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Real People Mentioned in
R.E.M. Songs
Version 1.2
by Gary Nabors
The following is a list
of 51 real people mentioned in officially recorded
R.E.M. songs.
In addition to the people listed below, there are other
names mentioned in the
R.E.M. canon (Diane, Kevin), but these are not
easily traceable to
real people. Brackets [ ] indicate a lyrical
interpretation that
may not be shared by all. Please consult the
consensus lyric files
at
http://www.inmind.com/people/teague/remlyrics.html
for the lyrics to all
of the band's songs.
For general information on the band via the
world-wide web, see
http://www.svs.com/rem. Thanks to Ron Henry and Kipp
Teague for providing
help with this list.
MURMUR
Marat
"We Walk"
Jean-Paul Marat, 1743-1793.
French politician, physician, and
journalist. Leader
of the radical Montagnard faction during the French
Revolution. Assassinated
in his bath by Charlotte Corday d'Armont, a
young Girondin conservative.
Marat took frequent medicinal baths to
relieve a skin infection.
Lyric: "Marat's bathing."
RECKONING
[Lenin]
"Harborcoat"
Vladimir Ilich Lenin,
1870-1924. Founder of the Russian Communist Party
(Bolsheviks), inspirer
and leader of the Bolshevik Revolution, and first
head of the Soviet state,
1917-1924.
Jefferson
"Little America"
Jefferson Holt, the
band's manager from its formation until June 1996. On
_Reckoning_, the mention
of "Jefferson" was sometimes misinterpreted to be
a reference to Thomas
Jefferson, third U.S. president.
Nero
"Little America"
Nero Claudius Caesar.
37-68. Roman emperor, 54-68.
FABLES
OF THE RECONSTRUCTION
Man Ray
"Feeling Gravitys Pull"
1890-1976. American
artist, born in Philadelphia. Founder of Dada
movement in New York
and Paris.
(Old Man) Kensey
"Old Man Kensey"
Resident of Summerville,
Georgia, and associate of the folk artist Howard
Finster. Supposedly
held dogs for ransom.
Lawyer Jeff
"Can't Get There From Here"
No info at present,
but Lawyer Jeff is apparently a real person. At a
Chickasaw Mudd Puppies
concert in 1990, Ben Reynolds confessed that he
and his band mate had
been recently arrested, and called "Lawyer Jeff"
for assistance with
bail, etc. Others have suggested that Lawyer Jeff is
a reference to both
Jefferson Holt, and Bertis Downs, the band's lawyer,
but I disagree.
Brother Ray
"Can't Get There From Here"
Ray Charles (Ray Charles
Robinson), 1930-. Musician and composer, born
in Albany, Ga.
Blinded at age 7. Famous songs include "Rainy Night in
Georgia," "Hit the Road
Jack," and "Georgia on my Mind."
Kohoutek
"Kohoutek"
The comet Kohoutek was
named for the Czech astronomer Dr. Lubos Kohoutek,
who first sighted it
on March 3, 1973. The good doctor's name is
misspelled on the _Fables_
album inner sleeve ("Kahoutek").
Michael
"Kohoutek"
Probably Michael Stipe.
Wendell Gee
"Wendell Gee"
1927-1995. Former
proprietor of Wendell Gee Used Cars, on U.S. Route 129,
near Gainesville, Georgia.
Favorite TV show was "Wheel of Fortune."
Quoth Wendell, "I love
to see 'em give that money away." An excerpt from
his obituary, which
appeared in the Athens-Banner-Herald on November 26,
1995 follows:
"Wendell Gee,
69, of 695 John B. Brooks Rd., died Saturday,
November 25, 1995.
A native of Jackson, Ga., Mr. Gee was a son of the
late Roy Gee, Sr. and
Emma Fowler Gee and widow of Jenny Gee. He operated
Wendell Gee Used Cars
in Pendergrass and was a member of Pendergrass
Baptist Church.
He was a U.S. Army veteran of World War II and was a
member of the American
Legion and the Georgia Sheriff's Association. He
was preceded in death
by a son, Randall Gee. Survivors include his wife,
Lois Smith Gee; a daughter,
Elaine Watson; a stepdaughter, Rebecca
Skinner; two sons, Ronnie
Gee and Ricky Gee; a stepson, Patrick Garrett;
a brother, Roy Gee,
Jr.; 14 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren."
LIFES
RICH PAGEANT
Martin Luther
"Begin the Begin"
1483-1546. German
leader of the Protestant revolution.
Miles Standish
"Begin the Begin"
1584-1650. American
colonist, born in England, arrived in America 1620.
Leader of the Plymouth
colony.
Al Green
"Just a Touch"
American soul and gospel
singer, best known for the song, "Let's Stay
Together."
DEAD
LETTER OFFICE
Johnny Mike
"Burning Down"
Possibly Michael Stipe
(John Michael Stipe is his given name).
Reverend Bill Funderburk
"Voice of Harold"
Member of the gospel
group, The Revelaires. Sings "He Cared That Much
For Me" on the LP _The
Joy of Knowing Jesus_ (Temple Records LST 390).
