R.E.M. - (Don't Go Back To) Rockville Lyrics

Gettin in the mood. Alright.

Why this isn’t on everybody’s top ten songs of all time list is beyond me.

Going back to Rockville was a long desolate road

One of the best lines ever :

It's not as though I really need you, if you were here I'd only bleed you.

I can totally relate to this one

one of the the greatest lyric/melody lines ever

Epiomizes the band and the Athens sound.

I was there, it was a great time for music, like having all the sun's energy through a magnifying glass focused on that little town until commercialism ruined it. Go to philomath if you get the chance.

these lyrics and this music define "theatre of the mind".....

"walk home to an empty house,
sit around all all by yourself...."

-Michael Stipe

epic

This song touched my soul so much that I got to really cry, I loved it. I don't live in this city, but I found the lyrics to the song beautiful and matched the rhythm. Soon maybe a cover of this song appears on my channel ?!

Who else listens to this song, cos it makes them think twice about NOT going back to that small town (or "city") they grew-up in?

we been rockville

not going back to rockville

dont go back

still good tune

Very effective use of the tack piano

Hits too close to home

My favourite and most underated REM song....something strangely hypnoti and lulling about it , like I would like to stop in those woods on a snowy evening....

I love the little reference to "Welcome Back Baby to the Poor Side of Town" in the last few notes of the coda.

iwent back there
he right

dont go back too rockdale

i can't believe he's already 59 years old. i think he will work on other projects.

sometimes we need confront life and do it anyway.

I want to though. So much. Triangles.

too far out to sea

great song here the one that got me in too R.E.M

It amazes me how many great songs these guys wrote and performed over the years. For four guys to work this closely together and work through any differences shows how committed they were.

Love the piano...notice I didnt say keyboards?

Remember Every Moment

That introduction was a waste.

I'm going back too

hammering rocks was my dayjob. as well as painting pewter plates for four hours with my headphones on.

Fuck Rockville

sometimes it's good to go back with an optimistic mentality expecting good change.

My dad's from Rockville, UT (right outside of Zion NP) and so when granny was still alive we would drive down to ol' Washington County several times a year. So this song caused my sister and I much mirth and merriment when it first came out. Of course we always ti go back. We figured he was singing about Rockville, MD.

Dammit, I just started listening to RU Talking REM re Me? because I think Adam Scott is funny and then inadvertently started liking REM, wtf? Lived through the 80s without catching it, I'm kind of late to be obsessed with this beautiful song!

i worked in a metal shop hammering out rocks from pewter plates

This song reminds me not to go back to my old dayjob.

A nice little nod to the Byrds going on here methinks.

J Church did a killer cover of this song

🎶👯🕺👯🎶💟❣️

Absolute worst of the worst. Stipe is such a preener with zero talent. He and this song stink!

CT has a Rockville too. Gene Pitney was from there. I think maybe weezer too. Maybe.

Best song... Everrrrrrr

Collage day's album...good Times 👍...I had brother's and sisters who were in college..I never went to college but was there a lot 😁🍺

Get rich and a letterman beard ,some new shoes and then fuck of to Rockville, You horrible human.

Simply beautiful....

Reckoning , Murmur , and ,....Ahh hell , I loved almost all the early albums .

Im not in rockville, im in vernon! ( connecticut joke)

God this brings back SOOO many wonderful memories, especially for those whose lives were blossoming at the time and when this song was brand new. I was moving to Philly & into my first apartment, 21 years of age. One of my first assignments on my new career/job was going to be in Rockville, Md, of all places, & with me singing this song out loud everywhere & anywhere, prior to the assignment there, & then declaring "SYNCHRONICITY!!!" when the assignment was given to me.

ANOTHER great song from ANOTHER great album from one of the best bands EVER. Miss them loads.

at night i drink myself to sleep and pretend i don't care that you're not here with me

I haven't heard this song in 30+ years. Forgot how good it is!

Looks like some serpents telling people not to go back to the Rock. Jesus is the Rock.

I interpret this song as being about not going back to a dead end situation such as a dead end town or a bad relationship. Nothing about serpents or Jesus.

@John Phillips did you notice the snakes in the picture above. I never noticed the deeper meanings before either until I read the Bible and found out that it is constantly referred to in books and movies and music. No man comes to the Father but by Jesus. That s why the devil and his army of demons want to keep us blind.

@Jim Cole It is artwork and nothing more. I don't recall any lyric in the whole album that has anything to do with serpents or religion.

