Album: Out Of Time (1991)

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• I sat there looking ugly
  Looking ugly and mean
  I knew what you were saying
  You were saying to me
  
  Baby's got some new rules
  Baby, said she's had it with me
  It seems a shame to waste your time on me
  It seems a lot to waste your time for me
  
  Left me to love
  What it's doing to me
  
  There's a lot of honey in this world
  Baby, this honey's for me
  You've got to do what you do
  Do it with me
  It seems a shame you waste your time for me
  
  Left me to love
  What it's doing to me
  
  Knocked silly
  Knocked flat
  Sideways down
  These things they pick you up
  And they turn you around
  Say your piece
  Say you're sweet for me
  It's all the same to share the pain with me
  It's all the same, save the shame for me
  
  Left me to love
  What it's doing to me
  
  Baby's got some new rules
  Baby said she's had it with me
  There's a fly in the honey
  Baby's got a baby with me
  That's a part
  That's a part of me
  
  Left me to love
  What it's doing to me
  
  Left me to love
  What it's doing to me
  
  What about me?
  What about me? Writer/s: Bill Berry, Michael Mills, Michael Stipe, Peter Buck
  Publisher: Universal Music Publishing Group
  Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Comments: 3

• Myla from San Diego, CaI've read that Michael Stipe and Natalie Merchant dated for a while. Maybe this was a peek into what happened to them? I guess we'll never know.
• Bolan from Collingwood, CanadaBah, I dont see it that way at all. Well not really. I think the retrospective lyrics of a guy who genuinely feels he does not deserve the love his partner is giving him. Then he blames her for leaving him. He cant live up to his partners "new rules" so his partner "Left him to love" and in his ignorance failing to see what he has don to his lover sits in self pity "what about me" stands as his last words. Not what about my Child, or what about "US" SELFISH DUDE!
  Also not to mention his statement that all but Brags about his infidelity "There's a lot of honey in this world". It seems to me his statement of "It seems a shame you waste your time for me" is a personal thought unshared with his lover, but a fact he firmly believes... reguardless of all of these points its a fantastic song, and Dudes all over need to take a lesson from it. I suppose in the end Charles and I have a similar view... Just didnt seem that way when i began. "theres something here i find it hard to ignore" (REM Flowers of Guatemala)
• Charles from Bronxville, NyVery interesing song. My interpretation is that this is about a man who has been full of self loathing and through the knowledge that he and his girlfried/wife (?) have concieved a child has found redemption. He is loving what the idea of becoming a father is doing to him. She is telling him to straighten up, and his song tells how he'll be able to now based on the changes that are going on inside him as he reconsiders his self worth.
  
  Themes of redemption are always moving and I find this one particularly so. As a Dad I can tell you there is much truth in this song. God bless you Michael Stipe, you really are something.
  
  I should listen to more REM. I only know 4 or 5 f their songs.

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