Charles Surrat
"Voice of Harold"
Member of The Revelaires.
Composed "On Cavalry For Me."
John Barbee
"Voice of Harold"
Member of The Revelaires.
Featured on "The Joy of Knowing Jesus."
Harold Montgomery
"Voice of Harold"
Member of The Revelaires.
The pure tenor quality of his voice gives a
special interpretation
to the grand old hymn, "The Old Rugged Cross."
Rhonda Montgomery
"Voice of Harold"
Member of The Revelaires.
Exemplifies piano artistry. An artist.
J. Elmo Fagg
"Voice of Harold"
Wrote the liner notes
for The Revelaires album _The Joy of Knowing
Jesus_. Founder
and leader of The Blue Ridge Quartet for 23 years.
Joel Gentry
"Voice of Harold"
Producer of _The Joy
of Knowing Jesus_.
David
"Walter's Theme/King Of The Road"
David Thomas, singer
for Pere Ubu.
Walter
"Walter's Theme/King Of The Road"
Walter Rittenberry,
proprietor of Walter's Barbecue in Athens.
DOCUMENT
Thoreau
"Finest Worksong"
Henry David Thoreau,
1817-1862. Influential American naturalist and
literary figure.
Wrote _Walden_, 1854.
McCarthy
"Exhuming McCarthy"
Joseph Raymond McCarthy,
1908-1957. U.S. senator from Wisconsin.
Achieved national prominence
and power in the late 1940's and early 1950's
with sensational and
largely unsubstantiated accusations against those
U.S. officials he called
"Communists." Condemned by the senate in 1954.
Michael
"Strange"
Michael Stipe.
In the original version by Wire, Colin Newman sings,
"Joey's nervous and
the lights are bright." Stipe substituted his name
for the R.E.M. version.
Lenny Bruce
"It's the End of the World"
Controversial comedian
of the 1950's. His autobiography, published in
1972 is entitled, _How
To Talk Dirty and Influence People_.
Lester Bangs
"It's the End of the World"
Rock critic, most notably
with _Creem_ magazine. Lived fast, and died
young, in 1982.
An anthology of his essays and articles was published
in 1987 as _Psychotic
Reactions and Carburetor Dung_.
Leonid Brezhnev "It's
the End of the World"
Leonid Ilych Brezhnev,
1906-1982. Soviet leader, 1965-1982. First
Secretary of the Communist
party, later, General Secretary.
Leonard Bernstein
"It's the End of the World"
1918-1994. American
composer and conductor. Composed symphonic, chamber,
and choral music, as
well as musicals. One-time director of the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra.
Lightnin' Hopkins
"Lightnin' Hopkins"
Influential American
blues singer and guitarist.
Pee Wee
"Oddfellows Local 151"
According to the band,
a wino who lived in his car, parked on Barber
Street in Athens some
time in the early 1980's.
AUTOMATIC
FOR THE PEOPLE
[Bush]
"Drive"
George Bush, U.S. president.
("Bush-whacked")
Dr. Seuss
"The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite"
Pen name of Theodor
Seuss Geisel, 1904-1993. Writer and illustrator of
immensely popular children's
books. Best sellers include, "Horton Hatches
the Egg" (1940), "How
the Grinch Stole Christmas" (1957), "The Cat in the
Hat" (1957), and "Green
Eggs and Ham" (1960).
Monty
"Monty Got a Raw Deal"
Montgomery Clift, 1920-1966.
American actor. Best known films include,
"Red River," "From Here
to Eternity," and "A Place in the Sun." Was
fabled to be one of
the most handsome movie stars ever at his prime. A
biography of Clift,
entitled, _Monty_, was written by Robert Laguardia,
and published in 1977.
Andy Kaufman
"Man On The Moon"
American comedian and
actor. Most were introduced to Kaufman via his
left-of-center routines
he performed on "Saturday Night Live" in the
1970's. Kaufman
later became popular as "Latka" on the TV show "Taxi."
Later in his short life,
Kaufman took up a tongue-in-cheek career as a
professional wrestler,
wrestling women, and later, men.
Fred Blassie
"Man On The Moon"
Wrestling promoter who
Andy Kaufman somehow hooked up with (i.e., got to
"manage" him in his
"wrestling career" which involved challenging women
wrestlers to matches).
Blassie was probably more insane than Kaufman, if
you can believe it,
carrying a silver cane and dressing like a
country/western star.
The two had a somewhat tempestuous relationship -- lots of
shouting and bizarre
theatrics. They did a short film called "My
Breakfast with Blassie"
which was a combination sketch comedy thing and a
parody of "My Dinner
with Andre," which is what the lyric "Mr. Fred
Blassie and the 'Breakfast'
mess" refers to. It is strange and
embarrassing and hilarious
all at once, like most of Kaufman's comedy.
Blassie was most unaware
of the mockery or parody that Kaufman intended
with his wrestling venture.
