R.E.M. – E-Bow The Letter

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  General Comment:Sleep Dreams Sweet Prince River..

  Flag EannaLighton June 15, 2013   Link

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  My Interpretation:This is such a brilliant song. I think it is about love of another that is illicit. The singer talks of waking up early to write a letter. This is a letter motivated by love and lust to somebody else who is famous like him. It is also a letter of concern. He woke up because he was subconsciously attracted by this person who is in some kind of trouble. Aluminum is dangerous to make and it is toxic and it is everywhere and we injest it everyday and so is fame, it can be toxic and we are reminded of it everywhere. He tries to covey sympathy saying he also suffers with pressures of fame. He is extremely attracted and it embarrasses him. This is conveyed by the words lick your feet. The song evolves into close contact talking of smell on the breath, again he is fantasising about being with this person. Obscurity is used because it is illicit love he feels so is not direct in his speech. The words convey the pull of attraction, but it is also about loss of that person and this comes through with who would believe tomorrow could be so strange, so it could be River Phoenix written after his death. He is writing it as catharsis as if River were alive and he is trying to convey his feelings but it is
  too late. It really such a wonderful song.

  Flag CarlynXon April 07, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:To me this song is fairly complicated in more ways than 20, but from what i can gather, Stipe is singing about this letter he wrote he never sent to a close friend who was battling with fame and a substance addiction(I suspect this might have been an actor called River Phoenix who died in 1993 from heart failure due to speed balling, he was also a child film star)

  Flag AJV5911on March 05, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:I was reading Ted Berrigan and the year in which he died reminds me of this song. 'Will you live to 83'

  Flag bigcheese:@on September 27, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:Lyrically has to be one of their most dense...really doesn't get more poetic and complex as this.

  Flag bernlin2000on January 23, 2012   Link

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  General Comment:as with most others who have made comments on here, i too have heard that river phoenix was an inspiration in the writing of this song. but does that subsequently mean that this song is about celebrity/fame and drugs? maybe it is--only an r.e.m. band member could say definitively--but it's just irritating how many people on this site look for connotations of drug use simply because they're listening to a rock song. take your pick of any elliott smith song and look it up on this site. chances are that one person at the very least will mention something about drugs. i'm not trying to discount the fact that rock songs don't contain drug references--they certainly do--but many people often jump to that conclusion a little too quickly. in an earlier post someone said that this song contains overt references to obscure drugs like spanish fly, cherry mash, and kerosene. seriously? spanish fly may be considered a drug in the most broad sense of the word, but no one ever ingested it for the purpose of getting high. there is no drug called cherry mash; it's not even a slang term referring to any particular drug. and true, kerosene can be used as an inhalant, but if you just see the word kerosene and immediately think drug use then you have probably huffed a bit too much of it yourself.
  
  i'm sorry for harping but it's frustrating when people reduce a great song to something so trite. as someone also previously mentioned, the verses in this song are some of the best in the r.e.m. catalog. now that is a statement i can get behind. the verses sound incredibly poetic to me. regardless of what they mean or imply, the words just sound good in the way they're constructed--they flow together beautifully.
  
  there's also something to be said for the song's musical backdrop. it definitely creates a mood and sets a tone (haunting and ominous are words that frequently come to mind). the use of the e-bow creates a great effect, and patti's background vocals really round out the song, but i'm surprised no one has mentioned the bass on this song. the bass part has some really good movement to it, and mike mills busts out a number of superb fills. also, there is definitely an organ used in the song (check the album credits on the sleeve--in fact, it's mike mills who plays the organ part as well), because i just love the stabs of organ sound during the chorus. it's not super high in the mix, but it's certainly audible, so try and listen for it next time.

  Flag typicalrecordson December 15, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:This has always been the most beautiful R.E.M song. my personal favorite. So sad to see them finally break up.

  Flag chopperjon September 21, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:"And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange?"
  
  This line always gives me chills.

  Flag zsson August 10, 2011   Link

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  My Interpretation:I don't know but this could also be about a shy person being lonely everyday, wants to express his/her feelings to someone and does use drugs to take away the sadness..
  
