Song Interpretations

New Test Leper, REM

January 13, 2007

The song "New Test Leper" by REM is about as close as one can get to the sound of liberalism. To understand it one must imagine an interview on some television talk show. An individual is trying to express an opinion in the face of an indifferent host and a hostile crowd. It is a common and ephemeral moment in our media saturated world.. the kind of moment one glimpses while waiting somewhere for an appointment.. but it is mined by Michael Stipe for some unexpected drama.

The first lines are beautiful.. and push the listener to understand this confrontation as partially religious in nature. Here is the first stanza and the chorus:

I can't say that I love Jesus
That would be a hollow claim
He did make some observations
And I'm quoting them today.
"Judge not lest ye be judged."
What a beautiful refrain.
The studio audience disagrees.
Have his lambs all gone astray?

Call me a leper
Call me a leper

The narrator begins by defining himself religiously in negative terms: "I can't say that I love Jesus". The implication is that the audience is largely composed of Christians. We never find out precisely what this man is trying to defend, but it seems evident that it is some flash point in the culture wars. I like to think that this imagined narrator is gay, and trying to defend his world before this popular audience. In an effort to get the audience to refrain from their hostile judgments, he recites the words of Jesus: "Judge not lest ye be judged". The lines, as sung by Stipe, seem to come from some place deep inside. It is not the most popular biblical phrase to drop from the mouths of conservative Christians.. but it did drop from Jesus' mouth.

To this plea by the narrator, the audience remains hostile, and he asks: "Have his lambs all gone astray?" Again the New Testament language remains strong. Jesus is the Good Shepherd.. a popular image of Jesus. Christians are his lambs.. "the sheep of his pasture". But that imagery seems all out of whack for the situation as it is unfolding. These are hardly lambs, but attackers.. unwilling to listen to someone presenting another viewpoint.. another lifestyle.

The chorus at first seems enigmatic: "Call me a leper"? Certainly Stipe has his share of enigmatic lines. Yet there is sense here, and again we have to look to the New Testament to grasp it. Lepers were shunned outcasts, but Jesus was willing to touch them and to spend time with them.. as he did with other socially despised groups. With this in mind the chorus seems to be a gentle attempt to change the cognitive frame of an audience. We could paraphrase it as follows: "don't call me a devient or a lowlife, call me a leper.. and in doing so remember the treatment that lepers received from Jesus." A leper would seem to be deserving of a certain minimum standard of decency.. a standard which is hardly upheld as insults are launched in popular forums.

The second stanza continues:

"You are lost and disillusioned"
What an awful thing to say.
I know this show doesn't matter.
It means nothing to me.
I thought I might help them understand
But what an ugly thing to see:
"I am not an animal"
Subtited under the screen.

The narrator hears the condescending charge: "You are lost and disillusioned".. a self-righteous comment if ever there was one. Then we get a sense of what has driven him to come before this hostile public.. it is out of no personal craving for money or fame, but out of a desire to help others to see something: "I thought I might help them understand.." But there will be no communication here. We close out the stanza with a reminder of the vast television audience, viewing a subtitle that reads: "I am not an animal". The effort at genuine communication has been condensed to a denial that only reinforces the common viewpoint: "This is an animal".

The final stanza:

When I tried to tell my story
They cut me off to take a break.
I sat silent five commercials
I had nothing left to say
The talk show host was index-carded
All organized and blank
The other guests were scared and hardened
What a sad parade.

This is about as bleak an assessment of the possibility of communication as one is likely to encounter. The narrator seems to come out of his own head to try and express something personal about himself: "my story".. but he is cut off and unable to speak. You can see him sitting there silent, stared at by the crowd and by the other guests on the show.. By the end he has "nothing left to say". Our attention is then drawn away from the audience and we see the host stuck in his or her index cards.. unwilling to take interest except when on camera. The other guests sit there tense and perhaps angry.. not willing to extend a helping hand or listen to another viewpoint. That is not anyone's goal.

Consider what is stacked against genuine communication in this case: an audience that reflexively knows its positions, a host that is more interested in smooth flow than any sort of breakthrough, and other guests who are pointedly partisan in their viewpoints. The talk-show situation is of course a fiction, but it works to dramatize the broader question of whether genuine personal communication is possible along the various channels of American popular culture. Coming from a popular rock band, with some very popular albums under their belts, that is a probing question.. and Stipe here doesn't seem to believe it is likely.. certainly not easy.

Whatever the difficulty in communication, the song refuses to return hate for hate. Stipe is exemplary in his ability to be politically engaged and yet to refuse to give in to hate. This is a point that comes out in their last full album Around the Sun, where in "Final Straw" Stipe opens by singing: "as I raise my head to broadcast my objection.." With this kind of performative language he lodges his complaint, but then near the end he states his deepest principles:

now love cannot be called into question.
    forgiveness is the only hope I hold.
and love—love will be my strongest weapon.
    I do believe that I am not alone.

In a public sphere that generally strikes me as angry and unforgiving, it is poignant to see a pop star staking out the ground of love and forgiveness. These are not the words of a Toby Keith.. who described for us the "angry American".. nor is it the spirit that I pick up from so-called religious leaders.. But there is something more deeply Christian.. and more Christ-like even.. in the ground staked out by Michael Stipe.

more song interpretations:

Father and Daughter, Paul Simon

New Test Leper, REM