album is Battleship Chains, a song that meshes perfectly with the album’s blues standards despite being written in 1983. The song also deepens the album’s Atlanta connections, because it was originally recorded by The Georgia Satellites.

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