I remember staying up all night in 1996 with my good old cassette deck ready, waiting for the radio to play this new R.E.M. song so I can record it. . After hours of waiting they finally played it and I listened to it day and night.
+TheBloodiac you are one of me; the ones that dance between the raindrops, as I too share your anecdote from your youth and the history of music from your memoirs
+TheBloodiac I did the same, I was SHOCKED. I was expecting Monster (Part 2). Especially with the preview of "Wake Up Bomb" we had on MTV in September, 1995. I was so shocked by a ballad.
This song instantly takes me back to being 16. This song has an incredible moodiness to it. It evokes a warm car ride on a rainy day. It was such a gift to be alive when R.E.M. was making music.
The sound of this song is the library in North Grenville District Highschool 1996. Passing around the headphones of my discman. Knowing I needed people to hear this. Not knowing who I was.
My husband died in 2013. This masterpiece makes me feel connected with this huge lost. But not in a painful but complex and hard way to explain. This song is like a bridge between him and all the emotions and words that now are sleeping in a box. Is like he was a teenager again and once and again he became my friend and my partner, singing with me, asking these questions… It took me a long long long time to write this. “I got it”
perdere il proprio compagno, con cui si ha camminato a lungo nella vita credo sia la cosa più orrenda del mondo. spero che da quando hai postato questo commento le cose vadano un po meglio sembrerà assurdo e forse stupido pronunciato da uno sconosciuto su youtube, è comprensibile. non ho mai conosciuto nè tuo marito nè te, nè mai lo farò probabilmente, ma ti auguro davvero di trovare un po di pace in questa vita feroce. mando un fortissimo abbraccio a te e a tuo marito
Sorry for the big loss. If the music gives you sweet memories and helpps you to go on . Than is that the best medicine you can have . I hope that the sun always guides you
REM it's really a very special band. Most of the people only know them for ''losing my religion'' :( This one ''E-Bow the letter'' is one of the best ever...
Daniel Lind Daniel, I did receive some airplay. Having Patti Smith on the track, brought enough attention to make it on the college radio circuit as well as a month or two on Mtv, Remember, REM had just signed a large contract, and the company wanted something.
I remember in 96, I was on my back on the roof of my apartment building on a blustery spring day in Manhattan just staring up at the clouds listening to this song. It was beautiful and surreal and I was in a euphoric ethereal moment that I find hard to describe. Whenever I listen to this song it brings me right there, at that moment and I feel it all over again. The wind and the slow moving clouds. That feeling in my stomach, like being madly in love. Who said time travel isn't possible. Amazing!
I remember the melancholy sound of this song gave me the idea for my impression of what a Thunderbird (if it existed) would look like. Some massive ancient creature, the last of it's kind, flying in the same summer heat as I would walk home from school in. Alone, just like me at the time. But it was fine with it. It would survey the world and enjoy the wind under its wings. I drew it in a way you could see its age. Where it's skin was thinning and you could see the outline of its bones but it still had an elegant, regal presence about it. I would imagine the occasional breeze when walking home and listening to this song, would be from its massive wings flying above me.
Funnily enough for the last 28 years until today I've always thought the lyric was "I can smell the SALT on your breath", and wondered wtf that was all about (I do know who Maria Callas is, though).
Agree! And Stipes lyrics are vague enough that they can apply to our own individual situations, or so beautifully melancholic that we adapt them to our own particular circumstance.
This song was about a letter that Bill Berry wrote to River Phoenix when it was painfully obvious to those around him that he was in the process of crashing and burning. When Phoenix died Stipe asked Bill whether he could make a song of it and this is the result. The e-bow bit is the guitar attachment used to create the sound. Their best song - gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. who's listening? 8th March, 2021
@@okdude9716 he was visibly going downhill. Those around him saw River personally and professionally losing. Unfortunately, no one could change the course of his life
I think that might be because they ended their union with a definitive to never to return. I think Stipe tapped out. He gave all he could and although he surfaces now and again, he may be empty of more quality poetry. Super sad.
@@yogablu The whole band just got tired of everything that wasn't making and performing music (business, politics, money, etc.), that is very well documented. Stipe still writes and has put out music, collaborations and solo, in the last decade-plus.
@@youanded I follow all of their other projects. And they were tired of playing the same songs over and over again. So I know that, while Stipe has done a few things here and there, Buck and Mills have been out and about. I go see all their bands when they come to town. They seem happy
The places, the cinematography, the twilight, the loneliness, Patti's spectral voice, the guitar echoes, Stipe poetry... ...everything, I mean, EVERYTHING, in this song + video is absolutely perfect. I would not change a single note in the arrangement. E-bow the letter always kinda makes me numb.
Absolutely agreed on everything, but you left out the most important: as a top band when this was released, the balls it took them to fund, produce, and release such a beautiful video, against all trends, is admirable. While I've always liked this song and video, I don't think I appreciated both as much until I just watched it now. Such perfection and depth.
I have to agree everything is perfect and not over done. Here Patti's voice is so perfect but it's also background again making this song so great. Two voices no one else joins in and they shouldn't. It's my absolute favorite and I could listen to it on repeat all day!
