Shaking Through

"In my life...." has to be one of R.E.M.s finest moments. That refrain fractures and bifurcates into a million cinematic images. Truly, in an artistic sense, this is one of post-punk/pre-alternative rock's most surreal sounds.

If you have the Murmur deluxe edition and/or a bootleg (I have a great one called "Rising") of the Larry's Hideaway, Toronto show from July 9, 1983, you can hear the audience chanting for the band to play this song towards the end of the concert, when they are trying to get the band back onstage for an encore after they concluded "Radio Free Europe." Stipe remarks, "Wow, that's pretty effective," before shouting back "No!" in response to the audience's continued shouts of "Shaking Through." The band then continues by breaking into "We Walk" before finishing with a killer double encore of "1,000,000" and "Carnival of Sorts." They leave without playing "Shaking Through," despite the audience's continued pleas/demands for them to play it. This little bit of trivia really has nothing to do with the meaning of the song, but it does show the contrast between the band's opinion of the song and the fans' opinions. The song was a fan favorite, but it's obvious the band didn't like it very much, or they at least didn't like playing it, as I have tons of bootleg shows from this period and I don't think "Shaking Through" is on a single one of them. It's a shame, too, as it really is a great song. Then again, everything on Murmur is. It's pretty much the only album I can think of, and certainly the only debut album I can think of, which is absolutely perfect as is. By that I mean that it is completely, totally flawless. There isn't a single thing I would change about it. It will go down in history as a timeless musical masterpiece, and will be remembered as one of the greatest albums of all-time, a pinnacle of twentieth century music.

I think the key to this song is a phrase which appeared in an earlier version, performed live and recorded pre-Murmur:"Incest on parade"

Yeah that's true about feeling the meanings more than really putting them in words. I've seen it described by Michael Stipe (I think by him) that: It's like when you have a song in your head, but you don't know many words. When you try to sing to the song then, you end up singing either nonsense or semi-coherent words based on the line you do know. Then if you listen to those sounds and transform them into the words they sound like and make it coherent, that's sort of what REM's earlier songs are like.

I sense a lot of lost innocence in this song. It sounds like Stipe is desperately trying to hold onto this peace and happiness, trying to rein in all this emotion with his voice.

I find this song to be about just being at the bottom of things and then the struggle to get through those times.

Succeeds in making even LESS sense than a Dylan lyric

WTF?!? Always loved the song, typical Stipe enunciation. He could deny the words are anything like what's inscribed above.

Shaking through, to me, it's a song about an entire lifetime...

"Could it be that one small voice doesn't count in the room?" Who hasn't been ignored simply for being young, or just less "important"

"Yellow like a geisha gown, denial all the way" A strong vibrant saturated yellow, and yellow itself means cowardly.. and who hasn't denied being a coward..

"Could this by three be ten? Honor marches on" Sometimes the mission or foe is much bigger or more than you expected, but you just have to carry on.

"Shaking through, opportune" Shaking your way through life, like a shirt that barely fits, its tight uncomfortable but it'll do. You have to get through for opportunities.

"Are we grown way too far? Taking after rain" Grown way too far, unable to experience things that a child could, unable to enjoy what you once could.

"In my life" Self explanatory

"Ears that are still, children of today on parade" hearing/seeing, children "parading around" meaning shameless being themselves, the new generation, and now you're the adult of their childhood.

"Yellow like a geisha gown, denial all the way Shaking through, opportune Shaking through, opportune" Chorus starts, to me concluding that the children are full of fear, as strong as the yellow of a geisha gown, and would deny it still, shaking through life, like everyone else.

That's my interpretation.

Maybe it's about child exploitation.