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The cryptically ebullient 'Sidewinder' is surely one of the singles of this year... It was the third of 5 British hits in a 9 month period from October '92 to July '93 following 'Drive' and 'Man On The Moon' and preceding 'Everybody Hurts' and 'Nightswimming'.It's a rare appearance for the band in this series, though as you can see above it's not for lack of hits: more likely it's that Warner Brothers were generally reluctant to licence their biggest acts to Now!, preferring to hoard them for the rival Hits series. Even when they do show up they're out of chronological order, but it's probably best not to look this particular gift horse in the mouth, especially as this sounds so good following up the Spin Doctors' irritating mugging.
As the title, suggests, 'Sidewinder' is loosely based on 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' (as part of their agreement with the publishers of the original, they agreed to cover it on the B-side of this single) and pulls off the great but difficult pop trick of combining light and shade: on the one hand it's among the band's most upbeat recordings (particularly on the brilliant but moody Automatic For The People album), but on the other it's about an eccentric homeless person, trying to make the best of things. That infamously incomprehensible chorus lyric is in fact "call me when you try to wake her", actually a faintly upsetting image if you think about it, especially in the context of the homeless man staring blankly at a payphone that he's seen enough of to notice scratches around the coinslot. And yet the protagonist retains an almost heartbreaking sliver of hope and joy, reflected by the yodelling that Michael Stipe lifts from the original and his apparent love for Dr Suess. It's this last reference that prompts Stipe's giggle into the third chorus: apparently a spontaneous reaction to mistakes on previous takes but obviously left in to lighten the mood.
Incidentally, whilst Automatic For The People is commonly associated with lush orchestral arrangements (by John Paul Jones from Led Zep of all people), they're actually only on four tracks out of twelve, but seem to loom large because three of them are among the first four in the sequence and all four of them were released as singles. This is probably the least guessable of the four, but they emerge about half way through to lend the track and protagonist a greater dignity - I think they're playing pizzicato in the middle-eight. Although the album doesn't seem to feature in best-ever surveys as much as it did ten years or so ago, it remains an extraordinary work, one of the handful of unmissable R.E.M. releases. In fact the only disappointment here is the video, in which Stipe appears to be dressed as Brian Harvey from East 17.
Also appearing on: Now 25, 29
Available on: Automatic For The People
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