Meaning of Losing My Religion
wi...@duteisp.tudelft.nl
We would like to start a discussion about the song text of "Losing
my religion". We have a disagreement about the meaning of this
song. Our interpretations of the song are very different but both
of us are not sure if our own view is correct. Please read our
comments on LMR and reply with your own opinion or give us any
information that could help us finding a better interpretation.
VIEW 1:
I believe that "Losing My Religion" means losing ones mind, and I
feel that this is what Stipe meant on unplugged. He was talking about
many things. I feel that the whole "fame" thing drives him crazy.
"Thats me in the corner, thats me in the spotlight, losing my
religion." That sounds to me like it is partly about himself. But i
feel that it is also about his fans, His real fans. He is trying to
keep up with us but he doesnt know if he can do it.
I also feel that this is a love song. Out of Time is a compilation of
love songs. Why would this one be any different?
I think more specifically that this is a loss of love song. Like he
had love and has now lost it. He sounds like he put everything into a
relationship and got stomped on. This song, if looked at as a loss of
love song, is very powerful. It is really very deep.
"Trying to keep an eye on you, Like a hurt lost and blinded foal"
The simily that he uses shows his hurt and feeling of helplessness.
This song is a great song and whatever you get out of it is good,
but please let us hear some of the other interpretations of the song
VIEW 2:
"Losing my religion" may be a southern expression meaning "Losing
ones mind", but still I don't believe that this sentence is used
in that meaning in the song text of Losing My Religion.
I do think the correct interpretation of the song text is really
that the song is about losing ones religious beliefs.
Here are points in favour of this interpretation:
1) When REM was "unplugged" on MTV, m. stipe said: "And this song
is about you", pointing to the public. I don't think he was trying
to say that the public was losing its mind. He could be talking
about secularisation of society.
2) The line "Every waking hour I'm choosing my confessions" in the
song is also in favour of the losing-religion interpretation.
3) Last but not least: I think I though I saw pictures of Jesus
being crucified in the video clip of "Losing my religion."
Still I do have many questions and I am not sure about my own
interpretation of the song text. If someone who is losing his belief
is talking in this song, then who is he talking to? Maybe to someone
who has not lost her/his religion? What does "I think I thought I saw
you try" mean?
If you can give us any information or comments, please reply
Thanks,
John Cushman and Wilko Kindt
Kotter
> 2) The line "Every waking hour I'm choosing my confessions" in the
> song is also in favour of the losing-religion interpretation.
> 3) Last but not least: I think I though I saw pictures of Jesus
> being crucified in the video clip of "Losing my religion."
>
i don't recall there being any pictures of Jesus, but i do recall Bill
Berry sqeezes stipe's shoulders and then spreads into a crucified pose. so
the allusion is still there.
one story i heard about the song is that it was stipe's answer to
sting's "every breath you take" - stipe wanted to write a *more* obsessive
love song than that! so that's the way i've been looking at it.
obsessive songs seem to pop up often under stipe's pen, especially as
of late. Losing my religion is perhaps the best of these. i really dont
regard it any more than just an obsessive love song - i think the Christ
images - and the fallen angel etc in the video fit the mood rather than
imply the song is actually about religion. like you said, i've taken the
"southern" interpretation of that quote to be the truth as it applies to
the song.
kotter
David Young
>To all REM newsgroup readers,
>We would like to start a discussion about the song text of "Losing
>my religion". We have a disagreement about the meaning of this
>song. Our interpretations of the song are very different but both
>of us are not sure if our own view is correct. Please read our
>comments on LMR and reply with your own opinion or give us any
>information that could help us finding a better interpretation.
I wouldn't dare try to provide THE interpretation of the song.
I tend to think this song's meaning is your own, Stipe's, and
everyone else's. Whatever meanings you see in it, based on your
own experiences, you're certainly entitled to them, just as I'm
entitled to mine.
I will, however, share my thoughts on the song with you. I'd
be interested in reading on this newsgroup other readers'
discovered meanings.
