Avg rating:
Your rating:
Total ratings: 2727
Length: 4:03
Plays (last 30 days): 1
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
Woah
Woah
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
Woah
Woah
Woah
Woah
Stood and whispered to her child, "Belong"
She held the child and whispered
With calm, calm; ''Belong.''
Woah
Woah
Woah
Woah
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"
Woah
Woah
Woah
Woah
Must be amazing to sing like that - it sounds so easy, in the here and now in full voice.
But when you can't sing like that (and want to) hearing this is like watching people party on a distant planet and you don't have a rowboat to go and visit.
Sometimes I feel like I live on Pluto.
This comment...buried. This should be a top reflection...eloquent, heart-felt and interesting....bravo to the author, whether or not if you like this song...
But... we don't have a melody !
- Who cares? Let's put cheap harmonies and that's a wrap.
We wait with eager anticipation your melodic effort. No doubt it will put REM to shame.
- Who cares? Let's put cheap harmonies and that's a wrap.
That seems as good a description as any. Better than most.
Bernie Taupin (among others) has admitted some (a lot) of his lyrics don't make much sense. Some of BT/EJs best work is, uh, obtuse. But it paints a vivid image, even if it doesn't always have a coherent story.
c.
Sometimes the imagery is more important than the narrative.
these creatures jumped the shark. back around Document
I like Out Of Time! I was 10 when it came out, so this is squarely in my REM Wheelhouse, and part of my definition of just REALLY GOOD Alternative music.
Get rid of Stipe and this song's a 9. right now, 7.
I dunno, man. Billy Corgan, Tom Waits, and Neil Young made a lot more money than Stipe with much worse voices.
I don't know Michael Stipe and won't pretend to speak for him, but if he's like most song writers I've heard over the years he would tell you the song is about whatever you want it to be about. No doubt he knows what he thinks it's about, but if he told you it may well ruin it for you.
I've posted elsewhere on RP about "Year Of The Cat" by Al Stewart. I've been struggling now for 5 decades to figure out what the hell the year of the cat is and what it has to do with Peter Lorre. Then I read an interview with him in which is said in so many words the lyrics are just gibberish. Granted they paint a vivid picture in your mind, and it's a great song for that reason alone, but it's not about anything. I was much happier when I did not know that.
Finnbayer wrote:
I love the Leonard Cohen quote below about saints, which I think also refers to how Leonard wrote poetry. Gotta love the net - I first heard the quote about (gulp) 50 years ago, and the runaway ski image has stuck with me all all these years. I didn't remember much more about it, but with a few clicks, there was the full quote in all its glory.
“What is a saint? A saint is someone who has achieved a remote human possibility. It is impossible to say what that possibility is. I think it has something to do with the energy of love. Contact with this energy results in the exercise of a kind of balance in the chaos of existence. A saint does not dissolve the chaos; if he did the world would have changed long ago. I do not think that a saint dissolves the chaos even for himself, for there is something arrogant and warlike in the notion of a man setting the universe in order. It is a kind of balance that is his glory. He rides the drifts like an escaped ski. His course is a caress of the hill. His track is a drawing of the snow in a moment of its particular arrangement with wind and rock. Something in him so loves the world that he gives himself to the laws of gravity and chance. Far from flying with the angels, he traces with the fidelity of a seismograph needle the state of the solid bloody landscape.”
I’ve always interpreted this song to be about a mother coping with the realization that her child will one day leave her and go out into the world, and hoping that that child will be alright.
That's how it lands with me too. This song really resonated with me during an intense period of my life... after searching for my biological mother for 18 years, I finally found my family only to discover my mother had died 10 years earlier. It was a heavy blow that I could never have predicted (in spite of wondering if she had died many times). I made a 2-CD mix at the time called "mothermix" and this was one of the songs on it.
As an 18-year old she had to open that window and wish me the best, as it was her only choice.
I don't know.... Automatic For The People and Monster were pretty damn good albums that came after this one.
validation
Yes, but still very good to listen to!
I’ve always interpreted this song to be about a mother coping with the realization that her child will one day leave her and go out into the world, and hoping that that child will be alright.
That seems as good a description as any. Better than most.
Bernie Taupin (among others) has admitted some (a lot) of his lyrics don't make much sense. Some of BT/EJs best work is, uh, obtuse. But it paints a vivid image, even if it doesn't always have a coherent story.
c.
You sir, or ma'am, are an idiot. Peace.
I've posted elsewhere on RP about "Year Of The Cat" by Al Stewart. I've been struggling now for 5 decades to figure out what the hell the year of the cat is and what it has to do with Peter Lorre. Then I read an interview with him in which is said in so many words the lyrics are just gibberish. Granted they paint a vivid picture in your mind, and it's a great song for that reason alone, but it's not about anything. I was much happier when I did not know that.
slaven41 wrote:
I’ve always interpreted this song to be about a mother coping with the realization that her child will one day leave her and go out into the world, and hoping that that child will be alright.
baffling
I love this one. Just a really good song.
* their. Also, you're wrong.
I think the more likely scenario is that incredibly, there are listeners who don't feel it.
