I've watched the children come and go
A late, long march into spring
I sit and watch those children
Jump in the tall grass
Leap the sprinkler
Walk in the ground
Bicycle clothespin spokes
The sound, the smell of swingset hands

I will try to sing a happy song
I'll try and make a happy game to play
"Come play with me" I whispered to my newfound friend
Tell me what it's like to go outside
I've never been
Tell me what it's like to just go outside
I've never been
And I never will

I'm not supposed to be like this
I'm not supposed to be like this, but it's okay

Hey, hey, hey, those kids are looking at me
I told my friend myself, those kids are looking at me
They're laughing and they're running over here
They're laughing and they're running over here
What do I do, what should I do?
What do I say?
What can I say?

I said I'm not supposed to be like this
Let's try to find a happy game to play
Let's try to find a happy game to play
I'm not supposed to be like this
But it's okay, okay


Lyrics submitted by xpankfrisst

The Wrong Child Lyrics as written by Michael E. Mills Michael Stipe

Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group

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The Wrong Child song meanings
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  • +1
    General Comment

    This song is very special to me, the whole album is, actually. From the very first time I heard it, the immediate image that came to me was (as others have stated here) "the boy in the bubble", yeah; and I imagined the writer (Stipe?) fresh from watching that TV movie starring John Travolta of at least a decade earlier, sitting down and penning this song. (Lol).

    The song takes it beyond that simple context though, I feel, in that it applies to anyone and everyone who feels general alienation and isolation. It is a song for the lonely, the rejected, the hurt. The person out there that never really felt that they fit in with the rest of the world - that's my take on the "broad" scope of it, anyway. In a way it's a very sad and tragic song, but at the same time gives the listener the spiritual hope that it's not 'really' so bad maybe ("But it's Okaaaay"!) and that there is hope no matter how bad you feel it is - even if you never do manage to be freed from "that bubble. So it's overwhelming 'darkness' is balanced by an uplifting reassurance.

    I love R.E.M. They are amazing to me in the sense that they have the ability to take the complex and simplify it into a song like this one. "Everybody hurts" tends to do the same to me as this one does when I listen to it. Such utter and raw emotion, translated into such a simplistic little "musical" package. That is the "art" (and 'wonder'!) of R.E.M.

    Sarkoloffon May 11, 2010   Link

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