Letters in Music: "Letter Never Sent"

R.E.M. 's founding members (Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe) played their first show on April 5, 1980, at a friend’s birthday party in an abandoned church in Athens, Georgia. From that point forward until 2011 when they decided to call it a day, the band released fifteen albums, toured the world, won multiple Grammys, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and have left a lasting legacy of great songs that defined an era.  "Losing My Religion", "Everybody Hurts", "Man on the Moon", "The One I Love", "Bittersweet Me" are among my favourites and I am sure you are all familiar with them.

And, to avoid misunderstandings, don't forget that in English we pronounce it spelling each single letter "R-E-M",  not /rem/ like the REM sleep. I recall a conversation once in a Cambridge coffee shop with a group of people who had a really good time trying to figure out which music group I was talking about... oh, the importance of accurate pronunciation!

Here's a song by R.E.M. for you, "Letter Never Sent" (1984).

 

"Letter Never Sent"

It's been pretty simple so far
Vacation in Athens is calling me
And knock, knock, knock on wood
I thought I'd left you behind

Heaven is yours, heaven is yours
Heaven is yours where I live

I followed the catacombs
Left my soul at home
This letter never sent
And it's so far, it's so dark, I'm so lost

Heaven is yours, heaven is yours
Heaven is yours where I live
(Another story, another story for a while, someone show me)
When I'm moving too fast
Here's my new address

The water's receiving me now
The catacombs are filling in
If my soul was made of stone
No, not, not so dark, dark
And it's so far, it's so dark, I'm so lost
And it's so far, it's so far, it's so far

Heaven is yours, heaven is yours
Heaven is yours where I live
(Another story, another story for a while, someone show me)
Heaven is yours, heaven is yours
Heaven is yours where I live
(Another story, another story for a while, someone show me)