Feeling ornery tonight with R.E.M.

Chris was feeling a little surly tonight and wanted to post a video to R.E.M.'s I Wanted to be Wrong, another one of their "Fuck you" songs to G.W. Bush. Sadly, there isn't a video to be found that can be embedded here. Although if you want to borrow it, it's on our DVD of R.E.M. Live from 2007.

In its place, just the lyrics:

You know where I come from
You know what I feel
You're Yul Brenner Westworld
Reporting from the field.

I threw it into reverse,
Made a motion to repeal.
You kicked my legs from under me,
And tried to take the wheel.

I told you I wanted to be wrong,
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand.

Now I know that the sun has shined on my side of the street.
The basket of America, the weevils and the wheat.
The milk and honeyed congregation, scrubbed and apple-cheeked
Salute Apollo 13 from the rattle jewelry seats.

Mythology's seductive and it turned a trick on me
That I have just begun to understand.
I told you I wanted to be wrong,
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand.

The rodeo is staged, gold circle goat-ropers and clowns.
A rumble in the third act, tie 'em up and burn 'em down.
We're armed to the teeth, born a little breech;
Blue-plate special analysts, cells and SUV's

We can't approach the Allies 'cause they seem a little peeved
And speak a language we don't understand.
I told you I wanted to be wrong
But everyone is humming a song
That I don't understand.

Prop up The Omega Man, we're primed for victory,
God gave us the upper hand, there's honor among thieves.
Temper it with arrogance, a dash of sad conceit.
The top's down on the T-Bird, we're the children of the free

Storm into the boardroom of the conquering elite.
Did you recognize the madman who is shouting in the streets?
Destroy the things that I don't understand
Destroy the things that I don't understand

So to provide you with a quality R.E.M. video, how's about one from 1986 concerning the Native Americans who once lived on the shores of Lake Erie near the mouth of the Cuyahoga River (Iroquois for "Crooked River")? How great in high school to discover an alternative band singing about something from CLEVELAND? At the time, and as now, too too cool. "Burn the river down..."

Let's put our heads together and start a new country up
Our father's father's father tried, erased the parts he didn't like
Let's try to fill it in, bank the quarry river, swim
We knee-skinned it you and me, we knee-skinned that river red

This is where we walked, this is where we swam
Take a picture here, take a souvenir

This land is the land of ours, this river runs red over it
We knee-skinned it you and me, we knee-skinned that river red
And we gathered up our friends, bank the quarry river, swim
We knee-skinned it you and me, underneath the river bed

This is where we walked, this is where we swam
Take a picture here, take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone

Let's put our heads together, start a new country up,
Underneath the river bed we burned the river down.
This is where they walked, swam, hunted, danced and sang,
Take a picture here, take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone

Rewrite the book and rule the pages, saving face, secured in faith
Bury, burn the waste behind you

This land is the land of ours, this river runs red over it
We are not your allies , we can not defend
This is where they walked, this is where they swam
Take a picture here, take a souvenir
Cuyahoga
Cuyahoga, gone