OUT OF TIME: RADIO SONG

I have to admit that this was the song that pulled me into the album.  At the time of the Out Of Time release I was in between musical genres.  On one hand, hip hop, on the other alternative rock.  I seem to remember that it was a very eclectic time for MTV as well, the video lineups ran the gamut ... when there used to be video lineups! ... and all chart topping music was given credence, so you would often have rock and hip hop songs alternating.  Of course you also had specific programs like Yo!, 120 Minutes, and Headbangers Ball, but for the most part I think MTV was suffering from a music beast they created themselves.  That said, I found myself into everything.  I remember being transfixed by the video for Losing My Religion, but the song didn't particularly have an effect on me.  And then it was Shiny Happy People which was a turnoff although I was really into the B-52's, so when Radio Song came out with it's hip hop/ funk hook, I was all in.
  It was timing as well.  My friend had recently picked up on my interest in the band and around the time this song came out brought me to a record store and made me buy Green and Eponymous.  Not too long after, I picked up Out Of Time, but it was Radio Song that brought me to R.E.M. in a way that the single for Stand that I owned could not.  In hindsight, the song to me now is a little hokey and not very representative of what the band is all about, but at the time it was important.  When I first listened to the entire album there was a sort of awakening when this song transitioned to Losing My Religion that I didn't get when the latter was played on it's own.  As the album progresses there is the sense that this is a band that has a greater purpose aside from 3 minute pop songs.
  Why KRS-One?  Well, the man fits with R.E.M. quite nicely.  He's an activist, vegetarian, and a rapper who didn't particularly fit in with the rap mainstream.  The collaboration was a sort of swap with Michael Stipe and KRS-One's HEAL project.  Under the name of Boogie Down Productions, he had released a few well received and popular albums with Jive Records and there is no doubt that they did not escape the notice of Peter Buck.  This was seemingly a match made in heaven.  And in a way it was and still is.  The song holds up well and the rap interjections serve to underline the message of the song.
  The impetus for the song apparently comes from Michael's past when he had a relationship breakup and realized that radio songs are manipulative, and in this light the song does not crucify radio in itself as much as how fragile we are as lovers and friends that we could let this manipulation happen to begin with.  It's this form of self torture in which we scream at how every song is about our lives and simultaneously hate the reflections and can't get enough of them.  So, do the DJ's suck and manipulate us?  Or do we do it to ourselves?  This is what the song is trying to get at, it is not a treatise against radio ... although when confronted with the notion of biting the hand that feeds you, Bill replied: "We don't owe radio shit."  Subtle.






RADIO SONG

Hey!
I can’t find nothing on the radio
Uh! Yo turn to that station.

The world is collapsing around our ears
I turned up the radio but I can’t hear it

When I got to the house and I called you out
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It’s that same sing song on the radio
Makes me sad
I meant to turn it off
To say goodbye
To leave in quiet
(See ya!)
Radio song
Hey hey hey

I’ve everything to show
I’ve everything to hide
Look into my eyes
Listen

(Yeah!)
When I got to the show
Yo ho ho
I could tell that you had been crying, crying
It’s that same sing song and the DJ sucks
It makes me sad
I tried to turn it off
(Turn it off!)
To say goodbye my love
That radio song
Hey hey hey

The world is collapsing
Around our ears
I turned up the radio
But I can’t hear it

Yeah
(Yeah! Baby, baby, baby, baby!)

I tried to sing along
But damn that radio song
Hey hey hey
Hey hey hey

I’ve everything to show
I’ve everything to hide
Look into my eyes
Listen to the radio
I turned up the radio
Well I can’t hear it
No I can’t hear it

Hey hey hey hey
(Say what?)
Hey hey hey
(Let me do that with you)
Hey hey hey hey hey
Hey hey hey
(Yeah, unh!)
Hey hey hey hey hey
(Say what, say what, say what?)
Hey hey hey

Check it out!
What are you saying?
What are you playing?
Who are you obeying day out day in?
Baby baby baby baby
That stuff is driving me crazy
DJs communicate to the masses
Sex and violent classes
Now our children grow up prisoners
All their life radio listeners



  This tab in my mind the beginning of some interesting transcriptions.  The band is getting more into organ and orchestration, so the guitar lines on the track are from different sources.  It's likely that the funky guitar line was written by Mills or Peter Holsapple, the latter playing the line on bass when the band played Unplugged.  Tellingly, Peter Buck plays acoustic guitar on the program with the capo on the first fret.  This is also the introduction of what I will call the "Positive Open" (+0) which is strumming or picking the string above (in the case of the neck of the guitar) or below (in the case of the body of the guitar) the physical string bridges on the guitar.  Not all guitars are built to have access to the string below the body bridge ... Fenders come to mind ... but Buck goes to this sound from here on out on occasion.
  All that taken into account, the below transcription is impossible to play on one guitar.  I am staying true to the recording.  When I play the tune, I capo an acoustic, funk up the F chord and play the chorus as a barred Bb.  But that's just one way to do it.  The band does not play this song live and I'm sure it is because of the complexity of the arrangement.

RADIO SONG

Intro/ Chorus

e|-----11------11------11------11-----|

B|---13--13--13--13--14--14--14--14---|

G|-13------13------13------13---------|

D|------------------------------------|

A|------------------------------------|

E|------------------------------------|

Verse (Capo 1)

e|-(+0)---0---|

B|-(+0)---0---|

G|-(+0)---1---|

D|--------2---|

A|--------2---|

E|--------0---|

Verse Bridge (capo 1)

e|-0---3---|

B|-0---0---|

G|-2---2---|

D|-2---2---|

A|---------|

E|---------|

Verse (Funky Guitar)

e|-------------------------------|

B|-------------------------------|

G|-------------------------------|

D|----3-1-3-1---------3-1-3-1-3--|

A|-----3-----3-1h------3---3-----|

E|-1-1-----------4-1-1-----------|

Bridge to Verse

e|---------|

B|---------|

G|-7---8---|

D|-8---8---|

A|-8---6---|

E|-6---6---|

Outro (Capo 1)

e|-0--|

B|-3--|

G|-4--|

D|----|

A|----|

E|----|