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Whenever I see my son smile, I have this song to thank. If not for this song I would have never made it past 25. This was the first song he ever heard. I’m now nearly 36 and my son 4. This song made me not take my life, and for that I get to share the rest of it. With my most prized possession.
New Adventures in HI FI, Adore from Smashing Pumpkins and Ok Computer will always be my comfort albums. No matter how much music I listen to, I always come back to them and feel like home.
"Aluminum, tastes like fear" One of the best lines ever written in a song. Simple, but you know exactly what he's talking about. This is Stipe at his absolute best.
Look up, what do you see? All of you and all of me Fluorescent and starry Some of them, they surprise The bus ride I went to write this 4 a.m. this letter Fields of poppies, little pearls All the boys and all the girls Sweet-toothed Each and every one a little scary I said your name I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras Dreaming of Maria Callas Whoever she is This fame thing I don't get it 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 aluminum, it tastes like fear Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over there) It tastes like fear (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 Phone, eat it, drink Just another chink Cuts and dents They catch the light Aluminium The weakest link I don't want to disappoint you I'm not here to anoint you I would lick your feet But is that the sickest move? I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange? My loss, and here we go again aluminum, it tastes like fear Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over there) It tastes like fear It pulls us near (I'll take you over) Look up, what do you see? All of you and all of me Fluorescent and starry Some of them, they surprise I can't look it in the eyes Seconal, Spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene Cherry-flavored neck and collar I can smell the sorrow on your breath The sweat, the victory and sorrow The smell of fear I got it aluminum, it tastes like fear Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over) Aluminum, it tastes like fear (take you there) Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over) It tastes like fear (take you there) It pulls us near (I'll take you over) It tastes like fear (take you there) It pulls us near it tastes like fear (Tastes like fear) it pulls us near (Pulls us near) nearer, nearer (Over, over, over, over, over, over there) I'll take you there (oh) I'll take you there (there) I'll take you there (oh, over) I'll take you there (over, baby) I'll take you there (there) I'll take you there (there, baby, yeah)
And this ... provokes in me a scream of all screams.. the scream that will make man and animals hair stand as a shiver to chills rolls over their bodies, that will feel as if it's going to burst out of my body if I don't open my mouth wider ... the emotions the will emit from that scream would resonate with its echo through the universe ... that's how it makes me feel.
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜 R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Hearing people talk about their memories and feelings with this song is so wonderful. It shows this music is that beautiful, R.E.M is an astounding band
I listened to this song all the time in high school. It's dreamy and mysterious…even knowing the backstory and "meaning" of the song…That dream like sensation can never be erased from this song. It always makes me think of cold rainy October mornings. Waiting for the bus. Thinking of loved ones that have passed away. Complex things that are really simple, and simple things that are really complex.
E-bow the Letter is great poetry. Love the line: Aluminum,tastes like fear. Adrenaline, it pulls us near....... Patti Smith's vocals make this song so special!! It is one of R.E.M's finest songs. The lyrics are exceptional & unique. It floored me when I first heard it. It still has that effect on me. It is so unique & different among their catalogue of songs. You can listen to this song over & over and never get tired of it!
New Adventures in Hi-Fi was a great album. I knew it thanks to my mother that like Rem so much. I'll be always in connection Rem and my mother ✨❤️ thank you mum for makes me know REM when I was a child
Well, the other day. my friend's 22 year old son asked me if I'd heard of Patti Smith! What goes around comes around! Really. there are no words to describe what a fabulous band R.E.M. were....Saw them in Dublin on the "Green" tour... Still fresh as a daisy in my mind 🥰
Just thinking about how the band wrote this song for River Phoenix with simple yet mysteriously sad lyrics is amazing. One of my favorite R.E.M. songs I'll listen to for the rest of my life
I think it was actually a letter that Stipe wrote and was going to send to River about making the guitar sound like a violin or something - he died before it was sent and so it was never sent. Then this song was made from reworking that original letter - this maybe bullshit but that’s the story I think
@@brabbit3389 I wasn’t exactly sure who wrote it but that would make sense. Never knew about the violin to guitar part either. Thanks for adding some new perspective to one of my fav songs
Michael said on an interview with CBS this June (24) that the song was written during a sound check. He actually went into his dressing room and grabbed a letter he wrote and said it became this song nearly word for word. Fascinating.
I miss you a lot! You made your sad songs into the most beautiful medicine that healed my broken soul into something beautiful and I also thank God who has created beautiful REM.....I was lucky enough to see you live in Roskilde festival in 1999 and in Gothenburg, Sweden
Somewhere, Thom Yorke sang Patti Smith's part and it was lovely but to me there was just no replacing her voice. I remember when Stipe talked about how he felt about Patti Smith when he first heard her, and when she became a friend. When he went to hear her sing once, that's when he told Donald Trump to shut up, because he was talking and Patti was starting to sing. Trump got up and left. If only...
Man. Nostalgic vibes. First R.E.M. single i bought being a new fan and bought New Adventures In Hi-Fi as it came out new, having just finally becoming a fan❤
This song takes you way back to the special hidden place in your mind that only you can see, that place you want to share with everyone, but you don’t know the words to explain it, so you stare blankly in their eyes and wish they can experience what you can.
