1. It's a really profound song to me with so few lyrics. REM were looking at the terrifying,, baffling meaning of life (or lack of meaning), through someone's own life, say someone not blessed with great awareness, who lives in any someway / anywhere / nowhere - Texarkana. Just one ordinary face in a sea of billions - probably just like so many others.

1. It's a really profound song to me with so few lyrics. REM were looking at the terrifying,, baffling meaning of life (or lack of meaning), through someone's own life, say someone not blessed with great awareness, who lives in any someway / anywhere / nowhere - Texarkana. Just one ordinary face in a sea of billions - probably just like so many others.

This guy is crying out for spiritual nourishment, lost in his desert, "20,000 miles to an oasis", without which he is going to be liable to end up in hell. "20,000 years will I burn". He really needs that...

This guy is crying out for spiritual nourishment, lost in his desert, "20,000 miles to an oasis", without which he is going to be liable to end up in hell. "20,000 years will I burn". He really needs that spiritual nourishment but can he really be liable for terrible torture if he does not receive it? What kind of a place is this?

Its kind of sad that the guy has self-awareness of the predicament he sees himself in, but yet it may also lead to something positive, "20,000 chances I've wasted."

Then again, if the dimension itself makes each of the 20,000 chances a waste, is anything positive possible for him?

Is it him going wrong or is it the dimension?

He wants desperately to find something like the right path or the answer, and REM further shows us his fallibility, needing help,

"I would give my life to find it I would give it all Catch me if I fall".

It's desperately emotional, yet the musical treatment is kind of flippant. These opposites going on show a sense of how lost we are, how great meaning seems to pass quickly in a world which has little time or space for meaning. This is the time space dimension apparently, but it does not have the time or the space for meaning or valuing.

The song is about someone who has never loved and never been in a relationship. He feels the soil falling over his head because he might as well be dead with a loveless existence stretching out before him, and appeals to his mother as the only female figure of importance in his life. The "sad veiled bride" section refers to his jealousy of others ("loud loutish lovers" even), whom he presumably feels he is emotionally superior to and more deserving than, however it is these less pleasant male figures that end up with a woman. "It never really began, but...

The song is about someone who has never loved and never been in a relationship. He feels the soil falling over his head because he might as well be dead with a loveless existence stretching out before him, and appeals to his mother as the only female figure of importance in his life. The "sad veiled bride" section refers to his jealousy of others ("loud loutish lovers" even), whom he presumably feels he is emotionally superior to and more deserving than, however it is these less pleasant male figures that end up with a woman. "It never really began, but in my heart, it was so real" is referring to his imagination, his hopes, his dreams, none of which have or will ever come true.

I think this song is just about dying. Accepting death, being ready to die. It’s not about violently taking one’s life. It’s not about dying in agony at or with any anger or rage. It’s just about letting go. Wanting to let go wanting to just not breathe and pass away. They’ve seen enough they’ve seen it all. There is a gentle nautical sound to the music as though the person spent years travelling many years at sea. They’re just done and it’s okay and they want to be remembered. “Flying over my grave“ is a lot like the saying...

I think this song is just about dying. Accepting death, being ready to die. It’s not about violently taking one’s life. It’s not about dying in agony at or with any anger or rage. It’s just about letting go. Wanting to let go wanting to just not breathe and pass away. They’ve seen enough they’ve seen it all. There is a gentle nautical sound to the music as though the person spent years travelling many years at sea. They’re just done and it’s okay and they want to be remembered. “Flying over my grave“ is a lot like the saying “somebody walked over my grave“ that’s something people say when they get the shivers. The shivers are referred to many times in this song. They don’t want their loved ones to be afraid. But they have no reason to go on. They don’t want to be a burden, they want to be free.