Pavement - Unseen Power Of The Picket Fence

This is a rare Pavement song from the "No Alternative" album.
Lyrics:
Some bands I like to name check,
And one of them is REM,
Classic songs with a long history
Southern boys just like you and me.
R - E - M
Flashback to 1983,
Chronic Town was their first EP
Later on came Reckoning
Finster's art, and titles to match:
South Central Rain, Don't Go Back To Rockville,
Harbourcoat, Pretty Persuasion,
You were born to be a camera,
Time After Time was my least favourite song,
Time After Time was my least favourite song.
The singer, he had long hair
And the drummer he knew restrait.
And the bass man he had all the right moves
And the guitar player was no saint.
So lets go way back to the ancient times
When there were no 50 states,

And on a hill there stands Sherman
Sherman and his mates.
And they're marching through Georgia,
we're marching through Georgia,
we're marching through Georgia
G-G-G-G-Georgia
They're marching through Georgia,
we're marching through Georgia,
marching through Georgia
G-G-G-G-Georgia
and there stands REM

(Aye Sir, Aye Sir, Aye Sir they're coming, Aye Sir, move those wagons, Aye
Sir, Artillery's in place Sir, Aye Sir, Aye Sir, hide it, hide it, Aye
Sir, run, run.)

• Category

  Music

[ltbsis]

i didnt think he was complementing rem. i think the singer for pavement don't like too many bands or people

[SeeYouNextFall]

Actually, the band Pavement are in fact huge fans of REM.

[Banged147Chicks]

what the hell is this song about? i like to think of myself as pretty deep and i can read into songs really well.. but... this... im stumped.

[SeeYouNextFall]

Its about how this band likes R.E.M. and their songs.

They also talk about the southern united states during the civil war.

[complitdave]

Yeah, uh...based on your user name and your comment, you're not really all that deep. Trust me.

[SeeYouNextFall]

I wasn't the one who claimed to be "pretty deep".

Why dont you start replying to the right person dumbass. It was the user named "Banged147Chicks"

[MrMattmollison]

R.I.P. R.E.M.

[eklund8]

Better than peanutbutter.

[marvelmite1]

matched peter buck with the bass player line and mike mills with guitar player. a bit of an error

[Ryan Robinson]

but his name is awesome

[DCintheEZ]

No.

[eric2dea]

I know that "time after time" is a song on reckoning, but do you think it is possible that Malkmus is referring to the Cyndi Lauper song, which I believe was released the same year as Reckoning and obviously overshadowed anything down by REM at that point.

[coolguymcgee97]

This might be favorite Pavement song...

[bradm1975]

When I saw the title "Unseen Power of the Picket Fence," I knew immediately the song would be about R.E.M;)

[sushilll111]

Don't know how deep this question goes so I'll go all the way.

The two songs they use that line in: this one and "Camera" are direct references to the song "Camera" by REM. In this song, he mentions it while listing highlights off of REMs second album "Reckoning". Pavement's "Camera" is just a re-imagining of the REM version.

Here's the odd part - that lyric isn't in the actual song and seems to be a translation of the lyric: "If I'm to be a camera"

[jakaratsucks]

haha you think he was trying to be deep? That is what the song is about. Read the fuckin' lyrics.

[AleyLochRaven]

why do they always say "you were born to be a camera" ?