40 "How exactly do you people think Michael Stipe could have written lyrics for some songs on Murmur, Reckoning, etc. without having specific words in mind? He is often quoted as saying 'the earlier songs don't have lyrics per se.' How does he do that? Seems ridiculous, but at the same time... witty." (R.E.M.)
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This article is from the R.E.M. FAQ, by Ron Henry (rgh3@cornell.edu) with numerous contributions by others.
40 "How exactly do you people think Michael Stipe could have written lyrics for some songs on Murmur, Reckoning, etc. without having specific words in mind? He is often quoted as saying 'the earlier songs don't have lyrics per se.' How does he do that? Seems ridiculous, but at the same time... witty." (R.E.M.)
Chris Piuma suggested, on r.m.r: "Take a song that you like but can
remember only a few lines to. Now, while not listening to it, sing it. Most
people either sing 'la la la doo doo doo' or they start making up nonsense
words. Now record yourself doing this. Write down what you sang. It will
probably come out as more or less meaningless stuff that revolves around
that line you did know. OK, now take your lyrics and edit them so that they
fit the song (syllable-wise) and so that the words make sense and the
sentences make an odd sense but the paragraphs make no sense. Then, when
you sing the words, distort them into sounds which might seem like
completely different words. Use this process as an editing tool."
"Voila! You soon have a lyric that isn't a lyric per se." No one is saying
this exactly how Stipe created his early lyrics (or versions one hears on
live tapes from early shows), but it's an example of how this sort of thing
could evolve. (Note that this speculation does not extend to lyrics for
Document and beyond, whose enunciation on the album and denotative meaning
are obviously more clear and deliberate.)
R.E.M. lyrics (or at least our collective best guesses) are available via
WWW.
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