Post by Cary Baker

40 years ago today, on July 14, 1986, R.E.M. released “Fall on Me,” the first single from ‘Life’s Rich Pageant,’ their fourth album. Though it stalled at #94 on the Billboard Hot 100, it became one of the band’s defining songs. In its review, Billboard called it “hum-worthy and Top 40-compatible, though the subliminal stuff is here, too.” In an interview with David Fricke, Michael Stipe clarified some of that “subliminal stuff,” emphasizing that the song “is not about acid rain,” as many listeners had interpreted it. Rather, he described it as “a general oppression song about the fact that there are a lot of causes out there that need a song that says, ‘Don’t smash us.’” He added that it also contains references to the Leaning Tower of Pisa and Galileo’s legendary experiment of dropping weights and feathers. Who knew? Stipe also directed the song’s video, which superimposes the lyrics over upside-down black-and-white footage of a quarry and abandoned industrial equipment — a striking visual counterpart to one of R.E.M.’s most enduring and quietly powerful songs. Today also marks the anniversary of street dates for two later R.E.M. single releases, both from the Warner Bros. era: “Nightswimming” from ‘Automatic for the People’ (1993) and “Tongue” from ‘Monster’ (1995).