Laughing Lyrics

Lyric discussion by nealman 

Cover art for Laughing lyrics by R.E.M.

Laocoon warned of the evil that would befall the Romans. I remember reading that this song was inspired by a Robert Capa photograph. That image is from 1944 and shows a street scene in a French town after liberation. The focus is a woman walking, her head shaved, a baby in her arms, while around her people walk looking at her and laughing. She had the baby was fathered by a German soldier, and has had her head shaved as punishment, to mark her.

@nealman Wow. That's really impactful. It automatically made me think about the woman who told her story of postwar France and the exact same thing happening to woman who had affairs with the invading German soldiers.