REM murmur

 

On a recent long car trip to visit family in the northeast, I let my Itunes go and ran across this brilliant song by REM.  The only track I recorded from Collapse…  Sometimes Michael Stipe, says it better than anyone can. The voice of my generation.

This is a song for anyone who has ever visited the brink of dissolution/disaster and pulled back out of sanity or something else. Not a bad suggestion when you’re at an impasse in a conflict. This is a track from Collapse Into Now.

Lyrics:

Walk it back
Walk it back
Walk it back
What, what would you
Have had me say?
Instead of what I said
Where, where would I go?
How could I follow that?
Except to do what I did
Which it’s to
Walk it back
Walk it back
Hmmm, walk it back
Time reversing me why
Erasing me vice
And tried to start again
You, don’t you turn this around
I have not touched the ground in
I don’t know how long
You say to
Walk it back
Walk it back
Walk it back
Hmmm, walk it back
Walk it back
Walk it back
Time, time, time it cannot revive
You, you can’t turn away
You asked me to stay
But something needs to change
Why can’t you
Walk it back
Walk it back
Walk it back
Walk it back
Walk it back
Hmmm, walk it back

River

While republishing the “Walk it Back” article I came across this incredible track on YouTube. Worthy of a fresh listen as I just did. The lyrics are lush with life. So many comments on this YouTube post clearly convey the resonance and impact this song has for so many young and old wanderers on the journey we call this incarnation.

 

Lyrically – The most :

Hey now, little speedyhead,
the read on the speedmeter says
you have to go to task in the city
where people drown and people serve.
Don’t be shy. Your just deserve
is only just light years to go.

Me, my thoughts are flower strewn
ocean storm, bayberry moon.
I have got to leave to find my way.
Watch the road and memorize
this life that pass before my eyes.
Nothing is going my way.

The ocean is the river’s goal,
a need to leave the water knows
We’re closer now than light years to go.

I have got to find the river,
bergamot and vetiver
run through my head and fall away.
Leave the road and memorize
this life that pass before my eyes.
Nothing is going my way.

There’s no one left to take the lead,
but I tell you and you can see
we’re closer now than light years to go.
Pick up here and chase the ride.
The river empties to the tide.
Fall into the ocean.

The river to the ocean goes,
a fortune for the undertow.
None of this is going my way.
There is nothing left to throw
of Ginger, lemon, indigo,
coriander stem and rose of hay.
Strength and courage overrides
the privileged and weary eyes
of river poet search naivete.
Pick up here and chase the ride.
The river empties to the tide.
All of this is coming your way

 

ARTIST

ALBUM
Walk It Back

WRITERS
Michael Stipe+2 more
LICENSES

UMG (on behalf of Concord Records); LatinAutorPerf, UNIAO BRASILEIRA DE EDITORAS DE MUSICA – UBEM, CMRRA, UMPG Publishing, UMPI, LatinAutor – UMPG, and 7 Music Rights Societies