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R.E.M. - Final Straw

R.E.M. - Final Straw Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Around The Sun
Released: 2004

Final Straw Lyrics

"As I raise my head to broadcast my objection
As your latest triumph draws the Final Straw
Who died and lifted you up to perfection?
And what silenced me is written into law.

I can't believe where circumstance has thrown me
And I turn my head away
If I look I'm not sure that I could face you.
Not again, not today, not today.

If hatred makes a play on me tomorrow
And forgiveness takes a back seat to revenge
There's a hurt down deep that has not been corrected
There's a voice in me that says you will not win.

And if I ignore the voice inside,
Raise a half glass to my home.
But it's there that I am most afraid,
And forgetting doesn't hold.

It doesn't hold.
Now I don't believe and I never did
That two wrongs make a right.
If the world were filled with the likes of you
Then I'm putting up a fight.
Putting up a fight.
Putting up a fight.
Make it right.
Make it right.

Now love cannot be called into question.
Forgiveness is the only hope I hold.
And love, love will be my strongest weapon.
I do believe that I am not alone.

For this fear will not destroy me.
And the tears that have been shed
It's knowing now where I am weakest
And the voice in my head.
In my head.

Then I raise my voice up higher
And I look you in the eye
And I offer love with one condition.
With conviction, tell me why.
Tell me why.
Tell me why.
Look me in the eye.
Tell me why."

Writer/s: PETER BUCK, MICHAEL MILLS, MICHAEL STIPE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Final Straw

This song is about peace and deals with the war with Iraq. This album came out around the time of the 2004 US presidential election, when R.E.M. was strongly encouraging voters to choose John Kerry over George Bush. Around The Sun has a lot of songs dealing with politics.

R.E.M. - Don't Go Back To Rockville

R.E.M. - Don't Go Back To Rockville Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Reckoning
Released: 1984

Don't Go Back To Rockville Lyrics

Looking at your watch a third time waiting in the station for a bus
Going to a place that's far, so far away and if that's not enough
Going where nobody says hello, they don't talk to anybody they don't know
You'll wind up in some factory that's full time filth and nowhere left to go
Walk home to an empty house, sit around all by yourself
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long

[Chorus]
Don't Go Back To Rockville,
Don't go back to Rockville,
Don't go back to Rockville
And waste another year

At night I drink myself to sleep and pretend
I don't care if you're not here with me
'Cause it's so much easier to handle
All my problems if I'm too far out to sea
But something better happen soon
Or it's gonna be too late to bring you back

[Chorus]

It's not as though I really need you
If you were here I'd only bleed you
But everybody else in town only wants to bring you down and
That's not how it ought to be
I know it might sound strange, but I believe
You'll be coming back before too long

[Chorus: x2]

Writer/s: BILL BERRY, PETER BUCK, MICHAEL MILLS, MICHAEL STIPE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Don't Go Back To Rockville

This is about Ingrid Schorr, a girl the band knew at the University of Georgia whose hometown was Rockville, Maryland. She got a lot of attention on campus as classmates lamented her departure.

This is one of the few R.E.M. songs where bass player Mike Mills wrote most of the lyrics and sings the lead vocal.

The band had already been playing this song in a much faster, punk-like style for a long time and didn't even consider it for the Reckoning album until their legal advisor, Bertis Downs, begged them to "at least do one take of it for me ... please!?!?"

Drummer Bill Berry remembers tweaking the song to mess with Downs: "To playfully suggest to him that the song wasn't in contention, we recorded a much slower version than he was accustomed to hearing and we sprinkled it with a Nashville twang to drive the point home. It started out silly, but when Mike added piano, the tune took on new light. Thanks, Bert!" (Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011)

R.E.M. - Superman

R.E.M. - Superman Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Lifes Rich Pageant
Released: 1986

Superman Lyrics

[Chorus]
I am, I am, I am Superman and I know what's happening
I am, I am, I am Superman and I can do anything

You don't really love that guy you make it with now do you
I know you don't love that guy cause I can see right through you

[Chorus]

If you go a million miles away I'll track you down girl
Trust me when I say I know the pathway to your heart

If you go a million miles away I'll track you down girl
Trust me when I say I know the pathway to your head

[Chorus: x3]

Writer/s: BOTTLER, MITCH / ZEKLEY, GARY
Publisher: Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc., Universal Music Publishing Group
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Superman

This is a slightly stalkerish song about a guy who sees himself as Superman. He believes he can "see right through" the girl (presumably using his X-ray vision) so he knows that she doesn't really love the guy she's with. Where it gets a little creepy is when he threatens to find her even if she's "a million miles away."

