Uploaded March 2016 | Updated September 2026, 22 hours ago

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R.E.M. was an American rock band from Athens, Georgia, formed in 1980 by lead singer Michael Stipe, lead guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. were noted for Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's particular vocal quality.

lyrics :

Nothing could bring me closer
Nothing could bring me near
Where is the road I follow?
To leave, leave

It's under, under, under my feet
The sea spread out there before me
Where do I go where the land touches sea
There is my trust in what I believe

That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me down
To leave, believe it
Leave it all behind

Shifting the dream
Nothing could bring me further from my old friend time
Shifting the dream, it's charging the scene
I know where I marked the signs

I suffer the dreams of a world gone mad
I like it like that and I know it
I know it well, ugly and sweet
That temper madness with an even extreme

That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me down
I say that I'm a bantam lightweight
I say that I'm a phantom airplane

That never left the ground

Lift my hands, my eyes are still
I walk into the scene
Lift myself in a different place
Just leavin'

I've longed for this to take me
I've longed for my release
I've waited for the callin'
To leave

That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me down
To leave, believe it
Leave it all behind

That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me
That's what keeps me down
To leave, believe it
Leave it all behind

Leavin', leave, leave
Leavin', leave, leave
Leavin', leave, leave
Leavin'