Talk:Losing My Religion

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Contents 1 Meaning of the title 2 LMR not the biggest hit with lead mandolin 3 ban in Ireland 4 Infobox title 5 Meaning of the expression

[edit] Meaning of the title

I changed the explanation from "being at the end of one's rope" to "flying off the handle", per an explanations I heard on the radio at the time of the song's popularity, and as backed up by this web site: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=losing+my+religion&defid=108482#108482 --GreatAlfredini 03:16, 28 December 2005 (UTC)

The current explanation makes zero sense to me... Venicemenace 9/29/06

I concur. It should be "being at the end of one's rope". --Fantailfan 16:19, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

I meant "flying off the handle." Fantailfan 16:23, 29 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] LMR not the biggest hit with lead mandolin

The article states, "Losing My Religion is probably the largest hit in rock history to have a mandolin as the main instrument," however an obvious counter-example is Rod Stewart's 1971 monster hit Maggie May, which went to #1 in both the US and the UK. --Blainster 10:10, 11 September 2005 (UTC)

But the album "Out of Time" went to #1 in both the US and the UK charts, and LMR is the best known single from it. [1] You can see from the link that people have rather bought R.E.M. albums than singles. But the ultimate popularity is difficult to measure, both songs are classics. It is OK that you removed the sentence from the text. -Hapsiainen

I agree that these things are difficult to measure as you say. That is why it is wise to avoid making any statement of superiority or ultimacy on Wikipedia unless it is easy to verify. However a statement to the effect that LMR is one of only a few rock music hits to feature the mandolin would be quite acceptable if you wish. That would make the point without getting into a contest. --Blainster 03:33, 12 September 2005 (UTC)

[edit] ban in Ireland

was the song banned, or the video? something tells me it was the video.

I'm pretty sure both were. However, I believe that the song was banned as a direct result of the video. I'll try to verify that. If this is the case, then I'll change the location of the statement to be in the video section since it applies more directly to the video than the song itself. Bsd987 03:58, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

Theres no legal mechanisms to ban either songs or music videos in Ireland, nor was there in 1991. There is a possibilty that the then-sole national television broadcaster (RTÉ, who were also the then-largest but nowhere near sole licenced radio broadcasters) refused to play it but this is highly unlikely also. --Kiand 21:35, 23 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox title

I've changed the title on the infobox from "Shiny Happy People" to "Losing My Religion". All the evidence I can see (including the album cover for the single) lists the title as "Losing My Religion", and the fact that none of the three versions of the single include "Shiny Happy People" also leads me to believe it was just a mistake. If I'm wrong, feel free to change it back, though I'd like to see an explanation why (either here, or preferably on the article page), because it wouldn't be very intuitive. —LrdChaos 01:16, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

The reason is, I had copied the infobox from the "Shiny Happy People" infobox, changing it from the "old" (WikiAlbum-style) to the "new" style per WikiSingle. As with a couple of others I have updated I failed to change the title. I had just received the Out of Time Singles Collected and "fixed" the existing pages in too much of a hurry. Fantailfan 01:21, 2 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meaning of the expression

I have removed the sentenced "However it remains unclear if the song is a political or a personal expression by the band." from the first paragraph of "The song" section. As User:Wikipediatrix said when first removing it, "if it's unclear, then don't mention it." There's no provided indication that there's any meaning to be had from it; to say it's "unclear" about whether the "flying off the handle" bit is personal or political first assumes that the band meant the title to mean that phrase. There's no source for that, so it's just as possible (though perhaps less likely) that the title and phrase are meant more literally, and that the song is a statement about losing faith.

I see no particular reason for which a religious interpretation should be excluded. If so, what is the meaning of "Every whisper Of every waking hour I'm Choosing my confessions". Maybe even this expression has some alternative meaning, I do not know, since I am not native english, and probably there are native english persons who do not know about the other meaning of "losing my religion". It seems that the lyrics are -deliberately or not- vague or ambiguous, or even a joke about the ambivalence of the expression "losing my religion". —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Popopp (talk • contribs) 11:23, 4 March 2007 (UTC).

On another note, User:Chairmanofall, please remember to assume good faith. Wikipediatrix's edit was neither stupid nor vandalism. just because the edit was to remove content that you added does not mean it was vandalism, and a perfectly reasonable explanation was provided in the edit summary. —LrdChaos (talk) 13:44, 20 October 2006 (UTC)

This song is one of the greatest annoyances in the history of heavy rotation radio transmissions, isn't it? I miss a top flop list for songs most people do NOT want to hear ever more...