I'll quote the lyrics of the song from a file available on
ftp.uwp.edu, and explain them to the best of my ability, according
to my experiences and what meaning I see in the song:
Life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
This is the only part that doesn't fit very well into my
own experiences. Perhaps he (the person whose thoughts are manifested
in this song... assumed male) thinks he knows better about life and
love than the girl he sings about.
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
He is going out of his way to talk to a girl who isn't paying
any attention, someone very absorbed in her own life or
seemingly uninterested in his.
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up
He's embarassed that he's said what he said, he's emotionally
compromised myself, but he did it on purpose. He had to say
something.
That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
More distance. He's watching this girl from across a dance
floor or some such place, wishing he was with her, wishing he was
where he could talk to the girl, thinking "What do I do? What do I
say?"
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
He wants to know where the girl is, what she feels, who she
knows.
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
Again, he's admitted more of his feelings than he thinks he
should have, but there's so much more to say....
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try
He has a fixation with her voice, he thinks caught his eye and
tried to say something to him.
Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Choosing my confessions
He says suave, cool, charming, things to himself all day, trying
to think of an appropriate way to confess his love.
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool
Again, he's trying to keep up with this girl's every movement,
every word, without a hell of a lot of success.
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up
I already went over that. :-)
Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
He slipped up, said stupid something to this girl, giving away his
feelings, and then grew nervous and "ran away," in effect.
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
What if all I've thought and said about the girl is out in the
open?
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try
But that was just a dream
That was just a dream
just a dream
just a dream
dream
She made no attempt to talk to him, after all. He's fooling
himself. He can't have her.
Well, that's what I think.
Dave
David Cameron
wrote:
> To all REM newsgroup readers,
>
> We would like to start a discussion about the song text of "Losing
> my religion".
[snip:see original post]
> VIEW 1:
>
> I believe that "Losing My Religion" means losing ones mind, and I
> feel that this is what Stipe meant on unplugged.
[...]
> I also feel that this is a love song. Out of Time is a compilation of
> love songs. Why would this one be any different?
Radio (love) Song? (hey. hey. hey.)
> VIEW 2:
>
> I do think the correct interpretation of the song text is really
> that the song is about losing ones religious beliefs.
Ahhhh, the '90210 interpretation'
> Here are points in favour of this interpretation:
>
> 1) When REM was "unplugged" on MTV, m. stipe said: "And this song
> is about you",
> 2) The line "Every waking hour I'm choosing my confessions"
> 3) Last but not least: I think I though I saw pictures of Jesus
> being crucified in the video clip of "Losing my religion."
[...]
> who is he talking to? Maybe to someone
> who has not lost her/his religion? What does "I think I thought I saw
> you try" mean?
>
i thought that i heard you laughing (at me)
i thought that i heard you sing
i think i thought i saw you try (to give up/hold on to your religion?
-depending
on interpretation??? sort of setting up an
irony???)
> If you can give us any information or comments, please reply
Well here's my .02 (and I would like to note all of these are IMHO.
and it's up to "you" to decide which ones are serious...)
"This song is about 'you'". This is something Stipey said before nearly
_every_ song on the Green tour when I saw them in Philadelphia. He
especially stressed it before "You Are The Everything" (i think it was
on the big screen) and "Fall On Me." However, in _LMR_ I think this is
a more literal "you", and not you as in the public. JMS could have said
"This song is about--Bob" and went on to sing the line "trying to keep up
with Bob." (I think I remember stipey saying in an interview that this
song gets overinterpreted just because it uses the R word and that he
wished
for a while that he had written "that's me in the corner/that's me standing
in
the kitchen"?????).
The LMR video has many references to classical art, which was mostly all
religious. Modern art is mostly all secular, and is even being banished
and restricted by the religious right-wing. (can you say Newt?) So having
religious symbolism is just another take on the words in the title and
not necessarily a take on the song. Oh yeah, the song _Man On the Moon_ is
about truckdriving.
