It’s not very often I drink, but sometimes I’ll have a Jack Daniel’s and Coke sit and watch UA-cam videos of songs I like I’ve had a toast for River Stay strong!
I have some of the lyrics to “Find The River” tattooed on my arm. I have got to find the river… Run through my head and fall away Leave the road and memorize this life that pass before my eyes…
This whole album is utterly incandescent. Not a bad track on it. Brings back so many memories of lost friends and forgotten times from (cough) years ago.
Sublime is the right word...one of REM's most beautiful melodies. There's melancholy, but it's uplifting all the same. Glad you took the time to listen to it, and kudos to whomever recommended it!
This song is from the album Automatic For the People from 1992. It deals of a great nearness to death representing as a river flowing into the ocean. The beautiful acoustic guitars and the synthesizer, along with the amazing vocals, from Micheal, make this a masterpiece. A true classic for REM. Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Craig. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
What's great here is that you didn't catch all of his lyrics, but attached immediately to haunted, beautiful, ethereal tone of Michael's voice. He never sounded better than on Automatic. Your reaction at the end is how I always, always feel after listening to this song. Gorgeous sadness.
Long time REM fan here. This is one of their best, not just musically or lyrically but the symbolism in the video is stunningly effective. I am getting to be an old man, like the one in the video and it is spot on. Our lives are like a river that flows from one place to another and many of our fellow travelers are like the dog and accompany us, sometimes ahead and sometimes beside us, companions riding the river assisting us on our journey. Any animal that has dreams should have a place in heaven.
Quanta poesia in questo pezzo... è il mio preferito....in 3 minuti racconta una vita che non è stata proprio facile... alla fine si ricongiunge al grande oceano 😢.... bravo Michael per il testo...e bravo il resto del gruppo... molto commovente
One of the most hauntingly beautiful poetic songs of it’s era, this is REM at their peak. I don’t know if this is about the contemplation of giving up on a hard life lived, or the river as a symbol of the passage of time and all the requisite trials and tribulations, wondrous triumphs and bitter disappointments that everyone experiences in life. It nevertheless leaves me spellbound. Keep up the good work, Harry. Peace and love from Canada.
You know, I always felt like this song was a combination of so many complicated thoughts. This notion that when you’re so much in a hurry, and you got light years to go. You go through some serious crap to find out that the hustle and bustle, which represents a City, in this song is not what life is about. In the country there is calm. You can know your own thoughts. You can examine yourself. That’s how you find the river. That’s why he keeps saying nothing is going my way. I think he means all that stuff is behind him. It’s not going his way. And then later in the song, he says it’s closer and it’s not so many light years away. I think that’s the mid life. But when you find your River when you find your purpose and you get all the crap out and you discover what has already happened, you can just ride it out. That’s what he says. At the end. You just ride it out and all of this is coming your way. All the good stuff is coming your way. It’s sad that by the time you figure out what life’s about it’ll be time to leave. And it will be somebody else’s journey. Someone else will have to find the river.
This was my cling to song when I my father died when I was young, and I had to explore the world while there was no one to take the lead anymore. Great reaction and keep up the great work!
"river poet search naivete". Thanks for checking out this song, Harri. Hardly anyone reacts to this masterpiece, I listen to it whenever I feel a need for a piece of the sublime. Michaels singing and lyrics, and the chorus and background singing is just inspired. Just don't ask me what it is specifically about...not a clue and I don't think there is a great need anyway ;)
I like that you are not reacting just to the well known hits... so many reactors just do Everybody Hurts. This was the song that closed the album, always had such a bittersweet feeling after the song .... which is what Automatic for the People always was for me, yearning, openness, loss. What a genius album. Another good video!
This gorgeous song has echoes of fellow Georgian writer Flannery O’Connor’s magnificent short story ‘The River’. Both are goosebump inducing works of art.
My favourite REM song... probably my favourite song by any artist in fact. I don't think Stipe has ever really talked about the meaning of this song. It's important that you make your own narrative and in my opinion, you're not far wrong with how you describe it. Find the river..... leave the road and memorise.... it's kind of telling us to find our own path in life in order to achieve our goals. My particular favourite line is "strength and courage overrides, privileged and weary eyes...." always makes me think of my Mum when she battled cancer bravely until the end. She and my my Dad both had this song as their funeral song.
