Falls To Climb

I'm fairly sure this song is about Michael Stipe's sexuality. Written ten years before he came out of the closet, it's essentially a justification (to himself) for staying in the closet, written cryptically enough that he could deny it if he were asked.

Look at the first couplet:

I'll take the position Assume the missionary part

Position... missionary... missionary position, anyone? "Position" has a double meaning: essentially "I will take the position that I have sex in the missionary position. I will remain in the closet."

You work by committee You had me pegged from the start.

Who's "you"? You is conservative America. Fundamentalist Christianity. Those who would call Stipe a mortal sinner despite never meeting him.

I'll be pounce pony. This ceremony Only fills my heart.

I think "ceremony" may have a double-meaning here: the ceremony involved in scapegoating (here represented by a pounce pony, which is a sacrificial animal used to help trap a carnivore), and the marriage ceremony, which Stipe at the time was barred from.

Romantically, you'd martyr me And miss this story's point

Again, "you" is right-wing America circa 1998, and Stipe is saying that any romance he experiences is "martyred" by right-wing America: denigrated so they can feel better about their own romances. Which is certainly not the point of his love life - to give the Right a target for hatred. But it is a reality he has accepted.

Who cast the final stone? Who threw the crushing blow? Someone has to take the fall Why not me?

Yes. It is a reality he has accepted. We'd all throw stones at each other if we couldn't single out someone to throw all the stones at. Apparently that is Michael Stipe. He will accept this responsibility.

Gentlemen mark your opponents Fire into your own ranks. Pick the weakest as strategic Move, square off, to Meet your enemy. For each and every gathering A scapegoat falls to climb.

Kind of the heart of the song: Every group scapegoats to maintain group cohesion. Every group needs an enemy, and they pick the enemy from amongst their neighbors. The way Stipe sees it, conservative Christianity is held together by the scapegoating of people like him.

He's trying to make the best of this. He won't complain. He'll "fall to climb": he will accept the role, he will be the punch-toy volunteer, he will provide those who need a scapegoat with their scapegoat, and he won't let it destroy him. He'll take pride in the role.

My actions make me beautiful And dignify the flesh Me, I am free

great sound

Awesome track. It's clearly about a martyr of some sort, due to rise in honour for his/her death. Who it's about, if anybody in particular, could only be guessed.

I'm with you , GotMeNow. But was strikes me specially about this song is the person it's addressed to. The scapegoat is defending his decision. He wants someone to know that he's not dying because he's weak, he's dying because he's strong enough to give his life for something he cares about.

I believe this song is narrated by Federico Garcia Lorca and directed towards his current crop of biographers, who indeed do work by committee, and who would like to make his seemingly chosen martyrdom the result of depression over breaking up with Dali seven years and several boyfriends earlier, rather than about his oft-stated desire to become the "new St. Sebastian", which he saw as the ultimate symbol of victory through ultimate surrender, and a means to transcend the flesh, which he'd always seen as problematic.

Sadly barely a handful of comments on what is, in my opinion, REM's finest track. The lyrics helped me come to terms with my mortality during a recent debilitating illness... it helped me face the fight with great dignity and not to fall down the "why me?" spiral.

Aside from this personal refelection, I understand that the lyrics are based upon the short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. In this story a lottery is held in a small village and the "winner" is ritually stoned to death!

One of my favorite REM songs. As shown by the few comments above, you can really come to different conclusions about it. I have been reading The Gulag Archipelago, so I immediately thought of the many people martyred by the Communist regime under Lenin, Stalin, Berea, etc. The lines, “Gentlemen, mark your opponents \ Fire into your own ranks” makes me think of how fascist regimes only hurt the people they are supposed to be helping.

The really interesting person here is the narrator though. Someone mentioned “The Lottery”. It is almost as if the person who “won” it did a fist pump and shouted, “Sweet!” This guy really wants some kind of meaning in his life and finally finds it by becoming a martyr. In order to “climb”, he has to “fall”. That is the great tragedy in this song to me. Not the committee picking out the “weakest part” to destroy, but a person who can only “fill his heart” by dying. “Someone has to take the fall”, but for what? Are you even a martyr if you don’t have something particular that you are dying for?

I guess any song could be about love/relationships and I always assumed this one was too.

Twice in my life I have been in relationships where both parties probably knew they weren't going to work long-term. And yet for whatever reason (familiarity, ease, not wanting to start dating someone else) we stuck together - maybe longer than we should have.

In both cases I guess you could say I "stepped up" and said it's time to part ways and in both cases the reaction from the other person was negative. They got upset, angry, etc. As I looked back on these I always thought I had to be the bad guy in order for progress to be made.

Consider these lines: Who cast the final stone? Who threw the crushing blow? Someone has to take the fall

It sounds like somebody had to "take the fall" (i.e. be blamed/chastised for ending the relationship) and so this guy says it might as well be me. I mean consider that this martyr doesn't really seem like a helpless victim - he is taking responsibility for casting the final stone/throwing the crushing blow, right?

I could even take it a step further and say there were times in the relationships the other person wanted me to just go with what they said - to be the weaker party:

A punch toy volunteer A weakling on its knee Is all you want to hear And all you want to see

By stepping up and being the "stronger" one that ends the relationship that was out of character for the weaker person and also caused the turmoil this song alludes to.

Maybe I'm way off, but this makes sense to me.

This I think is their most beautiful song. I'm not a Christian, I'm agnostic. I cannot help but think this is about Jesus. It's not a sad song in my opinion but an uplifting one. In the end he fell, to climb.