R.E.M.

Out Of Time (1991)

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  1. Radio Song
  2. Losing My Religion
  3. Low
  4. Near Wild Heaven
  5. Endgame (instrumental)
  6. Shiny Happy People
  7. Belong
  8. Half A World Away
  9. Texarcana
  10. Country Feedback
  11. Me In Honey

Notes / R.E.M. Page

 

RADIO SONG

Hey, I can't find nothing on the radio
Yo! turn to that station
The world is collapsing (1)
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
When I got to the house
And I called you out
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It's that same sing song on the radio
It makes me sad
I meant to turn it off
To say goodbye
To leave in quiet
that radio song
Hey hey hey
I've everything to show
I've everything to hide
Look into my eyes
Listen

When I got to the show
Yo ho ho
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It's that same sing song, and the DJ sucks
It makes me sad
I tried to turn it off
To say goodbye my love
That radio song

Hey hey hey
The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it

Yeah
I tried to sing along
But damn that radio song
Hey hey hey
I've everything to show
I've everything to hide
Look into my eyes listen to the radio
I turned up the radio
But I can't hear it
No, I can't hear it
Hey hey hey

Check it out
What are you saying
What are you playing
Who are you obeying
day out day in?
Baby baby baby
That stuff is driving me crazy
DJs communicate to the masses
Sex and violent classes
Now our children grow up prisoners
All their lives radio listeners

 

LOSING MY RELIGION

 

Life is bigger
It's bigger than you
And you are not me
The lengths that I will go to
The distance in your eyes
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

 

That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion (1)
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it
Oh no I've said too much
I haven't said enough
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try (2)

 

Every whisper
Of every waking hour I'm
Choosing my confessions
Trying to keep an eye on you
Like a hurt lost and blinded fool
Oh no I've said too much
I set it up

 

Consider this
The hint of the century
Consider this
The slip that brought me
To my knees failed
What if all these fantasies
Come flailing around
Now I've said too much
I thought that I heard you laughing
I thought that I heard you sing
I think I thought I saw you try

But that was just a dream
That was just a dream

 

LOW

 

Dusk is dawn is day
Where did it go?
I've been laughing
Fast and slow
Moving in a still frame (1)
Howling at the moon
Morning found me laughing
Up and down, down
Low low low
Night suits me fine
and morning suits me fine
I've been so happy
Way up high, high
In between
Down below
Low low low

 

I skipped the part about love
It seems so silly and low (2)
Low low low
Low low low

 

I said the morning
It isn't your time
Barefoot naked
I can see your lines
It doesn't bother me
That you are right
Your grass is grassy wet
Your light white is bright
Light white light

 

I skipped the part about love
It seems so shallow and low
Low low low
Low low low

 

You and me
We know about time
We know how things go
They come and go
They live and grow
They pass and go
And glow and glow
Up and down
High and low
Low low low
Low low low

 

I skipped the part about love
It seems so silly and low
I skipped the part about love
It seems so shallow and low
Low low low
Low low low

 

I like your hands
All full of glory
All full of glory

 

NEAR WILD HEAVEN

 

Whenever we hold each other
We hold each other
There's a feeling that's gone
Something has gone wrong
And I don't know how much longer I can take it
House made of heart break it
Take my head in your hands and shake it
in this near wild heaven
Not near enough.

 

Living inside
Living inside
Near wild heaven (1)

 

Whatever it takes I'm giving
It's just a gift I'm given
Try to live inside
Trying to move inside
And I always thought that it would make me smarter
But it's only made me harder
My heart thrown open wide
In this near wild heaven
Not near enough.

