All the Best Lyrics
This song foreshadows the band's 2011 breakup. "There are some straight-forward see-you-laters on that one" said Mike Mills in Rolling Stone magazine.
Quite sure there were some F-off's as well as go to hell and don't return. That's how it goes sometimes.
Quite sure there were some F-off's as well as go to hell and don't return. That's how it goes sometimes.
Yeah, reads to me as a rant against critics of their work. "I'm in a part of your dreams that you don't even understand" is a fantastic line, perhaps one of my favourite R.E.M. lyrics. Full of swagger and arrogance because they have nothing to prove.
"I hold the mirror off" should be "I hold the mirror UP" - Stipe has said it's his job as lyricist to "hold a mirror up" to the listener, so they can see their "reflection" in a song and therefore make it their own. Also, "It's just like me to overstay my welcome, MAN," man is singular, because that rhymes with the preceding "understand". The lyrics are included with the record, so...
Also, Michael Stipe's full name is John Michael Stipe, since those credits have the full names for the other band members.
I don't view this song as a rant. I view it as whiny with major undeserved 'tude. It's a song of arrogance, and unrealisticly so. Some songs protest too much; this is one of them. Just began listening to R.E.M, a band I wish I did not like. Songs such as One I Love are so lyrically shallow and pathetic that I had sworn off the band. (The song is a gag-me tune devoid of love and reality.) However, I've made myself give the band a second chance and I do believe they guys are/were very talented. I wish it weren't so, Joe, but there's a lot of talent there.
I think you're reading too much into the songs at face value.
I think you're reading too much into the songs at face value.