Most of you who know me (and rent) probably think I’m referring to that line in “Rent”:
“How long til next year?”
“Three and a half minutes!”
But I’m not referring to Rent. I’m talking about a new song I heard on the radio by Better Than Ezra. The song is called “A Lifetime.” It has this catchy lyric about an REM song: “three and a half minutes felt like a lifetime.”
Does anyone have any idea which REM song he’s talking about? I’d really like to know if anyone finds out!
I tried googling it, but the closest I could find was an interview with Better Than Ezra that confirmed he’s talking about the length of a song AND a specific song. Can’t determine what that song is, though. And I don’t know REM well enough to figure it out.
Good luck!
Comment by tanya — March 22, 2005 @ 9:57 am
I’m pretty sure he’s talking about “It’s the End of the World as We Know It.” Or possibly, “Everybody Hurts”. Both of those fit with the rest of the song – which is about the death of a (girl)friend …
“Allie woke up 8AM
Graduation day.
Got into a car,
And crashed along the way.
When we arrived late to the wake,
Stole the urn while they
Looked away,
And drove to the beach
‘Cause I knew you’d want it
That way.”
I mention “Everybody Hurts” because the crash might be suicide, since later lyrics are:
“You would tell me
‘No one is allowed to be so proud
They never reach out
When they’re giving up.’ “
Comment by Jason — April 17, 2005 @ 4:47 pm
I thought he was talking about sex? maybe he only lasted 3.5 minutes?
Comment by Meme — April 22, 2005 @ 1:48 pm
hi, i just read your post. I heard them in a radio interview yesterday and they were talking about a real life story where somebody broke into a funeral home and stole the casket and body of their highschool friend and took it to a beach and set it on fire. Because that’s what their friends last wishes were. I don’t remember who exaclty they were talking about, i missed that part.
Comment by patricewmpd — April 23, 2005 @ 8:00 pm
I have been wondering this too and googled (which is how I found this posting) and I thought about “At My Most Beautiful” (3:29) which is a love song that Michael Stipe described as being probably the most stripped-down and honestly optimistic songs of their career. The song talks about how much he loves this woman and how amazing she is. He saves her messages just to hear her voice and secretly counts her eyelashes and whispers, “I love you” with each one while she sleeps. The refrain that repeats is that “I’ve found a way to make you smile.” When I heard the BTE song, I thought maybe he was remembering back to a happy and euphoric moment between them, and this is the perfect lovers’ song. Also, perhaps that by stealing her ashes and scattering them where he thought she would have wanted, he finally found a way to make her smile. What do you think?
My other thought was “Nightswimming”, going back to the reminiscing-about-good-times-after-their-death idea. Let me know! I’m anxious to hear others’ thoughts.
Comment by sara — May 24, 2005 @ 9:08 pm
I wish I knew what song he was talking about. Maybe we can just hope that the guy who wrote the song will find this blog and post what he meant. I don’t know a lot of REM songs that well. At my most beautiful could be it. I imagine it as though he was having the best moment of his life (maybe they were having sex who knows) with this girl and some REM song just happened to be playing. I haven’t heard Nightswimming.
Comment by site admin — May 25, 2005 @ 3:26 pm
I am a big REM fan, so this song has been bugging me for awhile. Of their songs that I have on my computer, the closest match is “At My Most Beautiful” at 3:36. “Nightswimming” is over four minutes, and “Everybody Hurts” is over five. These times are from the recordings used on their “In Time: The Best of REM” CD, so other times may vary. I’m incredibly curious now and any help would be greatly appreciated!
Comment by Iris — June 15, 2005 @ 9:42 pm
Let me take a stab at it. I’m a huge REM fan, and have over 100 REM songs on my computer.
Closest I have to 3:30 are…
At My Most Beautiful – 3:36
Make it All OK – 3:34
What if We Give it All Away – 3:34
Photograph – 3:32
Low Desert – 3:31
Disturbance at the Heron House – 3:31
Departure – 3:29
Begin the Begin – 3:28
Half a Worl Away – 3:28
These Days – 3:24
Driver 8 – 3:24
The majority of those aren’t radio friendly though…so I’m pretty sure they aren’t whats being referred to. If I had to guess, I’d go with Photograph. Its a beautiful jangly folk song about a man reminiscing about a picture of a girl he found.
Comment by Blinky — June 18, 2005 @ 2:31 pm
The song itself (A Lifetime) is about 3 and a half minutes long. Perhaps it’s a reference to his own song and the REM song isn’t connected to the 3 and a half minutes?
It’s a long shot, but then again so is life. (Ooh, that’s good. I’m putting that in a song. Nobody steal that or I’ll punch your face off.)