  Don't know but I love this song

  Flag llmiskallon May 21, 2011   Link

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• +2
  General Comment:i think this song is about losing a friend to the lure of fame and the pressures of people who dont have their best interests at heart.
  
  Look up, what do you see? All of you and all of me
  Fluorescent and starry
  Some of them, they surprise
  
  ^this is talking about how easily accessible the lives of the famous are and therefore how susceptible to pressure from others they are
  
  
  The bus ride, I went to write this, 4:00 a.m, this letter
  Fields of poppies, little pearls
  All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed
  Each and every one a little scary
  I said your name
  
  ^about how materialistic the world is with drugs and jewels and everyone in it is consumed by this idea and it is the only thing that can satisfy them, which leads to an intimidating and sometimes destructive motivation, yet throughout it all the narrator is thinking only of how his friend will be affected
  
  I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars
  Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras
  Dreaming of Maria Callas, whoever she is
  This fame thing, I don't get it
  
  ^people are so proud to know famous people, but its all fake (tinfoil tiaras) and the people who think about the stars the most dont actually know anything about how they actually are, so it doesnt actually make sense
  
  
  I wrap my hand in plastic to try to look through it
  Maybelline eyes and girl-as-boy moves
  I can take you far
  This star thing, I don't get it
  
  ^this expands the idea of a fakeness consuming a class of people. just because you put make up on doesnt mean you actually look that way and just because you put plastic on your hand doesnt mean that it is now transparent. none of it is real
  
  
  I'll take you over there
  I'll take you over there
  
  ^this echoes the narrators desire to take his friend back to how it use to be, but it is also representing the temptation of an a-list life as emphasized in the way this line is said as if cult-like chanting
  
  Aluminum, tastes like fear
  Adrenaline, it pulls us near
  
  ^the falsities and the drugs are all caused by the fear of rejection and the rush of feeling wanted drags you into the cycle
  
  
  Will you live to 83? Will you ever welcome me?
  Will you show me something that nobody else has seen?
  
  ^this is the narrator trying to convince his friend to think in the long term and realize that actions have consequences (ex. drugs can lead to death). it then talks about the narrator's own fear of rejection because he has not succumbed to the pressure as others have
  
  
  Smoke it, drink, here comes the flood
  Anything to thin the blood
  These corrosives do their magic slowly and sweet
  
  ^references to the influences, such as drugs and alcohol, that are taken in by the subject and how these things slowly wear away at the person that he once was, watering him down to a mere shadow of his former self
  
  
  Phone, eat it, drink, just another chink
  Cuts and dents, they catch the light
  Aluminum, the weakest link
  
  ^more drug references and how people (and media) are most likely to notice the things that are going wrong. more about how drugs and being fake catch up with you in the end and are likely to cause tragic events and downfalls
  
  
  I don't want to disappoint you
  I'm not here to anoint you, I would lick your feet
  But is that the sickest move?
  
  ^the narrator doesnt want to be rejected by his friend by opposing his actions and not thinking that the things the subject is doing make him cool or desirable. the narrator is mocking the people who do fall for the things the subject has done
  
  
  I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow
  And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange?
  My loss, and here we go again
  
  ^the narrator is reminding the subject that the world doesnt revolve around them and everyone has their own problems. in this specific case he is saying that he has to deal with fame too, and perhaps he is insinuating that he has handled it better, so there are other roads that one could take under those specific circumstances. it is weird for the narrator to see the person who his friend has become and realize that he has lost the person who he was originally friends with.
  
  
  I can't look it in the eyes
  Seconal, spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene
  Cherry-flavored neck and collar
  
  ^its hard to accept the change which people go through when encountering this type of fame. more drug references, implying that the drugs are primarily responsible for the change.
  
  
  I can smell the sorrow on your breath
  The sweat, the victory and sorrow, the smell of fear
  I got it
  
  ^the narrator is aware that his friend is unhappy although he has been doing what he thought would make him happy and gotten to the place that he has worked towards for so long. the narrator understands that the security and confidence which the subject was expecting did not come and the old fear was just continued.

  Flag bobdabomb123on November 27, 2010   Link

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