Song of the Day 8/14: R.E.M., “Orange Crush”

OK, so the election isn’t being held today and a lot can change in (checks watch) 82 days. But right now the Harris/Walz ticket looks poised to crush a certain orange someone, and I don’t mean Tony the Tiger. It will, however, be gr-r-reat!

Michael Stipe wasn’t referring to soda on this tune, released on 1988’s “Green” LP, but rather Agent Orange, the defoliant the U.S. Army used in Vietnam. Stipe, whose father served in the helicopter corps there, grew up around Army bases in Georgia when people were starting to realize the continuing health problems for GIs who had been exposed to it.

Stipe once said, “[It’s] about the Vietnam War and the impact on soldiers returning to a country that wrongly blamed them for the war,” but the lyrics are oblique enough that most people missed it. Bassist Mike Mills said, “Yes, there was some irony in the sweet deliciousness of the pop drink versus the horrible effects of this chemical. The ironic juxtaposition of those two terms was no accident.”

The song was never released commercially as a single, but nonetheless reached No. 1 on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock Tracks charts.