Very intriguing. Somehow I'd never thought about the lyrics of this song referring to the capital-P "Passion". The interpretation seems well supported, particularly if Stipe's attitude is skeptical or critical; then "empty prayer, empty mouths..." would make a lot more sense. In this context, "Not everyone can carry the weight of the world" suggests we can't all be like Christ.
OTOH Stipe has said the song is about hunger. There's a video for the song which depicts homeless people. "Combien du temps" literally means "How much time," but in this context it would be a rhetorical question: "How much longer can you look upon this suffering and not want to do something about it?" Put it another way, is the plight of the poor something we merely "talk about," or is it not a moral imperative to DO something about it?
Considering Stipe's evident penchant for ambiguity and layers of meaning, it wouldn't surprise me if both of these interpretations were intended. It seems many people manage to read the Gospels without paying much attention to Christ's concern for the suffering of the poor, but I've always found that mind-boggling as He talks so much about it.
Or, at least, something akin to these interpretations. Who knows what he was thinking. It's not unusual for him to be deliberately obscure -- probably in part a habit he developed so he could write about his personal emotional struggles without giving away his secrets. Think of the repetition of the phrase "don't get caught" on two of Chronic Town's songs. I don't think this was paranoia so much as a desire to keep his private life private.
I hadn't known Stipe was raised Catholic. Don't see much here which evokes the Eucharist except "empty mouths" which could suggest someone in the queue at Mass waiting to receive the Host. But it would at least be a more economical use of language; otherwise "empty prayer" and "empty mouths" are reiterating the same concept (i.e. prayer is futile).
@foreverdrone yeah, this isn’t the type of direct attack in song I normally associate with R.E.M., I always think of that as more a U2 attribute (arguably the two biggest-best rock bands of the MTV-into-Alternative-Era, pre-Grunge especially; an important time) out of their contemporary bands. But wow, this seems nothing less than a shot across the bow of the then-newly rising Religious Right from a kid who grew up not far from where the platitudes-loving Jesus freaks are most thick (in both number and skull), not to mention the KKK has some of its most popular & “symbolic” modern strongholds...
@foreverdrone yeah, this isn’t the type of direct attack in song I normally associate with R.E.M., I always think of that as more a U2 attribute (arguably the two biggest-best rock bands of the MTV-into-Alternative-Era, pre-Grunge especially; an important time) out of their contemporary bands. But wow, this seems nothing less than a shot across the bow of the then-newly rising Religious Right from a kid who grew up not far from where the platitudes-loving Jesus freaks are most thick (in both number and skull), not to mention the KKK has some of its most popular & “symbolic” modern strongholds & “shrines” within the state in which Stipe grew up, the “modern”-shiddkigger state, Georgia West, and there are always connections to be made between the two; D.W. Griffith made the same connections, and he and Michael Stipe, I’m guessing, aren’t exactly “political bedfellows” (not that I’m saying Stipe said there was a connection between people who simply cannot forget they lost a war - lost it BADLY, there was nothing classy or aristocratic or Whitely-Supreme about the way Sherman burned the South to the ground and then started over - and the south had it coming then, and maybe even now) fought over owning human beings; I am The one saying that). This is really exciting, and this is EARLY in R.E.M.’s career, supposedly before they became really politically/personally outspoken about certain Democratic causes, especially the truly democratic. This is way more “direct” than even the 10-years-later ‘Drive’/Automatic For The People, which I can recall as if was yesterday.
I’m 15y late replying to your comment, but the intervening years have had no shortage, in The Age Of Angry Cowards With Assault Weapons, aka, the Age Of Mass Shootings, no shortage of creepy politicians offering empty “thoughts & prayers”, such as the human slimy-slug Ted Cruz (I’m reluctant to associate slugs with him, since slugs serve a very useful purpose, one that even benefits humanity; I actually LIKE slugs, and I like them even more in relation to Cruz and the people he supposedly reps, as well as the people he truly reps, such as the oily, in more ways than one, Jerry Jones) utterly empty “thoughts & prayers” from the same pols carrying water for the NRA. Because “Jeezuss & Duh Ahrmah-laght Ragh-full - A nat’rull combuneeshun”. It’s so stupid it’s gotta be Murricn. And Suthern. Not that cruelty is relegated to the Murricn south, it’s not, but the ignorance and stupidity is strongest there. It’s how the Ted cruxes & Greg abbots - two wastes of space - get elected there. Because The people Are morons with no sense of civic or national pride. Or Shame for that matter. Jes’ “Don’ mess wit’ Duh Texiss”. Every time i hear a typically-gutless Texan proclaim what a badass he is just by virtue of being born there and having a gun, I begin a laughing fit and my eyes roll all the way back in my head and I have to lay down for an hour in a dark room to get them facing front again.
So yeah, EMPTY definitely covers it, and this song was written & released 40 years ago. What’s going on now with the (utterly empty, beyond any shadow of doubt) religious right is nothing new.
