Exhuming McCarthy Lyrics
You're honourable, more honourable than me
Loyal to the Bank of America
It's a sign of the times
To improve your business acumen
Sharpening stones, walking on coals
To improve your business acumen
Vested interest, united ties, landed gentry, rationalize
Look who bought the myth, by jingo, buy America!
it's a sign of the times
To improve your business acumen
Sharpening stones, walking on coals
To improve your business acumen
Enemy sighted, enemy met, I'm addressing the realpolitik
Look who bought the myth, by jingo, buy America!
you've done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir?
At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
To improve your business acumen
Sharpening stones, walking on coals
To improve your business acumen
Enemy sighted, enemy met, I'm addressing the realpolitik
You've seen start and you've seen quit
(I'm addressing the table of content)
I always thought of you as quick
(Meet me at the book burning)
Exhuming McCarthy
(Meet me at the book burning)
Exhuming McCarthy
(Meet me at the book burning)
Exhuming McCarthy
(Meet me at the book burning)
The quotation in the middle comes from an actual 1950s US government hearing that McCarthy was involved in. I can't think of the name of the person who said it, but he was saying it to McCarthy.
To me, this song is about the Reagan/Bush I years when the extreme right-wing anti-Commie mentality of Joe McCarthy was brought back again. The Reaganites symbolically "exhumed McCarthy," or brought him back from the dead.
Right on, Jerrybear... and now in 2004 its back again with Bush 2. What are you, some kind of terrorist lover?
Anyone interested in the Communist 'reds under the bed' fever of the 50s and 60s should read James Elroy's novel American Tabloid.
As for the song, the quote in the middle is from a trial in 1954 in which McCarthy had been tearing down a (plainly innocent) young man's reputation and painting him as an evil Communist. This was actually not even the issue in the trial, it was in fact an army draft case, but McCarthy decided to make allegations against a junior lawyer at the firm handling the opposing side of the case.
Joseph Welch was the attorney for the army in the case, and the quote is his. First he said: "Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness," as McCarthy began to slander the young man. When McCarthy continued, Welch said "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator; you've done enough." McCarthy continued, so Welch interjected: "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?"
This trial was televised, and this event was the beginning of the end for McCarthy and his anti-Communist witch hunt.
@caitsith01 I was just listening to this song and thinking, "Things only get worse." Soooooooo depressing!
@caitsith01 I was just listening to this song and thinking, "Things only get worse." Soooooooo depressing!
The trial which produced the quote from the middle "Have you left no sense..." is featured in the film "Good Night, And Good Luck" if anyone wants to know more.
The song is about the way that fear can be used to motivate people and was then applied to Reagan and the way he focused on supposed external threats from the USSR which we now know to be fabricated.
It is very, very easy (and correct) to apply this song to the period from 2001 to 2006.
yeah, what the heck is this song about? its a good one. just an idea though; maybe it has something to do with McCarthyism?
I've never heard this song. The lyrics are good-- and R.E.M. never fails to produce great music, so I'm sure it's excellent.
Hah. When I read the title on the list page, I saw "Exhuming MacCartney." Like Paul-- you know. I was thinking, "Wait a second, he's not dead..." This song would have a very different meaning were it Paul MacCartney. In fact, it wouldn't make sense. lol.
Peace.
This is about people who are so afraid of themselves failing and so self centered that they try to take others down so that they can rise up; in effect, they are reliving Mccarthy and doing what he did.
While most of what has been said above is accurate, I think there's another theme here: the deification of corporate America. Stipe is pointing out that one of the elements of fascism (besides suppressing dissent as McCarthy did) is rule by corporations. -"Bank of America"=the savings & loan scandals during this time (the Enrons of the 80's)--most of the perpetrators weren't prosecuted due to their political connections. -"walking on coals"=refers to a corporate training fad where employees would walk on hot coals in order to build team unity or some such bullcrap. -"landed gentry"=the aristocracy created by the presence of inherited wealth. The Founding Fathers were unanimously against this concept, but the supply-side concepts of the Reagan administration were pushed in order to create such a system. -"by jingo"=jingoism is hyper-nationalism. The word was coined in the buildup to WWI. -"enemy sighted, enemy met"=euphemistic military jargon. Likely has to do with the Iran/Iraq war going on at the time and the US involvement for financial purposes (oil). -"I always thought of you as quick"=probably a direct jab at Reagan who famously testified at the Iran-Contra hearings that he didn't remember the decisions he'd made.
@dontkillwhitey I don't remember when in 1987 this album came out, but it's true that the Iran-Contra affair started going public in late '86 (though the hearings were still going on years later). So it's not unreasonable that it might be referenced in this song, although I doubt anyone ever thought of Reagan as "quick." There wasn't a lot of surprise when it officially came out in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, with some people who had spoken to the former President personally was still in office describing symptoms strongly suggestive of moderate Alzheimer's...
@dontkillwhitey I don't remember when in 1987 this album came out, but it's true that the Iran-Contra affair started going public in late '86 (though the hearings were still going on years later). So it's not unreasonable that it might be referenced in this song, although I doubt anyone ever thought of Reagan as "quick." There wasn't a lot of surprise when it officially came out in 1994 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease, with some people who had spoken to the former President personally was still in office describing symptoms strongly suggestive of moderate Alzheimer's dementia; his "I don't remember" claims during the Iran-Contra affair were also pointed out as examples of possible symptoms. (I suspect this part was largely political, since his supporters who claimed he hadn't shown any sign of the disease when he was still in office were unwilling to admit that he had been lying under oath, but these included his doctors, they also didn't want to admit that they had missed the possibility of a disease that was liable to affect severely Reagan's ability to govern, putting them in an awkward position. It seems feasible that they may have, at least, ignored symptoms in order to avoid having to test him and potentially diagnose dementia, probably due to AD. (At the time diagnostic methods didn't go much beyond neuropsych tests and often the diagnosis could only be confirmed for certain postmortem.) The situation was also complicated by the fact that there had been rumours about Reagan's condition before he publicly announced that he had — "recently," he asserted — been diagnosed with AD.)
There are certainly references on this album, considered to be R.E.M.'s first strongly politically-oriented one, to the US government's many, err, misguided actions in Latin America during the 1980s: "Welcome to the Occupation" pops to mind ("fire on the hemisphere below").
caitsith01
I remember the quote from the movie GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK.
The band were comparing the last days of Ronald Reagan, the Iran-Iraq war, and global recessions to the early 50's "Red Scare" period. The same song could still be done today, which is slightly disconcerting.
It's about the Reagan administration. To "exhume" means to bring back, with obvious references to McCarthyism. Ends don't justify the means etc.