I also see it as someone who is now older looking back i often do it by going back to old places i went to as a kid. It's healthy looking back but also brings pain as i remember my parents and family members who are no longer around.
Много хубава музика,която те кара да мечтаеш!Всеки ден ги слушам,защото носят спокойствие в душата ми.Поздрав за всички,които ги обичат от България и мен-Роси❤❤❤❤
Harri it took me many, many repeat listenings to piece together the lyrics and trust me you did far better on your first go than me! The way I hear it now is very close to your interpretation of an older person, nearing end of life, passing on his/her wisdom to someone younger. BTW that's a melodica sounding like a harmonica. Great video, I'm glad you like it as it is one of my favorites.
This sent me right back to 1992 and late nights in the office...working hard to pull myself out of a career slump and the economic recession of the early 90s. This song sent me somewhere then and 32 years later it does the same. Played the cassette tape on my office desktop player back in the day (after hours only). I had forgotten this song until today, but I found myself a 20 something, corporate peon again when I heard it. BTW, 1993 was my breakout year!
REM are so, so good and this is their best album and one of the best album closers of all time. The run of Man on the Moon, Nightswimming and Find the River is the best end to an album. Thanks for a great review.
I like the image of the river representing life and the ocean representing death, where the river has energy and runs an inevitable course from a beginning to an ending point. It may be tumultuous or serene at various times. Finally it disappears into the abyss of the ocean (death). Into that have emptied innumerable other lives along the same journey. The ocean is eternity and infinity and where we all end. It’s natural, I think is the point. “The ocean is the river’s goal,” “River to the ocean goes.” If I’m understanding the lyrics correctly, I think it’s a comforting metaphor to see everyone dissolve together. “All of this is coming your way.”
Thanks for the video. I think you're right that it's a song about aging, from an older person to a young one. Then again, as Stipe has often said, aside from songs like "Everybody Hurts," most of their lyrics are free-associative and impressionistic. More about the sounds of the words than their exact meaning. Still, there's definitely a theme of facing life knowing we'll die here, and I take it along with the lovely chorus bits to be quite inspirational and encouraging, to keep going. It's comforting, maybe, to face life's challenges when we know in the end "the ocean is the river's goal." Finally, it's important to know that this is final track on an album, Automatic for the People, with many songs about loss and death. Stipe and his family lost his grandmother, inspiring the song "Sweetness Follows," and "Man on the Moon" is about our loss of Andy Kaufman and other rare people and how they live on in our memory. So, back when albums were albums, making this a hopeful, beautiful conclusion to Automatic leaves us with, again, hope, despite loss, fear of slowing down, the pressures of life.
I love this song. Anything from REM is so good. I have been a fan since the 80's. Michael Stipe is just beautiful. Please listen to EBow the Letter from REM. Nightswimming is another off the album that is very good.
I think it's a perfect song and your interpretation makes sense. It's also the song that members of the band would select to be played at their funeral.
the song is about finding the energy flow in life that carries each one of us through life. the background vocals indicate falling forward through life, on the river of life.
@@John_Locke_108 I remember buying some vinyl 33 1/3 because one of the songs I heard on the radio was good and the rest was trash. Rare to ever get an entire set that was all 100% good like REM. Automatic is #1, give a listen to Out of Time it is also superb.
@@randyhanson837 I have a hard time with that one because I got so sick of Shiny Happy People. Got overplayed so much. But I probably should revisit it.
@@John_Locke_108 I don't think it's a good or memorable song. No need to compare it to the rest of the album, just not a great song by itself. But I guess it's a question of taste. Actually I don't remember many good songs on AFTP as I remember from the previous album or Murmur. Gotta listen to it again.
My own interpretation of this song is we lives our lives too fast and miss so much. Find the river your life should flow down, plant roots along the banks if you can to stay in each spot a bit longer and enjoy it while they last... the rivers flow eventually takes you. Cos in the end you flow in to the ocean and end up as fortune for the undertow
To me this song speaks in parrallels to how life seems tough and a search and a struggle but along the journey, and the song instruments rather than than the lyrics say this part, theres a lot of beauty. Mr Stipes a poet not a describer subscriber.
I thought this was a love song when I first heard it, then realized it was about inevitable death and was like, dang you're dumb (me). Was made humble but I like the song a lot. Sad and pretty.
