Modern Rock Tracks No.1s - R.E.M. and "Stand"
R.E.M. thinks about direction and wonders why. If you are confused, read on, but carry a compass to help you along as we navigate the band's crossover success with a bubblegum pop goof.
R.E.M. - "Stand"
Weeks atop the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart: 2 (1/28/89 and 2/4/89)
Billboard Hot 100 chart toppers during this time:
Phil Collins - "Two Hearts" (1/28/89)
Sheriff - "When I'm With You" (2/4/89)
It's always a fun twist when a band scores a major pop music hit with a song that skewers either the concept of pop hits or the people who critique them. Paul McCartney and Wings notched a Billboard Hot 100 hit in 1976 with "Silly Love Songs," a song written as a response to music critics who thought Paul McCartney wrote too many ... silly love songs. Rumor is Blur wrote "Song 2," (arguably their most popular song (it peaked at #6 on the MRT chart in 1997), as a send-up of grunge rock and an "amateurish guitar sound," according to an interview. There are plenty of comparable examples throughout music history, but it seems R.E.M. had the market cornered on this micro genre with the release of "Green."
The band followed its fairly serious rebuke of the Vietnam War with a second single so tonally different, you'd wonder how it ended up on the same album. But with "Stand," R.E.M. was looking to goof on bubblegum pop from the 1960s, and in the process generated its highest-charting pop single to that point and the second-highest Hot 100 position the band would achieve in its career. "Stand" would peak at #6 on the Hot 100 in April 1989, eclipsing "The One I Love" for the band's highest peak and notching the second top-10 hit of the band's career. Prior to that, the single spent two weeks on top of the MRT charts, and helped usher in the start of what would become a wave of alternative acts crossing over to the pop chart.
We should talk about "Stand" a little bit, though. As a single, it certainly evokes the silliness of '60s bands like the Monkees and the Archies, both bands which scored Hot 100 #1 hits ("Daydream Believer" and two others for the Monkees, "Sugar, Sugar" for the cartoon band the Archies). Whereas most of Stipe's lyrics could be interpreted on a deeper level, the lead singer said the song had a pretty simple message: "It's about making decisions and actually living your life rather than letting it happen." That said, Peter Buck once noted that "Stand" is "the stupidest song we've ever written." There's some truth to both interpretations.
If you go based on Stipe's idea, the song can achieve that deeper level of meaning. Consider lines like "Think about direction, wonder why you haven't now" or "Your feet are going to be on the ground/Your head is there to move you around." On the surface, it's the kind of pop-song dreck that, attached to a catchy beat, might catapult a band or musician to the top of the pop charts. But if Stipe is serious about his interpretation, you can look at the lyrics as a call to move forward, stop standing still, use your head to change your situation and remember that you can always "carry a compass to help you along" on your journey (presumably a reference to asking for help when needed).
But there's something to be said for Buck calling it stupid, and without a doubt, it's hardly a masterpiece of lyrical genius. If anything, the song sounds like a poorly constructed pop dance track (think a lesser version of "Macarena" or Freak Nasty’s dance masterpiece “Da’ Dip”) and the video seems to present it as such. If you write a stupid dance song, you'll probably look stupid doing the dance, and well, I guess you can decide if the folks dancing in the video are doing well or being silly. These moments of dancing on a giant compass diagram are juxtaposed with clips of a woman feeding chickens and disposing of tree debris, while the band does silly jumps on a hillside. The goofiness of the dance highlights the absurdity of the song (the dancers, maybe ironically, aren't even facing the proper direction when the song instructs them to turn and face north or west).
The thing is, the song works. If you embrace its stupidity, it works as a catchy song that has cred both in alternative rock circles and among pop music aficionados. "Stand" shot up the MRT chart in just a couple of weeks, and became the second consecutive #1 hit for the band. It did not have the staying power of "Orange Crush," and quickly dropped off after its peak. But the song became inescapable, crossing over to pop radio and finding success in different formats. Two months after topping the MRT charts, R.E.M. found themselves back in the pop top 10, this time for a total of four weeks. Longtime pop mainstays like Madonna and Bon Jovi blocked any additional progress on the charts, along with relative newcomers Roxette and Tone-Loc.
R.E.M. wouldn't be finished skewering pop radio, even while "Stand" was dominating the airwaves across all genres. The third single off "Green," the equally goofy "Pop Song 89," would stall at #16 on the MRT and #86 on the Hot 100 (with a video that is NSFW). The final single, "Get Up," didn't chart anywhere.
The band members tried to throw shade at pop music, but they probably didn't realize just how critical their music would be to the mainstream acceptance and dominance of alternative acts in the popular landscape. When R.E.M. returns to this column with the release of its next album, it will spell the beginning of a mega-shift toward alternative and pop-fused rock into the mainstream. One could make the argument that "Stand" started that transition, a movement that would continue advancing thanks to another band from Athens, Ga., who will appear in this column in the not-too-distant future.
Rating: 9/10
Chart notes: For the first time, we have a "Weird" Al Yankovic parody to accompany a song on the MRT charts, along with some other odds and ends. It's both interesting and oddly crazy that the last three songs in this section all charted at the same time when they really couldn't be more different, underscoring how "alternative" this chart was in its earliest iterations.
"Spam" by "Weird" Al Yankovic: "Weird" Al made plenty of waves in the 1980s writing clever parody songs about some of the greatest pop icons of the era, but this marks the first time he skewers an MRT chart topper. The idea of making a parody of a song that is itself a parody of a pop song is genius, and one could make the argument that the lyrics to "Spam" are better. "The tab is going to open the can/The can is there to hold in the Spam" is just terrific.
"Punk Rock Girl" by Dead Milkmen: Bands like MxPx and Streetlight Manifesto, among others, have covered this track, but the original belongs to the Dead Milkmen, who managed to get this goofy punk/alternative song to peak at #11 on the MRT chart behind "Stand." It's the only Milkmen song that ever charted in Billboard, but it's a stone-cold classic.
"Fine Time" by New Order: Post-punk synth-rock alternative-dance pioneers New Order never managed to top the MRT charts, but they certainly came close. This solid dance track, about a time one of the band members had to pay a fine after a night of clubbing in Ibiza, peaked at #3 behind "Stand" on MRT, but was a #1 hit on the UK indie charts and #2 on the U.S. dance tracks charts. Not my bag, but it gets a lot of love from the folks who commented on the video, so if this is your jam, enjoy it!
“Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)” by Enya: When I think of drinking Crystal Light or running around in the rain and kicking muddy water puddles, I think of this song, which I'm pretty sure was the soundtrack of all things chill in the late '80s and early '90s. This omnipresent earworm peaked at #6 on the MRT charts behind "Stand," and was a #24 hit on the Hot 100.