"Drive" is taken from R.E.M.'s eighth studio album "Automatic for the People" in 1992. Although it was not as successful as previous lead singles "Losing My Religion," "Stand," or "The One I Love" it became R.E.M.'s then second biggest hit on the UK Singles Charts, peaking at No 11. Despite the success and popularity of the song, it was left out of the band's Warner Bros. Records "best of" compilation In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988–2003. However, a live version of the song was included in the special edition two-disc set of In Time that included rarities, live versions, and B-sides. The version featured was the "funk" version, which has never been studio-recorded.
Smack, crack, bushwhacked
Tie another one to your racks, baby
Hey kids, rock and roll
Nobody tells you where to go, baby
What if I ride, what if you walk?
What if you rock around the clock?
Tick-tock, tick-tock
What if you did, what if you walk?
What if you tried to get off, baby?
Hey, kids, where are you?
Nobody tells you what to do, baby
Hey kids, shake a leg
Maybe you're crazy in the head, baby
Maybe you did, maybe you walked
Maybe you rocked around the clock
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Maybe I ride, maybe you walk
Maybe I drive to get off, baby
Hey kids, shake a leg
Maybe you're crazy in the head, baby
Ollie, ollie, ollie ollie ollie
Ollie ollie in come free, baby
Hey, kids, where are you?
Nobody tells you what to do, baby
Smack, crack, shack-a-lack
Tie another one to your backs, baby
Hey kids, rock and roll
Nobody tells you where to go, baby
Maybe you did, maybe you walk
Maybe you rock around the clock
Tick-tock, tick-tock
Maybe I ride, maybe you walk
Maybe I drive to get off, baby
Hey kids, where are you?
Nobody tells you what to do, baby
Hey kids, rock and roll
Nobody tells you where to go, baby, baby, baby
The dictionary definition of "drive" is to push, to rush, to press onward, to guide, to control, to direct, to carry through to a conclusion, to make an effort, to accomplish a purpose, to force into or from an act or state. REM's song "Drive" is about the futility of life, of being a teenager and wanting to fix and change everything. As a teenager, we have this sense that everything's wrong, and if the generations before us were too stupid and stuffed up to fix it, then we'll be the ones! IT'S OUR TURN! But as you get older you realise that everything works against you. Society in general, rules, regulations, and the people in charge. For example politicians, and the jostling for the election campaign, etc. You start realising that the whole thing sucks. It stinks to high heaven, and you can smell the rot from thousands of miles away, but you can't fix it, because society is against you. What;s more the people in your own peer group who had the wise ideas in the first place, are now washouts, because they were to lazy to get off their backsides and do something. Or so it seems. You get the drive, then you lose it as quickly as you get it, because you become a disaffected, disillusioned, an apathetic idiot, This it seems is what this song is about. In the scriptures that self same "Drive" is spoken of as pressing on, endurance and is often set against a backdrop of trials and hopelessness. This is true in the reading today.
Paul peaks of his own personal drive and that it does not lie in how he has been shaped from his past but in how he is moving forward. This drive is not rooted in how he has been but in what he will become. Things may be futile or chaotic. We may have good or bad past lives that have brought us to the place we are at. this is not to be the driving force of our lives. Paul says "Forgetting what lies behind" . This last week we have been c-concentrating on the beatitudes or the "Blessed's" and all that they bring to the lives of the followers of Jesus, these beatitudes have a driving force. The beatitudes are part of a longer sequence of reflections and thoughts from Jesus. From Matthew 5 to Matthew 7 we have the "Sermon on the mount" or in a similar way to how Moses brought the law of God from a mountain; Jesus brings his manifesto for life from a mountain. He does not bring this manifesto as a new law to burden people with but as a manifesto for living. The Sermon on the mount is to be a driving force in the lives of disciples.
The "Beatitudes" and the larger section known as "the Sermon On The Mount" is the basis for discipleship. It's the basis for life with God and with each other. Its the drive that Paul speaks of in Philippians, "I Press on towards" Both in the sermon on the mount and in Paul's sermon to the Philippian church he is encouraging advancement (A moving froward) We can move forward in life either from the pool of ignorance. ie, from the pressure and culture of the world as the basis or move forward from the fountain of truth as the basis of our lives. REM's "Drive" is set against the backdrop of futility, you only have to read the lyrics closely to understand this. In our lives as a disciple we follow Jesus against the backdrop of futility at times, we advance despite what the culture or our past throws at us. Today be centred the truth that is found in Jesus in Matthew 5 -7, be focused like Paul the apostle to the Philippians and have the "Drive" to advance and move forward into the future to take hold of what God has for you.
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