Metsfan980

Does anyone know the exact lyrics of this song?

I can't find Mill's lines to this song anywhere at all, it's almost like the online lyric world denies that this is a duet.

I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this, so I apologize in advance.

Buck's Student

It's okay, I've posted in wrong sections too!
Well, I don't remember Mike doing much singing on this song, but it has been a while... www.remrock.com should have the lyrics, but not sure about Mike... Old boy didn't sing as much on Reckoning...

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Gun Sale At The Church is not an R.E.M. song.

Mike Mills covered it: Buddy Blue, of the Beat Farmers, wrote it.

remrules

I hope this helps you out.

They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got.
Metal shoes on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT"

They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts.
Reddened their necks, collared their clothes.
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out.
She gathered the corners and called it her gown.
She said:

Please find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it.
Find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it.

They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got.
Metal shoes on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT," R-E-A-C-T

Please find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it.
Find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it.

They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts.
Reddened their necks, collared their clothes.
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out.
She gathered the corners and called it her gown.
She said:

Please find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it.
Find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it.

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world leader

What is it about? References to lenin are obvious but I always got a Boston Tea Party kinda vibe from it.

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a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; of a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth. Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone? O waste of loss, in the hot mazes, lost, among bright stars on this most weary unbright cinder, lost! Remembering speechlessly we seek the great forgotten language, the lost lane-end into heaven, a stone, a leaf, an unfound door. Where? When? O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again

Metsfan980

Towards the end of the song Mills sings entirely unique verses. If you listen to the song at a louder than usual volume you can hear it.

As for the meaning of the song, I have a feeling that it's about losing a loved one. The whole security blanket feeling of:

"Please find my harborcoat, can't go outside without it."

The feeling that it's a deceased loved one I get in particular from the line:

"They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts."

Also, the line:

"There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT""

Is a biblical reference.

Mr. Cuyahoga

Some of the most bizarre lyrics ever written.

lotus8

And best. I love the song!

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Michael

"You have to overcome yourself before you can overcome what's outside of yourself" - Michael Stipe

bsd987

Does it really need to mean anything?

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This is my world, and I am world leader.

Metsfan980

This video makes it clearer to recognize Mills singing completely seperate lyrics:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofLG...related&search=

remstress

is now on my myspace profile

yes. i am a nerd

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Tempus Fugit

I thought the song was about communism....

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Whatever,
Angel

SlackMF

Yeah, Mills does sing a few different refrains in this song. It starts not even a minute into the song, before they've even sung one chorus. Even during the chorus, he's singing his own thing.

The lyrics posted above and the ones you can find online don't even make mention of what he's saying.

I wish I could be of more help, but it's hard to make out exactly what he's singing.

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Obamaham Lincoln

World

They shifted the statues for harboring ghosts.
Reddened their necks, collared their clothes.
Then we danced the dance till the menace got out.

This always struck me, personally, as a reference to hanging or lynching of some sort...
The whole song to me, just generally, has a vibe of a force of some sort in town taking over a place, and others that feel they must hide themselves in some way to protect themselves from them and/or it. Very generally but still (even years later!) refining my ideas about it.

The first line of Harborcoat must be one of the most intriguing lines written for any song i've ever heard. I agree.

Metsfan980

For me this song is about losing the love of your life. For the singer he (or she) is left with one object that so dearly reminds them of their love that they can't go anywhere without it. In the case of this song, it is their harborcoat.

Here's an actual essay online that agrees with sentiments and goes really indepth with the song:

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Acr...142/rrlyr3.html

World

I see what you're saying in your interpretation..,. i think it actually kind of jibes with mine a bit, a loss, of some sort, of life ... there are so many ways to look at these verses and find different images in them .... i thought there are some very interesting observations in this essay, i will be looking at this a bit more!
... to explain where i'm coming from, I'll start with this:

They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got.
Metal shivs on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT," R-E-A-C-T

Ok. "They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off".
Is it this way, or could it be other ways, i.e. They crowd, dead, up to Lenin with their noses worn off? Is it "worn off", or is it "warn off"? With my particular accent i pretty much pronounce these words the same. Is it a "handshake", or is it a "hand shake"? A lot of times I start with words- since they're not written by Michael anywhere that i'm aware of, a lot of times for me everything's open to interpretation. Is it Lenin, is it Lennon? Or some other poetic use? Hardest part of the song for me... and it really might alter my whole idea w/out this part, and yet actually could indeed be the most clear and/or literal part of the song- but there it is... I think "metal shivs on wood", something is happening, knives, perhaps, threatening a person or persons, the "we/our". And someone, a third party, "you", is reacting, judging someone, this "we/our", without first considering if "you" has any right to. Or, it could be some re-enactment of something that's happened in the past, to re-act, a scene repeating itself... So there's this impending feeling of something charged and dangerous already to me.

"They shifted the statues to harboring ghosts"- i envision this as cueing off of some sort of lingering danger i already pick up from the first verse. To me, "they" are responsible for threatening "we/our" with the shivs- so "they" have shifted the statues- to me, people frozen with fear, statuelike- in essense they shift them to ghosts- and get rid of them. "Harboring" here could pass as haunting (to me), remembering (like harboring a grudge), rather than sheltering..."Reddened their necks, collared their clothes/close"- it could be a play on 'redneck', i agree, but with the following sentence about collaring, more hanging/lynching, just the meaning the way i see it . And with the sentence about the menace, it adds to an idea of something/someone dangerous. "She" gathering her corners and calling it her gown....perhaps about hiding in the shadows of corners when outside and calling it her gown in her imagination? not sure...

"Please find my Harbourcoat/can't go outside without it"- harbor to me looking for something to shelter (in this context here) this we/us, and/or "her", from being outside, where the danger is, from who(m)ever "they" are. Again, how i envision it, and how i explain it, might seem a bit divided, not always easy to put the thoughts down...from my perspective, attempting to explain with a semi linear approach, i think, derived from various impressions i might feel.

World

...and looking this over, anyone that can follow halfway clearly what i'm trying to say, has my admiration :O

rella

[QUOTE=remrules]I hope this helps you out.

They crowded up to Lenin with their noses worn off
A handshake is worthy if it's all that you've got.
Metal shoes on wood push through our back
There's a splinter in your eye and it reads "REACT"



*************
I think it's metal shiv...

WorldLeaderPretend

Welcome to the forum, Rella!

Tiger

Michael has previously described it as being a rewrite of Anne Franks diaries, but then they played it on one of the nights I was in Dublin, & he introduced it as being a song about Lillian Hellman. Which fits the Communist themes I guess.

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You can thump your chest & rattle,
Stand in front of your piano,
But we know what's going on.