REM lyrics: "Shaking through"

[vajraroshana]

I love early REM and have been listening to them pretty much since the beginning. People argue about the lyrics, and M. Stipe doesn't seem to want to come forward and produce the "actual" lyrics for those early songs.

So, tonight I'm listening to some old REM that I have put on my hard drive. I haven't listened to them in a long, long time.

I've been googling lyrics for REM, but they don't seem to be quite what I've been singing along to all these years.

I don't think these lyrics (from lyric sites dug up from googling):

On "Shaking Through", one of my very favorites from Murmur there's a discrepancy between what "lyric" sites say and what I've always heard.

They (all those "lyrics" sites) say that it's:

"Yellow like a geisha gown, denial all the way"

I say (and singalong):

"Your obligation gone, deny it all the way"


What say you, fellow DUers? Hopefully, there are some of you up this late that are REM devotees.

[AngryAmish]

1. Early REM was not about lyrics

They were mood pieces.

I can say that Driver 8 was about trains, tho.

[vajraroshana]

3. I think so too, Driver 8 is also one of my absolute favorites

I play classical guitar (hobby, not professional) and sometimes I learn "pop" songs on guitar . "Driver 8" is one that I learned a long time ago and frequently play when I have an audience of friends. I can even sing it and will do so every now and then. I don't know the "correct" lyrics to that song either. But it's easy to sing, it fits my vocal range. I'm a bad singer, but can sing in tune, and when I do I get others to sing with me, so I don't feel so embarrassed.

[AntiCoup2K4]

2. Internet lyric sites are wrong about 40% of the time.

And that's with songs that are easy to understand. Stipe mumbled a lot of his early stuff and he did it intentionally, without including a lyric sheet with the album. His rationalization was that his lyrics were "personal".

Another resource for lyrical disputes: www.kissthisguy.com Named after the most famous lyric in history, the last line of the first verse in "Purple Haze". "'Scuze me while I kiss the sky" was what Jimi sang on the record. But a lot of people heard it differently.....

I just checked, and they have a few REM songs, but not "Shaking Through". Go with your own interpretation until someone proves different. I honestly don't know the answer.