10 Classic Rock Songs That Mean Absolutely Nothing

10. Radio Free Europe - R.E.M.

Part of the appeal behind R.E.M. in the early days was not being able to understand a word that was coming out of Michael Stipe's mouth. Although there were some killer hooks across their debut album Murmur, whoever was able to scribble down all the lyrics on Genius nowadays deserves some medal of honor. Especially when Stipe has come forward to say that these songs are absolutely meaningless.

While you could probably throw a dart at almost any song on the record, their biggest hit from this time is almost proud of how little it makes sense. Though you can get faint hints of words like "leading us absurd" and the actual title in the chorus, even Stipe himself wasn't set on the lyrics when they set up shop in the studio at the time.

When things were first getting started, there was no set lyric sheet, with Stipe just making it up as he went along in the studio based on what emotion the music was bringing out of him. You can really tell where he starts grasping at straws though, with every other line sounding like either a joke or him trying to find some way to fill the verse that sounds somewhat coherent. Even the title barely makes sense, sounding more like him saying "radio, radio" and just pronouncing the second one a bit strange. This isn't really about the lyrics though. It's more about what the music brings out of the listener when it hits them.