Released: June 10, 1985
Songwriter: Michael Stipe Peter Buck Bill Berry Mike Mills (R.E.M.)
Producer: Joe Boyd
[Verse 1]
Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
Two doors, two names to call your others and your own
Keep these books well stocked away and take your happy home
[Chorus]
My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
[Verse 2]
Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
Raise the walls to chide its flaws, the carpenter should rest
So that when you tire of one side, the other serves you best
[Chorus]
My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
[Bridge]
The hills ringing hear the words in time
Listen to the holler
Listen to my walls within my tongue
Can't you see you made my ears go tin?
The air quicken tension building inference and suddenly
Life and how to live it
[Verse 3]
Raise the walls to chide its flaws, the carpenter should rest
So that when you tire of one side, the other serves you best
Read about the wisdom lost, the knock-knock-knock
A secret knock, one hammer's locked, the other wisdom lost
[Chorus]
My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
My carpenter's out and running about and barking in the...
Listen to the holler
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
[Outro]
Listen, listen to the holler
I'm gonna write a book, it will be called Life and How to Live It
Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
Two doors, two names to call your others and your own
Keep these books well stocked away and take your happy home
[Chorus]
My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
[Verse 2]
Burn bright through the night, two pockets lead the way
Two doors to go between the wall was raised today
Raise the walls to chide its flaws, the carpenter should rest
So that when you tire of one side, the other serves you best
[Chorus]
My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
[Bridge]
The hills ringing hear the words in time
Listen to the holler
Listen to my walls within my tongue
Can't you see you made my ears go tin?
The air quicken tension building inference and suddenly
Life and how to live it
[Verse 3]
Raise the walls to chide its flaws, the carpenter should rest
So that when you tire of one side, the other serves you best
Read about the wisdom lost, the knock-knock-knock
A secret knock, one hammer's locked, the other wisdom lost
[Chorus]
My carpenter's out and running about and talking to the street
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
My carpenter's out and running about and barking in the...
Listen to the holler
My pockets are out and running about and barking in the street
To tell what I have hidden there
[Outro]
Listen, listen to the holler
I'm gonna write a book, it will be called Life and How to Live It
And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987
- It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
- Fall on Me
- Cuyahoga
- Finest Worksong
- Welcome to the Occupation
- Disturbance at the Heron House
- King of Birds
- I Believe
- (I Am) Superman
- Two Steps Onward (Athens Demo)
- Finest Worksong [Other Mix]
- Radio Free Europe (Original Hib-Tone Single)
- Bad Day (Outtake)
- Mystery to Me
- Hyena (Athens Demo)
- Sitting Still (Original Hib-Tone single B-side)
- Swan Swan H (Acoustic)
- These Days
- Begin the Begin
- The One I Love
- Radio Free Europe
- Pilgrimage
- Talk About the Passion
- Perfect Circle
- 7 Chinese Bros.
- So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)
- Pretty Persuasion
- Sitting Still
- Time After Time (Annelise)
- (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
- Feeling Gravitys Pull
- Driver 8
- Life and How to Live It
- Cant Get There from Here
- Gardening at Night
- All The Right Friends (Studio Outtake)
- Losing My Religion
- It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
- Man on the Moon
- Everybody Hurts
- Orange Crush
- The One I Love
- Nightswimming
- The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
- Shiny Happy People
- What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?
- Drive
- Imitation of Life
- Stand
- Find the River
- Radio Free Europe
- (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville
- E-Bow the Letter
- Country Feedback
- The Great Beyond
- Let Me In
- Fall on Me
- Try Not to Breathe
- So. Central Rain (I’m Sorry)
- Ignoreland