It's all in good fun though. R.E.M. don't take it too seriously - Mike Mills sang lead on the track instead of Michael Stipe.

This song was originally recorded by a group from Beaumont, Texas called The Clique, who released it as the B-side of their only Top-40 hit: "Sugar On Sunday." The song was written by the group's producer Gary Zekley along with Elliot Bottler, Mitchell Bottler and Brandon Chase.

311 covered this song at one of their Halloween shows. Lead singer Nick Hexum dressed up as... you guessed it... Superman. On their DVD Enlarged To Show Detail 2, you can see them practicing it in the bus before the show, and then you see them perform it in concert. 311 site R.E.M. as one of their major influences. Hexum and Doug "S.A." Martinez have both commented on their love of R.E.M.

R.E.M. - Let Me In

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

Album: Monster
Released: 1994

Let Me In Lyrics

Let Me In

R.E.M. wrote this about Kurt Cobain after he died in 1994. Cobain was a fan of R.E.M., and when he died, Courtney Love gave them one of Kurt's guitars, which they used on this. It was a left-handed Fender (and one of the few guitars Cobain didn't smash), so Mike Mills had to restring it to play it right-handed.

Kurt Cobain (Rolling Stone, January 27, 1994): "I know we're gonna put out one more record, at least, and I have a pretty good idea what it's going to sound like: pretty ethereal, acoustic, like R.E.M.'s last album (Automatic For The People). If I could write just a couple of songs as good as what they've written... I don't know how that band does what they do. God, they're the greatest. They've dealt with their success like saints, and they keep delivering great music."

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. - Can't Get There From Here

R.E.M. - Can't Get There From Here Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Fables of the Reconstruction
Released: 1985

Can't Get There From Here Lyrics

Can't Get There From Here Song Chart

This was the first single off the album. It didn't chart, but the album was the first by R.E.M. to chart in the UK.

This was influenced by Soul records R.E.M. listened to. The band approached the song as a "tongue-in-cheek tribute" because they were a bunch of white guys trying, but failing, to emulate their black Soul idols. Instead, they wound up with their own unique sound.

Lead singer Michael Stipe refers in the lyrics to "Brother Ray." This is most likely pianist Ray Charles.

This was never intended to be included on a record. When they played it at some surprise gigs in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, the crowds loved it, so they recorded it.

Philomath is a town referred to in the lyrics as a place gone to for inspiration. It is a real town in Georgia, east of Atlanta, but Stipe claims he's never been there. He picked it because it was "fictional-sounding."

Again with the Soul motif, Stipe screams at several points, "Gentlemen testify!" This is a phrase often heard in black churches.

The line, "Lawyer Jeff he knows the lowdown" refers to former R.E.M. manager Jefferson Holt, who was fired following allegations of sexual harassment.

The band no longer plays this song in any of their concerts. (thanks, Sam - Lincoln, NE, for above 2)

Regarding the lyrics, "Philomath they know the lowdown," Philomath was a stop on the Georgia Railway near Athens. (thanks, Tristan - Pennsburg, PA)

The music video, directed by Michael Stipe and Rick Aguar, shows the guys at a drive-in theater, juxtaposed with images of them running and tumbling through a country field and performing in silhouette. "We used the new-to-us 'blue screen' process," Peter Buck told MTV UK in 2001. "So we have dinosaurs and monsters in the background. It's probably the most humorous video we've ever done. For a band that's kind of noted for not having a sense of humor, I kind of enjoy that aspect of it."

This song title occasionally appears without an apostrophe, a punctuation mark the band often eschews.