I think it's a love song. But sort of a love song about youth. Losing the
religion of freedom as a youg person and adopting the less attractive
religions
of the working world as you get older.
these are my best guesses (while trying to avoid the obvious...)
Dave Cameron | Pittsburgh, PA | GO...@vms.cis.pitt.edu
----------------------------------------
----------- I am water I am rum --------------
Brian Henk
banning some use of a the bloody +
--
Regards,
Brian A. Henk Did he say blessed are the cheesemakers?
Nathan Andrew Gove
>>I always thought it was a sad love song of sorts. Sung from one
>>person to another, whether the other be friend, girlfriend, or
>>whatever. Not the typical kind of sad love song, where the singer is
>>mourning that he can't get the love of a person.
Ian E Downey <id...@andrew.cmu.edu> wrote:
> I don't know if I could go with that, since in an interview with
>the band immediately after recording Out of Time, Stipe said, "I never
>have, and never will, write a love song." And I think he's stayed true
>to that to this day, although he has become more sneaky about it.
[snip]
me:
>>If Stipe really pointed to the camera (the public), and said "This
>>song is about you", then all that I postulate above could still apply.
>>It's just him loosing faith in the public...
Ian:
>Hmmm, I like that idea... it had never occurred to me. Or could Stipe
>really be talking about religion, and talking to God? Was he making an
>indictment against God for all the bad things in the world and therefor
>losing his faith? That's always what I thought, but I like your idea
>better, frankly... or maybe it is about a specific person, but not a
>person with whom he was in love... I dunno.
Exactly. It could be about the public, or about a specific person.
It think it is about someone he cares about...otherwise why would he
be spending so much effort in watching them and hoping for them? But
there's nothing about the song that says it's about a girlfriend. It
could be a friend, a sibling, a girlfriend, or the public. I only
meant that it was a love song in the very loose sense: that the singer
cared about the person(s) he was addressing.
Nathan
LI W
: dun...@leland.Stanford.EDU (Nathan Andrew Gove) wrote:
: >I always thought it was a sad love song of sorts. Sung from one
: >person to another, whether the other be friend, girlfriend, or
: >whatever. Not the typical kind of sad love song, where the singer is
: >mourning that he can't get the love of a person.
: I don't know if I could go with that, since in an interview with
: the band immediately after recording Out of Time, Stipe said, "I never
: have, and never will, write a love song." And I think he's stayed true
: to that to this day, although he has become more sneaky about it.
: Although I've heard many people (even professional music critics) say
: and write that "Strange Currencies" (sp) was a love song, it seems to me
: not to be:
In the MTV Rockumentary on REM done for OUT OF TIME. I recall Stipe
saying that he was wary of love songs because they are so often trite
and horrible and that "Losing my Religion" was what he thought made a good
song about obsession (and love.) Which is to say that Stipe may well
write songs about love, of course, just not crappy songs about love.
(stuff deleted)
: Well, anyway, that's a cool idea, and... yeah. By the way, this is
: my first post here. I hope i didn't offend anyone with the religious
: stuff. I didn't mean to, but in case I said something that someone
: finds objectionable, I'm sorry... In case you're wondering, I'm agnostic
: myself, and have no religious background... Okay. Thanks.
For the xMillionth time "LOSING MY RELIGION" is a Southernism for
going crazy.
-william li
consultant-in-exile
Christine Drombetta
>
>
> >>> In article <3f3k8k$7...@liberator.et.tudelft.nl>, wi...@duteisp.tudelft.nl
> >>> wrote:
>
> >>> > VIEW 1:
> >>> >
> >>> > I believe that "Losing My Religion" means losing ones mind, and I
> >>> > feel that this is what Stipe meant on unplugged.
> >>>
> >>> [...]
> >>>
> >>> > I also feel that this is a love song. Out of Time is a compilation of
> >>> > love songs. Why would this one be any different?
> >>>
> >>> Radio (love) Song? (hey. hey. hey.)
