"I got my spine, I got my Orange Crush..."
Orange Crush: R.E.M., Green
This song is one of many off of R.E.M.'s Green album, one of the most influential albums musically and lyrically for my life. For the meaning of this and many songs, Stipe himself is rather vague on the true meanings and words of the songs. I read something once that this song was about The Vietnam War and the use of Napalm- then it was also about the actual soda "Orange Crush" and really, the world will probably never know. And that in and of itself is the beauty of music.
What music means to one person, will mean something different to another. What words touch one person's life will do nothing for someone else's world. Lyrically this song did not inspire me... The music of this song is a very driving beat and a driving song.
When I graduated High School my father took me on a camping trip in East Texas. It was so hot and humid that to escape the heat he took me on the back roads and taught me to drive a standard transmission. Once I got the hang of it I went off on my own- playing this song over and over... shifting with the changes in the song, singing with the chorus. It was a potent moment in the relationship between my father and I... a turning point almost- and this song was the "theme song" to that moment.
Lyrics:
Follow me, don't follow me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
Collar me, don't collar me
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
We are agents of the free
I've had my fun and now it's time to
Serve your conscience overseas (over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me
High on the roof,
Thin the blood,
Another one climbs on the waves tonight,
Comin' in, you're home
We'd circle and we'd circle and we'd circle to stop and consider and
Centered on the pavement stacked up all the trucks jacked up and
Our wheels in slush and orange crush in pocket and all this here county
Hell any county it's just like heaven here and I was remembering and I
Was just in a different county and all then this whirlybird that I
Headed for I had my goggles pulled off I knew it all I knew every back
Road and every truck stop
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