R.E.M. 31

31 years ago, R.E.M. performed for the first time.  "Blue", the twelfth and final track on Collapse Into Now, has the feel of "Country Feedback" meets "E-bow the Letter" meets "Belong."  Some of my favorite R.E.M. songs.  "Blue" is the only song on the album whose lyrics are not included in the liner notes.  I found the lyrics online and wanted to share here as part of my R.E.M. birthday celebration.

Feels circus left the stakes a broken ropes useless mug

The ties that bind, ha ha

I can be bad poet

Street poet

Shit poet

Kind poet too

Subway

Almost 4AM

Halloween night

Had enough to drink to make my own party

All my fellow writers in half costume, half asleep

Half silly, gone to seed

I don't mark my time with dates, holidays, faded wisdom, locked karma, whatever's

Convenient

I am made by my times

I am a creation of now

Shaken with the cracks and crevices

I'm not giving up easy

I will not fold

I don't have much

But what I have is gold

I sing in platinum

I dress in brass

I eat in zinc

Let it pass

Compare a toast

I like that

I understand courage

I still roll with the shout of a character I was married to today

I try to see outside myself

I understand the eyes

Excuse all the highs

Sorry

I am sorry

Ha ha

I like you, love you, every coast of you.

I've seen your eddies and tides and hurricanes and cyclones.

Low ebb tide and high, full moon.

Up close and distant.

I read you like the sky, the sea, the ocean, the sun, the moon.

Blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue, blue blue, blue, blue, blue, blue.

Naked and blue.

Breathing with you. Touch. Change. Shift. Allow air. Window open. Drift. Drift away. Into now.

I want Whitman proud. Patti Lee proud. My brothers proud. My sisters proud. I want me. I want it all. I want sensational. Irresistible.

This is my time and I am thrilled to be alive.

Living

Blessed

I understand

Twentieth century

Collapse Into Now