Songs Lyrics and YT- Youtube Music Videos: Out Of Time

R.E.M. Songs - Country Feedback Lyrics

R.E.M. - Country Feedback

R.E.M. - Country Feedback Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Out Of Time
Released: 1991

Country Feedback Lyrics

Country Feedback

If you listen closely to the lyrics at the end: "It's crazy what you could've had," it can sound like "It's crazy what you couldn't have." (Apparently Michael Stipe sometimes simply makes up or distorts lyrics, which he does to great effect here). The feeling of these final lyrics gives some indication of the sense of desolation that pervades this song in almost every lyric and chord. It's about repetition in life and love, about failed relationships: "We've been through fake breakdown, self hurt, self help." It's on a continuous "maddening" loop, "feedback," and no matter how much you analyze a bad relationship with the aim to improving things, you just repeat the same things endlessly. "Junk Garage" is imagery of something discarded and worthless. "This flower is scorched" is an image of love (flower, a traditional symbol of love) which has been sullied. There is also some sexual imagery of "Honey Pot" which is an alluring, sexual attraction but ultimately unwanted. The "Paper Weight" is holding down something flimsy, again emphasizing the lack of substance to the relationship. "Plastic" emphasizes the artificiality of the relationship. (thanks, Gus - London, England)

Michael Stipe told Q magazine in 1992: "It's a love song, but it's certainly from the uglier side. It's pretty much about having given up on a relationship."

Peter Buck recalled to the recording of this track in a 2008 Rolling Stone interview: "'Country Feedback' - I thought that was a demo. Michael (Stipe) just sang it once. It was a letter he wrote to someone but didn't send. He just sang it."

On R.E.M.'s 2001 Perfect Square concert DVD, Michael Stipe says, "this is my favorite song of all time." (thanks, Mike - Hamilton, ON)

In an interview with the August 2010 edition of Uncut magazine, Kurt Cobain widow and Hole vocalist Courtney Love claimed this is one of two songs that Stipe wrote about her. She said: "I know 'Country Feedback' and 'Crush With Eyeliner' are about me. The line from Country Feedback: 'We've been through fake-a-breakdown/ Self Hurt/Plastics, collections/ Self Help, self pain/ EST, psychics, f--k all,' Michael (Stipe) talked me through that."

In the liner notes for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, Bill Berry also calls this one of his favorite R.E.M. songs, adding "I think it wonderfully peculiar that this, somewhat gloomy dirge surfaced in a body of work that also included 'Shiny Happy People.'"

This was featured in the 1996 romantic drama Unhook the Stars, starring Marisa Tomei and Gena Rowlands.

R.E.M. Songs - Me In Honey Lyrics

R.E.M. - Me In Honey

R.E.M. - Me In Honey Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Out Of Time
Released: 1991

Me In Honey Lyrics

Me In Honey Song Chart

Michael Stipe wrote the lyrics to this song in response to "Eat For Two" by 10,000 Maniacs - both songs are about pregnancy. In the late '80s, R.E.M. toured with 10,000 Maniacs, and both groups were very popular on the college rock scene. Stipe and Maniacs lead singer Natalie Merchant shared many of the same qualities, including shyness, awkward dance moves and a quirky charisma, and they became friends, then lovers, then friends again. Stipe credits Merchant with helping to inspire his songwriting, saying, "The work she was doing was real and important - all about the human condition."

Stipe says that he considers this an "answer song" to "Eat for Two." He explained in the book It Crawled From The South by Marcus Gray: "It's a male perspective on pregnancy, which I don't think has been dealt with. There's a real push-me-pull-me issue, saying, 'I had nothing to do with it,' yet on the other hand saying, 'Wait, I have feelings about this.'"

Kate Pierson contributes the female vocals to this song. In the album booklet it is acknowledged as a duet, instead of Kate being a background singer. She also sang on the Out Of Time track "Shiny Happy People." (thanks, Connor - Carlsbad, CA)

R.E.M. Songs - Shiny Happy People Lyrics

R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People

R.E.M. - Shiny Happy People Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Out Of Time
Released: 1991

Shiny Happy People Lyrics

Shiny Happy People Song Chart

The title and chorus are based on a Chinese propaganda poster. The slogan "Shiny happy people holding hands" is used ironically - the song was released in 1991, two years after the Tiananmen Square uprising when the Chinese government clamped down on student demonstrators, killing hundreds of them. (thanks, Ali - Oxford, England)

Kate Pierson from the B-52's sang backup. She was in demand for her distinctive vocals after the B-52's achieved mainstream success with "Love Shack" in 1989. R.E.M. and The B-52's are both from Athens, Georgia.

This was the second single from the album. A very light, happy song, it was a stark contrast to the very profound "Losing My Religion," which was released first.

Michael Stipe calls this "A really fruity, kind of bubblegum song." In an interview with The Quietus, he said that he was a bit embarrassed when it became a big hit, but it's an important song because it shows a different side of him. Said Stipe: "Many people's idea of R.E.M, and me in particular, is very serious, with me being a very serious kind of poet. But I'm also actually quite funny - hey, my bandmates think so, my family thinks so, my boyfriend thinks so, so I must be - but that doesn't always come through in the music! People have this idea of who I am probably because when I talk on camera, I'm working so hard to articulate my thoughts that I come across as very intense."

In 1999, R.E.M. performed this on Sesame Street as "Furry Happy Monsters." Kate Pierson's part was performed by a Muppet that looked like her, voiced by Stephanie D’Abruzzo, a Muppeteer who was also a huge fan of the band. Guitarist Peter Buck has two daughters who were big fans of the show.