This is one of my top favorite R.E.M. songs. It is still as cool as the day it was released. The lyrics, music, and those vocals work a magnificent magic. Perfect collaboration. I will always love this band:)
Last time I saw this band live - Glastonbury. REM Friday headline, Radiohead Saturday, Moby Sunday. What a memory. Two of them did ' Creep ' The other didn't . No prizes !!
R.E.M. has written some of the most beautiful songs in music, and this is one of their best.... It's wonderful hearing Patti Smith's voice on this song, and seeing her in the video!
REM masters how to touch deep inside souls, feelings, emotions...this song is a perfect example, to me one of the best of their great catalog. Thanks for this. Miss them a lot.
1:27-1:30. Peter's using an EBow on his guitar. It helps sustain the vibration of the guitar strings. That's one part of the song's title. Supposedly, "The Letter" refers to a letter Michael wrote to River Phoenix, about his drug use, that was never sent due to his unexpected death. Found that online, but I thought it was an interesting thing to share.
***** New Adventures In Hi-Fi is my favorite ReM album (overall) but the tandem pair of Nightswimming with Find The River is my favorite song[s] w/Country Feedback coming in at #2. Up is brilliant__ I love Sad Professor (got me through my divorce/1st time I'd been alone in 15 years/thought I would die) & Why Not Smile best but the whole record is phenomenal, yet in truth, absolutely all of their albums are just phenomenal. They new what music should do and they did it time and again. okay bye
PYSCOPOMP New Order are the remains of Joy Division, both bands are terrific but JD was something very special that 99% of all bands never find. Michael Stipe & REm is in my top 5 too---at the #1 position followed by Robert Plant & Led Zeppelin then Jerry Cantrell & Alice In Chains__-still miss Layne most days aight I'm gone
I bought this as a single when I was too young to know anything about anything, but I remember thinking, "Oh, I think this is what people are trying to achieve when they talk about writing poetry."
Very poetic song. I remember not understanding the lyrics but the music hooked me. I hadn’t even known it was about River Phoenix. Still a song I come back to on UA-cam often. This song has one of the best comment sections
Look up, what do you see? All of you and all of me Fluorescent and starry Some of them, they surprise The bus ride, I went to write this, 4:00 AM This letter Fields of poppies, little pearls All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed Each and every one a little scary I said your name I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras Dreaming of Maria Callas Whoever she is This fame thing, I don't get it 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 I'll take you over, there Aluminum, tastes like fear, there 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 Phone, eat it, drink Just another chink Cuts and dents, they catch the light Aluminum, the weakest link I don't want to disappoint you I'm not here to anoint you I would lick your feet But is that the sickest move? I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange? My loss, and here we go again I'll take you over, there I'll take you over, there Aluminum, tastes like fear, there Adrenaline, it pulls us near I'll take you over It tastes like fear, there I'll take you over Look up, what do you see? All of you and all of me Fluorescent and starry Some of them, they surprise I can't look it in the eyes Seconal, spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene Cherry-flavored neck and collar I can smell the sorrow on your breath The sweat, the victory and sorrow The smell of fear, I got it I'll take you over, there Aluminum, tastes like fear, there Adrenaline, it pulls us near I'll take you over, there Aluminum, tastes like fear, there Adrenaline, it pulls us near I'll take you over It tastes like fear, there It pulls us near I'll take you over I'll take you over It tastes like fear, there It pulls us near Pulls us near Tastes like fear Tastes like fear Nearer, nearer Pulls us near Over, over, over, over Over, over, over, over Yeah, look over I'll take you there, oh, yeah I'll take you there Oh, over I'll take you there Over, let me I'll take you there I'll take you there There, there, there, baby, yeah
The bus RIde, I went to write this, 4:00 AM This letter Fields of poppies, little pearls All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed Each and eVERy one a little scary I SAID YOUR NAME.....
In 96 I was 15...this song was ephemeral, but never ending....stuck in a moment of evanescence....REM was the end and the beginning....everlasting melody......this was the endless vibe of everything that came before, after and has existed ever since....oh such bliss!
Some cracking shots of 1990’s Prague, love the central train station. It has a public piano and a random guy once sang and dedicated a song to me as I was sat on the floor waiting for my train. Super track from REM as well, it is now my favourite after seeing this video.
Breezy autumn evening with sun warming my 16 year old face as I try to figure everything out, walking down the empty country road... We come a long way since then, but the memories remain strong as ever. Thanks Michael and the band for everything you did for me back in the day. Forever grateful.
I remember standing in line until midnight on the release date of this album... Bringing it back to my college apt off-campus, and immediately looping it on pirate FM airwaves for 24 hours to let it be heard... This was my favorite track from that album. Haunting. Truly great times.
Michael Stipe is not only a singer and composer. He's one of the greatest contemprary American poets and this song proves it like no other.
this and "world leader pretend" man I couldn't agree more!. cheers!
Modern beat poet
according to some article on wikipedia, he only wrote lyrics for REM
For sure!
