This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines:
"Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet"
So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other:
"I had all and then most of you"
Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart
"Some and now none of you"
Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship.
This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
I was brain-dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed
I thought I'd pegged you an idiot's dream
Tunnel vision from the outsider's screen
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
I'd studied your cartoons, radio, music, TV, movies, magazines
Richard said, "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"
A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
Butterfly decal, rearview mirror, dogging the scene
You smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You said that irony was the shackles of youth, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
I never understood, don't fuck with me, uh-huh
I was brain-dead, locked out, numb, not up to speed
I thought I'd pegged you an idiot's dream
Tunnel vision from the outsider's screen
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
I'd studied your cartoons, radio, music, TV, movies, magazines
Richard said, "Withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy"
A smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" is your Benzedrine, uh-huh
Butterfly decal, rearview mirror, dogging the scene
You smile like the cartoon, tooth for a tooth
You said that irony was the shackles of youth
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I never understood the frequency, uh-huh
You wore our expectations like an armored suit, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You said that irony was the shackles of youth, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
You wore a shirt of violent green, uh-huh
I couldn't understand
I never understood, don't fuck with me, uh-huh
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This is according to AskYahoo: News anchor Dan Rather was mugged in 1986 by a madman as he walked down the street in Manhattan. His assailant repeated "Kenneth, what's the frequency" Michael Stipe wrote this song in 1994 - the identity of the assailant was revealed in 1997 as William Tager.
Tager had killed an NBC stagehand earlier and was serving time for that crime. He said that the newsmedia beamed signals into his head and believed he could block them if he found the correct frequency. Hence: "What's the frequency, Kenneth?" Rather even joined R.E.M. on The Late Show when they were the musical guest.
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g><br /> <br /> I get the impression that the POV is that of a baby boomer, baffled by the wacky "Generation X." The members of R.E.M. were born in the years from 1956-60 (Stipe, b. 1960, is the youngest) which puts them on the generational border. People born around this time may identify more with either generation (as with those born in the late 1970s, who could be considered Gen X or Millennials), depending on stuff like who they hang out with, what music/TV/movies/etc. they like, etc. (Kurt Cobain, born in 1967, was the stereotypical GenXer.)<br /> <br /> "Irony is the shackles of youth" seems a weird thing for a GenX character to say (it's not clever or amusing enough to count as ironic itself, though it might be rendered in the presence of the noticeably absent context, without which it is rather content-free), since it does seem to be an anti-irony statement (if free of any actual specific meaning): ironic humour, after all, has always been a staple of this age group. (Think Jon Stewart — the SarcasMeister. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also GenX.)
@jcreswell The big mystery is, who TF is Kenneth? <g><br /> <br /> I get the impression that the POV is that of a baby boomer, baffled by the wacky "Generation X." The members of R.E.M. were born in the years from 1956-60 (Stipe, b. 1960, is the youngest) which puts them on the generational border. People born around this time may identify more with either generation (as with those born in the late 1970s, who could be considered Gen X or Millennials), depending on stuff like who they hang out with, what music/TV/movies/etc. they like, etc. (Kurt Cobain, born in 1967, was the stereotypical GenXer.)<br /> <br /> "Irony is the shackles of youth" seems a weird thing for a GenX character to say (it's not clever or amusing enough to count as ironic itself, though it might be rendered in the presence of the noticeably absent context, without which it is rather content-free), since it does seem to be an anti-irony statement (if free of any actual specific meaning): ironic humour, after all, has always been a staple of this age group. (Think Jon Stewart — the SarcasMeister. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are also GenX.)