10 Song Lyrics That Nobody Understands
6. All Of Radio Free Europe - R.E.M.
R.E.M. was the band that brought alternative music to the mainstream. Starting with their 1983 breakthrough Murmur, the band went from being an off-the-wall act out of Athens, Georgia to one of the biggest bands in the world virtually overnight. While many fans cranked "Radio Free Europe" whenever it played on the radio, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who understood the tune.
The band's early period is almost infamously known as the era when Michael Stipe's lyrics were borderline incoherent. It always seemed like Stipe was talking about something profound, but the pronunciation would be so off that you weren't quite able to put your finger on it. Fans could get some phrases like "Calling on" and "Raving Station" from this tune, but many were just convinced that Stipe was just making words up.
As it turned out, some of those fans weren't too far off the mark. When discussing the band's earliest recordings, Stipe said he had no desire to finish the lyrics and would often spew out nonsense syllables whenever the band performed it live. Though Stipe would go on to write more emotionally potent lyrics later in the band's career, he points out that "Radio Free Europe" is one of the instances where even he can't pin down the meaning.