Oh the Sunshine on the dewdrops ...

/:Oh the Sunshine on the dewdrops on the cobwebs in the fog
Are a worthy theme of poetry I'm putting on my blog.:/

That Nero did not see it I consider such a pity
He sought for other brighter themes to liven up a ditty
So he set fire to the town, and burned down his city
To blame the Christians for the fact he thought was very witty.

/:Oh the Sunshine on the dewdrops on the cobwebs in the fog
Are a worthy theme of poetry I'm putting on my blog.:/

If R.E.M. had seen it they would have a better reason
For singing songs than saying they are losing their religion¹
Them sitting in the corner in the spotlight like the cobweb
Remind me of the pretty sight, I'm keeping my religion:

/:Oh the Sunshine on the dewdrops on the cobwebs in the fog
Are a worthy theme of poetry I'm putting on my blog.:/

But when a morning broke to him, Cat Stevens sang one song²
That went all way back to the first, some thousand years along,
And blackbird sang like they have always since been wont to sing
Just sorry he forgot thereafter Jesus is the King.

/:Oh the Sunshine on the dewdrops on the cobwebs in the fog
Are a worthy theme of poetry I'm putting on my blog.:/
/:And the fog around the dewdrops on the cobwebs in the sun
Is rarer, coffee's nearer, and my day has just begun.:/

¹ I was over sensitive as a minister, lol, R.E.M. was not at all singing about apostasy, but only about cussing or losing ones patience, here is a mail I got:

The phrase is regionally idiomatic from the south-east United States and just means to lose one's patience with something or someone - in this case the person the singer is in a relationship with, who has finally pushed him too far so that he has fallen out of love with that person. It has nothing to do with religious faith (except, of course, via the metaphor of the idiom). You shouldn't feel so bad about misunderstanding it - many native English speakers not from the Southern U.S. misunderstood it as well, taking it literally. (Some confused and over-sensitive ministers even attacked the song thinking it was encouraging young people not to be religious, I'm afraid, which of course it was not doing.)

I see you CCd Michael Stipe's AOL email address from the 1990s -- I doubt that's still in service (and I don't think he replied to emails sent there even when it was in use). To contact the band via their staff, best to send a note to their offices: R.E.M., Post Office Box
8032, Athens, Georgia 30603, USA.

Hope this helps,
Ron Henry (one time maintainer of the Usenet rec.music.rem
Frequently-Asked Questions page)

However, even so, singing about a nice morning is a better reason for singing than singing about a lost love - at least a nicer one.

²Morning has broken is not written by Cat Stevens, but he became the most famous singer of it. It is older, and in Gaelic was actually a Christmas carol from the locality Bunessan (which gave its name to the melody too) which is close to another melodically relevant place of Scotland: Mull of Kintyre.

Link to the Christmas hymn in Gaelic:

LEANABH AN ÀIGH

and in English translation:

CHILD IN THE MANGER