Oh My Heart

Album: Collapse Into Now (2011)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • Recorded in New Orleans and written as a post-Katrina prayer, this ballad with a funeral march feel was first performed live on a National Public Radio podcast in 2010. The studio version leaked on to the internet via R.E.M.'s own website at the start of the following year.
  • Stipe's lyric for this soulful lament for New Orleans follows on from Accelerate's "Houston," with its Katrina-refugee this time returning home to the Louisiana city. After bemoaning the destruction of his home city, the protagonist focuses more on the overcoming of adversity. "This place needs me here to start/ This place is the beat of my heart," sings Stipe.
  • "New Orleans, being the heart and soul of American music, is a city that we've always loved, that has seen more than their fair share of misfortune lately," bassist Mike Mills told The West Australian. "It's a town that could use a little bit of a boost."
  • When Peter Buck first heard the demo for this song, he thought of the TV show Deadwood, a historical crime series set in South Dakota. "You know ... drunk guys lying in the mud and the rain. That just somehow felt appropriate," he wrote in the liner notes for Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage.
  • Jem Cohen shot the music video in Vienna, Austria, while on location for a feature film. Cohen has also directed the videos for "Belong," "Country Feedback," "Nightswimming," "Talk About the Passion" and "E-Bow the Letter."
  • This was featured on the first season of the FX TV series The Bear during a montage that closes out episode three ("Brigade") as Carmy is reminded of his late brother, Michael, whose restaurant he's trying to salvage. The show's creator, Christopher Storer, and executive producer Josh Senior are also the series' music supervisors and they handpicked the tune for the soundtrack. When asked why he chose a lesser-known ballad from R.E.M's final album for the scene, Storer told Uproxx:

    "In the back of my mind, I was kind of saying goodbye to my favorite band. This sounds so trivial. But I remember that song was always such a specific thing of R.E.M. to me. That last album sort of just slipped away even though there are some masterworks there. It's almost a mirror of Radiohead's 'Let Down' for me, which is this song that’s impossibly sad, but there's something really hopeful about it. It reminded me a lot of their work on Green."
    Storer also imagined that Michael would be familiar with R.E.M.'s catalog. He continued, "I thought Michael probably listened to R.E.M. Life's Rich Pageant is probably one of those CDs rolling and falling around in the restaurant somewhere."

    R.E.M. also collaborated with the showrunners for season 2, releasing a new Bear-themed music video for "Strange Currencies." The song, from their Monster album, is also featured throughout the season.

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

Real or Spinal Tap

Real or Spinal TapMusic Quiz

They sang about pink torpedoes and rocking you tonight tonight, but some real lyrics are just as ridiculous. See if you can tell which lyrics are real and which are Spinal Tap in this lyrics quiz.

Chris Frantz of Talking Heads

Chris Frantz of Talking HeadsSongwriter Interviews

Talking Heads drummer Chris Frantz on where the term "new wave" originated, the story of "Naive Melody," and why they never recorded another cover song after "Take Me To The River."

80s Music Quiz 1

80s Music Quiz 1Music Quiz

MTV, a popular TV theme song and Madonna all show up in this '80s music quiz.

Lori McKenna

Lori McKennaSongwriter Interviews

Lori's songs have been recorded by Faith Hill and Sara Evans. She's performed on the CMAs and on Oprah. She also has five kids.

When Rock Belonged To Michelob

When Rock Belonged To MichelobSong Writing

Michelob commercials generated hits for Eric Clapton, Genesis and Steve Winwood in the '80s, even as some of these rockers were fighting alcoholism.

Rupert Hine

Rupert HineSongwriter Interviews

Producer Rupert Hine talks about crafting hits for Tina Turner, Howard Jones and The Fixx.