Huh??...never thought his lyrics meant much to be honest..this is a superb tune though
I remember staying up all night in 1996 with my good old cassette deck ready, waiting for the radio to play this new R.E.M. song so I can record it. . After hours of waiting they finally played it and I listened to it day and night.
+TheBloodiac you are one of me; the ones that dance between the raindrops, as I too share your anecdote from your youth and the history of music from your memoirs
Yes indeed. Yes, indeed.
+TheBloodiac: You weren't alone in that. :)
+TheBloodiac I did the same, I was SHOCKED. I was expecting Monster (Part 2). Especially with the preview of "Wake Up Bomb" we had on MTV in September, 1995. I was so shocked by a ballad.
+TheBloodiac I WAS BORN IN 1996! Must've been an awesome year :D
Patti's voice sounds like it's being piped in from another realm. Angelic.
This song instantly takes me back to being 16. This song has an incredible moodiness to it. It evokes a warm car ride on a rainy day. It was such a gift to be alive when R.E.M. was making music.
Totally 💯
Described it beautifully
The sound of this song is the library in North Grenville District Highschool 1996.
Passing around the headphones of my discman.
Knowing I needed people to hear this.
Not knowing who I was.
@@ThomasBaxter I hope that this song helped you start on that journey.
EXACTLY, it feels like the windshield wipers synchronize with the song
My husband died in 2013. This masterpiece makes me feel connected with this huge lost. But not in a painful but complex and hard way to explain.
This song is like a bridge between him and all the emotions and words that now are sleeping in a box. Is like he was a teenager again and once and again he became my friend and my partner, singing with me, asking these questions…
It took me a long long long time to write this.
“I got it”
💜
fuerza 💪🏽rem lo cura todo 💖💞
Sorry for your loss x there is a huge catalogue of music to help us through those hard times x keep smiling
perdere il proprio compagno, con cui si ha camminato a lungo nella vita credo sia la cosa più orrenda del mondo.
spero che da quando hai postato questo commento le cose vadano un po meglio
sembrerà assurdo e forse stupido pronunciato da uno sconosciuto su youtube, è comprensibile.
non ho mai conosciuto nè tuo marito nè te, nè mai lo farò probabilmente, ma ti auguro davvero di trovare un po di pace in questa vita feroce.
mando un fortissimo abbraccio a te e a tuo marito
Sorry for the big loss.
If the music gives you sweet memories and helpps you to go on . Than is that the best medicine you can have .
I hope that the sun always guides you
This is one of the best songs I've ever heard, and it's like no one knows about it. Beyond underrated.
Too true, it's like cats just stop with "losing..." or something. Like REM stopped there.
A lot of people know about the song, Rachel. It's just too non-commercial and slow for radio. But it's a beautiful song, one of many they did.
REM it's really a very special band. Most of the people only know them for ''losing my religion'' :( This one ''E-Bow the letter'' is one of the best ever...
Daniel Lind Daniel,
I did receive some airplay. Having Patti Smith on the track, brought enough attention to make it on the college radio circuit as well as a month or two on Mtv, Remember, REM had just signed a large contract, and the company wanted something.
Ummagumarios
+1
I remember in 96, I was on my back on the roof of my apartment building on a blustery spring day in Manhattan just staring up at the clouds listening to this song. It was beautiful and surreal and I was in a euphoric ethereal moment that I find hard to describe. Whenever I listen to this song it brings me right there, at that moment and I feel it all over again. The wind and the slow moving clouds. That feeling in my stomach, like being madly in love. Who said time travel isn't possible. Amazing!
amazing comment......
euphoric ethereal moment...
Michael Devino are you still under that roof?
What a lovely song.
I remember the melancholy sound of this song gave me the idea for my impression of what a Thunderbird (if it existed) would look like. Some massive ancient creature, the last of it's kind, flying in the same summer heat as I would walk home from school in. Alone, just like me at the time. But it was fine with it. It would survey the world and enjoy the wind under its wings. I drew it in a way you could see its age. Where it's skin was thinning and you could see the outline of its bones but it still had an elegant, regal presence about it. I would imagine the occasional breeze when walking home and listening to this song, would be from its massive wings flying above me.
“I can smell the sorrow on your breath”. Burns a hole in your mind.
very Tove Jansson:)
Funnily enough for the last 28 years until today I've always thought the lyric was "I can smell the SALT on your breath", and wondered wtf that was all about (I do know who Maria Callas is, though).
Haunting lyrics and music
I can smell the shit on your nazi breath
I always liked that line. I thought it referenced alcoholism.
REM was a genre of their own.
So true
So well put.
1996 has been the darkest year in my life, listening to this album was my only consolation
1996 was horrible for me too. Glad to see you're still hangin in there in 2023 at least. Good on you. REM has helped me thru a lot over a few decades.
Mine too.
@@jacquelynmccloud1430 im glad you are still here..
What songs, specifically? I was a kid then, so it definitely wasn't the darkest year for me. Why that album?
That song in particular helped me surviving. In a way or another, I am still here
One of the most underrated songs of all time
Nobody quite does melancholy like rem, my god I miss them so much... So powerful.
Agree! And Stipes lyrics are vague enough that they can apply to our own individual situations, or so beautifully melancholic that we adapt them to our own particular circumstance.