 

Living inside
Living inside
Near wild heaven

 

I'm holding my hands together
I'm holding my feet together
I'm holding myself together
In this near wild heaven
Not near enough

 

SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE

 

Shiny happy people laughing
Meet me in the crowd (1)
People people
Throw your love around
Love me love me
Take it into town
Happy happy
Put it in the ground
Where the flowers grow
Gold and silver shine

 

Shiny happy people holding hands
Shiny happy people laughing

 

Everyone around love them, love them
Put it in your hands
Take it take it
There's no time to cry
Happy happy
Put it in your heart
Where tomorrow shines
Gold and silver shine

 

Shiny happy people holding hands
Shiny happy people laughing

 

BELONG

 

Her world collapsed early Sunday morning (1)
She got up from the kitchen table
Folded the newspaper and silenced the radio (2)
Those creatures jumped the barricades (3)
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

 

HALF A WORLD AWAY

 

This could be the saddest dusk
I've ever seen
Turn to a miracle
high alive
My mind is racing
As it always will
My hand is tired my heart aches
I'm half a world away here (1)
my head sworn
To go it alone
And hold it along
Haul it along
And hold it
Go it alone
Hold it along and hold, hold.

 

This lonely deep sit hollow
I'm half a world
Half the world away
My shoes are gone
My life spent
I had too much to drink
I didn't think
and I didn't think of you
I guess that's all I needed
To go it alone
And hold it along
Haul it along
And hold it

Blackbirds backwards forwards and fall and hold hold.
Oh this lonely world is wasted
Pathetic eyes high alive
blind to the tide that turns the sea
This storm it came up strong
It shook the trees
And blew away our fear
I couldn't even hear
To go it alone
And hold it along
Haul it along
And hold it
To go it alone
And hold it along
Haul it along
To go it alone
And hold it along
Haul it along
And hold it

 

Blackbirds backwards forwards and fall and hold hold.
This could be the saddest dusk
I've ever seen
Turn to a miracle
high alive
My mind is racing
As it always will
My hands tired my heart aches
I'm half a world away and go.

 

TEXARKANA (1)

 

20,000 miles to an oasis
20,000 years will I burn
20,000 chances I wasted
Waiting for the moment to turn
I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

Walking through the woods I have faced it
Looking for something to learn
30,000 thoughts have replaced it,
Never in my time to return
I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall
All alone
Waiting to fall

40,000 stars in the evening
Look at them fall from the sky
40,000 reasons for living
40,000 tears in your eye
I would give my life to find it
I would give it all
Catch me if I fall

  

COUNTRY FEEDBACK (1)
 

This flower is scorched
This film is on
On a maddening loop.
These clothes,
These clothes don't fit us right
I'm to blame
It's all the same
It's all the same
You come to me with a bone in your hand
You come to me with your hair curled tight
You come to me with positions
You come to me with excuses
Ducked out in a row
You wear me out
You wear me out
We've been through fake-a-breakdown
Self hurt

 

Plastics, collections
Self help, self pain,
EST, psychics, fuck all
I was central
I had control
I lost my head
I need this
I need this
A paper weight, junk garage
Winter rain, a honey pot
Crazy, all the lovers have been tagged.
A hotline, a wanted ad
It's crazy what you could've had
It's crazy what you could've had
It's crazy what you could've had
I need this
I need this

 

ME IN HONEY

 

I sat there looking ugly
Looking ugly and mean
I knew what you were saying
You were saying to me
Baby's got some new rules
Baby said she's had it with me
It seems a shame you waste your time on me
It seems a lot to waste your time for me
Left me to love
What it's doing to me
There's a lot of honey in this world
Baby this honey's from me
You've got to do what you do
Do it with me
It seems a shame you waste your time for me
Left me to love
What it's doing to me
Knocked silly
Knock flat

 

Sideways down
These things they pick you up
and they turn you around
Say your piece
Say you're sweet for me
It's all the same to share the pain with me
It's all the same. Save the shame for me
Left me to love
What it's doing to me
Baby's got some new rules
Baby says she's had it with me
There's a fly in the honey
And baby's got a baby with me
That's a part
That's a part of me
Left me to love
What it's doing to me
Left me to love
What it's doing to me
What about me?

