About Nicholas Pemberton Expertise I have been an R.E.M. fan for at least 7 years now. I have all their LPs, over 30 singles, 7 videos, and 5 books, so I am sure that I can answer any question related to the music of REM itself. I also am sort of familiar with REM band bios, so I most likely can answer any question about a band member.
Experience I am very familiar with the work of R.E.M. I have read several books and articles about them. I also frequent the different music news sites to get up to date information on what they are working on. I have been an expert on expertcentral.com, and have successfully answered every question asked of me.
Organizations I am a member of the R.E.M. fanclub. I am also on a really good R.E.M. list group. I was also an expert on expertcentral.com.
Publications No where.
Education/Credentials Some college.
Awards and Honors American Legion Award in eighth grade, but that has nothing to do with R.E.M.
Expert: Nicholas Pemberton Date: 1/5/2005 Subject: Sitting Still
Question I was wondering if you could help me discover meaning in the song "Sitting Still" from Murmur - both the meaning of the lyrics and what Stipe is actually singing. I've searched multiple lyric sites and each one says different things.
What is that chorus? Many sites say "Up to buy, Katie buys a kitchen-size, but not me in", but that seems like total gibberish. A variation with "Katie bars the kitchen signs" doesn't help much. I've heard "Up to par, Katie bars the kitchen door", which might make more sense, but the word definitely doesn't sound like "door." "Not me in" doesn't make any sense either; I've heard "Not Mae Ann" instead, but that just confuses me more. Then after that I've heard "See them try for the big kill" as well as "Setting trap for love." Do you know of the official lyrics to this song? And then once we can agree on what Stipe is actually saying, could you help me out with what the song means? Thanks very much.
Answer I looked up the lyrics at http://www.retroweb.com/rem.html and their variation on the chorus is "Up to buy, Katie buys a kitchen-size, but not me in". After looking up several lyrics websites over the years, I have generally come to accept that the lyrics on retroweb are very accurate. The variations that you did find may also be accurate as the retroweb site reflects the album version, not the several demo/live versions that may be out there. As for what it means, their is a little information about the song at the top of the webpage that says "Stipe has called this song "an embarrassing collection of vowels I strung together some 400 years ago - basically nonsense.""