Your said it. This was a period of joy and melancholy, just the right mix!
Nic & Andrea Hills except maybe, you know, The Smashing Pumpkins.
Fuck off. It's just music. They're not responsible
areth Lless . it's your shit & control they lyric from .
This song was about a letter that Bill Berry wrote to River Phoenix when it was painfully obvious to those around him that he was in the process of crashing and burning. When Phoenix died Stipe asked Bill whether he could make a song of it and this is the result. The e-bow bit is the guitar attachment used to create the sound.
Their best song - gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. who's listening?
8th March, 2021
What do you mean he was the process of crushing and burning??
@@okdude9716 spiralling down
@@ksworld1744 im so really sorry but i didn't understand it again:/
@@okdude9716 he was visibly going downhill. Those around him saw River personally and professionally losing. Unfortunately, no one could change the course of his life
@@Deilajaxx oh thank you i got it now:)
REM certainly doesn’t get enough credit as one of the best bands ever.
Don’t agree
I think that might be because they ended their union with a definitive to never to return. I think Stipe tapped out. He gave all he could and although he surfaces now and again, he may be empty of more quality poetry. Super sad.
I just think you need to give it more time
@@yogablu The whole band just got tired of everything that wasn't making and performing music (business, politics, money, etc.), that is very well documented. Stipe still writes and has put out music, collaborations and solo, in the last decade-plus.
@@youanded I follow all of their other projects. And they were tired of playing the same songs over and over again. So I know that, while Stipe has done a few things here and there, Buck and Mills have been out and about. I go see all their bands when they come to town. They seem happy
This song was everything to me when I was 13. I'm 38 now and it still makes time stop.
me too, also same age
This band has been a pillow,a warmth and a kick up the arse to me.......and a workout eveytime I have robed in to watch them.
Same age too. I was 12 going on 13 when this came out.
Same. I'm now 40
Can I have your #? Same age and ditto
i want back my years
who doesn't
daniele borbotti look forward
i try it
I think I know what you mean, there might be better days in the future but those "years" will never come again.
I know exactly what you mean and I want my years back too I have this in playlist under Fall of '96 (around the time I first heard it on the radio)
Patti Smith is a legend. Her voice on this beautiful song... Love it so much!
Agree.
Patti in Prague... sublime 💜
The places, the cinematography, the twilight, the loneliness, Patti's spectral voice, the guitar echoes, Stipe poetry... ...everything, I mean, EVERYTHING, in this song + video is absolutely perfect. I would not change a single note in the arrangement. E-bow the letter always kinda makes me numb.
Absolutely agreed on everything, but you left out the most important: as a top band when this was released, the balls it took them to fund, produce, and release such a beautiful video, against all trends, is admirable.
While I've always liked this song and video, I don't think I appreciated both as much until I just watched it now. Such perfection and depth.
r.e.m, took college radio,to the world.
The letter was to be sent to river phoenix
I have to agree everything is perfect and not over done. Here Patti's voice is so perfect but it's also background again making this song so great. Two voices no one else joins in and they shouldn't. It's my absolute favorite and I could listen to it on repeat all day!
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
Whenever I see my son smile, I have this song to thank. If not for this song I would have never made it past 25. This was the first song he ever heard. I’m now nearly 36 and my son 4. This song made me not take my life, and for that I get to share the rest of it. With my most prized possession.
Incredible 🙏
❤
New Adventures in HI FI, Adore from Smashing Pumpkins and Ok Computer will always be my comfort albums. No matter how much music I listen to, I always come back to them and feel like home.
okifurbi adore is one of my fav albums aswell :3
ADORE yes! all the way through!
okifurbi me tooo!!
You have a good musical taste.
"Aluminum, tastes like fear" One of the best lines ever written in a song. Simple, but you know exactly what he's talking about. This is Stipe at his absolute best.
So glad I saw them live and next door for a private show in Athens at the bowling alley a few years ago as well.
Very cool!
it kinda has the feeling he's into some of the directing also, i think so at least. queer intense angles and alienated commodities everywhere.
MrMonikerjay what does he mean?
whenever you get shocking news, you usually get a metallic taste in your mouth
Arguably their most underrated song.
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise
The bus ride
I went to write this
4 a.m. this letter
Fields of poppies, little pearls
All the boys and all the girls
Sweet-toothed
Each and every one a little scary
I said your name
I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars
Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras
Dreaming of Maria Callas
Whoever she is
This fame thing
I don't get it
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
aluminum, it tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over there)
It tastes like fear
(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
Phone, eat it, drink
Just another chink
Cuts and dents
They catch the light
Aluminium
The weakest link
I don't want to disappoint you
I'm not here to anoint you
I would lick your feet
But is that the sickest move?
I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow
And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange?
