“Fall on Me” by R.E.M.
The lyrics of R.E.M.’s “Fall on Me” are highly metaphorical. As far as the title and original intent goes, it is well known by fans of R.E.M. that this track is supposed to be about acid rain. Acid rain can basically be described as as precipitation or rain whose droplets contain unsafe amounts of acid due to air pollution. These days, you don’t really hear about acid rain much. But back around the time this song was dropped, it was a hot topic as far as environmental pollution is concerned.
But by the time “Fall on Me” was eventually released, it had gone through a number of iterations, eventually transforming, according to Michael Stipe, into “a song about oppression”. However, that doesn’t mean that, in the process, it loses all references to acid rain.
So it can be said that what we’re actually met with here is two-fold. Certain lines can be discerned as being inspired by said phenomenon, but others read as if they are more general.
Lyrics of “Fall on Me” are packed with Symbolic Expressions!
To reiterate, these lyrics rely heavily on, shall we say ambiguous symbolic expressions. So if a listener doesn’t have the aforementioned pre-knowledge beforehand, it’s possible that they won’t be able to pick on the acid rain-inspired motif.
But it can be gleaned that Stipe is referring to pollution by alluding to the concept of the sky being sold. In other words, if someone were to accuse another of ‘buying the sky’, the latter would likely be akin to a large corporate entity who, in a manner of speaking, has the wherewithal to actually do so. And it is in the second verse where we find features the most-solid clue pointing to acid rain, where “statues in the park” are depicted as ‘melting’ after, as ad-libbed earlier, rain dropping.
But in any event as the song progresses it does become obvious, even if a listener is aware of its background, that there’s more going on here than just environmental awareness. Or let’s say that ultimately, acid rain – and all that it entails – serves as an allegory. And what it ends up representing, going back to the concept of oppression, is the vocalist feeling as if the sky is falling on him, so to speak. Or put differently what it is that has him concerned is such that, if it were to really “fall”, as implied there would really be no way for him to escape from it.
Facts about “Fall on Me”
This track is the lead single from “Lifes Rich Pageant”, the R.E.M. album which I.R.S. Records put out on 28 July 1986.
The song was written by all the members of R.E.M. At the time this song was created, R.E.M. was completed by the musicians below.
- Bill Berry
- Peter Buck
- Mike Mills
- Michael Stipe
Fall on Me‘s producer is Don Gehman.
R.E.M. is known to have played an earlier, different version of “Fall on Me” during their live performances than that which was featured on the album. For instance, according to Peter Buck, the band modified the bridge “a hundred times”. And there is one such alternate version of this song to be found on 25th anniversary edition of “Lifes Rich Pageant”, which came out in 2011.
Both Michel Stipe and Mike Mills hold down vocal duties on this track.
“Fall on Me” most notably peaked at number 5 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks list but also appeared on the Hot 100.
Even though this song didn’t really impress chart-wise, at the time it was R.E.M.’s biggest hit and a piece that went on to define their sound.
Stipe also directed the music video to this track.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), more generally known simply as Galileo, was a 16th century Italian scientist and remains one of the most-recognizable pioneers in the fields of physics and astronomy. In the first verse of “Fall on Me”, one of Galileo’s most famous observations, which is known as the Leaning Tower of Pisa Experiment, is alluded to.