...like shiny happy people....
so good! (dudu du du du dudu)
And your LEAST favorite is the track immediately before this one on the orig. album:
"Shiny Happy People"
AM I RIGHT?
I’ve always interpreted this song to be about a mother coping with the realization that her child will one day leave her and go out into the world, and hoping that that child will be alright.
To drive you crazy, why else? But seriously, there are some artists that I've heard more than I care for, even ones I like (Gabriel) and the ones I burned out on years ago (Zeppelin). After 10 years of listening, I can sometimes predict what's next and think of finding a new station. But then I PSD into something I hadn't heard before or Bill plays something new and intriguing like Zola Blood.
Bottomline: RP is essentially one man's musical preferences with some community suggestions taken into account.
Prolific does not equal profound. Ugh. (Excluding Gabriel of course!)
Because Bill (and Rebecca) like those artists.
Don't forget Dire Straits - they're on here a lot too. Not that there's anything wrong with that....
I have been around, treatment_bound, and I am back in my hotel room now... everybody in my hotel room loves this song and this entire album... hope life is grand for you and agd3 right this minute... time flies when we're having fun... love Radio Paradise...
I never think of good artists i never hear.
Laz, at exactly what point did you leave your hotel room, head to the homeless camp for spell, and then get on an elevator?
Last week, Japanese scientists "explaced"...placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Loch Ness, to blow Nessie out of the water.
Sir Curt Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance, summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards, to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents, and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally.
It's a good thing Sir Curt is so diligent.
Not trying to always follow you but boy are you right on with this. Super song from one of the still old school REM.
Welcome to R.E.M. gotta think if you want the lyrics.
Actually, R.E.M.'s lyrics work best if you don't think at all. They are just strings of impressionist images. If you try to analyze them you'll find there's not much underneath.
But the vagueness seems to be the magnet for pretentious hipsters that think they've cracked Stipe's "code".
Did the bum one year in the Adirondacks with a mountain bike, except the album was Built to Spill Keep It Like a Secret.
but the lyrics don't make no sense
Do you mean that they make sense to you? They mean whatever you want them to mean.
But when you can't sing like that (and want to) hearing this is like watching people party on a distant planet and you don't have a rowboat to go and visit.
Sometimes I feel like I live on Pluto.
Last week, Japanese scientists "explaced"...placed explosive detonators at the bottom of Lake Loch Ness, to blow Nessie out of the water.
Sir Curt Godfrey of the Nessie Alliance, summoned the help of Scotland's local wizards, to cast a protective spell over the lake and its local residents, and all those who seek for the peaceful existence of our underwater ally.
I'll always remember my 4 yea-old daughter "woh-ing" along to this one back in the day when she was strapped into her toddler's chair in the back seat.
She's 26 now...YIPES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
but the lyrics don't make no sense
Welcome to R.E.M. gotta think if you want the lyrics.
but the lyrics don't make no sense
Everybody in my church loves this song— and this entire marvelous album...
Funny, I thought it was
HA! I'll never hear stipe the same way again. Dang!
Still a decent song, though.
Funny, I thought it was
(for the Brits in the room)
You may have schizophrenia, but you have great taste, by gumbo...
Well, strictly speaking, the poster has multiple personality disorder rather than schizophrenia, but at least this gives me the chance to relate an example of football fan humour. Many years ago, when the the Glasgow Rangers goalkeeper, Andy Goram, was reported to have undergone psychiatric treatment for MPD, the Rangers fans gleefully sang:
"Two Andy Gorams, there's only two Andy Gorams..."
I'll get me scarf...
romeotuma wrote:
Everybody in my hotel room loves this song...
You're right! It sounds like Cage mumbling an Elvis impersonation.
Still a decent song, though.
Bah, away with you. This is one of the best albums from the 90's, and that's saying something.
Steve, I'm with you. Epic, this CD.
Interesting you should see it that way... that was their first album that was a pop hit— before that they were a cult band... this is the album that truly made them stars...
I think it is an excellent album, myself... my favorite song on it is "Me In Honey"... that "Losing My Religion" song is the one that really caught everybody's attention— that is the song that carried them to a new level...
and as poppy as "Shiny Happy People" is, I love it, partly because like "Me In Honey", Kate is singing on it...
there's a lot of good stuff on the album... I would not call it their best— as a rock solid album, I would call Reckoning their best... but that's just me...
I'm not so sure they weren't popular before this (The One I Love, Orange Crush, Stand), but I agree this album was the beginning of a new era for the band. Just hearing this song brought it all back to me, how I felt about it at the time. I remember being disappointed by this CD, but I also recall that I would listen to it on a regular basis for several years after it came out. I gave this a 10 just now, first listen on RP. It is not REMs best stuff, but a very good CD.
At least you didn't see him.
This is a great song from an otherwise terrible album.
This album is their worst. Too poppy.
But this song is good.
Bah, away with you. This is one of the best albums from the 90's, and that's saying something.
LOL... nice call.
Yeah. Why they don't have the decency to live in poverty and keep touring in cramped old vans is a mystery.
Sarcasm - the lowest form of humor - and funniest!
This is a great song from a great album...
This is a great song from an otherwise terrible album.
This album is their worst. Too poppy.
But this song is good.