Notes

 

Radio Song

(1)

The world is changing completely and rapidly, external events out of our control are going to change our lives; see also Belong.

Losing My Religion

(1)

It seems to be that the title of the song, probably the most widely known between R.E.M. production, refers to an idiomatic phrase of the South of the US, and the sense is "to lose patience", referring to the unhappy love story that is narrated in the lyrics. Anyway the word "religion" is not neutral, and Stipe and the R.E.M. both in the video clip and in the lyrics (the word "confession") make allusion to another possible meaning, i.e. the losing of the faith. An ambiguity that is probably another reason for the world wide success of the song.

(2)

Probably "try" is related to the attempt to build up a love story with the protagonist.

Low

(1)

It lludes to the vision frame by frame, which is usually used in slow motion, in the assembly phase of a film.

(2)

Also in the sense of "ordinary", "trivial".

Near Wild Heaven

(1)

It's the first song of the group performed by Mike Milss, the bass player, at the voice. Also the next song Half A World Away is sung by Mills.

Shiny Happy People

(1)

Participates in the singing Kate Pierson of the B-52's, a group quite different from REM but coming from the same hometown, Athens in Georgia

(2)

The sense it should be "I am one of the crowd."

Belong

(1)

The song evokes the relationship between a mother and child on the background of dramatic events: a revolution, a big change.

(2)

Is used again the expression "the world is collapsing" as in Radio Song and it's repeated also the vision of the radio as a window on the world, that we can imagine to turn off. Stipe said later that the inspiration for this song came from the events ​​in China in 1989 (the protest on the Tian-An-Men Square then smothered with harsh repression). An inspiration that, as usual, does not introduce any direct reference in the song.

(3)

Who are the creatures that while the world collapses and changes, apparently in the right direction (the reference to the freedom that is coming) exceed the barricades and go to throw it into the sea? Many come to mind the mythical lemmings, rodents, when the population exceeds the threshold of survival, commit suicide en masse, the protagonists of a famous documentary of the Disney Studios (an urban legend, as we know now). We may consider this an additional gimmick, a strong image, to emphasize even more a dramatic moment and, by contrast, the union deep and primordial between mother and son.

Half A World Away

(1)

A song of inspiration similar to Losing My Religion. Here, too, there is a neglect and an unhappy love affair, but in a darker climate . To paraphrase the first verse Stipe often presents in the concerts the song as "the saddest song I've ever written".

Texarkana

(1)

Texarkana is a city on the border between Texas and Arkansas, hence the name. Symbol of a place out of the world, distant, consistent with a song evoking large distances to be covered.

Country Feedback

(1)

The title alludes to a country song modified by distortion (feedback) of an electric guitar. Even this song's theme is a love story that ends, and is built on a continual flow of words and images that this situation evokes.

(2)

What is the meaning of the abbreviation EST? It should be (according to the Annotation Lyrics FAQ, but it is very credible) a motivational method based on assertiveness, "Ehrard Sensitivity Training" developed by Werner Ehrard in the '70s and '80s and with many followers in that period.

Me In Honey

(1)

The song is dedicated to fatherhood, to the feelings of a father waiting for a child who is born in gentle contrast with the traditional view that sees the mother at the center when a song is about the birth of a child.

 

 

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Lyrics by R.E.M. (Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe) transcribed by Kipps Teague (K.T. Lyrics Archive) © Warner/Chappell Music Inc. - R.E.M./Athens Ltd.  
Notes & Translation ©
Alberto Truffi -  Musica & Memoria 2001
/ Reproduction for commercial use strictly prohibited (see DISCLAIMER for detalis).
Revised 2006 October

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"Applicable copyright is implicit (Copyright © R.E.M./Athens Ltd. for all R.E.M. originals). These lyrics are official only when stated and in other cases represent a collaborative interpretation by fans."