Songfacts®:

• This was the first single off the album. It didn't chart, but the album was the first by R.E.M. to chart in the UK.
• This was influenced by Soul records R.E.M. listened to. The band approached the song as a "tongue-in-cheek tribute" because they were a bunch of white guys trying, but failing, to emulate their black Soul idols. Instead, they wound up with their own unique sound.
• Lead singer Michael Stipe refers in the lyrics to "Brother Ray." This is most likely pianist Ray Charles.
• This was never intended to be included on a record. When they played it at some surprise gigs in their hometown of Athens, Georgia, the crowds loved it, so they recorded it.
• Philomath is a town referred to in the lyrics as a place gone to for inspiration. It is a real town in Georgia, east of Atlanta, but Stipe claims he's never been there. He picked it because it was "fictional-sounding."
• Again with the Soul motif, Stipe screams at several points, "Gentlemen testify!" This is a phrase often heard in black churches.
• The line, "Lawyer Jeff he knows the lowdown" refers to former R.E.M. manager Jefferson Holt, who was fired following allegations of sexual harassment.
• The band no longer plays this song in any of their concerts. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Sam - Lincoln, NE, for above 2
• Regarding the lyrics, "Philomath they know the lowdown," Philomath was a stop on the Georgia Railway near Athens. >>>

  Suggestion credit:
  Tristan - Pennsburg, PA
• The music video, directed by Michael Stipe and Rick Aguar, shows the guys at a drive-in theater, juxtaposed with images of them running and tumbling through a country field and performing in silhouette. "We used the new-to-us 'blue screen' process," Peter Buck told MTV UK in 2001. "So we have dinosaurs and monsters in the background. It's probably the most humorous video we've ever done. For a band that's kind of noted for not having a sense of humor, I kind of enjoy that aspect of it."
• This song title occasionally appears without an apostrophe, a punctuation mark the band often eschews.
• This was the first R.E.M. song to employ a horn section.