I named my unborn child River after this song. Sadly River didn’t make it past 9 weeks gestation but this song will always be important to me.
😢
Beautiful 🥲
Fuck sake! Sorry.
It’s not very often I drink, but sometimes I’ll have a Jack Daniel’s and Coke sit and watch UA-cam videos of songs I like
I’ve had a toast for River
Stay strong!
@@damo220 thank you so much!
The most underrated song of all time.
I have some of the lyrics to “Find The River” tattooed on my arm.
I have got to find the river…
Run through my head and fall away
Leave the road and memorize this life that pass before my eyes…
Perfect ending to a perfect album
Indeed.
Exactly, Night swimming and Find River capped off what I believe to be their best work
This whole album is utterly incandescent. Not a bad track on it. Brings back so many memories of lost friends and forgotten times from (cough) years ago.
REM is my favorite band and I can sing every song since murmur by heart. This song is the ultimate. No words needed. Perfection.
Sublime is the right word...one of REM's most beautiful melodies. There's melancholy, but it's uplifting all the same. Glad you took the time to listen to it, and kudos to whomever recommended it!
This song is from the album Automatic For the People from 1992. It deals of a great nearness to death representing as a river flowing into the ocean.
The beautiful acoustic guitars and the synthesizer, along with the amazing vocals, from Micheal, make this a masterpiece. A true classic for REM.
Great reaction Harri. Thanks Harri and Craig. Cheers from Canada 🇨🇦
You’re welcome!
What's great here is that you didn't catch all of his lyrics, but attached immediately to haunted, beautiful, ethereal tone of Michael's voice. He never sounded better than on Automatic. Your reaction at the end is how I always, always feel after listening to this song. Gorgeous sadness.
Perhaps my favorite REM song as well, even though it’s hard to put a finger on why. It feels sort of like an anthem for life and its motion.
The harmonica sounding thing is a melodica. It's a small handheld keyboard that you blow into. It was played by their drummer Bill Berry.
hmmm makes me think that Harri needs to react to Steely Dan "Aja" Seems like he would give this a standing ovation.
Long time REM fan here. This is one of their best, not just musically or lyrically but the symbolism in the video is stunningly effective. I am getting to be an old man, like the one in the video and it is spot on. Our lives are like a river that flows from one place to another and many of our fellow travelers are like the dog and accompany us, sometimes ahead and sometimes beside us, companions riding the river assisting us on our journey. Any animal that has dreams should have a place in heaven.
Mills background singing during the chorus is one of my favorite things in this world.
Absolutely chilling and hauntingly beautiful.
Same here
agreed
My favorite REM song...and that's saying something. Thanks for digging deeper for some fantastic songs.
In my opinion this is one of the most fantastic songs ever written!! Everything just fits perfectly - only few songs can compare....
"Even if I'm wrong, that's how I want to see it." *That* is how art is progressed. Yes.
Quanta poesia in questo pezzo... è il mio preferito....in 3 minuti racconta una vita che non è stata proprio facile... alla fine si ricongiunge al grande oceano 😢.... bravo Michael per il testo...e bravo il resto del gruppo... molto commovente
One of the most hauntingly beautiful poetic songs of it’s era, this is REM at their peak. I don’t know if this is about the contemplation of giving up on a hard life lived, or the river as a symbol of the passage of time and all the requisite trials and tribulations, wondrous triumphs and bitter disappointments that everyone experiences in life. It nevertheless leaves me spellbound. Keep up the good work, Harry. Peace and love from Canada.
I always interpreted it as an old soul leaving the earth and meeting a brand new one about to be born.
You know, I always felt like this song was a combination of so many complicated thoughts. This notion that when you’re so much in a hurry, and you got light years to go. You go through some serious crap to find out that the hustle and bustle, which represents a City, in this song is not what life is about. In the country there is calm. You can know your own thoughts. You can examine yourself. That’s how you find the river. That’s why he keeps saying nothing is going my way. I think he means all that stuff is behind him. It’s not going his way. And then later in the song, he says it’s closer and it’s not so many light years away. I think that’s the mid life. But when you find your River when you find your purpose and you get all the crap out and you discover what has already happened, you can just ride it out. That’s what he says. At the end. You just ride it out and all of this is coming your way. All the good stuff is coming your way. It’s sad that by the time you figure out what life’s about it’ll be time to leave. And it will be somebody else’s journey. Someone else will have to find the river.
