REM, Nightswimming...

josef k.

Dangerous Mystagogue
Is this a good song?

The idea of the song is good. History happens at night, with a dive into music.
 

littlebird

Wild Horses
Is this a good song?

The idea of the song is good. History happens at night, with a dive into music.

Hard to define a good song as music, as any art form, is so subjective to the listener. But, for what its worth, it is one of my favourites. Captures a moment in time quite poignantly, I think - an evening in what seems like Summer, friends skinny dipping, one of those random moments that affixes itself to memory.

John Paul Jones is responsible for the string arrangement, and the oboe, is beautiful.
 

swears

preppy-kei
Just listened to this on Spotify and it's lovely. My mum had some REM tapes when I was a kid, I think I half remember this one... Usually I find REM rather boring and think Stipe is a tit in particular.
 

empty mirror

remember the jackalope
i love early REM records
and night swimming is a great song

the Joe Boyd produced Fables of the Reconstruction holds up really well
i pick up anything that his name appears on

here are the lyrics for the google handicapped:
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago,
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse
Still, it's so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge
The moon is low tonight

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday

Nightswimming, remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
Could not describe nightswimming

You, I thought I knew you
You, I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me,
This one laughing quietly underneath my breath
Nightswimming

The photograph reflects,
Every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet night
 

josef k.

Dangerous Mystagogue
In terms of childhood nostalgia this one hits me hard! but..
could you elaborate on this? i always assumed Stipe was just babbling.

This is not very easy to explain. I think I would start babbling.

Edit: But, in my current condition, why not. Stipe seems be talking about something quite specific. A specific scene, like the one shown in the video. But water and night exist in an older relationship. Civilization begins on the water, and with its first move, invents fire. So night stops being natural, stops being the night of the animals, and becomes a human, constructed, technological thing, lit by the light of a fire, around which people gather, tell stories, sing songs. So night and music are invented at exactly the same time, and the history of civilization is the history of both. So "nightswimming" - you dive into history, into night, into music... Or, alternatively, all this is PC.
 
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