Great review of my favorite song from the only R.E.M. album of the 1990s that I really like.  This song has always struck me as starting with Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne” and then taking it to new places with the electronic sounds and the pondering lyrics.

thejohnblog:

A dear friend has pointed me in the direction of a Music blog looking for contributors.

It’s been a long time since I wrote with sincerity about music. I’m reblogging this to see what you guys think…

thejohnblog:

REM - Hope

This comes from the album UP by R.E.M. It’s the first one they made after drummer Bill Berry left to become a farmer.

It’s highly underrated and a lot of people don’t realize that Radiohead cites this album as an influence that resulted in KID A, their riskiest album that went on to be a masterpiece.

It’s a gorgeous record that tends to run all over the place, but does so in a tight, maddening way.

This song is my favorite off the album. No one ever recognizes it when I play it for them. It’s no “Losing My Religion” or “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth” but something that I feel transcends all of their previous structure.

It’s not so much the lyrics, which per Michael Stipe, have always been hard to interpret, but the way he sings the track.

He sings it almost like he’s trying to get it out in one breath. Like someone talking in their sleep or as if in a trance. It’s immediate - it’s important and it’s also filled with yearning.

I don’t know the story behind the song. For all I know it’s just a hodgepodge throwaway of Stipe’s with a bunch of collected lyrics he never formed into a real song and just recorded to get out there.

But for some reason I know all the words. For some reason I always crank it up in my car and sing along to it.

For some reason it’s cathartic for me to do so.

There are so many parts of this song I have quoted from time to time, my favorite always being:

And you hope that it’s a spaceship
And it’s something from your childhood
You’re thinking “Don’t be frightened…”


To me, a song like this is kind of like when someone asks you why you like an abstract painting. Sometimes you blush and say “I don’t know. I just like it.” Then, later on, when you feel like you should give a better answer, you track that person down and say, “I like the way it makes me feel.”

That’s what I have to tell you about this song. I like the way it makes me feel.

When the track ends, it ends with a slow build of what sounds like a foghorn, ending completely with it’s full blare. Like an alarm clock telling you it’s time to wake up.

Time to wake up NOW.

Lyrics

You want to go out Friday
And you want to go forever
You know that it sounds childish
That you dreamt of alligators
You hope that we are with you
And you hope you’re recognized
You want to go forever
You see it in my eyes
I’m lost in the confusion
And it doesn’t seem to matter
You really can’t believe it
And you hope it’s getting better

You want to trust the doctors
Their procedure is the best
But the last try was a failure
And the intern was a mess
And they did the same to Matthew
And he bled ‘til Sunday night
They’re saying don’t be frightened
But you’re weakened by the sight of it
You lock into a pattern
And you know that it’s the last ditch
You’re trying to see through it
And it doesn’t make sense

But they’re saying don’t be frightened
And they’re killing alligators
And they’re hog-tied
And accepting of the struggle

You want to trust religion
And you know it’s allegory
But the people who are followers
Have written their own story
So you look up to the heavens
And you hope that it’s a spaceship
And it’s something from your childhood
You’re thinking don’t be frightened

You want to climb the ladder
You want to see forever
You want to go out Friday
And you want to go forever
And you want to cross your DNA
To cross your DNA with something reptile

And you’re questioning the sciences
And questioning religion
You’re looking like an idiot
And you no longer care
And you want to bridge the schism,
A built-in mechanism to protect you
And you’re looking for salvation
And you’re looking for deliverance
You’re looking like an idiot
And you no longer care
‘Cause you want to climb the ladder
You want to go forever
And you want to go out Friday
You want to go forever

The birth of one of my favorite songs.

life:

Did you know? — On this day in 1940 Woody Guthrie wrote one of his best known folk songs, “This Land is Your Land.”

Pictured: Woody Guthrie entertains commuters, 1943. “There’s a feeling in music and it carries you back down the road you have traveled and makes you travel it again. Sometimes when I hear music I think back over my days — and a feeling that is fifty-fifty joy and pain swells like clouds taking all kinds of shapes in my mind.”

(see more here)

1. How I (Learned My Lesson) - X
2. But It’s Better If You Do - Panic! At The Disco
3. At Night (A Poem Featuring Ravi Coltrane W/ Julie Patton) - John Coltrane
4. One In A Million - The Platters
5. Bang the Drum - Railroad Jerk
6. Canoe Song - Music Together
7. La Fille De Londres - Germaine Montero
8. We’re a Happy Family - The Ramones
9. Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645 - Johann Sebastian Bach
10. Mother’s Talk - Tears for Fears
11. Tomorrow’s Now Today - Music Together
12. Love -> Building On Fire - Talking Heads
13. Sanctified - Nine Inch Nails
14. I Feel Free - Cream
15. Beautiful Freak - Eels
16. Rip This Joint - The Rolling Stones
17. Song for a Winter’s Night - Sarah Mclachlan
18. Into The Woods - My Morning Jacket
19. It Will Be - Jakata
20. Warm Currents Pull - Blind Man’s Colour

So what did you learn about me?

archivist:

because I’m helping create the line up for a music festival next year, I find this extra special hilarious now, beyond the chuckles I got when I first saw this months ago.

thepinakes:

fall764:

Obviously, this is the best way to get started. 

Did they release any albums? This just became a must-have.

Watch this image while listening to Cracklin’ Rosie by Neil Diamond.  Mesmerizing isn’t it?

This is me.

(via Last Goodbye)