My loss, and here we go again
aluminum, it tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over there)
It tastes like fear
It pulls us near (I'll take you over)
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise
I can't look it in the eyes
Seconal, Spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene
Cherry-flavored neck and collar
I can smell the sorrow on your breath
The sweat, the victory and sorrow
The smell of fear
I got it
aluminum, it tastes like fear
Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over)
Aluminum, it tastes like fear (take you there)
Adrenaline, it pulls us near (I'll take you over)
It tastes like fear (take you there)
It pulls us near (I'll take you over)
It tastes like fear (take you there)
It pulls us near
it tastes like fear
(Tastes like fear) it pulls us near
(Pulls us near) nearer, nearer
(Over, over, over, over, over, over there)
I'll take you there (oh)
I'll take you there (there)
I'll take you there (oh, over)
I'll take you there (over, baby)
I'll take you there (there)
I'll take you there (there, baby, yeah)
And this ... provokes in me a scream of all screams.. the scream that will make man and animals hair stand as a shiver to chills rolls over their bodies, that will feel as if it's going to burst out of my body if I don't open my mouth wider ... the emotions the will emit from that scream would resonate with its echo through the universe ... that's how it makes me feel.
Some of the most incredible lyrics ever penned.
Thank you!
Ah. The melancholy of cities.
The melancholy of getting older.
The poets know. The artists weep. The homeless wander down the street......
Thanks
*This is the only band that I can hear 24/7 every decade of my life.*
Amen!
Fuck you must have a boring life.
Snurt Groolan what would you listen to mr perfect music taste🙄
@@flumpyhumpy shut up knobhead
Ethereal, deep, fragile, moving, poetic... majestic song.
Its funny that for most REM fans, you cant possibly listen to this track once.....you always have to play it on repeat a couple of times....
True from the first listen all those years ago.
True
Hahaha I am so glad someone said it because this has been on repeat
CannibalWHORE22. Same, with the vid.
Amen brother
Honestly tis song is perfection
This man has a unique style that's unrivalled. The lyrics to all his songs have helped me navigate through life.
It's the band
Same for me
@@TheChadls Stipe is one of the best lyricists in rock history, but the band elevates them to an emotional level they couldn't reach otherwise
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
R.E.M. - Love this song - Love R.E.M. 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜
It's the type of person you see him,you hear him and you love him!!
A timeless masterpiece
I'm soon to be 64 years old, this song still gives me goosebumps
Why not? Feelings are ageless. :)
I’m 5’ 7 and I like it too…
Hearing people talk about their memories and feelings with this song is so wonderful. It shows this music is that beautiful, R.E.M is an astounding band
Alex Arias yes is so emotional
what's scary is there's only one top comment about river... almost like it was cherry-picked by yt mods 🤨😶
Take me back to my teenage years. Also i remember when MTV used to play music videos.
I listened to this song all the time in high school. It's dreamy and mysterious…even knowing the backstory and "meaning" of the song…That dream like sensation can never be erased from this song. It always makes me think of cold rainy October mornings. Waiting for the bus. Thinking of loved ones that have passed away. Complex things that are really simple, and simple things that are really complex.
Beautifuly said !
R.E.M. attracts the nicest types of people. :)
+some guy just that fact that you made that comment and were so happy about it really does show that R.E.M has the nicest fans
very beautiful..
I don't know the story of this song or it's meaning. I like your description.
Just heard this on TOTP 1996 on BBC4. An underrated gem
Love love everything REM did. Such great tunes. Still sound good in 2024.
1996 was one of my favorite years of existence. This song reminds me of that wonderful time.
Patti’s lyrics are so beautiful and understated ❤
E-bow the Letter is great poetry. Love the line: Aluminum,tastes like fear. Adrenaline, it pulls us near....... Patti Smith's vocals make this song so special!! It is one of R.E.M's finest songs. The lyrics are exceptional & unique. It floored me when I first heard it. It still has that effect on me. It is so unique & different among their catalogue of songs. You can listen to this song over & over and never get tired of it!
New Adventures in Hi-Fi was a great album. I knew it thanks to my mother that like Rem so much. I'll be always in connection Rem and my mother ✨❤️ thank you mum for makes me know REM when I was a child
Well, the other day. my friend's 22 year old son asked me if I'd heard of Patti Smith! What goes around comes around! Really. there are no words to describe what a fabulous band R.E.M. were....Saw them in Dublin on the "Green" tour... Still fresh as a daisy in my mind 🥰
It will really have gone around when he asks you if you have heard of Maria Callas.
Just thinking about how the band wrote this song for River Phoenix with simple yet mysteriously sad lyrics is amazing. One of my favorite R.E.M. songs I'll listen to for the rest of my life
Not sure this one is (not specifically anyway)
The Album "Monster" is dedicated to River Phoenix.
@@rax816 well whoever wrote it did a great job. I always come back to listen
I think it was actually a letter that Stipe wrote and was going to send to River about making the guitar sound like a violin or something - he died before it was sent and so it was never sent. Then this song was made from reworking that original letter - this maybe bullshit but that’s the story I think
@@brabbit3389 I wasn’t exactly sure who wrote it but that would make sense. Never knew about the violin to guitar part either. Thanks for adding some new perspective to one of my fav songs
Michael said on an interview with CBS this June (24) that the song was written during a sound check. He actually went into his dressing room and grabbed a letter he wrote and said it became this song nearly word for word. Fascinating.
One of their greatest songs an absolute masterpiece , never fails to move me .
Criminally underrated? No, criminally ignored.