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> > VIEW 2:
> >>> >
> >>> > I do think the correct interpretation of the song text is really
> >>> > that the song is about losing ones religious beliefs.
>
> Southern idiom for 'being at the end of one's rope' or whatever cliche for desperation
> one can think of. While the video contains some religious imagery, such symbolism
> (esp. the "fallen" angel, who turns out to be weak and sickly, and Tarsem putting his
> hands in the wound in the angel's side - like doubting Thomas) is designed to illustrate
> doubt and loss of what was formerly believed in.
>
> As I recall, a number of Jesus-freak conservatives like Michael Medved, Robert Dornan,
> and Bob Larson claimed this song was "satanic" or an attack on Christianity - as Medved
> wrote in one of his screeds - "the decay of family values" or something. What tripe.
>
>
> jfe...@ins.infonet.net
>
> --
> /////////////////////////////////////////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
> "If you aren't either a) exactly like me, only a little worse at everything,
> or b) a pathetic yes-man to my ever-changing values and shallow opinions,
> it's a pretty safe bet that I HATE YOU DEEPLY."
> ---- Dan Clowes, Lloyd Llewellyn in "Eightball"
> ////////////////////////////////////jfe...@ins.infonet.net\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\
Actually, while he IS a witlessly reactionary panderer to the
more fashionably anal-retentive segments of the conservative
worm, isn't Medved Jewish? Not all right-wing dumbasses are
Jesus Christers, you know.
JPearson
--
Gina Norman
stoh...@email.unc.edu (Jacob Stohler) writes:
> In the South, to lose one's religion means to become angry.
Hmmm... that's not theway I've heard it used. I agree with whomever it
was (sorry, don't remember who) that said "losing your relgion" was
used in the South in the sense of:
"oooh -- she's so fine she'd make you lose your religion."
IOW, this thing in front of me is so enticing that I'd be temtped to do
things that my religion would prohibit (SIN, SIN, SIN! ;)
This can also be applied to other temptations, such as food, though
I've most commonly heard it about MOTS.
As for my (southerner) credentials: grew up in Raleigh, went to school
in Raleigh, Durham (NCSSM & Duke) and Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Now live
in Durham and work in Raleigh. In fact, I've never lived anywhere
that's not "the South"!
Having said that...I will (freely) admit that different figures of
speech may be used in different ways by different people, and may even
vary in usage from region to region. Furthermore, I'm not positive
Stipe is using "losing my religion" in the above-described sense in the
song.
I just wanted to clarify the way that I've seen the phrase used.
Jacob Stohler
Stipe is from Georgia, he is surely aware of this meaning.
--
_____________________________________________________________________
| Jacob Stohler | Now with two (2) | "Meatloaf: my most |
| stoh...@email.unc.edu | e-mail accounts to | hated of all loaves." |
| jsto...@nando.net | serve you better | -- Bart Simpson |
LI W
: In article <3forhq$13...@bigblue.oit.unc.edu>
: stoh...@email.unc.edu (Jacob Stohler) writes:
: > In the South, to lose one's religion means to become angry.
: Hmmm... that's not theway I've heard it used. I agree with whomever it
: was (sorry, don't remember who) that said "losing your relgion" was
: used in the South in the sense of:
: "oooh -- she's so fine she'd make you lose your religion."
: IOW, this thing in front of me is so enticing that I'd be temtped to do
: things that my religion would prohibit (SIN, SIN, SIN! ;)
: This can also be applied to other temptations, such as food, though
: I've most commonly heard it about MOTS.
: As for my (southerner) credentials: grew up in Raleigh, went to school
: in Raleigh, Durham (NCSSM & Duke) and Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Now live
: in Durham and work in Raleigh. In fact, I've never lived anywhere
: that's not "the South"!
If North Carolina is not the South, What part of the US is it?
: Having said that...I will (freely) admit that different figures of
: speech may be used in different ways by different people, and may even
: vary in usage from region to region. Furthermore, I'm not positive
: Stipe is using "losing my religion" in the above-described sense in the
: song.
