submissions
| R.E.M. – Second Guessing Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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It\'s maybe the only song on the first two albums (plus the first EP) where all the lyrics are understandable, And it\'s about people trying to interpret his lyrics. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Pretty Persuasion Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I think it\'s "Goddamn your confusion." He muddles hell out of these lyrics, i can\'t contest any of the rest, but this interpretation is as good as any. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Little America Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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One more thing. On the Rockpalast performance, Michael recites the pledge of allegiance before going into the lyrics, which suggests that it\'s not just a tour diary. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Little America Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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@[spencerrich:39846] I also think it\'s "balalaika." Not that that makes any more sense than "buy a lacquered." |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Little America Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I think it\'s "I CAN see myself at 30." That makes more sense, when you consider how they got signed by Warners and became the darlings of MTV and Grammy winners. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Old Man Kensey Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I think it\'s "That\'s my calling." Words are mostly the work of Jeremy Ayers. A local artist, well known around the Athens community. Passed away recently. (2019?) |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Driver 8 Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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One more anecdote. Quite a number of trains run through Athens. Quite a number of folk punk types do the box car thing. On a different note, I have a friend who played drums for a project that was mostly my tunes. A few years after we broke up, he lost his arm in a train accident. They managed to re-attach it, but he still has a lot of metal in him. But he can play drums again. In other news, they tore down the entire Murmur trestle, but they are planning to rebuild it as part of a trail. Me and my friends used to cross it as a shortcut to downtown when we were tripping acid in the early 90\'s.Occasionally, we hung out with Will Hart and Jeff Mangum. Heady times. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Driver 8 Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I don\'t have much to say about this, except that I live near the tiny Athens airport and the Lexington Avenue power lines do indeed have floaters. Also, there\'s a chapre bell that UGA students ring when the Dawgs win or when they graduate.You can hear it all through downtown. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Fall On Me Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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You can point to things like "Talk About the Passion" and "Little America" and say that R.E.M. always had a political stance, but they started getting more serious about it around Pageant. And yet, even their more straightforward things like "Exhuming McCarthy" and "Orange Crush" are kind of vague and impressionistic. But you get the idea. High rise buildings, environmental toxins, eroding ozone.BTW, "Little America" is one of their best double meaning songs. Jefferson Holt drove the van. "Jefferson, I think we\'re lost" could be taken quite literally. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Maps And Legends Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I don\'t doubt that this song is influenced by Finster, but I think it\'s reductionist to say it\'s about Finster. The song hinges on the dual meaning of "legend." This was a time when R.E.M. and their friends were seeking out some of the oddball characters and storytellers all over north Georgia.A map has roads, mountains, rivers that are color coded. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Sitting Still Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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There\'s some Rolling Stone interview where he says it was inspired by a girl that was hard of hearing and that the verses were supposed to reflect that. Followed by "I can hear. Can you hear me?" |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Harborcoat Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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I will make one suggestion: "Reddened their nets and collared their floats." Goes with the general sea-faring theme. But I could be totally wrong. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Harborcoat Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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Everybody hears Stipe lyrics differently, but this seems awfully flawed. But since Stipe rarely comments on his own lyrics, I\'m not going to try and edit. There\'s a youtube video where he jokingly tells the crowd it\'s about a blowjob, then finds out his nephews are in the crowd and gets really embarrassed. |
submissions
| R.E.M. – Feeling Gravitys Pull Lyrics
| 4 years ago
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First, some thoughts about probable lyric mistakes. This is always thorny with Stipe, but I am pretty sure that it is "two ships sway.\' I am not at all certain that he is singing "holding my head straight," but I don\'t have a better answer. It is definitely "Gravity pulls me around," not "down" on the last verse. As to the meaning of the song, well, it\'s pretty ambiguous, but there\'s two hints. There is a famous Man Ray painting with a giant vagina looking thing in the sky. The other thing is that around this time, R.E.M. covered Pylon\'s "Crazy." This song is undoubtedly influenced by the Pylon song, "Gravity." |
submissions
| Peter Gabriel – Shock The Monkey Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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I thought it was about MTV in the 80's. Like, parents thought all those surreal images and lyrics, with sex and destruction would be harmful to kids. Growing up in the 80's for smart kids was like being in a zoo. |
submissions
| Loverboy – Queen Of The Broken Hearts Lyrics
| 16 years ago
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He's looking into a mirror and singing to himself. That's the "you." I'm not sure who she's fighting with--that's kind of open-ended, but he's definitely singing to himself about this girl and his own rockstardom. |
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