NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI: THE WAKE-UP BOMB

  This was the first song I heard by R.E.M. that I flat out did not like. The first time I heard it was at the MTV Music Video Awards and after re-watching this performance it is obvious that the song is just not in Bill Berry's wheelhouse. The performance is slow and it seems to get slower as it progresses. In further 1995 performances the song is just as plodding which turns a questionable song into a boring, bad set killer. The video I've added is actually from a later tour and it is the song on speed which starts to do it some justice.
  Lyrically, the song feels juvenile: 'My head's on fire and high esteem?' There are a number of things wrong with that statement, plus Stipe seems to have hit a wall on the first person journey that began with MONSTER, before he wouldn't commit to songs from the singer's perspective and now he can't stop saying 'I.' I can't help but wonder if NAIHF would've been stronger without this one--maybe give it to a Batman movie like REVOLUTION.

THE WAKE-UP BOMB

I look good in a glass pack
I look good and mean
I look good in metallic sick wrap around blackout tease
I scud along the horizon

I drink some sweet tree tea
I get high in my low ass boot cut jean
I like being seen
I look good in my drink eat no sleep

Take a leap longevity
I get high on my attitude 

Latitude 1973
I'm in deep

My head's on fire and high esteem
Carry my dead bored been-there done-that

Anything

Oh, the wake-up bomb
Oh, the wake-up bomb
Oh, the wake-up bomb
Oh, the wake-up bomb

My head's on fire and high esteem
Get drunk and sing along with Queen
Practice my T Rex moves and make the scene
Carry my dead bored been-there done-that

Anything

I had to knock a few buildings over
I make an ugly mess
I had to blow a gasket
Drop transmission
I had to decompress
I had to write the great American novel
I had a neutron bomb
I had to teach the world to sing by the age of 21
I wake up

(Wake up)
I wake up

(Wake up)
I threw up when I saw what I'd done

Oh, the wake-up bomb
Oh, the wake-up bomb

My head's on fire and high esteem
Get drunk and sing along with Queen
Practice my T Rex moves and make the scene
I'd rather be anywhere doing anything

I've had enough, I've seen enough, I had it all, I'm giving up
I won the race, I broke the cup, I drank it all, I spit it up

Again!
I've had enough, I've seen enough, I had it all, giving up
Won the race, I broke the cup, drank it all, spit it up

Yeah atomic

Supersonic
What a joke

I'm dumb
See ya

Don't wanna be ya
Lunch meat

Pond scum

My head's on fire and high esteem
Get drunk and sing along with Queen
Practice my T Rex moves and make the scene
I'd rather be anywhere doing anything
Yeah

I'd rather be anywhere doing anything
Yeah

I'd rather be anywhere doing anything

Yeah

(Alright)

  So easy. Play loud. I love ending on the F chord.

THE WAKE-UP BOMB

Verse

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

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

G|-9---7---6---4-|

D|-9---7---7---5-|

A|-7---5---7---5-|

E|-0---0---5---3-|

Chorus

e|-3---3---3---3-3--2-3-2-0---|

B|-5---3---5---3-5--3------3--|

G|-5---4---5---4-5--2---------|

D|-5---5---5---5-5--0---------|

A|-3---5---3---5-3------------|

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

Play C to bridge to Verse

Lead

e|--12--10----------|

B|----12----14--12--|

G|------------14----|

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

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

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

End on F