Fall on Me
Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe
There’s a problem; feathers, iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pulleys
Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air
Buy the sky and sell the sky and tell the sky and tell the sky
Don’t fall on me (What is it up in the air for) (It’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (If it’s there for long) (It’s gonna fall)
Fall on me (It’s over it’s over me) (It’s gonna fall)
There’s the progress we have found (when the rain)
A way to talk around the problem (when the children reign)
Building towered foresight (keep your conscience in the dark)
isn’t anything at all (melt the statues in the park)
Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky
(repeat chorus)
Don’t fall on me
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
Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky
And ask the sky and ask the sky
(repeat chorus, etc.)
***************
After September 11th, I couldn’t listen to this song without totally losing control, sobbing uncontrollably. It’s not even about September 11th — it was released in 1986, and it’s an environmental protest song, of sorts. (Wikipedia reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_on_Me)
Seeing the towers fall live on TV, between stints at the voter registration tables, is marked on my soul and in my memory. The looks on the faces of the voters that slowly walked into our room, saying, “I had to come here and vote. It is all I can do. I have to vote…”
I finally got rid of the crying jag two years later, during a long car ride between St. Paul and Rochester. I played “Fall on Me” over and over and over and over again, until I had it all out of me. Part of it is out. Most of it is still there.