This was my cling to song when I my father died when I was young, and I had to explore the world while there was no one to take the lead anymore. Great reaction and keep up the great work!
I used to listen to Out of Time after my father died and it helped me. Radio Song, hey, hey hey.
"river poet search naivete". Thanks for checking out this song, Harri. Hardly anyone reacts to this masterpiece, I listen to it whenever I feel a need for a piece of the sublime. Michaels singing and lyrics, and the chorus and background singing is just inspired. Just don't ask me what it is specifically about...not a clue and I don't think there is a great need anyway ;)
My favourite rem song
Michael Stipe is just amazing. ❤
Stipe's voice is so unique, and the tones he captures in songs like this one just blow me away every time.
One of thebest songs on Automatic For the People. ❤❤❤❤
I like that you are not reacting just to the well known hits... so many reactors just do Everybody Hurts. This was the song that closed the album, always had such a bittersweet feeling after the song .... which is what Automatic for the People always was for me, yearning, openness, loss. What a genius album. Another good video!
One of the greatest albums ever
This gorgeous song has echoes of fellow Georgian writer Flannery O’Connor’s magnificent short story ‘The River’. Both are goosebump inducing works of art.
I like the fact you pick requests that are obscure songs from widely-known artists.
My favourite of this Album
His voice is full of emotions
My favourite REM song... probably my favourite song by any artist in fact. I don't think Stipe has ever really talked about the meaning of this song. It's important that you make your own narrative and in my opinion, you're not far wrong with how you describe it. Find the river..... leave the road and memorise.... it's kind of telling us to find our own path in life in order to achieve our goals. My particular favourite line is "strength and courage overrides, privileged and weary eyes...." always makes me think of my Mum when she battled cancer bravely until the end. She and my my Dad both had this song as their funeral song.
The further we get from them, the more magical they become.
REM have such an amazing catalogue to dive in to, but 'Country feedback' will break your heart.
I also see it as someone who is now older looking back i often do it by going back to old places i went to as a kid.
It's healthy looking back but also brings pain as i remember my parents and family members who are no longer around.
What a beautiful melancholic tune love you
Много хубава музика,която те кара да мечтаеш!Всеки ден ги слушам,защото носят спокойствие в душата ми.Поздрав за всички,които ги обичат от България и мен-Роси❤❤❤❤
Thanks for reacting to this. Now I have a “new” REM song to obsess about!
Love this song and love the album it's from
Harri it took me many, many repeat listenings to piece together the lyrics and trust me you did far better on your first go than me! The way I hear it now is very close to your interpretation of an older person, nearing end of life, passing on his/her wisdom to someone younger. BTW that's a melodica sounding like a harmonica. Great video, I'm glad you like it as it is one of my favorites.
This sent me right back to 1992 and late nights in the office...working hard to pull myself out of a career slump and the economic recession of the early 90s. This song sent me somewhere then and 32 years later it does the same. Played the cassette tape on my office desktop player back in the day (after hours only). I had forgotten this song until today, but I found myself a 20 something, corporate peon again when I heard it. BTW, 1993 was my breakout year!
Inspiring analysis :) enjoyed your reaction, Harri
its beautiful, REM are such an amazing band.
REM are so, so good and this is their best album and one of the best album closers of all time. The run of Man on the Moon, Nightswimming and Find the River is the best end to an album. Thanks for a great review.
I like the image of the river representing life and the ocean representing death, where the river has energy and runs an inevitable course from a beginning to an ending point. It may be tumultuous or serene at various times. Finally it disappears into the abyss of the ocean (death). Into that have emptied innumerable other lives along the same journey. The ocean is eternity and infinity and where we all end. It’s natural, I think is the point. “The ocean is the river’s goal,” “River to the ocean goes.” If I’m understanding the lyrics correctly, I think it’s a comforting metaphor to see everyone dissolve together. “All of this is coming your way.”
