Maps And Legends

In 1985, Stipe said that reading a map is used in this song as a metaphor for reading a person: "There are a lot of people like maps. You look at them, and you can lay them out on a table and read them and run your finger over them. You can find their little stories, their squares and circles...you go down the key and it tells you what the circle means. And then you look at the map and it starts to make sense."

He also said (in 1986) that it was "kind of about" Reverend Howard Finster, a baptist minister in Summerville, Georgia (died 2001) who was known for his visionary and folk art (e.g. the cover of "Reckoning"), hence the references to painting.

lol...don't know wat it's about, but it's an incredible, very eerie song...i jus think it's funny that when he supposedly sings "he's not to be reached" it sounds like "life's a bitch" and "is he to be reached?" sounds like "is he a bitch?"

It sounds like someone who's absolutely engrossed in something, but totally unable to describe it in any useful way. It's a nice song but really seems to be more about the general statement of this album than any specific identity. that's probably the point though.

9 duplicate posts. Must be a new record.

As for the song, I really like Mike Mills's backing vocals on this track. My favorite from "Fables".

.freewebs.com/thejakesite

I think this is about nothing being clear, and even the most concrete things, the maps, can be wrong sometimes and that everyone changes and that not everyone is good or bad but everyone is the shade of grey and this is a really long sentance and i'm pretty sure noone is even going to read all of this so i'm going to stop now.

It's about the Reverand Howard Finster. Stipe said so.

I have a live version of this song on the B-side of a 45 single of "The One I Love"--excellently done! =))

"Those who know what I dont know refer to the yellow red and green"

yellow red and green are the three colours of a standard american directional traffic lamp.

If "those who know" live where you are just passing thru, they will probably guide you to your destination by street lamps, for example their directions to you may say "go straight until you see a set of lights, take a left, you'll see another set of lights, keep straight, it'll be on your right"

"lost in the legend"

would be trying to decipher the legend on a map...or perhaps being fascinated with a local legend of a place you are visiting...

I feel that this song actually describes what it is that I love about R.E.M. I'm always captivated by the conviction in their songs - a sense that they're singing about vital stuff - exultant! And yet, I usually can't tell specifically what it is that they're singing about!

Where he ought to be, he sees what you Can't see, can't you see that

There's something that the subject of the song (Reverend Howard Finster, the visionary minister/artist that others have mentioned?) sees, something that we don't see, and

Maybe he's caught in the legend Maybe he's caught in the mood Maybe these maps and legends Have been misunderstood

Maybe he understands in a way that conventional understanding is unable to do - by disregarding convention, by following his own muse:

Called the fool, and the company On his own, where he'd rather be Where he ought to be, he sees what you Can't see, can't you see that

... he's found, transcendence? Grace? At the least, conviction.

I believe that this is the secret of R.E.M.'s compelling beauty. The ability to recognize and cultivate their own sense of conviction, in their songs.

With so many other artists, we can identify the subject of their exultation, and believe that we understand what moves them, is moving us. But I think that understanding is an illusion. Love songs, rebellion, the blues, I suspect the overt sentiments are just vehicles for a sense of vitality, of being compelled, that the artists recognize and convey in their works.

I don't know exactly what R.E.M. does to arrive so reliably at that sense of conviction, without the overt sentiments - I think it's a deeply poetic skill, shared by some other New Wave favorites like The Talking Heads, XTC - but in any case, they do it so well, and I love it. (At least, to my ears, until Document - they lost me after that.)

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.