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Welcome To The Occupation Lyrics

Hang your collar up inside, hang your dollar on me
Listen to the water still, listen to the causeway
You are mad and educated, primitive and wild
Welcome to the occupation

Here we stand and here we fight
All your fallen heroes held and dyed and skinned alive
Listen to the Congress fire
Offering the educated, primitive and loyal
Welcome to the occupation

Hang your collar up inside, hang your freedom higher
Listen to the buyer still, listen to the Congress
Where we propagate confusion, primitive and wild
Fire on the hemisphere below

Sugar cane and coffee cup
Copper, steel and cattle
An annotated history, the forest for the fire
Where we open up the floodgates freedom reigns supreme
Fire on the hemisphere below

Listen to me
Listen to me
Listen to me
Listen to me
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Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

I always heard this was about El Salvador--supposedly Stipe is on record saying so. -"hang your collar up inside"=possibly refers to the clerical collars worn by priests. The Liberation Theology movement within the Catholic Church claimed that the Church should support the Sandinistas and other resistance fighters in Central America (The Vatican officially disavowed this). -"primitive and wild"=the official insult of colonialism. Stipe is linking the current exploitation to the atrocities perpetrated by Cortes and the conquistadores. -"held and dyed and skinned alive"=the death squads' weapons of choice were machetes. -"Fire on the hemisphere below"=always reminded me of Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS in which the navy fires cannon shells into the forest for no particular reason.

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

At the time the song was written, the "occupation" of most of Latin America was economic rather than military.

While I don't claim to know the exact date when this song was written, Document came out in 1987. I'm not sure where you're considering the line between "economic" and "military" to be drawn (seems to me it's kind of like talking about the "Russian mafia"), particularly when referring to such activities as providing not only funds but arms and personnel for training to the Contras and various authoritarian regimes (mainly military dictatorships, like that in Guatemala). In several cases the U.S.'s actions were condemned internationally, and in at least one that I know of the International Court...

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

anyone else think this applies to the current Iraq conflict???

How could it apply to Iraq in 2004 when the song was written in the early '80s? Lol.

Not Valid

@ZinbobDan I'm assuming that by "applies to" you mean that it could be interpreted this way, even though it seems pretty clear that that US military activity (including support of authoritarian groups & regimes, as well as more blatant "occupation") in Latin America was the actual inspiration, and of course was more topical at the time (late '80s).

I do think a lot of the references in this song are specific to Latin America, but it's true that a lot of people have rightly compared the current "war on terrorism" wars (as well as the...

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

It's about the US exploiting Latin America, we support governments who like us and attack those that don't. It also has a lot of references to deforestation. "Sugar cane and coffee cup Copper, steel and cattle" come from the rainforest and there are images of fire throughout. The Occupation is probably being one of the profiteers I suppose. I think it does apply to Iraq - both the political motivations, and the corporate/oil interest type stuff.

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

It can also mean that someone new to the government can get used to the bad stuff going on very easily and can become corrupted and lose their innocence.

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

This was definitely written when Nicaragua was a possible target for US invasion, but there was US intervention in other Central American countries and Colombia as well, so it doesn't necessarily exclude them.

The Reagan-era hostility towards socialist Nicaragua was rather active and included the mining of ports.

The US actually invaded Panama just over one year after this album was released, although the US troops withdrew after only a very short "occupation".

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

obviously this song is a prophecy about occupy wall street. i can't possibly see any other meaning.

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

When this song came out in 1987 I was to young to know it had any sociopolitical associations or to really grasp most of the lyrics.I don't tend to think of big issues when listening to music,as songs tend to immediately tie me to personal memories. I personally interpreted the phrase "welcome to the occupation" as sort of meaning welcome to your life,this is what you're dealing with through no fault of your own,etc,and "all your fallen heroes" as being about finding out the truth about people,famous or not famous,that you looked up to.So I tended to think of this song as being about loss of the innocence of youth,which it still reminds me of when I hear it now.

My Interpretation
Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

it was about a specific occupation of a central american country...i want to say nicaragua, but it could hav been another...since i wanna say nicaragua, i also wanna say it's about the iran-contra affair a little bit...

...i'm probably wrong, i bet it's columbia

Cover art for Welcome To The Occupation lyrics by R.E.M.

I think the "fire on the hemisphere below" pretty much limits it to Central and South America.