R.E.M. Won't Go Back to Rockville

About 7 p.m. on Wednesday, a search for “Rockville” on Twitter turned up tributes to the band R.E.M., who announced their break up on Wednesday after 31 years, 15 studio albums and a song that forever etched the name Rockville into American rock lore.

The lyrics of “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” describe a town to which Rockville residents likely won’t relate (and probably wouldn’t want to live in).

The town was unfamiliar even to “the don't-go-back-to-Rockville girl.” Ingrid Schorr’s family moved to town when she was 16. A few years later, while a student at the University of Georgia, Schorr became the object of the affection of R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills and the inspiration for “Rockville” after Mills learned that Schorr was heading home for the summer.

Schorr later wrote in the pop culture journal Hermenaut about being "a footnote in rock history." Though not actually named in the song, she’s not far from Virginia Callahan or Sharona Alperin on the family tree of rock muses.

In a 1992 appearance on “Live with Regis and Kathie Lee,” on the eve of a Grammy awards show in which the band’s breakthrough 1991 album “Out of Time” was nominated for six Grammies (and won three), Mills performed an acoustic version of “Rockville.” (This, despite the fact that the song was not on “Out of Time,” but on R.E.M.’s sophomore effort, 1984’s “Reckoning.” Perhaps it was a nod to another girl from Maryland?)

Over the years, the song became a became a much-loved, much-discussed fan favorite, with the Rockville of the song serving as an “Anytown, U.S.A.," especially for fans in sleepy, factory towns.

Undoubtedly, some of those same fans weighed in on Twitter on Wednesday. Here’s a sampling:

@JonahNRO Can we go back to Rockville now?

@overdiek Don't go back to Rockville - We never did and that's all I'm saying at REM's demise.

@sexbiscuit R.E.M. will never go back to Rockville again. Think about direction wonder why you haven't before. Take comfort in your friends. Drive.

@davehyndman Audio: R.E.M. - (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville There are few lyrics more deeply embedded in my brain than... tumblr.com/xsh4tiiann

@adamh1717 Automatic for the People, (Don't Go Back to) Rockville RT @ppanepento On the occasion of its breakup, what's your favorite REM album / song?

@hidden_track Athens' best bands came together when @WidespreadPanic covered @remhq (Don't Go Back to) Rockville w/ Mike Mills youtu.be/tCFqYl2cDDs

@SouhanStrib Favorite REM song: Orange Crush. 2nd favorite: (Don't Go Back To) Rockville...fun song to play on acoustic.

@pulmyears "...and waste another year..." young REM loose, acoustic "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" (live) youtube.com/watch?v=4zgh0y… via @youtube

@WadetoBlack I'll be forever thankful to REM for saving me from heading into that awful zombie attack in Rockville.

@felixdass My top 5 R.E.M. songs: New Test Leper, (Don't Go Back to) Rockville, Leaving New York, Man on the Moon, E-Bow the Letter. (@dimasario)

@DOMINICPATTEN Of course, you know that REM breaking up today just lays the groundwork for their 2015 "Back to Rockville" reunion tour

Is it too early to book a 2015 headliner?

Click here for more "(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” on YouTube.