Michael Stipe would have fallen within the autistic spectrum if he had been diagnosed as a child, so if you want to understand the arc of their career, you see it as a long arc of Stipe trying to make sense of the world with the mind of a high-functioning autistic (high-functioning because he knew how to speak english, even though he was awful at it for a long time, not to mention he had terrible social skills)
androgybunny already put it succinctly: the song is about being awful in social situations, having so many potentially bright and brilliantly things to say and yet being totally tongue tied and unable to put it out there. Beautifully enough, though, through this song he did put it out there. Music is really good in this song as well: Sonic Youth totally borrowed from this palette.
Michael Stipe would have fallen within the autistic spectrum if he had been diagnosed as a child, so if you want to understand the arc of their career, you see it as a long arc of Stipe trying to make sense of the world with the mind of a high-functioning autistic (high-functioning because he knew how to speak english, even though he was awful at it for a long time, not to mention he had terrible social skills)
androgybunny already put it succinctly: the song is about being awful in social situations, having so many potentially bright and brilliantly things to say and yet being totally tongue tied and unable to put it out there. Beautifully enough, though, through this song he did put it out there. Music is really good in this song as well: Sonic Youth totally borrowed from this palette.
@bernlin2000 disagree with your Sonic Youth idea- they were Branca/No Wave influenced
@bernlin2000 disagree with your Sonic Youth idea- they were Branca/No Wave influenced
One of REMs best, though
One of REMs best, though