REM's "Man on the Moon": All about Andy K?

Cafe Society
1

I’ve been trying to track down all the allusions in REM’s “Man on the Moon” to see if they can all be somehow linked back to Andy Kaufman.

Lyrics can be found on the official REM site in html/Flash and PDF formats.

Some of the references are obvious, like “gone wrestling” and “goofing on Elvis”. But is “truck stop instead of Saint Peter’s” a reference to some milk-and-cookies-esque stunt of the late great Mr. K’s, for instance?

To be honest, given REM’s resistance to publishing definitive versions of their lyrics, I’m not even sure that the words on their site can be trusted. Granted, it’s better than it used to be. Back in the day, theirs was sort of an anti-site with “mystery meat” navigation and collage-cutout snippets of liner notes in place of full lyrics.

So am I on a Stipe snipe hunt? Or is there a real rabbit somewhere in this hat to be found?

2

I think so, yes, in Stipe’s elliptical way.

For instance “Here’s a truck stop instead of Saint Peter’s” is referencing the “I saw Elvis alive at a truck stop” meme, combined with the rumours that AK’s death was a stunt, and the thought that part of that stunt would be showing himself in public as a continuation of his “goofing on Elvis” schtick. So, like Elvis, AK might be seen alive at a truck stop rather than being buried in a (St. Peter’s) churchyard.

The whole song is a riff on belief over reality, IMO.

3

Stipe also said that the song was his offering in a contest with Kurt Cobain over who could put the word “yeah” more times in one song.

4

I’m pretty sure that “St. Peter’s” refers to the peraly gates of heaven, which St. Peter supposedly guards. So he means a truck stop instead of heaven.

I always figured the lyrics were more of Michael Stipe singing elyptical lyrics that seem chock-full of meaning but can’t really be interpreted in words. In other words, he’s just saying things that sound really cool but don’t have any realistic meaning.

5

Mister Fred Blassie in a breakfast mess.

That is all I have.

6

I think the “truck stop” refers to the truck stop where Andy Kaufman and Fred Blassie had their notable breakfast (as per Psycho Pirate’s post).

“Locked in the punch” of course refers to the infamous slap/punch Kaufman received from Jerry Lawler on the David Letterman show.

On a deeper level, I read this song as an atheist’s meditation on death. (“Here’s a little legend for the never-believer”). Is there an afterlife? What is it like? Is Andy Kaufman locked in an eternal wrestling match? Is he goofing on Elvis?