199 replies to this topic

[Remming]

There are just some songs that totally fly over my head. Well, mostly. Are there any songs that confuse people? Does anyone hold the answers to these life questions?

Belong
How The West Was Won
Hope (ooo i'll probably smack myself)

I'll think of more later...

any help? any more?

[stipeeyes]

BELONG
Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She got up from the kitchen table
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio
Those creatures jumped the barricades
And have headed for the sea, sea

Those creatures jumped the barricades
and have headed for the sea
She began to breathe
To breathe at the thought of such freedom
Stood and whispered to her child, belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm; belong

Stood and whispered to her child, belong
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm; belong

These barricades can only hold for so long
Her world collapsed early Sunday morning
She took the child held tight
Opened the window
A breath, this song, how long
and knew, knew; belong

One thing that is clear in the lyrics is that this song is about a woman and her young child.  Possibly a baby.  And it seems she is a single Mother and her world collapsed because maybe the Father of her child left her high and dry.  Michael sets the scene when he says she folded the newspaper and silenced the radio.  She just wanted silence so she could think.  Which is why she is standing by the window.  When he says, "These barricades can only hold for so long" He's saying even though she is a very strong woman there is only so much heartache she can take before she just breaks down.  

This is some of my understanding.  Anyone have any other ideas?

[Remming]

thanks for the good insights. that makes sense about Belong.
yeah, i've been to the site where he posts one word for each song, but i'd like to get a little deeper than that...
any other enigmatic songs? well, duh...

[Zither]

As for Hope, well, I gather it's about people trusting either religion or science. 'You want to trust religion but you know it's allegory' and 'You want to trust the doctors that procedure is the best'. Yep, so people put their trust in either science or religion, but when the trust is wearing thin all that is left is Hope. Simple and brief explanation really.

[Remming]

one of the main 482 reasons i like REM is their lyrics...they haven't conformed to the shallow pop of our age. if i can easily determine what a song is about, i probably don't like it :rolleyes:
is driver 8 really just about 'trains'?

[rosie]

Quote

Originally posted by Zither
As for Hope, well, I gather it's about people trusting either religion or science. 'You want to trust religion but you know it's allegory' and 'You want to trust the doctors that procedure is the best'. Yep, so people put their trust in either science or religion, but when the trust is wearing thin all that is left is Hope. Simple and brief explanation really.

yep, yep.  I love Hope.  I think it's about the mix of science and religion being the ideal, but people either put their trust in one or the other.  It's about the blurring round the edges, shades of grey instead of black and white.  'cross your dna with something reptile' refers to a mixture of the scientific and the intuitive.  The answer lies in both 'you want to bridge the schizm' and the desperation means that 'youre looking like an idiot and you no longer care'.  Great, great song:)

Sue

[raveman2001]

1) there are too many to list that i couldn't understand until i saw the lyric sheets
2) there are so many i don't understand after seeing the lyric sheet

let it be a meaning for yourself!

[monster]

I always pictured Belong to be a scenario of a future D-Day, were the world collapses because we have incompetent people running the countries. The helpless mother and child is something that makes it even worse... Were is her husband? Maybe out there fighting another pointless war?

[Remming]

yeah me too. kind of an apocalyptic scene. but the way stipe sings it gives it a little bit of a hopeful tone as well.
are there any songs that have nifty little stories behind them, besides time after time and rockville?

[MGGV]

To me, Driver 8 is about LIFE. Life is a train. You drive the train of life and  have a destination. But no need to rush, you'll get there one way or another. The journey is long and full of diverse "attractions". But it has an end: HOME = rest = protective shield = sleep .
Keep on moving as long as you can, especially if you are young....... and take it easy, enjoy the view as much as you can till you get to your due destination. IMHO

[MGGV]

To me Belong is about a woman. Not a woman who has been abandoned but a woman who is about to abandon her life into freedom. Maybe she has an abusing husband (comes home drunk late at night Saturday night... early Sunday.... and hits her) Her world collapses cause this is the only world she knows....... but she can't take no more and decides to break the barricades and dare to be free. Difficult task so she has to catch her breath and breath deep and tell to herself  "be calm". Maybe the child is a real child and she is running away from her husband with it. Maybe the child is herself: a newborn baby about to walk a new life. IMHO

[beatadrum]

The other problem is getting an accurate transcription for lyrics. That 'How The West Was Won...' above is an online fansite interpretation and therefore cannot be studied too closely or seriously. Some of the Hi-Fi lyrics made it online, including HTWWWAWIGU though the above is not it. ;) There are only a few corrections but it emphasises the issue that JMS's lyrics, unless from him in print, can always be misheard.  

This is like Hope in itself - the science of proof or the theory of religion! I like fact.

[Remming]

yeah, the smallest changes to any line or phrase could probably have quite an impact on any REM song. is there a 'most reliable' place to find lyrics?

and though it says HTWWWAWIGU is about 'decline' on a handy annotations site, i read a bit more into it such as...
invasion mebbe?

[beatadrum]

it's easier when Stipe does interviews for albums but for Hi-Fi he did very little. I don't know what is the best source for rem lyrics as there doesnt seem to be much evolution of the older ones really, well not since the mid 90s.