Comment by Bidwell — June 19, 2005 @ 11:23 pm
Nevermind, just found this on the BTE message board FAQ:
In the song “Lifetime”, the lyrics reference an R.E.M. song. What song are they talking about?
Kevin has been asked this question before and his response has been that it’s a general REM song reference. Fans have guessed that it’s several possibilities: Perfect Circle, Shiny Happy People, Drive, Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, etc .
Comment by Bidwell — June 19, 2005 @ 11:26 pm
My husband was killed on Memorial Day in Colorado by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel. I heard this song on the radio a week ago and have been playing it over and over since then. He was an REM fan and I would love to know what song they are referring to.
Comment by Kristyn Kornfield — June 22, 2005 @ 2:24 am
hello kristyn. you do now know me, but i knew your husband as a child growing up in longwood, florida. we were childhood friends. i am sooo sorry for your loss! i pulled out the pictures i have of him with me at around age 5 this weekend after hearing the news online. you and both the families are in my prayers!
Comment by amanda l — June 27, 2005 @ 3:44 pm
hey all, was surfing the web today about this song, since I have it in my cd player, and I am a pretty big better than ezra fan. I have been playing it a whole lot!! I was so glad they came out with this album, and this song redone, and I think it is more than catchy, and a great song, to get plenty of air play. I have read over all of you guy’s posts, and all are interesting thoughts. Its hard, music is poetry, and to each reader or listener, is open for interpertation, unless your the band I guess. My best feelings, from listening to it, would deal with a death, and “the REM song playing in my mind” line, I think would be Everyone Hurts. I dont mean to be depressing, but one friend I lost in a tragic death, we played that REM song at his wake, his brother my age, asked each of us that were close to him, to choose a song. Since Jake’s death, I have grown older, and lost several friends to suicide and crashes. I interpert this song as being almost exactly as he says it. You loose someone, and you know them very well, you have the funeral, but in your own way, you and your friends do something for the passing, in form with what they would have wanted. I with my friends, have done that with each friend or loved one we have lost along the way, and my “group” of friends, all 24-25 years old now, have had more than our close personal share of loss. This song strikes a cord deep in me, and I like it a whole lot. I dont know if any of what I said makes sense, but its kinda how I see it?
Comment by Jason — September 3, 2005 @ 10:39 am
I am amazed and how many people are as curious as i am about this song, And i think that i’m just going to go with the ” general Referance” theory and the ” The song ‘A Lifetime’ its self is about three and a half mintes long” Theory.
Its rather neat how googeling ( or yahoo search in mycase) makes everyone end up here. haha, that rules.
Comment by Shaynan — February 18, 2007 @ 3:02 pm
Yep… count me in as another curious googler who ended up here.
I am disappointed that there is not a specific song reference, but I guess things cannot always be clean and simple like we want them to be. 
Comment by Mike — March 12, 2007 @ 11:47 pm
Hey curious Better Than Ezra fans…I was wondering the same thing, and just FYI (kinda in response to a lot of the earlier postings) the song is based on the story of Gram Parsons (country -rocker from the 60s-70s) His road manager stole his funeral casket from LAX when it was supposed to be going back to New Orleans and took it down to the Joshua Tree Desert because that is where he was visiting when he overdosed on morphine and tequila…and “cremated” the body. But this was Parson’s wish anyway – so this is where the whole idea of the song comes from. In a VH1 Interview, Kevin Griffin said that ” the tale is just a great, romantic rock’n'roll story. and that’s where I got the story of some friends stealing their friend’s urn, and honoring the girl’s true wishes, and going out to the beach one morning and listening to this R.E.M. song they used to listen to growing up as the sun was coming up. It was a way to make something both personal and dramatic.”
There is a song by R.E.M. that is exactly three and half minutes long – it’s called Gardening at Night and it was released April 20, 1987 on the album Dead Letter Office…SO if the song is supposed to be one the kids listened to while growing up, then this one would be appropriate. (The song “A Lifetime” was re-released in 2005 on Before the Robots but was originally on the album Closer, from 2001. So – the kids are graduating, 18 years old – so they were born in 1983…see where I’m going with this – it just kinda fits better than some of the other more recent REM songs.) And don’t listen or look up the Gardening at Night that says (Different Vocals) at the end of it because that version was released in the early 90s.
Hope this helps!
Comment by Carolyn — April 2, 2007 @ 3:46 pm
Yes it’s killing me,…. I WANT to know the REM song! Can somebody call Kevin, Tom, or Travis???? Ok,… well,… le’me know.
http://www.myspace.com/kizmet76
Comment by Jen D. — July 4, 2007 @ 1:17 pm