‘Orange Crush’ is a song by the American alternative rock band R.E.M. It was released as the first single from the band's sixth studio album, Green, in 1988. It was not commercially released in the U.S. despite reaching number one as a promotional single on both the Mainstream and Modern Rock Tracks (where, at the time, it had the record for longest stay at number one with eight weeks, beating U2). It peaked at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's then-highest chart hit in Britain, where they promoted the song by making their debut appearance on Top of the Pops.
Orange Crush was an orange flavored soft drink. In this case, though, it was meant to refer to Agent Orange, a chemical used by the US to defoliate the Vietnamese jungle during the Vietnam War. US military personnel exposed to it developed cancer years later and some of their children had birth defects. The extreme lyrical dissonance in the song meant that most people completely misinterpreted the song, including Top of The Pops host Simon Parkin, who remarked on camera after R.E.M. performed the song on the British TV show, "Mmm, great on a summer's day. That's Orange Crush."
The song does not refer to any single Vietnam-related experience for lead singer Michael Stipe, but simply that he lived in that era of American history. He wrote in Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011: "The song is a composite and fictional narrative in the first person, drawn from different stories I heard growing up around Army bases. This song is about the Vietnam War and the impact on soldiers returning to a country that wrongly blamed them for the war." Stipe's father served in Vietnam in the helicopter corps.
The video for the song, directed by Matt Mahurin, won the band its first VMA, for Best Post-Modern Video. ‘Orange Crush’ was also the first song to win in the category. The video, shot exclusively in black and white, does not feature the band at all. Stipe sometimes introduced this in concert by singing the US Army jingle, "Be all that you can be, in the Army." The drill sergeant heard in the background during the middle is just an imitation by Stipe. In the traditional Michael Stipe way, the words he says during the imitation are complete nonsense.
Label – Warner Bros.
Songwriters – Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Michael Stipe
Producers – Scott Litt, R.E.M.
SONG LYRICS
[Verse](Follow me, don't follow me)
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
(Collar me, don't collar me)
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
(We are agents of the free)
I've had my fun and now it's time
To serve your conscience overseas (Over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me
[Verse]
(Follow me, don't follow me)
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
(Collar me, don't collar me)
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
(We are agents of the free)
I've had my fun and now it's time
To serve your conscience overseas (Over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me
[Chorus]
High on the roof
Thin the blood
Another one came on the waves tonight
Coming in, you're home
[Interlude]
"We would circle and we'd circle and we'd circle
To stop and consider and centered on the pavement
Stacked up all the trucks jacked up and our wheels
In slush and orange crush in pocket and all
This here county, hell, any county, it's just like heaven here
And I was remembering and I was just in a different county and all
Then this whirlybird that I headed for I had my goggles pulled off;
I knew it all, I knew every back road and every truck stop"
[Verse]
(Follow me, don't follow me)
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
(Collar me, don't collar me)
I've got my spine, I've got my orange crush
(We are agents of the free)
I've had my fun and now it's time
To serve your conscience overseas (Over me, not over me)
Coming in fast, over me
[Chorus]
High on the roof
Thin the blood
Another one came on the waves tonight
Coming in, you're home
High on the roof
Thin the blood
Another one came on the waves tonight
Coming in, you’re home