Monty this seems strange to me.
The movies had that movie thing,
but nonsense has a welcome ring
and heroes don't come easy.

Now, nonsense isn't new to me.
I know my head, I know my feet,
but mischief knocked me in the knees.
Said, Just let go. Just let go.

I saw the ocean meet the man.
I saw you buried in the sand.
A friend was there to hold your hand,
Said, Walk on by.

So, I went walking through the street.
I saw you strung up in a tree.
A woman knelt there said to me,
said, Hold your tongue, man. Hold your tongue.

You don't owe me anything.
You don't want this sympathy. [waste your breath]
Don't you waste your breath. [waste your breath]
for the silver screen.

That nonsense doesn't mean a thing,
they tried to bust you in a sting,
but virtue isn't everything
so, don't waste time.

Now, here's a rhyme that you can steal.
Put this on your reel to reel.
Mischief threw a rotten deal.
Monty's laying low, man.
He is laying low.
Just let go, y'all.
Just let go.

You don't owe me anything.
You don't want this sympathy. [waste your breath]
Don't you waste your breath. [waste your breath]
Monty this seems strange to me.

It's about Montgomery Clift. Michael had been having a conversation with a guy who had the sills from the set of The Misfits, and the song kinda came out. I wrote the main riff on my bazouki in the hotel room in New Orleans. I don't know what the couple next door were doing - it sounded like an orgy. It was about three in the morning, and what sounded like four different radios going on at the same time, a lot of people and banging. But this is New Orleans - what do you expect? You can't complain, so I sat up and played.
Peter Buck 1992

Interviewers tend to ask Michael much mire personal things: they want to analyse him and find out why he wrote these songs and why he wrote these words, and what he was thinking at the time. It's very difficult to explain that kind of stuff to people, especially people you don't know. Everyone assumes that the songs have at least some grain of Michael in them, and that's not always true. I mean, you can write about things that you basically know nothing about. Michael doesn't know all that much about montgomery Clift, but he wrote a song about him. There's very little of Michael in that song, if any at all.
Mike Mills 1992

Quotes collected from 'R.E.M. - In Their Own Words' by Peter Hogan

Lyrics are based on fans interpretations and are not official.

All R.E.M. originals written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.

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By KriS The subject matter on this song has been done already, but damn, this is an awesome song. I can't help slamming my steering wheel whilst driving to this song. Not during the entire song of course, just parts. Since I rarely pick favorites from albums that everyone else picks (man on the moon, nightswimming, everybody hurts), this is one of mine.

By PBS