"The Great Beyond"

"The Great Beyond" is a song by R.E.M was written specifically for the 1999 movie "Man on the Moon"

"Man on the Moon" is a 1999 American biographical film about the American entertainer Andy Kaufman.

First I can say that this song can be interpreted in more than one way. The song was written for the movie "Man on the moon" describing Andy Kaufman and his way to the top.

It's known that R.E.M's lead singer Michael Stipe that writes the most songs by the band is known for his political and social activism. And he is also really concern with the planets health how the world is today, and many of R.E.M songs is interprets in that way. He is no person who writes songs with random texts and he is someone who wants to change the world.

Let's start by saying that it was written to express Andy Kaufman's views on life.

The film is about his desire to reach the top and his total disregard for anything that stood in his way (although not much did). The song reflects the attitude he must have adopted in order to take over America. The lines "I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs" best reflects the challenge he took and also "bending spoons" reveals how he managed to achieve it. His rise to fame was meticulously planned and it goes to show that anything is possible when you put your mind to it.

Moving on to the more "deeper" meaning behind the song covering the political, social and the view of the world in R.E.M's way.

I think it's obvious that this song expresses doing something that is very hard to achieve. This would be an argument for the Andy Kaufman theory but in another way it can be describes a discussion between the song writer(Michael) and another person being the rest of the world.

"I've watched the stars fall silent from your eyes
All the sights that I have seen
I can't believe that I believed I wished
That you could see
There's a new planet in the solar system
There is nothing up my sleeve"

Michael is saying that those (blinding) stars, is the lies that there is nothing wrong with the planet or the society and that it's not the first time this discussion has come up.

I think that this planet stands for the sight of the world that Michael wants his discussion partner to see. What if we found a new planet in our own solar system? We would have high hopes and wishes that we might move there one day for the case that our own planet might be collapsing. And that this is the truth and there is nothing that can make it untrue.

"I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs
I'm tossing up punchlines that were never there
Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground"

"I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs"

Michael is doing a really hard job trying to tell the world something, he need to neutralize lies that is spread around every day. It's hard for many people to understand that all the things that is happening to the planet and the society because they just turn the back against it and think that someone ells takes care of it.

"I'm tossing up punchlines that were never there"

Meaning that Michael is trying new ways and arguments he never used before to make people realise everything.

"Over my shoulder a piano falls
Crashing to the ground"

This means that Michael is having a breakthrough in the discussion because he's discussion partner opinion is changing. He is "breaking trough".

"And all this talk of time
Talk is fine
But I don't want to stay around
Why can't we pantomime, just close our eyes
And sleep sweet dreams
Me and you with wings on our feet"

I think that he expresses that talking about history is quite easy."And all this talk of time, Talk is fine" You don't hurt anybody's feelings because it has happened a long time ago, you can carefully criticize the present time finding parallels in dark ages and you can express how things have developed and come so far. Yet he says that he doesn't want to "stay around". He wants to draw conclusions for the present time and even dream sweet dreams of a future as it could be. I think that the phrase "sleep sweet dreams" is not meant literally. He could also have said "imagine if the world was like that ..." as John Lennon did in his song "Imagine" :)

"I'm breaking through
I'm bending spoons
I'm keeping flowers in full bloom
I'm looking for answers from the great beyond"

"I'm breaking through"

Referring to what I said about the line "Over my shoulder a piano falls, Crashing to the ground" that he is changing peoples opinions.

"I'm bending spoons"

Have you tried? It's not the easiest task. It's a reference to the line "I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs" a now he is on the way to achieving that task, he is doing something impossible and then manage to do that.

"I'm keeping flowers in full bloom"

Michaels attitude is to change the world - to make it a planet where people are more important than profits. He is trying to keep alive the positive picture of his dream throughout all the critical questions of his discussion partner.

"I'm looking for answers from the great beyond"

What is "The Great Beyond" in this case? It is what Michael wants the world to be like, he is trying to convince people that there is something wrong with the planet and the world and that this "Great Beyond" is a world that is good for everyone.

"I want the hummingbirds, the dancing bears
Sweetest dreams of you
I look into the stars
I look into the moon"

"I want the hummingbirds, the dancing bears"

This expresses how free and beautiful the world can be in the "Great Beyond"

"Sweetest dreams of you"

Michael is dreaming about when his discussion partner referring to "you" is accepting all this and joins him in he's thought about "The Great Beyond".

"I look into the stars
I look into the moon"

I don't really know if this means starts as the first line in the song but that wouldn't make much sense. I think that he is just creating a beautiful picture. Maybe looking into the starts means yearning that his dreams come true for him.

In the end it come to say that it's all about doing the impossible, about putting your mind to something and achieving the impossible. It's the realization that you can do anything and sustaining the realization. And I think that if you don't have a bit of this spectacle on life you wont come far...

Achieve the impossible.