It sounds from the lines "If you call out safe then I'll stop right away, if the premise buckles and the ropes start to shake" that the sexual deviance to which Michael Stipe refers is some kind of bondage/ S and M scenario. How this related to the seance, I don't know - did the words on the ouija board spell out something of a similar kinky nature, maybe personal to Stipe, which embarrassed and frightened him, even made him afraid for his life (he cried, he's alive, he's alive)? Not into ouija boards or bondage myself, but one of REM's finest tunes ever.
It sounds from the lines "If you call out safe then I'll stop right away, if the premise buckles and the ropes start to shake" that the sexual deviance to which Michael Stipe refers is some kind of bondage/ S and M scenario. How this related to the seance, I don't know - did the words on the ouija board spell out something of a similar kinky nature, maybe personal to Stipe, which embarrassed and frightened him, even made him afraid for his life (he cried, he's alive, he's alive)? Not into ouija boards or bondage myself, but one of REM's finest tunes ever.