This song is by no means among my favourite R.E.M. songs but I don't dislike it either. It's an important moment in their career, as well as a gateway track to what they would become over the next few years. The path they chose on their journey to eventually becoming arguably the biggest band in the world for a couple of years in the early Nineties.
This was their breakthrough single, the one that first took them onto the MTV playlists and into the higher regions of the American Billboard Singles Chart. Accompanied by a rather gloomy but immaculately shot promo which gathered together much of the murky wonder of their early albums, and certainly the fact that they were essentially a 'Southern' band, and distilled it for wider consumer appeal.
A compromise essentially, but R.E.M. would need to make compromises to get to where they were eventually going. Less obscure and more honed than previous songs, and leading the way to World Leader Pretend, Losing My Religion and the whole Automatic For The People album.
This is where a lot of people who had been either immune or unaware of their charms decided, 'Oh, I quite like that one.' It's also where a lot of early fans who preferred their murky, early artiness, signed off I imagine. I stuck with them.
The message of the song itself was widely misunderstood. This is by no means a love song despite its title. The band, and Michael Stipe particularly would return to these themes over the coming years. It was obviously something that troubled him and them. How to become bigger, and eventually bigger and bigger yet remain true to yourselves. I think they did a pretty good job of it, all things considered.
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