R.E.M.'s *deepest* song...
woovitdude
BELONG
HENOHBLAH
kind of obvious what the song is about, but it can really make you think.
I especially like the line "He gathered up his loved ones and brought them
all around to say goodbye,nice try". I get the impression that this line
alludes to a suicide note, the person who is ending their own life might
think that a suicide note can do the job of telling their loved ones good
bye...well,nice try.
I also think You are the Everything is "deep"
I'd rather have a beer,
Henoh
Leanne
"When you greet a stranger, look at his shoes."
E. Robson
*Perfect Circle (really, the version from "Unplugged")
*Camera
*You
*Time After Time
*Fretless
*(Don't laugh) Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
I'm sure I'm forgetting something.
E.
Jason SWEBY
>Kurt's sign. I read somewhere that he referred to himself as a
>Pisces-man, or something like that.
>
>But it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong... ;)
>
>Sam
Kurt did actually call himself something like a "sensitive, unappreciative
little Pisces" in his suicide note. Don't flame me if I've misquoted, but it's
close. BTW, Let Me In is one of my very favourite REM songs. That, and Fall On
Me.
J.
-----------------------------------
"Look on the bright side, suicide."
(Milk It, In Utero)
-----------------------------------
Lizz Braver
>
>In article <466gos$d...@newsbf02.news.aol.com>, heno...@aol.com
>(HENOHBLAH) writes:
>
>>Although it is new I think "Let Me In", is very thought provoking. It is
>>kind of obvious what the song is about, but it can really make you
think.
>>I especially like the line "He gathered up his loved ones and brought
>them
>>all around to say goodbye,nice try". I get the impression that this line
>>alludes to a suicide note, the person who is ending their own life might
>>think that a suicide note can do the job of telling their loved ones
good
>>bye...well,nice try.
>
>the line "Oh how I wish that I could hear you whisper down/Mister
>fisherman to a less peculiar ground." The reference to "Mister
fisherman"
>may be an allusion to Jesus Christ; if so, the line "He gathered up his
>loved ones [etc]" may refer to the apostles at the last supper.
>
>Or maybe not. (Which is the great thing about REM lyrics).
Probaby not that Christian a reference. The song is specifically about
Kurt Cobain's suicide (at least JMS says it is), so I suspect it refers to
his funeral.
The "mister fisherman" seems to me to be a reference to St.Peter,
traditionally the gatekeeper of heaven. He is nicknamed "The Big
Fisherman", and was promised by Jesus he would become a fisher of
men.Still a Christian reference, I know, so maybe I contradict myself.
Lord knows it won't be the first time.
Mandycakes
> I must agree with Kotter. Good Advices is it.
>
> "When you greet a stranger, look at his shoes."
(home is a long way away.)
sniffle...
Samantha Bornemann
>
> I always took it to be a reference to the Last Supper, since it follows
> the line "Oh how I wish that I could hear you whisper down/Mister
> fisherman to a less peculiar ground." The reference to "Mister fisherman"
> may be an allusion to Jesus Christ; if so, the line "He gathered up his
> loved ones [etc]" may refer to the apostles at the last supper.
>
> Or maybe not. (Which is the great thing about REM lyrics).
I thought it might have something to do with Pisces, which I believe was
Kurt's sign. I read somewhere that he referred to himself as a
Pisces-man, or something like that.
But it wouldn't be the first time I was wrong... ;)
Sam
--
Samantha Bornemann
Northwestern University
sjb...@nwu.edu
BosCompaq
>good day. i've finally thought of something to say, i hope it will be
>worth your while.
> Here (there) i was, listening to Good Advices. Then it hit me. What a
>*deep* song. The lyrics for this one are fantastic. Yes, Good Advices. No,
>i'm not mental. So I scrambled my brains to think of a few R./E.M. songs
>that I would call their deepest, and why.
> In general, I find much of their early stuff to be higher in
>intellectual stimuli than their later stuff, but mostly because its so
>*vague*; see *open to interpretation*. Both "Departure" and "Radio Free
>Europe" are fun to groove to live, but which song keeps you up at night ,
>dissecting every sentence (I'll exempt Kipp and other lyrics-meisters).
>and RFE , IMHO, ins't even one of the more interesting ones.
> I'm not trying to downplay songs like "The one I love" or "crush with
>eyeliner". they're great. But sometimes you dont want an obvious image...
<snip>
Perfect Circle is INDEED a very moving song...It really is an
unbelievably powerful song...even withoutb reading a lot into the
lyrics.
I am not great at interpreting REM's lyrics...I'd love to hear what
people think they mean
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Antonia Bradford
Hi there,
All the song mentioned have been deep but the three that
IMHO hit me deep were "You are the everything" "Everybody hurts" and
finally the amazing "You"
Martin Bradford
"That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion"
R.E.M. Losing my religion
Enoch Forrester
which isn't *moving*--but then again, the topic is *deep*--has a few
mystic sentences. "There's a splinter in your eye, and it reads REACT."
