Misanthropes take warning! This song has proven to be resistant to all attempts at nullification through over-exposure.

It's just great. No matter when. No matter how often.

diane wrote:

I'm confused - are you agreeing with zaknafein, or calling him/her stupid?

zaknafein wrote:
:iamwith:
(sorry)

ChardRemains wrote:
REM orginal 'forumla' (for lack of a better word, though I'm gonna get beat up for it) started to wear thin on Fables of the Reconstruction, a downward slope that hit bottom on Green. This ablum, and especially this song, represent REM's rebirth. They took an incredible risk to pretty much throw out everything they'd done before and start over in a completely different direction. If you think it was to go back and craft meaningless pop, go back and listen to Out of Time. Not just this and Shiny Happy People (To be fair, all their albums had a handful of songs that were very radio-friendly). This time they just got lucky and came out at a time when the musical landscape was lining up to be very receptive to this kind of thing.

Kurt Cobain greatly admired REM. Not becase they made a bunch of jangly guitar/mumbled lyriced albums, but because they did something he desperately wanted to do (but never lived to do): Throw off the forumla that made them famous and do something drastically different. He knew that doing so means alienating many fans (As happened to REM judging by so many of the comments on later-day REM around here), but knew that in the end it's the best thing to do creative-wise.

Personally, I've always been very glad that REM experienced this kind of rebirth. Not only did it introduce me to their new music at a time when I was first discovering music, but also led me back to their older stuff, letting me experience a whole continuim of music from some very gifted artists.

the chorus on this tune............after hearing it once, when it was first released, was one of those that you'd never forget after only hearing it once........."I thought that I".......well you get it !!!

Has it been overplayed? Absolutely. :|
Do I stilll get a thrill every time I hear it? Yes!

I was already a huge REM fan at the time, but I distinctly remember where I was when I first heard this song - on 96 WAVE FM out of Charleston, SC as I was driving on Interstate 95 right outside of Walterboro, South Carolina. It was before the CD came out - may have been the first time the radio station played it. For some reason I was getting a lot of interference and I had to turn up the radio way loud to hear it. I remember it blew me away then and even after hearing it ad nauseum since, it still blows me away.

Every time I drive by that spot, I think of that moment and this song. Funny....

mafe wrote:

In your last sentence, you misspelled "sooo". HTH.

the fact that it is overplayed in some areas is not a cause to criticize the song. it is a call for you as a listener to take a break from it, and some day listen to it with fresh years. that will be the true test of art.

as far as hearing it too much - you are wasting your time listening to the wrong stations then.

I remember everyone making a big deal about the lyrics when this song came out. I saw Michael Stipe doing an interview and he said that the words weren't as profound as people were trying to make them out to be. He said the lyrics could just have easily been "that's me in the driveway" as "that's me in the spotlight." I still get a laugh out of that.

I've probably listened to this tune 1,000 times, and I never get tired of it.

jpalembas wrote:

Exactly why I like RP :D

Different stuff, did someone say eclectic.

Oh and I like this song too 8)

Overplayed? Not where I live. I might have overplayed it on my stereo. And I STILL LOVE TO HEAR IT!!!

mojoman wrote:
And this may take the cake for repetitive redundancy and pleonastic tautology. Fatuous fatuity?

REM and Stipe especially may take themselves a little bit too seriously at times, but since when is art not comprised at least in part of emoting?

Despite overplay, this is a remarkable song from an incredible album.

Marr wrote:

Exactly. I find comments about songs being overplayed to be curious if they then become criticisms of the song itself. No logic there.

Please, please, please stop playing these self-important, pretentious, fatuous boobs!!!!!

Michael Stipe takes the cake for fatuity. He mistakes emoting for art (viz. the pathetic video for this "song").

Did I mention they're pretentious, fatuous boobs?

The fact that this song was overplayed is hardly REM's fault. They just put this lovely song out there. Its still a great song.

Not sure why, but I somehow think this song is very appropriate for New Year's Eve; embarking on new year, a new beginning . . . letting go of regrets

I can see where the people are coming from who like this song. I can also see where the people are coming from who don't like this song. In short, I'm objective, and people like me more than they like you, although there are a few who don't like me, and they are stupid asses. Okay, I quit being objective just then.

This song is sooo overrated and sooo overplayed...
REM is such a great band, has sooo many other songs!
They have so many better songs too...

joempie wrote:

You's think you hear this one enough on regular radio airplay. Gasp......

no matter how great a song this is, i'm fed up with it after a zillion listenings :headshake:

ChardRemains wrote:
Excuse me, sir: your pose is showing.

Great way to start the day! THANKS RP!

gandalfbmg wrote: Well sonny boy, even though REM had completely lost it by this point IMHO, maybe you have a point there. But now WE ARE the secret little club. Ain't it cozy and smuggly in here?

I always liked the string section on this, too.

This song may have been overplayed. It may even be bad automatically because it's popular. However, I get a special, good feeling everytime I hear it because it came out when I was like 12 or 13, and hearing it at that time opened me up to a whole new sound of music. Had it not been popular, I wouldn't have heard it, and I never would have discovered all of the rest of REM's catalouge, at least not in the depth I know it now. Instead I'd be listening to either Mariah Carey, or Metalica. For me, and probably a lot of other people (especially those close to may age), this song taught us that music could be something different from what was on the radio and MTV. It paved the way for Nirvana a couple of years later too.

Of course, the anti commercial success crowd probably laments the fact that this (and Teen Spirit) broke big and let all kinds of new people into the secret little club.

I never liked this song; it was always "thought that I heard you whining" for me, UNTIL I learned that it was based on and inspired by the stalker-guy sentiments of the Police's "Every Breath You Take". Not wild about the music still, but it definitely gets points for being original and interesting.

not bad. played to death of course.

Ever listened to chart music?