Matthias, check this slightly-tongue-in-cheek site out – REM Song Meanings FAQ
I have no idea what it “means,” but the central theme that always sticks out for me is just the unabashed longing of the way he sings “I need this” and the unfulfilled possibilities of “crazy what you could’ve had.”
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HB, nice pic and great song. One of me favorites for years. Learned to play it on acoustic guitar. Need someone to play to distorted slide guitar with it.
I’ve always loved the song too. But I have no idea what it means. Being a lyrical archaeologist, that kills ME!
Anyone know what he’s talking about. I imagine a break-up, drug use, or maybe just co-dependency. Nonetheless, like you say HB, I feel it in me bones even though I know not what Stipe means.
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hey thanks for *all* the good recommendations! I love that about this bloggie thing.
spencer, you rock for the mp3 link, and Jeff — I hadn’t heard of that book or that author, but now in Googling (well, Amazoning) I see that he has several very interesting-looking books. I will add him to my (looong) list!
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And marc, the lemon WAS cool. When it opened. How does that not make one chuckle, to picture U2 stuck in a lemon?
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Phil, I know exactly what you mean. When I get a chance, I usually just put the iPod on shuffle to remember all the excellent stuff I have that I forget to listen to. And gems like this one pop up! So glad you enjoyed it too.
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BB, you read my blog! Yay! I totally forgot that you came to that concert with me. You must have been, like, 14??? What a cool brother you are.
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Geez, I haven’t heard that song in 10 years. Thanks for making me call it up in my collection. It saddens me sometimes that I have so much music that some songs just get overlooked. At some point I need to stop and listen to what I already have.
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I went on a girls’ weekend in the gorgeous mountains of Colorado (some of them; we have many) and I was happily tasked with being the mixmaster for the affair. It was an event rife with some possibly questionable choices in the name of fun on my part (Journey), but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
But that was in the car and for the going out. This stunning gem was just mine, from a moment of solitude. Very early Saturday morning I couldn’t sleep for some horrid reason, so I got up and went out on the porch of the lodge for some sitting and music-listening and looking, a favorite hobby of mine when I have time for it. As the sun rose over the mountains, this perfect song (one of my favorites) came on and it was a near ten minutes of flawless, bittersweet perfection:
Country Feedback (live) – R.E.M.
(with Neil Young on second guitar, at Bridge School Benefit 1998, also released as fan club single)
Admittedly I have been on something of an R.E.M. kick lately, but this one just popped up on my iPod on random out of the 11,000. Michael Stipe says at the beginning that (out of all the fine offerings from their 20+ year career), this is his “particular favorite R.E.M. song” — it’s easy here to see why. Gorgeous. I love the opportunity that solitude affords to really *listen* to a song, and I couldn’t help but think as this one played (a few times on loop) how a song like this is a perfection example of Stipe’s cryptic lyricism; the juxtaposition of the seemingly meaningless alongside the profound.
This flower’s scorched
This film is on
On a maddening loop
These clothes,
These clothes don’t fit us right and I’m to blame
It’s all the same, it’s all the same
You come to me with a bone in your hand
You come to me with your hair curled tight
You come to me with positions
You come to me with excuses
Ducked out in a row
You wear me out, you wear me out
We’ve been through fake-a-breakdown
Self hurt, Plastics, collections
Self help, self pain,
EST, psychics, fuck all
I was central, I had control
I lost my head
I need this, I need this
A paper weight, junk garage
Winter rain, a honey pot
Crazy, all the lovers have been tagged
A hotline, wanted ad
It’s crazy what you could’ve had
It’s crazy what you could’ve had
It’s crazy what you could’ve had
I need this
I need this
Even the times when I don’t exactly know what Stipe is saying, I kind of know what he means.
Oh, God. Thank you, I love both of these guys.
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OCBoddity says:
Ever heard and survived Barbra Streisand’s attempt at Bowie “Life On Mars?”. That really makes you sick….
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Name: Heather Browne
Location: Colorado, originally by way of California
Giving context to the torrent since 2005.
"I love the relationship that anyone has with music: because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. It's the best part of us, probably, the richest and strangest part..."
—Nick Hornby, Songbook
"Music has always been a matter of energy to me, a question of Fuel. Sentimental people call it Inspiration, but what they really mean is Fuel."
—Hunter S. Thompson
Mp3s are for sampling purposes, kinda like when they give you the cheese cube at Costco, knowing that you'll often go home with having bought the whole 7 lb. spiced Brie log. They are left up for a limited time. If you LIKE the music, go and support these artists, buy their schwag, go to their concerts, purchase their CDs/records and tell all your friends. Rock on.
I AM FUEL, YOU ARE FRIENDS is brought to you by Fuel/Friends LLC. Ownership of all audio and visual material displayed here remains with their creators and/or owners and is cited accordingly.. Illustrations by Luke Flowers. Design & Layout by Dayjob.