This was the first R.E.M. song to employ a horn section.

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. - Orange Crush

R.E.M. - Orange Crush Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Green
Released: 1988

Orange Crush Lyrics

Orange Crush Song Chart

Orange Crush was an orange flavored soft drink. In this case, though, it was meant to refer to Agent Orange, a chemical used by the US to defoliate the Vietnamese jungle during the Vietnam War. US military personnel exposed to it developed cancer years later and some of their children had birth defects. The extreme lyrical dissonance in the song meant that most people completely misinterpreted the song, including Top Of The Pops host Simon Parkin, who remarked on camera after R.E.M. performed the song on the British TV show, "Mmm, great on a summer's day. That's Orange Crush."

The song does not refer to any single Vietnam-related experience for lead singer Michael Stipe, but simply that he lived in that era of American history. He wrote in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011: "[The song is] a composite and fictional narrative in the first person, drawn from different stories I heard growing up around Army bases. This song is about the Vietnam War and the impact on soldiers returning to a country that wrongly blamed them for the war."

Stipe's father served in Vietnam in the helicopter corps.

Stipe sometimes introduced this in concert by singing the US Army jingle, "Be all that you can be, in the Army."

The drill sergeant heard in the background during the middle is just an imitation by Stipe. In the traditional Michael Stipe way, the words he says during the imitation are complete nonsense.

This was not the first R.E.M. song to deal with the Vietnam War. That distinction goes to "Body Count," an early unreleased song that they played live many times.

This was used in the 2007 drama Towelhead, starring Maria Bello, Chris Messina and Summer Bishil.

The song's meaning keeps changing for Peter Buck. He wrote in the In Time liner notes:
"I must have played this song onstage over three hundred times, and I still don't know what the f*** it's about. The funny thing is, every time I play it, it means something different to me, and I find myself moved emotionally. [Playwright/composer] Noel Coward made some remark about the potency of cheap music, and while I wouldn't describe the song as cheap in any way, sometimes great songwriting isn't the point. A couple of chords, a good melody and some words can mean more than a seven-hundred-page novel, mind you. Not a good seven-hundred-page novel mind you, but more say, a long Jacqueline Susann novel. Well alright, I really liked Valley of the Dolls."

R.E.M. - Pop Song '89

R.E.M. - Pop Song '89 Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Green
Released: 1988

Pop Song '89 Lyrics

Pop Song '89 Song Chart

This was written as a play on the Doors song "Hello I Love You." Instead of talking to a girl about sex, it's about the weather or politics.

R.E.M. played an early version on their Document tour before this was released. It didn't even have words then, but the band had a lot of trouble keeping themselves from laughing because they had so much fun with it.

The video was directed by lead singer Michael Stipe. It features him and three women all dancing topless as a way to satirize videos that objectify women. When MTV asked for a censored version, Stipe superimposed black bars over the chests of all four dancers. He said, "A nipple is a nipple."

This was REM's 89th recorded track, if you count mini-album "Chronic Town" and B-sides. (thanks, Michael - New York, NY)

Michael Stipe said in the October, 1992 issue of Q magazine: "It's a complete piss-take. I guess it's the prototype of, and hopefully the end of, a pop song. It would be the last pop song ever."

Stipe has described it as one of his "fruit loop songs" along with "Shiny Happy People" and "Stand."

Peter Buck remembers thinking this sounded like a Dream Syndicate song and calling up frontman Steve Wynn to make sure he didn't mind. Wynn gave the OK and agreed it did sound a bit like the group's Karl Precoda on guitar.

This was featured on the TV series Parks and Recreation in the 2014 episode "Prom."

R.E.M. - Nightswimming

R.E.M. - Nightswimming Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Automatic For the People
Released: 1992

Nightswimming Lyrics

Nightswimming Song Chart

This nostalgic song revisits an idyllic childhood memory of the band when they would go skinny dipping in Athens, Georgia. R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck explained: "We used to sneak on this guy's property in Athens and go swimming in this water hole. It'd be great: 30 of us all running around naked. It was before AIDS, and whatever happened happened."