It reminds me of the late 1980's going to thrift stores, driving with the windows down listening to this tape, young and free with my friends...

funny I did this in the 20teens with my friends. timeless rock never dies

STILL LOVE THAT CARLY/NEWPORT VID...ETERNAL.

BOTH ARE WELCOME,WISH SO CAL WAS NOT SO STUPID...WISH TUCSON WOULD KICK THE COUNCIL TO THE CURB...HEIREARCHY HAS NO PLACE IN TOWNSHIP.

TUCSON,72-SO CAL82-TUCSON HAPPY....SO CAL...NICE GAL...TUCSON..TRUTH...BETTER GAL.

and yes I'm from Georgia

modern folk music at its best love it

Hootenanny REM. Yeeee haw!!!

This is about my aunt. Wanna fight? It is.

And my uncle ish guy cousin

R E M is one of the world's greatest bands. No one after them compares.

I think anyone can relate to this song if they grew up in a small town in the U.S. I grew up in Livermore, CA and we grew up calling the town Live No More. Small towns =small minds

I grew up in a small town called Clovis (not Clovis California) we called it the Clovis Soap Opera.

So pretty

I'm from Rockville

Didn’t Mills write this one?

Hillbilly Southern country/rock at its finest....

Don't go back to Rockville Maryland!!!

Go shred yourself with tho intro !

Awesome.

I recall singing along to this with a dear friend when we were young men. Sadly, it all got to be too much for him many years later, and he took his own life. But I love this song and the memory it invokes.

Depression seems to be in the forefront of everyone I know. Has things gotten worse? I wonder if it's all the processed foods we eat. I worry for my son.

sorry my friend...

That's a very deep comment

First heard this back in the day on WPDH in Poughkeepsie, and loved it and REM ever since.

i lo love this song

I actually grew up in Rockville, MD lol

I always play this in the summer when I drive to go camping.

Wish I had heard this song before moving back to my hometown (Poplarville).

Ah, to turn the clock back and hangout at White Flint mall.

i had a dayjob hammering stones out of metal plates and painting them black while listening to my walkman. i'd go back and do it all again.

Well now that makes two places you can't go back to:

1. Your old day-job hammering stones out of metal plates, painting them black
2. Rockville

Spent many days in high school partying in Rockville Ct...lots of good memories!!

Check out the J Church cover from the Surprise Your Pig punk tribute to REM! - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrmtNHS4lfI

I love the little guitar reference at the end to the Johnny Rivers "Welcome Back Baby, To the Poor Side of Town".

Always wondered about that bit, thanks, off to check it out!

It's on here. Ain't Youtube a great educational tool!

Themanwhocameback2 Thanks alot...I'll look into that....always thought it was just a throw away riff to generic country. Thanks again.

Epic. Few bands can touch this kind of music, harmony totally and completely en pointe with lyrics that could cut glass. R.E.M. forever!

I couldn't go back to Rockville if i wanted as the bar closed in 2001.

how perfect is this song...🙂

one of the finest songs ever written. you rule michael stipe

Mike Mills wrote it

Has any country band covered this? Like Commodores "Easy" this is slam dunk country!

I agree...the could even change the lyrics to Don’t Go Back to Nashville

That music,incredible,that shit makes me dance.

I can't believe this great song has only 356,000 hits while stupid stuff has 356 million.

This song makes me cry

Me too. It’s perfection.

charley downey Really? Remember Every Moment. I would like to meet you and become friends

Miss Cedartown and Fred

We were in Rockville in Utah !

So what?

Takes me back to the earlier days of WHFS and the whole "twin" towers days.

Ray Mccue
Yes indeed. I remember the old HFS days. Went to 6 HFStivals, including the first two at Lake Fairfax park, when it was like 5 bands and only 5,000 tickets available.

Then corporate radio (Infinity broadcasting) took over and turned it into a DC101 clone, and I stopped caring.

Playing the Corner Bar in College in 1984.
REM, B-52's, Dixie Dregs, LITTLE Foot.Ramones...

My favorite REM song of all time!

This song takes me places inside my soul....

Just noticed that their logo on this album was 30 years ahead of its time. Just walk around Whole Foods & you'll see a hundred products with that font.

Spot on!

Small town American misery in a toe-tappingly tuneful nutshell.

my favorite REM song. i wish they'd put out a country album.

whats the intro?

love it miss you guys