Deep, mon. I also think "Lifes Rich Pageant" is overflowing with deep
songs, amongst them:
These Days
The Flowers of Guatemala
Hyena
Swan Swan H
I Believe
Kevin Eric Snell
"And monkey's brains, though popular in Cantonese cuisine, are not often
to be found in Washington, D.C.!" -- Wadsworth
"Is that what we ate? Bllrrp!" -- Mr. Green
Karen L. Walter
"The river to the ocean goes
a fortune for the undertow
I have got to leave to find my way....
strength and courage overrides the priveleged and weary eyes
of river poet search naivete
pick up here and chase the ride,
the river empties to the tide
All of this is comin your way."
Peter Richardson
>good day. i've finally thought of something to say, i hope it will be
>worth your while.
(It was worth the wait :)
> IMHO, a few of R.E.M.'s deepest songs...I would describe "deepest" as
>being songs in which R.E.M. has absolutely mastered the topic at hand to
>the point of not merely discussing it, or discussing it obliquely, but
>...ahem...transcending the topic.
Ahh, the art of writing great songs: conveying emotion and meaning
*without* mentioning the topic. I would say that Michael Stipe is
pretty much an expert at it.
Transcending the topic? I don't know, maybe the best way of looking
at it is by saying that the songs reflect the topic/idea through the
mirror of Stipes verbal prowess. Thus, emphasising the emotions that
he wishes to convey and focusing the imagery he perceives.
Thereby providing the song with depth and, where desired, immense
beauty.
Thats what I think, anyway.
> 3. "Fables" has some real gems. Maps and Legends is great. Feeling
>Gravity's Pull, Good Advices...sigh.
Fables is stuffed with gems, theres always at least one song from
Fables floating around my head during the day. If Fables were the
only R.E.M. album, I would still love R.E.M. as much as I do now.
> 4. Find The River. The imagery in this song is so fantastic. "bergamot
>and vetiver". Man, this song gets to me. I couldnt believe it when Stipe
>implied that this song was "about no city in particular". There's so much
>more to it than that. he even admits its one of their most beautiful
>songs.
Find The River, oh man, this has to be one of the most affecting and
wonderous songs ever written, IMHO.
______________
Peter Richardson
...he's too be reached/he's not to be reached...
Dezbot
don't hate me because i make bad puns...
dez :0 sorry if someone already made this joke!
Derek Burnheim
> 1. Perfect Circle. Wow. What is it about, exactly? You draw great lines
>from this song like water from the nile.
I agree.. this is _really_ deep... quote from "Remarks - The Story of R.E.M."
by Tony Fletcher:
"Occassionally the group's own interpretations of a song differed, as with
'Perfect Circle'. Peter Buck describes how in October '82, his emotions
frayed through constant touring and lack of sleep, 'I was standing in the City
Gardens in Trenton, New Jersey at the back door and it was just getting dark.
These kids were playing touch football, the last game before dark came, and
for some reason I was so moved I cried for twenty minutes...I told Michael to
try and capture that feeling. There's no football in there, no kids, no
twilight. But it's all there.'
"Michael Stipe countered by saying 'That song concerns my old girlfriend, and
it was an intensely personal song to me. But the feeling is exactly the same
of what I think about the song and what Peter thinks about the song.'"
> 4. Find The River. The imagery in this song is so fantastic. "bergamot
>and vetiver". Man, this song gets to me. I couldnt believe it when Stipe
>implied that this song was "about no city in particular". There's so much
>more to it than that. he even admits its one of their most beautiful
>songs.
Another big agree... I can't think of a better way of describing it than as
one of their most beautiful songs, and you've already done that ;)
Other songs I consider *deep* would be:
Talk About the Passion - Murmur..... the first REM song I know of where they
started using some woodwinds, a sound they still use like no one else (cf
Nightswimming etc)
Driver 8 - Fables of the Reconstruction.... what can I say? Lot of people
probably think the imagery in this is wide-open (read 'obvious') but this song
seems so multi-layered to me. Maybe I'm just a wanker?
Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite - Automatic for the People.... maybe this song isn't
deep; maybe it's just completely fucking obscure ;> I'm still trying to
decide.
Let Me In - Monster... I didn't know what to make of this one until I heard
Stipe say on Rough Cuts that it was a song about Kurt Cobain that he HAD to
write. I nearly cried the next time I listened to this. I'm not sure if that
qualifies it as deep...
Derek
Wes Richardson
deepest songs R.E.M. ever recorded. Time After Time, So. Central Rain,
and Camera. That last one nearly makes me cry. It's about this girl
the group knew (I forget her name right now) when the group was young.
She was their photographer until she died in like 1983. If you listen
closely, you can hear church bells, those that you would normally hear
at a funeral.
Despite these 3 very deep songs, Michael says he never wrote a single
love song until Out of Time.
name
even "Photograph"..."Find the River" because it's just so damned
beautiful...every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm lost in a dream and
fading away into some other world (I get that when I listen to The Cure's
"Plainsong", too). "Photograph" because it brings me back to some sort of
nostalgic state...people always reminiscence about the "good 'ol days" but
they never realize that people back then had hard times, too.