Elvis
"Man On The Moon"
Elvis Aaron Presley.
The King.
Jesus
"Man On The Moon"
Jesus Christ.
Moses
"Man On The Moon"
Hebrew lawgiver, born
in Egypt. Presumed to be the author of the first
five books of the Bible.
Lived 13th c. B.C. The prototype of the
prophets.
Newton
"Man On The Moon"
Sir Isaac Newton, 1642-1727.
English mathematician and physicist.
Discovered the law of
universal gravitation, developed calculus. Popular
myth was that Newton
suddenly arrived at his theory of universal
gravitation one day
while sitting under an apple tree, after being struck
on the head by a falling
apple.
Charles Darwin
"Man On The Moon"
1809-1882. English
naturalist. Firmly established the theory of
organic evolution.
Authored _The Origin Of Species_, 1859.
MONSTER
Kenneth
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth"
Widely believed to be
Kenneth B. Schaffer, born 10/19/47, living in New
York. The following
is an excerpt from the November 7 issue of _New
York_ magazine:
On October 4, 1986, Dan Rather claimed he was attacked on Park
Avenue in New York by
two well-dressed thugs who pummeled him about the
head and kept repeating,
"What's the frequency, Kenneth?" Rather has been
the butt of countless
"Kenneth" jokes ever since. Now a Ken Schaffer, a
Manhattan electronics
expert, comes forward to say he thinks the attackers
may have meant to follow
him home from Columbia University's Harriman
Institute for the Advanced
Study of the Soviet Union, and mistakenly
followed Rather instead.
In 1986, says Ken Schaffer, both he and Rather were frequent
visitors at the Harriman
Institute. Rather, because he was about to go to
Iceland to cover the
Reagan-Gorbachev summit; and Schaffer, because in
1983 he had begun receiving
fuzzy images of Russian TV on his amateur
satellite getup.
(Schaffer was also the inventor of the wireless electric
guitar in his late twenties,
and the article claims he was a skilled
ham-radio operator since
age 8.) "Within a year," the article reads,
Schaffer "developed
a system that would track and decode the signal and
filter out the city's
microwave interference, all of which the satellite
experts said couldn't
be done." "By 1985, Columbia students and
journalists...could
peer into Russian's everyday lives. (Even one of
Schaffer's musical pals,
Sting, spent an evening at the school watching a
Moscow production of
Porgy and Bess. Deeply moved by the experience, he
composed his song "Russians"
the same night.)
"Schaffer theorizes that intelligence operatives followed the
wrong man--Rather instead
of him--home from the Harriman institute." Schaffer
does not claim to know
whether the operatives were KGB, CIA, or what.
Richard
"What's the Frequency, Kenneth"
Richard Linklater.
Director the films _Slacker_ and _Dazed and Confused_.
He appears in _Slacker_
as well- the very first person, who gets the cab
and babbles on and on
about parallel universes with a Texas accent. The
quote from the film
is, "Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as
apathy."
Iggy Pop
"I Took Your Name"
Stage name of James
Jewel Osterberg. Singer for the influential
proto-punk band The
Stooges. Debuted in 1969 with _The Stooges_,
currently a solo artist.
NEW
ADVENTURES IN HI-FI
Maria Callas "E-Bow
the Letter"
Greek-American operatic
soprano (1923-1977) noted for her dramatic
intensity. Ceased
performing in 1965.
William Greider "Departure"
National Affairs Correspondent
for "Rolling Stone" magazine, and
occasional contributor
to U.S. public TV show, "Frontline."
Martin Sheen "Electrolyte"
American actor, born
Ramon Estevez in 1940. After a career as a Broadway
actor, made many appearances
on TV portraying rebels and loners, on such
shows as "The FBI,"
"Mod Squad," and "Route 66." Films include "The
Execution of Private
Slovik," "Badlands," "Apocalypse Now," and "Wall
Street."
Steve McQueen "Electrolyte"
American actor, 1930-1980.
A popular actor in the 1960's and 1970's, who
frequently played tough
guys and loners with sex appeal. Featured on the
TV series, "Wanted -
Dead or Alive" 1958-1961. Films included "The Great
Escape" (1963),
"The Cincinnati Kid" (1965), "Bullitt" (1968), and
"Papillon" (1973).
Jimmy Dean "Electrolyte"
(James) Dean, American
actor, 1931-1955. The symbol of social rebellion
for an entire generation,
despite his short career on film. Was killed on
September 30, 1955 while
driving his sports car near Paso Robles,
California, and thereafter,
became a cult figure and American icon. Films
included "East of Eden,"
"Rebel Without a Cause," and "Giant" (released
posthumously in 1956).
EARLY
COMPOSITIONS AND B-SIDES
Jacques Cousteau
"Narrator"
1910-. French
oceanographer and inventor. Co-inventor of SCUBA.
Popularized oceanography
in the 1970's via the TV series, "The Undersea
World of Jacques Cousteau."
Mitch
"Tighten Up"
Mitch Easter, early
R.E.M. producer, musician in Sneakers, Let's Active.
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