: I just wanted to clarify the way that I've seen the phrase used.
In any case, the song is not about atheism or being so sad without
god or any other bits of tom-foolery that would-be REM scholars
would venture.
-william li
consultant-in-exile
Michael Matott
virginity and how that experience changes a person. ("Life is bigger,
bigger than you and you are not me") I thought that it was about the
regrets you can have after losing your virginity. ("The distance in your
eyes. Oh no I've said too much." etc.) And the way that society puts such
an emphasis on one thing when there's really more to life than that.
("Life is bigger.." again and "but that was just a dream")
just my 2cents
mike, the Pagan
Gina Norman
dg...@city.ac.uk (LI W) writes:
> : As for my (southerner) credentials: grew up in Raleigh, went to school
> : in Raleigh, Durham (NCSSM & Duke) and Chapel Hill (UNC-CH). Now live
> : in Durham and work in Raleigh. In fact, I've never lived anywhere
> : that's not "the South"!
>
> If North Carolina is not the South, What part of the US is it?
Uhh... I said that I'd NEVER lived anywhere that's NOT "the South."
IOW... I've lived in the South all my life.
Just to clarify.
Gina
Nathan
: >I always thought it was a sad love song of sorts. Sung from one
: >person to another, whether the other be friend, girlfriend, or
: >whatever. Not the typical kind of sad love song, where the singer is
: >mourning that he can't get the love of a person.
: I don't know if I could go with that, since in an interview with
: the band immediately after recording Out of Time, Stipe said, "I never
: have, and never will, write a love song." And I think he's stayed true
: to that to this day, although he has become more sneaky about it.
Err... I have on videotape Stipe telling the "sad love songs"
story, and at the end he says "I said 'I'll never write a love song'. Well,
I did."
I'll try to get the exact words, but the tape was off of Night
Flight, if that helps (right after Out Of Time).
David Young
On an interview on an alternative rock radio network, Stipe said
something or other that characterized a number of his songs as "obsessive
love songs."
Dave
Christopher McCarthy
a bowl of milk falls on the floor and breaks was STOLEN from a movie
by the Russian Director Tarkovsky called _Sacrifice_. Its a very good
movie, IMHO (though not an action movie per se) The premise is that
a man sacrifices all he has to avert World War III. In the end he goes
insane and is carted off. It is worth seeing just for the final sceen,
all shot W/O cuts for about 10 minutes.
Tarkovsky was a great director, by the way and a master of long sceens
w/o cuts. Check out the final sceen in _Nostalgia_ : 8 minutes w/o
cuts with a lit candle held in a man's hand, burning the whole time.
I wonder how many takes it took?
-chris
Johan Braennlund
: I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but the Scene from the Video where
: a bowl of milk falls on the floor and breaks was STOLEN from a movie
: by the Russian Director Tarkovsky called _Sacrifice_. Its a very good
Tarsem, the Indian director of the video (who dropped his last name as
a protest against the Indian caste system) has acknowledged that he has
been inspired by Tarkovsky and also by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who has
written a short story about an old angel who is held prisoner.
- Johan
David Eric Prokopy
>I haven't seen this mentioned yet, but the Scene from the Video where
>a bowl of milk falls on the floor and breaks was STOLEN from a movie
>by the Russian Director Tarkovsky called _Sacrifice_.
speaking of stolen images and the "losing my religion" clip, did anyone
ever notice how similar the video for "LMR" and toad the wet sprocket's
"all i want" is?! a lot of "angel" and "stage" imagery, and the lead singer
is even dancing around in a loose-fitting white shirt!
--
<*> dave prokopy <*> (temporarily) david....@launchpad.unc.edu <*>
<*> "today there is no black or white/ only shades of gray" -mann/weil <*>
<*> check me out <*> http://www.wam.umd.edu/~sheph/dave.html <*>
--
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Bruzzese
a classic southern expression which means giving in to the temptations of
the flesh. It's a song about obsession.