R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills wrote this song and played piano on the track. They recorded the song at Criteria Studios in Miami, which is where Derek And The Dominos recorded. The piano Mills played was the same one Bobby Whitlock and Jim Gordon used to play the famous ending on "Layla."

The lyrics were written before R.E.M. recorded their 1991 album, Out of Time. They couldn't find any good music for it until after the album was released.

In the video, directed by Jem A. Cohen, the song fades out for about a minute-and-a-half. All that can be heard are grasshoppers and other night noises. Then the music resumes.

The album title comes from a soul food diner in Athens, Georgia, where the waiters answer "automatic" after you order. Michael Stipe loves diners and once opened a vegetarian diner of his own.

This was the only R.E.M. song where the lyrics were written before the music, inspiring some healthy competition between Mike Mills and Peter Buck. Buck recalls in the liner notes for In Time: "Being competitive bastards that we are, Mike and I started auditioning chord changes and tunes for Michael. The two tunes of mine that Michael rejected eventually became 'Drive' and 'Try Not To Breathe.' Mike had a piano instrumental that he played to Michael. He listened once, nodded his head to hear it again, and on the second pass he sang the lyrics. It was 'Nightswimming,' exactly like the record we would record a year later. I was standing in the corner dumbfounded."

"There's a fairly autobiographical narrative to this one, and the part about the windshield really happened," Michael Stipe wrote in the liner notes for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, referring to the lyrics "The photograph on the dashboard taken years ago, turned around backwards so the windshield shows." He said: "That's exactly how I saw it, I'm pretty sure it was a pickup truck. I know Jem Cohen loves that line, and he made the most incredible film as a video for this song."

Mike Mills played this in concert with Robert McDuffle and the students at Mercer University's McDuffle Center for Strings. "I think one of my favorite parts is the orchestra tuning up in the beginning," he noted in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage, 1982-2011.

R.E.M. - Drive

R.E.M. - Drive Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Automatic For the People
Released: 1992

Drive Lyrics

Drive Song Chart

The central lyric, "Hey kids, rock n' roll," was borrowed from "Rock On" by David Essex. The words may be the same, but the mood is completely different. This is a much more somber song.
Lead singer Michael Stipe explained in the November 12, 2009 issue of Rolling Stone: "There were, before Punk, a few songs that resonated with me. One was David Essex's "Rock On." "Drive" is a homage to that. It was the first song I wrote on computer. Before, I had a typewriter. The reason is my handwriting changes dramatically day to day. I don't trust it. I will write one of the best lyrics ever and discard it because the handwriting looks like s--t. Or the handwriting looks good but it's a crap lyric, lo and behold, it's in the song. Too late."

Guitarist Peter Buck used a nickel as a guitar pick for the mid-song guitar solo to get a sharper sound. He overdubbed the track six times.

There is a line in the song that goes, "Smack, crack, bushwhacked." This can be seen as an indictment of then-U.S. President George Bush (the first one). Lead singer Michael Stipe had taken out ads in college newspapers in 1988 saying, "Don't Get Bushwhacked. Get out and vote. Vote Dukakis." They weren't very effective.

This was released two months before the national election between Bush and Bill Clinton. Clinton won that one, but eight years later Bush's son became president. When the younger Bush ran for re-election in 2004, R.E.M. performed concerts to benefit his opponent, John Kerry.

This song has no chorus. That doesn't happen very often in hit songs.

This was the first single released off the album. It was issued a few days before the album came out.

At live shows, R.E.M. played a funk-rock version of this song because its ambient atmosphere was difficult to duplicate. This version appears on a 1993 benefit album for Greenpeace called Alternative NRG.

The album title comes from a sign at a diner in Athens, Georgia, where the band formed. It read, "Delicious Fine Foods - Automatic For The People."

Director Peter Care shot the black-and-white music video at Sepulveda Dam in the Sherman Oaks area of Los Angeles. The clip mostly has Stipe crowdsurfing as he performs the song.

