Michael Stipe introduced this song onstage in Buenor Aires on 1st November 2008 by saying, 'This is a song that represents great hope and great promise, a song that represents the dream of The United States of America and what it may become in the next three days.' Three days later Barrack Obama was elected President.
Train travel is the most glorious experience. Here it's represented as utopian dream. In its simplest terms this is just a great rock song. Signature Peter Buck riff, full on momentum, a band in motion, Michael twisting at the mic, Berry and Mills backing him up as they did so often and so gloriously on those early albums.
But it's also a hopeful one. That we can reach our destination. Almost twelve years years after that night in Buenos Aires Trump has succeeded Obama and it seems we're still a ways away.
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