**********************************************************************
Philip Ng
aka PCP, Noodle, Sugarcube
B. Com. Marketing (M.I.S.), 3rd year
University of Ottawa
E-mail: N66...@STUDENTS.ADMIN.UOTTAWA.CA
"If it's not love then it's the bomb that will bring us together..."
**********************************************************************
i...@dotu.com
WE>love song until Out of Time.
I think Stipe would be referring to LMR. :) And for those of
you shaking your heads, look a little deeper into the meaning of the
song...look deeper past religion. It's about an obsession.
I'll go into my interpretation if anyone is interested.
-Ian A. Underwood
-SysOp: D.O.T.U. ][
i...@dotu.com
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Heather Nichole Gaston
Jessica L Winter
> "Photograph"??! Where can I find that, and why haven't I heard of it yet?
It's on the "Born to Choose" compilation, a fundraiser for a few women's
health advocacy groups. It's an okay comp,I suppose...a beautiful Cowboy
Junkies song, a fucked-up Tom Waits number called "Filipino Box Spring
Hog" ( the title says it all), a Beatles cover by Matthew Sweet. It's a
must have for R.E.M. semi-completists like me. "Photograph" hearkens
back to their
more pastoral Southern-gothic Byrds days and wouldn't be out of place on
"Reckoning", though most of the lyrics are decipherable. Natalie Merchant
sings backup.
Whoa, that was really longwinded. Sorry.
jessica
Timothy Alves
either "Document" or "Out of Time", from the political to the personal.
Beautiful.
Jacques Moineaux
Jacques
Marcus Ogden
>Its definitely " Everybody Hurts"
>
>Jacques
I think you mean shallowest. Come on.
The Once and Future Mrs. Mills
I think you mean most honest. I mean, REALLY. Does EVERYTHING have to
have fifty sublevels of meaning to it? Can't someone write a song and
simply say what they mean?! Most of my songs/poems are like that, and I
have received nothing but positive responses from people who spend their
LIVES analyzing shit like that.
--Heather
hga...@scf.usc.edu
"Get a life--kiss a girl."
-William Shatner
Raven Tompkins
too obvious and not near poetic enough.
I'd have to say either Wendel Gee or The River
Raven
Marcus Ogden
Mmmm... yes, maybe I'll go with "Wendell Gee" as R.E.M.'s
deepest song. Today, anyway:
@SONG: WENDELL GEE
That's when Wendell Gee takes a tug
Upon the string that held the line of trees
Behind the house he lived in
He was reared to give respect
But somewhere down the line he chose
To whistle as the wind blows
Whistle as the wind blows, with me
He had a dream one night
That the tree had lost its middle
So he built a trunk of chicken wire
To try to hold it up
But the wire, the wire turned to lizard skin
And when he climbed inside
There wasn't even time to say
Goodbye to Wendell Gee
So whistle as the wind blows
Whistle as the wind blows, with me
If the wind were colors
And if the air could speak
Then whistle as the wind blows
Whistle as the wind blows
Marcus Ogden <mw...@cam.ac.uk>
)
Subj: Re: R.E.M.'s *deepest* song...
>too obvious and not near poetic enough.
I'd have to say either Wendel Gee or The River
Raven
I think the best way to describe Everybody Hurts is that it is trite but right,
I think that it is very real and very true. Just because it isn't full of
similies and metaphor and stipisms doesn't mean that it is any less meaningful
to the listener. Yes, when I first heard it I thought that it was a very
superficial song but I realized that it is the emotion that carries it and the
feelings that it drags kicking and screaming out of you, until you are face to
face with real emotion. Now that is why Everybody Hurts does not suck.
thank you, M
Gary & Tami Huested
EmmaMoo
maybe "losing my religion." everybody hurts is universal, but not
necessarily deep.
--K
Peter Richardson
and wrote something like:
>On 14 Nov 1995, Marcus Ogden wrote:
>> 040...@nt.com (Jacques Moineaux) wrote:
>> >Its definitely " Everybody Hurts"
>> I think you mean shallowest. Come on.
>I think you mean most honest. I mean, REALLY. Does EVERYTHING have to
>have fifty sublevels of meaning to it? Can't someone write a song and
Does in this thread :-)
>simply say what they mean?! Most of my songs/poems are like that, and I
>have received nothing but positive responses from people who spend their
>LIVES analyzing shit like that.
> --Heather
> hga...@scf.usc.edu
But if everyone just went around saying what they meant then all
politicians, ad-men and newspapers would go out of buisness.
Surely society would collapse without their much needed involvement in
our lives?
Pete, ;-)
> "Get a life--kiss a girl."
>
> -William Shatner
I've kissed plenty of girls and apparently I still don't have a life;
maybe you have to be big and hunky and in charge of a badly decorated
starship...