R.E.M. - Man On the Moon

R.E.M. - Man On the Moon Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Automatic For the People
Released: 1992

Man On the Moon Lyrics

Man On the Moon Song Chart

This was inspired by the late comedian Andy Kaufman. When he was a teenager, R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe saw Kaufman on Saturday Night Live, and has cited him as a huge influence ever since. See a photo and learn more about Andy Kaufman in Song Images .

Things mentioned in this song: Mott the Hoople, Life, Monopoly, Twister, Risk, checkers, chess, twenty-one, wrestler Fred Blassie, Elvis Presley, Moses, Sir Isaac Newton, and Charles Darwin.

Kaufman was known for his Elvis-impersonations, which he once performed on Saturday Night Live. Stipe tries one of his own on the line, "Hey, baby are we losing touch?"

This was used as the title for a 1999 movie about Andy Kaufman, starring Jim Carrey. R.E.M. did the soundtrack, which included this.

Andy Kaufman was never married. He met his long time girlfriend Lynn at a restaurant while shooting a short independent film. The movie told a different story of how they met. (thanks, Jessy - Pittsfield, MA)

The lyric, "Mr. Fred Blassie and the breakfast mess" refers to Kaufman's movie My Breakfast With Blassie. This was the movie that Kaufman was filming when he met his girlfriend. (thanks, Patrick - Tallapoosa, GA)

On an edition of the British TV show Top Of The Pops 2, Michael Stipe claimed that when writing this song, it was a tribute to Kurt Cobain's lyrics and writing, and that the repeated "yeah yeah yeah yeah" at the end of most lines is actually his attempt at putting more "yeahs" in a song than Cobain did. Stipe claimed Cobain was the master at making them fit, and he wanted to out-do him. (thanks, Liam - London, England)

R.E.M. performed this with Eddie Vedder when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

After R.E.M. called it quits in 2011, Michael Stipe said that this would be the song he would most miss performing, particularly "watching the effect of that opening bass line on a sea of people at the end of a show," he told Rolling Stone. "That is an easy song to sing. It's hard to sing a bad note in it," he added.

In the liner notes for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, Peter Buck recalled how the music for this song came together: "'Man on the Moon' was something that Bill [Berry] had this one chord change that he came in with, which was C to D like the verse of the song, and he said, 'I don't know what to do with that.' I used to finish some of Bill's things ... he would come up with the riffs, but I would be the finish guy for that. I sat down and came up with the chorus, the bridges, and so forth. I remember we showed it to Mike and Michael when they came in later; definitely we had the song finished. I think Bill played bass and I played guitar; we kept going around with it. I think we might have played some mandolin on it in the rehearsal studio."

Peter Care directed the music video on location near the Antelope Valley area of California. Stipe, wearing a cowboy hat, hitches a ride with Bill Berry to a truck stop. Once there, they meet Care tending bar while Mike Mills plays pool, and the cast of customers joins in singing the song's chorus. The late Andy Kaufman even makes an appearance on the truck stop's television set as the video ends.

R.E.M. - Bang and Blame

R.E.M. - Bang and Blame Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Monster
Released: 1994

Bang and Blame Lyrics

Bang and Blame Song Chart

This is a song about domestic violence. It was written before the O.J. Simpson trial, but many people interpreted it to be about that because of the timing.

Lynda Stipe, sister of lead singer Michael Stipe, sang background vocals. She has been in bands like Oh-OK and Hetch Hetchy, but hasn't enjoyed the commercial success of her brother.

On the album, this precedes one of R.E.M.'s characteristic brief instrumental interludes.

Rain Phoenix also provided backing vocals for this song. The Monster album was dedicated to her late brother, actor River Phoenix, who died from drug-induced heart failure the year before, at age 23. She would later appear in the band's video for "At My Most Beautiful."

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. - All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star)

R.E.M. - All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star) Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Reveal
Released: 2001

All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star) Lyrics

All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star) Song Chart

Reno is a city in Nevada known as a cut-rate Las Vegas. You don't really become a star in Reno unless you have very low expectations.

