Finest Worksong


"Finest Worksong" is the third and final single released from R.E.M.'s fifth studio album Document. It peaked at number 50 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1988, at the time the group's highest-charting single in the UK.
The single version of the song, featuring a new horn section by The Uptown Horns, was placed on R.E.M.'s I.R.S. Records compilation Eponymous. This was the last original single the band released on I.R.S. Records.

Track listing

All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe.
7" single
  1. "Finest Worksong" – 3:50
  2. "Time After Time, Etc." 1 – 8:22
12" single and 3" CD single
  1. "Finest Worksong" – 3:50
  2. "Time After Time, Etc." 1 – 8:22
  3. "Finest Worksong" – 5:52
  4. "Finest Worksong" – 3:47
UK CD single
  1. "Finest Worksong"
  2. "Time After Time, Etc." 1
  3. "It's [the End of the World as We Know It ]"

    Charts

Lyrics

Per Stipe in an interview with Reveal, the intent "was to attack 'the idea that you can work and work, and get what you want, and then try for even more. It's the American dream, but it's a pipe dream that's been exploited for years.'" It has also been described as a "musical portrait of a disenchanted worker. Michael Stipe sings, 'Take your instinct by the reins You'd better best to rearrange What we want and what we need Has been confused been confused.'"