My Gen X Playlist: Nightswimming – REM

The past few months I’ve been spending time at the swimming pool relaxing. The pool is virtually empty during the week now that school has started again and I’m eking out the remaining days of summer sun. Typically, I bring a book, enjoy some music and let the warm rays join me at their leisure. Last weekend was busy and crowded with families. I still managed to find a chair and enjoyed a little sun. It was noisy and chaotic, but a nice change of pace. This week has been back to normal, having the pool mostly to myself.

When the temperatures rise, I typically dive in to cool off. Often I float on my back, half of me enjoying the sun’s rays, the other half submerged under the cool water. I like feeling the balance of the two. I’m half connected to the world, the other half in a dream. My ears fall below the water level, drowning out the ringing in my ears. Recently the ringing has subsided a bit, but still is ever present and lurks in the background. When submerged, it feels hollow by the quiet water and I find relief. REM’s Nightswimming often plays in my head, suspending me in it’s melody. It’s surprising to learn the lyrics were born from Michael Stipe’s stream on consciousness on the very first take.

“Mike had a piano instrumental that he played to Michael. He listened once, nodded his head to hear it again, and on the second pass he sang the lyrics. It was ‘Nightswimming,’ exactly like the record we would record a year later. I was standing in the corner dumbfounded.”

The song’s circular structure, which never resolves into anything like a chorus, evokes the feeling of being trapped in a sweet memory, jibing well with Stipe’s improvisational lyrics. Spurred by a photo on the dashboard of the vehicle he’s driving, he remembers youthful evenings spent near the water, swimming in it, musing on it, watching the moon reflect off it.

– AmericanSongwriter

Feelings of suspension, lyrics emerging from streams of consciousness, hollowed underwater sounds quieting my mind, the sun’s rays the only connection out of a dreamlike trance. I cling to this peace and relaxation in the remaining days of summer.

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For a complete playlist, please click here.

For the Spotify playlist, please click here.

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
The photograph on the dashboard, taken years ago
Turned around backwards so the windshield shows
Every streetlight reveals the picture in reverse
Still, it's so much clearer
I forgot my shirt at the water's edge
The moon is low tonight

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago
The fear of getting caught
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away
Replaced by everyday

Nightswimming, remembering that night
September's coming soon
I'm pining for the moon
And what if there were two
Side by side in orbit
Around the fairest sun?
That bright, tight forever drum
Could not describe nightswimming

You, I thought I knew you
You I cannot judge
You, I thought you knew me
This one laughing quietly underneath my breath
Nightswimming

The photograph reflects, every streetlight a reminder
Nightswimming deserves a quiet night, deserves a quiet nigh