Thanks for the video. I think you're right that it's a song about aging, from an older person to a young one. Then again, as Stipe has often said, aside from songs like "Everybody Hurts," most of their lyrics are free-associative and impressionistic. More about the sounds of the words than their exact meaning. Still, there's definitely a theme of facing life knowing we'll die here, and I take it along with the lovely chorus bits to be quite inspirational and encouraging, to keep going. It's comforting, maybe, to face life's challenges when we know in the end "the ocean is the river's goal." Finally, it's important to know that this is final track on an album, Automatic for the People, with many songs about loss and death. Stipe and his family lost his grandmother, inspiring the song "Sweetness Follows," and "Man on the Moon" is about our loss of Andy Kaufman and other rare people and how they live on in our memory. So, back when albums were albums, making this a hopeful, beautiful conclusion to Automatic leaves us with, again, hope, despite loss, fear of slowing down, the pressures of life.
I think you are spot on about the lyric interpretation Harri. Great analysis as usual
I love this song. Anything from REM is so good. I have been a fan since the 80's. Michael Stipe is just beautiful. Please listen to EBow the Letter from REM. Nightswimming is another off the album that is very good.
Harri's listened to E-Bow The Letter:
ua-cam.com/video/B_QzmzMXwwo/v-deo.html
I think it's a perfect song and your interpretation makes sense. It's also the song that members of the band would select to be played at their funeral.
the song is about finding the energy flow in life that carries each one of us through life. the background vocals indicate falling forward through life, on the river of life.
Think you nailed it Harris. Love your takes.
Nightswimming...also from the album Automatic For The People
Wonderful visual representations of moments in The Giver, novel.
My first time hearing this beautiful song 🎼🎼
Have you never heard the record it's from? If not then seek it out immediately. The whole record has this vibe. Automatic For The People.
@@John_Locke_108 I remember buying some vinyl 33 1/3 because one of the songs I heard on the radio was good and the rest was trash. Rare to ever get an entire set that was all 100% good like REM. Automatic is #1, give a listen to Out of Time it is also superb.
@@randyhanson837 I have a hard time with that one because I got so sick of Shiny Happy People. Got overplayed so much. But I probably should revisit it.
Not a harmonica it’s a melodica. When used appropriately it’s a gorgeous little instrument.
I love REM and I don't think they have any bad songs. Thanks for sharing.
The closing track on the 1992 album "Automatic for the People." It's considered one of their best albums, perhaps their best.
I have photo of Stipe on my wall. I bought it 20 years ago
Gotta come in with 2 comments. You hearing and understanding this song like it should be heard, amazing. Kutos to you. Fucking angelic song.
You will not find a bad song on Automatic For The People. It's perfect.
Even Ignoreland?
@@Texturas75 Yes. It might not be great, compared to the rest of the record, but it's far from being a bad song.
@@John_Locke_108 I don't think it's a good or memorable song. No need to compare it to the rest of the album, just not a great song by itself. But I guess it's a question of taste. Actually I don't remember many good songs on AFTP as I remember from the previous album or Murmur. Gotta listen to it again.
Star Me Kitten is my favorite song of all time. Haunting yet simple.
What is it about the socialist democratic down hill slide that is not making you happy comrade?@@Texturas75
The instrument is a melodica. I always find it quite evocative
My own interpretation of this song is we lives our lives too fast and miss so much. Find the river your life should flow down, plant roots along the banks if you can to stay in each spot a bit longer and enjoy it while they last... the rivers flow eventually takes you. Cos in the end you flow in to the ocean and end up as fortune for the undertow
From the river to the sea.❤❤❤
Buddy, like Rolling Stone proclaimed REM was the best band in America .
To me this song speaks in parrallels to how life seems tough and a search and a struggle but along the journey, and the song instruments rather than than the lyrics say this part, theres a lot of beauty. Mr Stipes a poet not a describer subscriber.
it's a melodica being played
I thought this was a love song when I first heard it, then realized it was about inevitable death and was like, dang you're dumb (me). Was made humble but I like the song a lot. Sad and pretty.
Hi mate, would love to see you react to some Ferocious Dog either “Broken Soldier” or “The Hope” 👍
❤❤❤
Was written for the late River Pheonix
So they wrote it for RP while he was still alive? Automatic for the People was released in Oct of 92 and he died a full year later
no / its the river of life gets to the sea no matter what you do .
Man, you got a lot out of the song from the first listen. It's a very poetic song so the lyrics are not very straightforward. Good job, sir.