It’s having a Renaissance critically. Fans always knew how good it was
I look it as some ppl not being worthy of loving this.
the best song of REM!
I miss you a lot! You made your sad songs into the most beautiful medicine that healed my broken soul into something beautiful and I also thank God who has created beautiful REM.....I was lucky enough to see you live in Roskilde festival in 1999 and in Gothenburg, Sweden
This song has put me in a daze and given me chills multiple times. The last minute or so is so emotional. And I don't even know what emotion it is.
Regret
Thank God for the 80's
90 ti's
LOVE THIS SONG 🎵. REM with Patti Smith. What a great morning music. Peace ✌️ and joy.8888
Will you live to eighty-three? Will you ever welcome me?
Will you show me something that nobody else has seen?
It gets me every time.
some of stipe's most poignant and poetic work. their best album, too.
The more times I listen to this, the more astonishing it sounds. Even after 25 years. And one of their best videos too. Just brilliance.
Somewhere, Thom Yorke sang Patti Smith's part and it was lovely but to me there was just no replacing her voice. I remember when Stipe talked about how he felt about Patti Smith when he first heard her, and when she became a friend. When he went to hear her sing once, that's when he told Donald Trump to shut up, because he was talking and Patti was starting to sing. Trump got up and left. If only...
They paint a picture with words and sounds that describes how I feel better than I ever could.
Nic & Andrea Hills me too
Very nicely put :) I love the way they make words sound and dance. It's also a delight to sing along ;)
Beautiful
as for me i have black and blue ink
Man. Nostalgic vibes. First R.E.M. single i bought being a new fan and bought New Adventures In Hi-Fi as it came out new, having just finally becoming a fan❤
Patti's voice rising like an angel. Scorching, beautiful lyrics.
Masterpiece.
This song takes you way back to the special hidden place in your mind that only you can see, that place you want to share with everyone, but you don’t know the words to explain it, so you stare blankly in their eyes and wish they can experience what you can.
This is eerily accurate.
who’d have thought
tomorrow would be
so strange
my loss
and here we go again
Almost 25 years old already, the 90's were the best by far.
This is one of the most gorgeous songs ever made by R.E.M
This is one of my top favorite R.E.M. songs. It is still as cool as the day it was released. The lyrics, music, and those vocals work a magnificent magic. Perfect collaboration. I will always love this band:)
I agree completely
Lena Lovee' Words of magic. Cheers.
PYSCOPOMP Thank You. :)
Lena Lovee' leaving new york is second magic. Never easy. :)
PYSCOPOMP I can only imagine. I've often wanted to experience NYC. At least study art there.
New avventure in hi fi è stato un disco spaziale non finivo mai di ascoltarlo ...si era consumato il CD e dovetti ricomprarlo...capolavoro
what a huge, huge, huge song.
So lucky i grow up musically in 90's
...
Last time I saw this band live - Glastonbury. REM Friday headline, Radiohead Saturday, Moby Sunday. What a memory. Two of them did ' Creep ' The other didn't . No prizes !!
This is so haunting and an absolute masterpiece which has run through my veins
R.E.M. has written some of the most beautiful songs in music, and this is one of their best.... It's wonderful hearing Patti Smith's voice on this song, and seeing her in the video!
She drives trough Prag...Czech...
REM top 5 without question. God I miss the four of them delivering this opaque magic
I've listened to this song close to 200 times since it dropped. ☘️
EVERYTIME it gives me goosebumps! 😲
Masterpiece. 👌
Are you a Murphy? I believe that is Gaelic for "sea battler."
REM masters how to touch deep inside souls, feelings, emotions...this song is a perfect example, to me one of the best of their great catalog. Thanks for this. Miss them a lot.
1:27-1:30. Peter's using an EBow on his guitar. It helps sustain the vibration of the guitar strings. That's one part of the song's title. Supposedly, "The Letter" refers to a letter Michael wrote to River Phoenix, about his drug use, that was never sent due to his unexpected death. Found that online, but I thought it was an interesting thing to share.
***** alot of his tunes, has a much deeper meaning. I got my music hero's. He is top five. Brilliant human being.
***** Smashing Pumkins was there for me. But upon listening to Billy speak lately. I dunno anymore. But New Order? I gotta check it out. Cheers.
***** New Adventures In Hi-Fi is my favorite ReM album (overall) but the tandem pair of Nightswimming with Find The River is my favorite song[s] w/Country Feedback coming in at #2. Up is brilliant__ I love Sad Professor (got me through my divorce/1st time I'd been alone in 15 years/thought I would die) & Why Not Smile best but the whole record is phenomenal, yet in truth, absolutely all of their albums are just phenomenal.
They new what music should do and they did it time and again.
okay bye
PYSCOPOMP New Order are the remains of Joy Division, both bands are terrific but JD was something very special that 99% of all bands never find.
Michael Stipe & REm is in my top 5 too---at the #1 position followed by Robert Plant & Led Zeppelin then Jerry Cantrell & Alice In Chains__-still miss Layne most days
aight I'm gone
O.L. Pritchett Cave and the bad seeds if you haven't ventured down that avenue of musical joy yet.
So evocative. I get chills and goosebumps every time I listen to it.