This appears in Michael Moore's controversial documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 while archive footage of both George Bushes shaking hands and posing for photographs with Saudi Arabian oilmen plays. (thanks, Brett - Edmonton, Canada)

Midway into this song, it switches to Waltz time - 3/4. R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck had the idea to do this. He explained why in a 1991 interview with Guitar School: "The song is so relentlessly upbeat, there was nowhere you could really go with the bridge. We tried it a few ways and then I suggested 3/4. They said, 'That's kind of fruity, Peter.' But I thought it was cool. It makes you think, well, what would we not put here? It gives the song a 'Saturday In The Park' feel."

Drummer Bill Berry notes the song's unique elements in the liner notes for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage and challenges anybody to prove him wrong (unless you're immortal - that wouldn't be fair): "Think what you will about this powerful, God-rock anthem of yore, but at least we managed to conceive a song that starts out as a waltz and closes with the lyric 'dit' more than 140 times in succession. I challenge any mortal to locate another tune that features both of these visionary elements."

The guys can't get away from this one. Peter Buck remembers vacationing in the Amazon years after the song's release and hearing it on the radio. He admits, "It sounded really, really good. If we did one of those per record, I could see how it could get a little embarrassing. But we only did it once."

This was featured on Beverly Hills, 90210 in the 1991 episode "Down and Out of District in Beverly Hills" and on Friends in the 1994 episode "The One with the Monkey." It was also used in the 2008 movie Marley & Me, starring Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson.

R.E.M. Songs - Losing My Religion Lyrics

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion

R.E.M. - Losing My Religion Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Out Of Time
Released: 1991

Losing My Religion Lyrics

Losing My Religion Song Chart

The title is a Southern expression meaning "At my wit's end," as if things were going so bad you could lose your faith in God. If you were "Losing your religion" over a person, It could also mean losing faith in that person. (thanks, doug - chicago, IL)

Stipe told Rolling Stone magazine: "I wanted to write a classic obsession song. So I did." In addition to calling it a song about "obsession," Stipe has also referred to it as a song about "unrequited love" in which all actions and words of the object of your obsession are scrubbed for hidden meaning and hopeful signs. The lyrics pretty clearly support this: "I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing. I think I thought I saw you try." (thanks, Redstar - Redding, CT)

This song has its origins in guitarist Peter Buck's efforts to try learn to play the mandolin. When he played back recordings of his first attempts, he heard the riff and thought it might make a good basis for a song. Explaining how the song came together musically, Buck told Guitar School in 1991: "I started it on mandolin and came up with the riff and chorus. The verses are the kinds of things R.E.M. uses a lot, going from one minor to another, kind of like those 'Driver 8' chords. You can't really say anything bad about E minor, A minor, D, and G – I mean, they're just good chords.

We then worked it up in the studio – it was written with electric bass, drums, and mandolin. So it had a hollow feel to it. There's absolutely no midrange on it, just low end and high end, because Mike usually stayed pretty low on the bass. This was when we decided we'd get Peter (Holsapple) to record with us, and he played live acoustic guitar on this one. It was really cool: Peter and I would be in our little booth, sweating away, and Bill and Mike would be out there in the other room going at it. It just had a really magical feel.

And I'm proud to say every bit of mandolin on the record was recorded live – I did no overdubbing. If you listen closely, on one of the verses there's a place where I muffled it, and I thought, well, I can't go back and punch it up, because it's supposed to be a live track. That was the whole idea."

The band claims this is not about religion and loss of faith, although the video is full of religious imagery. Some Catholic groups protested the video.

In 2003, Stipe told Entertainment Weekly, "'Losing My Religion' was a fluke hit. It was a 5-minute song with no chorus and a mandolin as the lead instrument. So for us to hold that as the bar we have to jump over every time we write a song would be ridiculous."

This won the Grammy in 1991 for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.

The video was the first to show lead singer Michael Stipe dancing. The director, Tarsem Singh, hung out with the band to get ideas, and when he saw Stipe's spastic dance style, he thought it would look great in the video.

The video is based in part on Gabriel Garcia Marquez' A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings . The novel tells the story about an angel who falls down from heaven and how the people who make money displaying him as a "freak show." Michael Stipe is a big Marquez fan and the whole idea of obsession and unrequited love is the central theme of the author's masterpiece, Love in the Time of Cholera . The first line of the novel: "It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love." (thanks, Gabriela - Santiago, Chile)

This was given the working title of "Sugar Cane" when the band demoed it in July 1990 at a studio in Athens.

A common misinterpretation of this song is that it was about John Lennon's death, with the lyrics, "What if all these fantasies come flailing around" being a reference to Lennon's last album Double Fantasy.

Michael Stipe took a laid-back approach with this song: "I remember that I sang this in one go with my shirt off. I don't think any of us had any idea it would ever be ... anything," he noted in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011. Peter Buck added that Warner Bros. didn't even want the song as a single, and everyone was surprised when it took off. "It changed our world. We went from selling a few million worldwide with Green to over 10 million. It was in that area where we had never been before which isn't bad," he said.

This was used on Beverly Hills, 90210 in the 1991 episodes "Beach Blanket Brandon" and "Down and Out of District in Beverly Hills"; on Smallville in the 2003 episode "Slumber"; on Glee in the 2010 episode "Grilled Cheesus"; and on Parks and Recreation in the 2013 episode "Filibuster."

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