Song of the Day 3/16: R.E.M., “Stand”

A song for when everybody is on lockdown. Just stand in the place where you are.

Listen to reason
Reason is calling
Your feet are going to be on the ground
Your head is there to move you around

Peter Buck called this “the stupidest song we ever wrote,” but it was that way on purpose — the group wrote it after a discussion about the Saturday-morning-cartoon “bands” the Banana Splits and the Archies. It appeared on 1988’s “Green” with other bubble-gummy songs like “Pop Song ’89” and “Get Up.” Michael Stipe said, “They threw these super bubble-gummy songs at me, and I said, ‘I’ll see you and raise you one.’ And I wrote the most inane lyrics that I could possibly write.” It reached No. 6 on the Hot 100, R.E.M.’s second top-10 single.