Sheer brilliance. Still one of my favourite REM songs ever. So hypnotic, poetic, atmospheric, dream-like. Just amazing!
My goodness, YES! Totally feeling that.
New Adventures... is without doubt one of the best albums I've ever heard.
I bought this as a single when I was too young to know anything about anything, but I remember thinking, "Oh, I think this is what people are trying to achieve when they talk about writing poetry."
Very poetic song. I remember not understanding the lyrics but the music hooked me. I hadn’t even known it was about River Phoenix. Still a song I come back to on UA-cam often. This song has one of the best comment sections
Michael Stipe is my favourite rapper
agree
i never thought of him as a rapper. Cool
Kill yr idols
Hey Hey Hey
Stipe on rememberance to Callas. Amazing, honourful.
The e-bow is a very cool guitar effect
I am happy that REM is so underrated, I feel more connection with anybody who likes them.
The perfect song
Love the sound of a poem spoken to music. Words spoken from a great musician ❤
I love Stipe's singing in this song, kinda flat like Swan Swan H. And Patti Smith works in perfectly with it as well.
Good ear. I was just explaining to someone how intriguing his cadence was in this song. Purposely emotionally flat..its full of emotions
This is one of my favorite REM songs. I love songs that sound like the night/moon/stars.
Song rips your heart out
It was one of my favourite songs in 96 and I've just been reminded of it. Pure poetry
To z pewnością najlepszy zespół rockowy na świecie oby ciągle , nagrywali , tak , jak , dalej , każdą , płytę , w , innym klimacie .
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise
The bus ride, I went to write this, 4:00 AM
This letter
Fields of poppies, little pearls
All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed
Each and every one a little scary
I said your name
I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars
Hash bars, cherry mash and tinfoil tiaras
Dreaming of Maria Callas
Whoever she is
This fame thing, I don't get it
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
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear, there
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
Phone, eat it, drink
Just another chink
Cuts and dents, they catch the light
Aluminum, the weakest link
I don't want to disappoint you
I'm not here to anoint you
I would lick your feet
But is that the sickest move?
I wear my own crown and sadness and sorrow
And who'd have thought tomorrow could be so strange?
My loss, and here we go again
I'll take you over, there
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear, there
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I'll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
I'll take you over
Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me
Fluorescent and starry
Some of them, they surprise
I can't look it in the eyes
Seconal, spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene
Cherry-flavored neck and collar
I can smell the sorrow on your breath
The sweat, the victory and sorrow
The smell of fear, I got it
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear, there
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I'll take you over, there
Aluminum, tastes like fear, there
Adrenaline, it pulls us near
I'll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
It pulls us near
I'll take you over
I'll take you over
It tastes like fear, there
It pulls us near
Pulls us near
Tastes like fear
Tastes like fear
Nearer, nearer
Pulls us near
Over, over, over, over
Over, over, over, over
Yeah, look over
I'll take you there, oh, yeah
I'll take you there
Oh, over
I'll take you there
Over, let me
I'll take you there
I'll take you there
There, there, there, baby, yeah
The Letter was to River Phoenix.
thanks man
BLESS YOU
The bus RIde, I went to write this, 4:00 AM
This letter
Fields of poppies, little pearls
All the boys and all the girls sweet-toothed
Each and eVERy one a little scary
I SAID YOUR NAME.....
2nd highest charting UK single. Underrated, as was the band!!!
Knowledge squire.
Glenn Horne
Never heard it played here in the USA. But then, my cities radio sucks.
River Phoenix. This road will never end ❤🌻
It probably goes all around the world
They are one of the greatest bands ever, no question
In 96 I was 15...this song was ephemeral, but never ending....stuck in a moment of evanescence....REM was the end and the beginning....everlasting melody......this was the endless vibe of everything that came before, after and has existed ever since....oh such bliss!
Rest in heaven, River...
Some cracking shots of 1990’s Prague, love the central train station. It has a public piano and a random guy once sang and dedicated a song to me as I was sat on the floor waiting for my train. Super track from REM as well, it is now my favourite after seeing this video.
Yep, should be noted that whole Patti Smith part was shot in Prague. 3:57-3:59 is National Theatre building on the right.
Breezy autumn evening with sun warming my 16 year old face as I try to figure everything out, walking down the empty country road... We come a long way since then, but the memories remain strong as ever. Thanks Michael and the band for everything you did for me back in the day. Forever grateful.
absolute masterpiece, divine lyrics
Takes me to a different dimension of solitude, and gives me a sensation of well-being and calm ,poetry and beauty in motion, timeless masterpiece
PATTI SMITHS VOICE SURELY MAKES THIS SONG ONE OF THE GREATEST EVER RECORDED
listen out for patti smiths voice it is truly magnificent
Hauntingly beautifull B-). Can listen to this track over and over
I remember standing in line until midnight on the release date of this album... Bringing it back to my college apt off-campus, and immediately looping it on pirate FM airwaves for 24 hours to let it be heard... This was my favorite track from that album. Haunting. Truly great times.
Still get the feels when I listen to this song! One of the best songs out there!
Didn’t appreciate this song at the time, love it now.
A lot of great songs take time to grow on you.