Very intriguing. Somehow I'd never thought about the lyrics of this song referring to the capital-P "Passion". The interpretation seems well supported, particularly if Stipe's attitude is skeptical or critical; then "empty prayer, empty mouths..." would make a lot more sense. In this context, "Not everyone can carry the weight of the world" suggests we can't all be like Christ.
OTOH Stipe has said the song is about hunger. There's a video for the song which depicts homeless people. "Combien du temps" literally means "How much time," but in this context it would be a rhetorical question: "How much longer can you look upon this suffering and not want to do something about it?" Put it another way, is the plight of the poor something we merely "talk about," or is it not a moral imperative to DO something about it?
Considering Stipe's evident penchant for ambiguity and layers of meaning, it wouldn't surprise me if both of these interpretations were intended. It seems many people manage to read the Gospels without paying much attention to Christ's concern for the suffering of the poor, but I've always found that mind-boggling as He talks so much about it.
Or, at least, something akin to these interpretations. Who knows what he was thinking. It's not unusual for him to be deliberately obscure -- probably in part a habit he developed so he could write about his personal emotional struggles without giving away his secrets. Think of the repetition of the phrase "don't get caught" on two of Chronic Town's songs. I don't think this was paranoia so much as a desire to keep his private life private.
I hadn't known Stipe was raised Catholic. Don't see much here which evokes the Eucharist except "empty mouths" which could suggest someone in the queue at Mass waiting to receive the Host. But it would at least be a more economical use of language; otherwise "empty prayer" and "empty mouths" are reiterating the same concept (i.e. prayer is futile).
@foreverdrone yeah, this isn’t the type of direct attack in song I normally associate with R.E.M., I always think of that as more a U2 attribute (arguably the two biggest-best rock bands of the MTV-into-Alternative-Era, pre-Grunge especially; an important time) out of their contemporary bands. But wow, this seems nothing less than a shot across the bow of the then-newly rising Religious Right from a kid who grew up not far from where the platitudes-loving Jesus freaks are most thick (in both number and skull), not to mention the KKK has some of its most popular & “symbolic” modern strongholds...
@foreverdrone yeah, this isn’t the type of direct attack in song I normally associate with R.E.M., I always think of that as more a U2 attribute (arguably the two biggest-best rock bands of the MTV-into-Alternative-Era, pre-Grunge especially; an important time) out of their contemporary bands. But wow, this seems nothing less than a shot across the bow of the then-newly rising Religious Right from a kid who grew up not far from where the platitudes-loving Jesus freaks are most thick (in both number and skull), not to mention the KKK has some of its most popular & “symbolic” modern strongholds & “shrines” within the state in which Stipe grew up, the “modern”-shiddkigger state, Georgia West, and there are always connections to be made between the two; D.W. Griffith made the same connections, and he and Michael Stipe, I’m guessing, aren’t exactly “political bedfellows” (not that I’m saying Stipe said there was a connection between people who simply cannot forget they lost a war - lost it BADLY, there was nothing classy or aristocratic or Whitely-Supreme about the way Sherman burned the South to the ground and then started over - and the south had it coming then, and maybe even now) fought over owning human beings; I am The one saying that). This is really exciting, and this is EARLY in R.E.M.’s career, supposedly before they became really politically/personally outspoken about certain Democratic causes, especially the truly democratic. This is way more “direct” than even the 10-years-later ‘Drive’/Automatic For The People, which I can recall as if was yesterday.
I’m 15y late replying to your comment, but the intervening years have had no shortage, in The Age Of Angry Cowards With Assault Weapons, aka, the Age Of Mass Shootings, no shortage of creepy politicians offering empty “thoughts & prayers”, such as the human slimy-slug Ted Cruz (I’m reluctant to associate slugs with him, since slugs serve a very useful purpose, one that even benefits humanity; I actually LIKE slugs, and I like them even more in relation to Cruz and the people he supposedly reps, as well as the people he truly reps, such as the oily, in more ways than one, Jerry Jones) utterly empty “thoughts & prayers” from the same pols carrying water for the NRA. Because “Jeezuss & Duh Ahrmah-laght Ragh-full - A nat’rull combuneeshun”. It’s so stupid it’s gotta be Murricn. And Suthern. Not that cruelty is relegated to the Murricn south, it’s not, but the ignorance and stupidity is strongest there. It’s how the Ted cruxes & Greg abbots - two wastes of space - get elected there. Because The people Are morons with no sense of civic or national pride. Or Shame for that matter. Jes’ “Don’ mess wit’ Duh Texiss”. Every time i hear a typically-gutless Texan proclaim what a badass he is just by virtue of being born there and having a gun, I begin a laughing fit and my eyes roll all the way back in my head and I have to lay down for an hour in a dark room to get them facing front again.
So yeah, EMPTY definitely covers it, and this song was written & released 40 years ago. What’s going on now with the (utterly empty, beyond any shadow of doubt) religious right is nothing new.