The video was shot at Bishop Ford Central Catholic High School in Brooklyn, New York. Some of the students were used as actors, and the band's manager, Bertis Downs, made a cameo appearance as the school's announcer.

The documentary filmmaker Michael Moore directed the video. Some of his movies include Roger And Me and Bowling For Columbine.

This was originally called "Jimmy Webb on Mars." Peter Buck wrote in the liner notes for In Time: "From the six-string bass intro, to the semi-rococo chord changes and through the bridge to the outro, this was musically a kind of sick tribute to a songwriter who we all admire." Webb wrote the Glen Campbell hits "Wichita Lineman" and "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," among others.

R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts

R.E.M. - Everybody Hurts Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Automatic For The People
Released: 1992

Everybody Hurts Lyrics

Everybody Hurts Song Chart

Most of this song was written by R.E.M. drummer Bill Berry. He quit the band in 1997 shortly before recording their album Up. After that album, the band almost broke up, but decided to continue as a trio. Berry became a farmer.

This is an anti-suicide song. Berry wanted to reach out to people who felt they had no hope.

On many R.E.M. songs, Michael Stipe purposefully sings indecipherably. He sang very clearly on this, however, because he didn't want his message getting lost. "I don't remember singing it," he noted in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011, "but I still kind of can't believe my voice is on this recording. It's very pure. This song instantly belonged to everyone except us, and that honestly means the world to me."

While Berry wrote this, he did not actually play on it. A Univox drum machine took care of that for him. R.E.M. bass player Mike Mills claims he bought the drum machine for $20, but it was perfect for the song's "metronome-ish feel." He told Pulse magazine in 1992: "Mike (Stipe) and I cut it live with this dumb drum machine which is just as wooden as you can get. We wanted to get this flow around that: human and non-human at the same time."

The string arrangement was done by Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones.

The Nevada legislature commended R.E.M. for "encouraging the prevention of teen suicides," noting this as an example. Nevada has a high rate of teen suicide.

The music video was directed by Jake Scott, son of movie director Ridley Scott, famous for movies like Blade Runner (1982) and Gladiator (2000). Filmed on Interstate 10 in San Antonio, Texas, the clip is set during a traffic jam where people's thoughts are revealed through subtitles.

The album title was inspired by Weaver D's soul food diner in Athens, Georgia. When you ordered food there, they answered by saying "automatic." They had a sign that said "Delicious Fine Foods - Automatic For The People."

A very moving mix of this song was made using sound bites from the 9-11 disaster. (thanks, Andy - Halifax, England)

This was used on an episode of The Simpsons when Marge is walking in a thunderstorm and thinks she has no friends. (thanks, Dawson - Draper, UT)

Peter Buck wrote in the liner notes of the album In Time - The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003 that "the reason the lyrics are so atypically straightforward is because it was aimed at teenagers."

In February 2010 a charity cover was recorded by a collection of artists, Helping Haiti, to raise money for the victims of the earthquake that devastated the country. It sold over 200,000 copies in its first two days making it one of the quickest selling singles of the 21st century in the United Kingdom.

This topped a poll compiled by PRS For Music, which collects and pays royalties to musicians in the UK, of the songs most likely to make a grown man cry. Second in the list came Eric Clapton's "Tears In Heaven" followed by Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." PRS chairman Ellis Rich said: "From this chart, it is clear that a well-written tear-jerker is one that people can relate to and empathise with. It is this lyrical connection that can reach deep down emotionally and move even the strongest of men."

In a rare authorized comedic use of this song, Mayim Bialik's character on The Big Bang Theory plays this on the harp when she is upset over being left behind by her two girlfriends, who are shopping for bridesmaids dresses. Her "boyfriend," played by Jim Parsons, comes by to cheer her up, resulting in an awkward cuddle scene.

Peter Buck likens the vibe of this song to Otis Redding's "Pain in My Heart." He wrote in the liner notes for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011: "I'm not sure if Michael would have copped that reference, but to a lot of our fans it was a Staxxy-type thing."

This was used in the 1992 film version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, starring Kristy Swanson, Luke Perry and Rutger Hauer. Speaking of the subsequent TV series, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, Peter Buck said: "I've never watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but the idea that high school is a portal to hell seems pretty realistic to me."

