Acid Rain? Nah...

Way more than just acid rain is falling.

"Fall on Me" is part of R.E.M.'s fourth album, Lifes Rich Pageant, which was released in 1986. The complex langue that makes up the lyrics of the song offers definitive proof that music is poetry.

There's a problem, feathers iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pulleys
Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air

In the first verse of the song, two images are apparent: birds and buildings, specifically skyscrapers. The words "buildings," feathers," "iron," "weights," and "pulleys" all contribute to the two images. When I read these lyrics, I immediatly think about industrial expansion and the building of tall buildings, and the consequences this causes for birds. This verse evokes the image of a bird flying into a window of a tall building and falling to its death. On a larger level, it touches on bird migration patterns, which are being disrupted by humans. Additionally, the word "bargain" adds the money aspect to the buildings, and introduces the idea of the conflict capitalism has with environmentalism.

Buy the sky and sell the sky
Tell the sky and tell the sky

The song moves on to a more obvious expression of its theme, while still using multidimensional language. This verse touches on the sky being the last thing that humans have not bought and sectioned off and owned. By creating massive skyscrapers, humans are essentially extending their ownership of the earth all the way up into the sky. When this verse is repeated later in the song, the first tell is replaced with the word bleed. This word change evokes the image of humans literally killing the sky by spearing it with skyscrapers. We are destroying the sky.

Don't fall on me
Fall on me, fall on me

The chorus of the song also employs multidimensional language. On a more literal level, the tall buildings described in the song are falling on the humans who built them. The consequences of buying the sky are crashing down on us. Additionally, a common phrase that means the world is ending is "the sky is falling." This idea of the sky falling can also be applied to the chorus. The many things that humans have done to the earth are eventually going to cause the destruction of the world.

Well, I could keep it above
But then it wouldn't be sky anymore
So if I send it to you, you've got to promise to keep it whole

In the bridge of the song, the image of the skyscraper comes up again. It introduces the idea that because of super tall buildings, the sky isn't even above us anymore. We can be on the same level as the sky. The bridge brings in the next generation, and prompts them to "keep it whole," take care of the sky, and stop the pollution that has been going on for years.

Buy the sky and sell the sky
Lift your arms up to the sky

Yes, I acknowledge that in 1986 R.E.M. announced that the song is about acid rain falling and the effects that human pollution has on the environment. But, I think the song contains many more levels, like the skyscraper image, that add to the meaning and contribute to its criticism of industrial expansion and support for environmental awareness. Only poetry can contain this many meanings in a condensed amount of complex language.