Monday, April 17, 2023

Find the River

On October 12, 1992, I started my first job in Washington, D.C.  One week before I started, R.E.M. released its greatest album:  Automatic for the People.  The last song on that album, "Find the River," is addressed to someone who is at the beginning of his or her career.  It makes me happy that R.E.M. released this song just as my career was beginning, and it's full of sound advice -- especially for someone who grew up next to a river.  I only figured made these connections a few months ago, but I listened to this album almost every day for a year back in 1992 and 1993, so I probably benefited by osmosis:

Find the River

Hey now, little speedyhead
The read on the speed-meter says
You have to go to task in the city.
Where people drown and people serve
Don't be shy, your just dessert
Is only just light years to go.

    Me, my thoughts are flower strewn
    With ocean storm, bayberry moon.
    I have got to leave to find my way,
    Watch the road and memorize
    This life that passed before my eyes
    And nothing is going my way.

The ocean is the river's goal.
A need to leave the water knows
We're closer now than light years to go.

    I have got to find the river.
    Bergamot and vetiver
    Run through my head and fall away.
    Leave the road and memorize
    This life that passed before my eyes
    And nothing is going my way.

There's no one left to take the lead
But I tell you and you can see
We're closer now than light years to go.
Pick up here and chase the ride
The river empties to the tide
Fall into the ocean.

    The river to the ocean goes
    A fortune for the undertow
    None of this is going my way.
    There is nothing left to throw
    Of ginger, lemon, indigo
    Coriander stem and rose of hay.

    Strength and courage overrides
    The privileged and weary eyes
    Of river poet search naiveté.
    Pick up here and chase the ride
    The river empties to the tide
    All of this is coming your way.

Written by BerryBuckMillsStipe (1992), as they used to say on the R.E.M. albums, although my guess is that these words came from Michael Stipe.

4 comments:

  1. I didn't remember this song at all, which seemed strange because I feel like I listened to Automatic for the People quite a bit. I had recorded it from someone on one side of a cassette, and I'm pretty sure I had Murmur on the other side. It makes me wonder if Automatic for the People ran longer than 45 minutes, and so I had to cut out a song in making my own recording.

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  2. For years, I had the impression that Nightswimming was the last song on the album, but it's actually the next-to-last song.

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  3. Boy, that "Nightswimming" is a pretty thing!

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  4. "Nightswimming" and "Verdi Cries" (by 10,000 Maniacs) are the two songs from that era that I have listened to the most.

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