Perfect example I can think of straightaway is Second Guessing where in one of the verses Stipe yells 'Peter Mike Bill Michael - book this season!' but almost every transcription of that line online (if not all) is something like (this from Kipp Teagues which is regarded as a bible for REM lyrics) Be in my club, write a book this season. I always heard it as how I have it, and that was confirmed from a live TV performance of it where Michael pointed at each of them in turn as he sang the line.

Anyway, Kipp does have HTWWWAWIGU

blood from a stone, water from wine.
Born under an ill-placed sign.
a stroke of bad luck, wrong place, wrong time.
this flyer is out of line.

The story is a sad one, told many times.
the story of my life in trying times.
just add water, stir in lime.
how the west was won and where it got us.
ahhhh.

the canary got trapped in the uranium mine.
I struck bad luck, now the bird has died.
a marker to mark where my tears run dry
at the crossing of blessed and alkaline.

The story is a sad one, told many times.
the story of my life in trying times.
just add water, stir in lime.
how the west was won and where it got us.
ahhhh.

I didn't wear glasses cause I thought it might rain.
now I can't see anything.
I made a mistake, chalked it up to design.
I cracked through time/space, godless and dry.
I point my nose to the northern star,
and watch the decline from a hazy distance.

The story is a sad one, told many times.
the story of my life in trying times.
just add water, stir in lime.
how the west was won and where it got us.
ahhhh

the changes aren't wild but they're better than earplay sign etc...

[joy hernandez]

I have this working theory that How the West. is kind of about basically humans screwing things up in the name of modernity.

"Blood from the Stone" that has something to do with Moses in the Exodus, right?  As I remember, normal humans kept screwing that up and Moses had to keep pleading their case to God (insert whatever story about that that I can't remember here).
"Water from wine" Backwards of what Jesus did.  If Jesus was doing that in the name of salvation and God, what is the reverse? Undoing what Jesus did?
"Born under an ill placed sign" And how much trouble has astrology caused?  Didn't the Aztecs practically hand themselves over to the Spanish based on a sign from the sky?
-next line to finish out verse is self explanitory.
"The story is a sad one" The human history story
"told many times" we keep repeating our mistakes too.
"The story of my life in trying times" Personal struggle, maybe not Stipe's but who's ever voice he is speaking through at the time. Could be anyone on purpose.
"Just add water" diluted. not really pure strife.
"Stir in lime" lime could be 2 things: lime like the green fruit used as a flavoring, or lime like limestone, used to raise the ph levels of soil, making it more alkaline (word also used).
"htwwwawigu" the west was won through fighting, wheeling and dealing, and bloodshed and what do we get for it? smog days in LA.
"the canary got trapped in uranium mine" well, canaries were used in coal mines to determine oxygen levels- maybe this canary is a signal of some sort of nuclear danger or of nuclear pollution danger.
"I struck bad luck now the bird has died" well the guinea pig canary sent down the whole died because of the narrarator's actions.
"a marker to mark where my tears run dry" narrarator is not really sorry, just on the front.  the tears are like a "see I'm sorry, I cried. well you cant tell now but look I traced the paths so you can always see."
"I didnt wear glasses cause I thought it might rain" have you ever had to wear glasses in the rain? it sucks. you need little wind shield wipers.
"now I cant see anything" well looks like it didnt rain and now narrarator is practically blind. so no matter what choice you make it is usually wrong. Kinda like the law of the other line always goes faster than the one you're in.
"I made a mistake chalked it up to design" well narrarator screwed up and it was one of those 'dont blame me blame my parents, blame society' type of moments. see, its not really my fault it was how i was made.
"I cracked through the time/space godless and dry" progress was made, but without something to believe in (disclaimer-not that I'm promoting that you have to believe in God or all of your achievements are hollow) dunno dry, but maybe made it through ok. without a scratch.
"I point my nose to the norther star" and left the place most familiar.  Could be underground rail road reference or just leaving earth all together. either way you leave into the unknown and lots of bad things could happen to you on the way.
"watch the decline from a hazy distance" well the atmosphere is polluted= haze.  the narrarator sits back throughs up his hands from the safe place and just watches us screw ourselves over and doesn't really try to stop it. 'I give up- do what you wanna do" he says.

maybe this is a general comment on apathy.  Why people just don't care about stuff. from that point  of view.  but the tone of the song itself is sad. and mills' piano solo is disjointed sad and chaotic.  that lends to the words well. definitely not shiny happy people material.

well thats just what i always got out of it.
feel free to argue or back it up

-joy
(wow i typed a long post)

[monster]

That was very interesting reading, Joy! :) I really think you're on to something there. Great analyze of the song !

[Zither]

Great analysis Joy. Very interesting. Opened my eyes to a whole new meaning of that song now. ;)

[Remming]

That makes quite a bit of sense, joy. also, since my last post i have read It Crawled From the South, which basically says "stipe just writes"    ...     .   ....   ..     of course, they do have meanings, but michael doesn't expect them to appear right away. several themes have popped up for them over the years...communication, childhood, and dreams. hmm. ICFTS is a great book! too bad it was published right before my favorite album...but i like the bit about peter being abused during the filming of Drive. poor guy. :D :buck:

but yeah....this is why i like REM songs. thanks joy!

[cubswin39]

belong is about the tienamen square (sic?) massacre according to michael apparently...i read that somewhere

"those creatures jumped the barricades..."