Used to be a big fan of band REM. Drummer Bill Berry left after album “New Adventures in Hi-Fi” – odd lyrics on this album, particularly the song E-Bow the letter (lead singer Stipe not involved with these lyrics). Did Bill Berry see the horror and decide to quit the band?

 

Also, bizarre lyrics on the next album “UP”. [They] are all complicit.

 

R.E.M. Lyrics

"E-Bow The Letter"

all the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed

each and every one a little scary

 

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

 

I'll take you over, there

aluminum, tastes like fear

adrenaline, it pulls us near

I'll take you over

it tastes like fear, there

I'll take you over

 

will you live to 83?

will you ever welcome me?

will you show me something that nobody else has seen?

smoke it, drink

here comes the flood

anything to thin the blood

these corrosives do their magic slowly and sweet

 

I can smell the sorrow on your breath

the sweat, the victory and sorrow

the smell of fear, I got it

 

R.E.M. Lyrics

"So Fast, So Numb"

You're drinking raw adrenal baby

You're eating cartilage, shark-eyes, shark-heart

All present tense

Boy, your blood is running cold

 

"Airportman"

He moves efficiently

Beyond security.

 

Creature of habit

Labored breathing and sallow skin

Recycled air

 

The people mover

The people mover

Discounted.

 

"Hope"

and they did the same to Matthew

and he bled 'til sunday night

they're saying don't be frightened

but you're weakened by the sight of it

 

but they're saying don't be frightened

and they're killing alligators

and they're hog-tied and accepting of

the struggle

 

and you want to cross your DNA

to cross your DNA with something reptile

 

"Departure"

Win a eulogy from William Greider,

Well, everybody is young forever.

There's so much to tell you, so little time.

I've come a long way since, uh, whatever,

shit, I still see that word and think of you.

There is so much that I can't do, yeah.

You will be young forever.

 

WILLIAM GREIDER, a columnist at The Nation and author of some of the most significant political books of the past 40 years, died on Christmas Day at the age of 83.

 

He tackled gigantic subjects: the Federal Reserve (“Secrets of the Temple,” 1987), the evaporation of American democracy (“Who Will Tell the People,” 1992), globalization (“One World Ready or Not,” 1997), society’s deformation by the military-industrial complex (“Fortress America,” 1998), whether we can reinvent the U.S. economy (“The Soul of Capitalism,” 2003), and what to do when the people running this country seem determined to destroy it (“Come Home, America,” 2009).

 

He thought everyone should be angry about this, but productively angry. The word “anger,” he pointed out, is derived from angr, an Old Norse word that means grief.

 

Toward the end of his life, Greider was overjoyed to see the burgeoning movement behind Bernie Sanders and the rise of young politicians and activists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. His case had never been that something like it would happen, but just that it could, that it was within the capability of Americans to do this and much more. As he put it, “Power can accumulate in mysterious ways, if citizens believe they possess this right.” destroy it (“Come Home, America,” 2009).