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."

R.E.M. - The One I Love

R.E.M. - The One I Love Youtube Music Videos and Lyrics

Album: Document
Released: 1987

The One I Love Lyrics

The One I Love Song Chart

The lead vocal on the chorus contains just one word: "Fire," which Michael Stipe draws out into a long wail. In the background, you can hear bass player Mike Mills singing, "She's comin' down on her own, now."

Often misinterpreted as a love song, this is just the opposite. Michael Stipe describes this song as about using people over and over. It's deceptive because it could be a love song until the line, "A simple prop to occupy my time."

This is not based on any real person or event. The band made up the lyrics while they were on a tour.

For a while, Stipe thought this was too brutal a song to record. He told Q magazine in 1992: "It's probably better that they think it's a love song at this point. That song just came up from somewhere and I recognized it as being really violent and awful. But it wasn't directed at any one person. I would never write a song like that. Even if there was one person in the world thinking, This song is about me, I could never sing it or put it out... I didn't want to record that, I thought it was too much. Too brutal. I think there's enough of that ugliness around."

This was R.E.M.'s first hit song. They had been recording since 1981 and growing a following.

Bush played this at Woodstock '99 with a much harder sound. (thanks, James - Dartmouth, Canada)

Robert Longo directed the music video for this song, which has images of tenement buildings, dancers and lonely couples, mixed with sweeping clouds, lighting bolts and bursts of flame. The director of photography was Alton Brown, who would go on to be a Food Network star with shows like Good Eats, Iron Chef America and Cutthroat Kitchen.

Peter Buck came up with the riff on his porch. Mike Mills recalled to Uncut: "I remember Peter, showing me that riff and thinking it was pretty cool, and then the rest of the song flowed from there. We played the whole song as an instrumental until Michael (Stipe) came up with some vocals for it."

R.E.M. - Finest Worksong

R.E.M. - Finest Worksong Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: Document
Released: 1988

Finest Worksong Lyrics

Finest Worksong Song Chart

This was the third single from R.E.M.'s fifth album. Though it wasn't a hit on the US Pop charts, it did peak at #28 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks.

Peter Buck wrote in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: "It's a great intro although it's just me hitting a b-string, and Mike has that great bass line. When I brought it in, I felt like I knew what I wanted to and kind of vaguely knew what the guys should do, but we played it once and it just kind of came out of nowhere. Mike and Bill have always been particularly good at coming up with stuff off the tops of their heads that's kind of amazing. It sounded great, but I was afraid that Michael might have trouble writing to it just because it's a B note. That whole song is in B except for the chorus. It reminded me of touring with the Gang of Four. It kind of had that vibe to it."

Frontman Michael Stipe references nineteenth-century poet Henry David Thoreau in the lyrics ("To throw Thoreau and rearrange"), completely by accident. He wrote: "My friend Chris told me that I was our generation's Whitman, I think because I was an ecstatic, and I liked men and women, and I was a poet in his eyes, even though I hated the word poet. Anyway I meant to write Whitman into the song, but I got mixed up and wrote Thoreau in instead."

The music video, directed by Stipe, shows workers throwing, smashing and burning a globe, among other things.

R.E.M. - New Test Leper

R.E.M. - New Test Leper Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Released: 1996

New Test Leper Lyrics

New Test Leper Song Chart

This was recorded at Bad Animals Studio in Seattle, Washington, four months after the band completed their Monster world tour. Like many other songs that would become part of the Hi-Fi album, this song debuted during the tour, but none of the guys remembered playing it until frontman Michael Stipe found a cassette of them performing it. "I remember writing it, but I don't remember showing it to anybody," Peter Buck recalled for the compilation Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage.

'"New Test Leper' might be the only song on this entire collection that wasn't actually, to my knowledge, released anywhere as a single," Stipe noted. "It is, however, the song I think of when people who wrote maybe four good songs get big heads [Brit pop anyone?]. I always feel like when they write a 'New Test Leper,' then I will listen to them."