Exhuming McCarthy

Album: Document (1987)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Senator Joseph McCarthy was a Republican politician who in 1950 caused a sensation by claiming to hold a list of about 200 communists working in the State Department. He continued a 'witch-hunting' campaign until the enquiries against these officials were halted in 1954, when it was shown that McCarthy and his aides had been falsifying evidence. By this time, however, many thousands of people in public life and the arts had been blacklisted as suspected Communists or communist sympathizers.
  • Included in the song is a sound clip of the head attorney for the United States Army, Joseph Welch, rebuking Senator Joseph McCarthy during the Army-McCarthy Hearings.
  • The typewriter heard at the beginning of this song was the very same machine on which Michael Stipe wrote all of Document's lyrics. Document was the band's first platinum album. In 2006, it was voted 49th in a Q readers' poll of the "Best Albums Ever." >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Edward Pearce - Ashford, Kent, England, for all above

Comments: 2

  • Rabbi Meyer from Central WisconsinJoe McCarthy is buried in St. Mary's Cemetery in Appleton, WI
  • Don from San Antonio, TxLove Document! I'm a hardcore punk, so it kinda ends there. But side 2 never left my car stereo deck. Fireplace & Lightnin' Hopkins rule it.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Philip Cody

Philip CodySongwriter Interviews

A talented lyricist, Philip helped revive Neil Sedaka's career with the words to "Laughter In The Rain" and "Bad Blood."

Michael Franti

Michael FrantiSongwriter Interviews

Franti tells the story behind his hit "Say Hey (I Love You)" and explains why yoga is an integral part of his lifestyle and his Soulshine tour.

Graham Parker

Graham ParkerSongwriter Interviews

When Judd Apatow needed under-appreciated rockers for his Knocked Up sequel, he immediately thought of Parker, who just happened to be getting his band The Rumour back together.

Dennis DeYoung

Dennis DeYoungSongwriter Interviews

Dennis DeYoung explains why "Mr. Roboto" is the defining Styx song, and what the "gathering of angels" represents in "Come Sail Away."

Chris Frantz of Talking Heads

Chris Frantz of Talking HeadsSongwriter Interviews

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz on where the term "new wave" originated, the story of "Naive Melody," and why they never recorded another cover song after "Take Me To The River."

Dar Williams

Dar WilliamsSongwriter Interviews

A popular contemporary folk singer, Williams still remembers the sticky note that changed her life in college.