Stories in Song # 6 R.E.M.

 

R.E.M's lyrics, particularly on their early records, were generally oblique to say the least. But Fables Of The Reconstruction specifically, as its title implies, is a series of narratives, focussed on the Deep South and its cultural myths and memories. For Life & How To Live It, fourth song on the first side of the record, the inspiration was very specifically local to the band's home in Athens, Georgia.

 

 

This was the house in Athens, where local eccentric, (or more explicitly schizophrenia sufferer), Brev Mekis lived. Michael Stipe, who wrote the song's lyric, generally took up the story before the band played the song on the Fables tour: 

 

'He took his house and he built a wall right in the middle of the house. He had an apartment on one side with clothes, furniture, food, books, a radio. He had an apartment on the other side. Different clothes, different books, different furniture, different food. TV set.

He’d live on this side for a while, until he got tired of it. He’d put his book down, take his clothes off, walk over to this side and he’d live over here for a while until he got tired of it. And he’d flip-flop to this side and live over here for a while until he got tired of it, and he did this back and forth until he died.

After he died, they went in to clean out the house so they could rent it out to college students. These people went back to the closet in the very back of this apartment, and they opened the door and the whole closet was filled up with these books.

And each book was exactly the same, and this man had written these books, and had them all published, and all stacked his closet. He’d never sold one, or given one away. And the name of the book was Life and How to Live It.'

One of the band's most evocative and enduring songs, it was one they came back to regularly live in their concerts towards the end of their career.

'Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
Two doors, two names to call your other and your own
Keep these books well stocked away and take your happy home

My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there

Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
Raise the walls to hide these flaws, the carpenter should rest
So that when you tire of one side the other serves you best

My carpenter's out and running about, talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there

The hills ringing hear the words in time, listen to the holler
Listen to my walls within my tongue
Can't you see you made my ears go tin
The air quicken tension building inference suddenly
Life and how to live it

Raise the walls to hide these flaws, the carpenter should rest
So that when you tire of one side the other serves you best
Read about the wisdom wall, the knock-knock-knock
A secret knock, one hammer's locked, the other wisdom's lost

My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there

My carpenter's out and running about, walking the
Listen to the holler
My pockets are out and running about, barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there

Listen, listen to the holler
If I write a book it will be called
Life and how to live it.'

 

Berry / Buck / Mills / Stipe