MONSTER: CRUSH WITH EYELINER

  As I mentioned in the intro to this album, my friend and I picked up Monster during a midnight sale. I remember popping in the cassette and before this track saying: "And now an R.E.M. song we've never heard." The thing about CRUSH is that it is the gateway to the album. KENNETH is a great opener and tells you what you need to know about the changed sound of the band, but it's CRUSH that tells you everything you need to know about the theme of the album and the characters contained within. In MONSTER, Stipe has mastered the creation of a persona. He dabbled with characters singing from a point of view in the past--particularly in FABLES--but on MONSTER he does something he had never done before, he gets personal.
  In CRUSH, the infatuate narrator is smitten with a female. This is all new ground for Stipe who never dealt so directly with lust and passion as he does here, not to mention his actual identification of a gender. In a bold move, Stipe directly addresses gender and sexuality throughout the entire album in a way he never had before. The safe, top 40 warbling from OUT OF TIME and AUTOMATIC are gone, but it has bought him the opportunity to actually speak his mind through his characters. The song is also an examination of what we individually and differently find attractive as these are not your cookie cutter, Jack and Diane style lovers. This is the counter culture. The underbelly of lust, but Stipe is not only deeming this lust okay, he is specifically saying that it exists, it's normal, and it's beautiful.
  In true T. Rex style, Stipe is using the rock and glam platform to talk about the emotional struggle we deal with just to connect with someone. The idea of having to invent a person that another would be attracted to, who do we make ourselves in order to be attractive? But what if the other person is not faking? What does that say about how we see ourselves? Are we at face value not attractive enough to catch the eye of our crush? These are the characters of MONSTER, the people whose stories you don't hear often enough, the off kilter personages that shamble through the world and also need love. Once upon a time, Stipe said in an interview that the reason his lyrics were so distancing and non specific was because the world might not be ready for him. Well, starting here we get him and it puts R.E.M. on a completely different path musically and thematically. Some were not ready for it.
  The only real change below from what you can find in line is the word 'inventive' substituted for invented. The singer is specifically referencing the line before about convincing her as she had convinced them and often live, Stipe would change the word 'that' to 'well.' In the video link, I've posted the official video because it's hilariously karaoke in a nod to Stipe not liking to lip sync in his videos, keep an eye out for cameos of the band. There's also a great performance of them on 'Top of the Pops' where he really can't lip synch the song ...

CRUSH WITH EYELINER

I know you
I know you've seen her
She's a sad tomato
She's three miles of bad road
Walking down the street
Will I never meet her?
She's a real woman, child
Oh my kiss breath turpentine

I am smitten

I'm the real thing

(I'm the real thing)
Have you seen her come around?
My crush with eyeliner

I'm in like
I'm infatuated
It's all too much, the pressure
She's all that I can take
What position should I wear?
And cop an attitude

(Faker)
How can I convince her?

(Faker)
That I'm invented too

Yeah

I am smitten

I'm the real thing

(I'm the real thing)
We all invent ourselves and

Uh, you know me

Yeah

She's a sad tomato
She's three miles of bad road
She's her own invention

(She's her own invention)
That gets me in the throat
What can I make myself be?
Uh, life is strange

(Yeah, life is strange)
What can I make myself be?

(Faker)
To make her mine

I am smitten

I'll do anything

(I'll do anything)
My kiss breath turpentine
My crush with eyeliner

I am smitten

Uh, you know me

(Yeah, you know me)
I could be your Frankenstein
My crush with eyeliner

I am smitten

I'm the real thing

(I'm the real thing)
Won't you be my valentine?
My crush with eyeliner

  Peter here is back on the delay/echo train, again it feels like he bought the guitar center and tried every effect he could think of.  The result is pretty cool. There are two main guitars here. In my tab I've eliminated the high e string from the D and G chords, but you could easily play it with, it sounds better on its own without it. I've also added the fills that Peter used live because they were part of the song almost immediately after the album came out.

CRUSH WITH EYELINER

Verse (Strum and hold A for intro)

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

B|-2---3---3---|

G|-2---0---2---|

D|-2---0---0---|

A|-0---2-------|

E|-0---3-------|

Verse Fill #1 (Live)

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

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

G|-4b-4-0---|

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

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

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

Verse Fill #2 (Live)

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

B|---7---7--7--7---------|

G|->9-9b--9b-9b-9b-------|

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

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

E|----------------0-3b---|

Bridge

e|-2---|

B|-2---|

G|-4---|

D|-4---|

A|-4---|

E|-2---|

Chorus

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

B|-0---3---3---2---0---3---3---|

G|-1---2---0---2---1---2---0---|

D|-2---0---0---2---2---0---0---|

A|-2-------2---0---2-------2---|

E|-0-------3---0---0-------3---|

Lead

e|---7------0-------7------0-------|

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

G|-9b-9<7-7b-5----9b-9<7-7b-5------|

D|------------7-5------------7-5---|

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

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

e|->10-10---10----->12-12---12------15---|

B|->10--10---10-10->12--12---12--12-15---|

G|->11---11---11--->13---13---13---------|

D|->12---12---12--->14---14---14---------|

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

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

End on E.