Cant Get There from Here

This article is about the song. For the album, see Can't Get There from Here (album). For other uses, see Can't Get There from Here (disambiguation).
"Cant Get There from Here"
A short band of a photograph of a fish with a large portion of the sleeve in light green and the artist and song title in orange; the entire sleeve has white outline drawings of fish on it
Single by R.E.M.
from the album Fables of the Reconstruction
B-side"Bandwagon"
ReleasedJune 1985 (1985-06)
Recorded1985
Genre
Length3:39
LabelIRS
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)Joe Boyd
R.E.M. singles chronology
"(Don't Go Back To) Rockville"
(1984) 		"Cant Get There from Here"
(1985) 		"Driver 8"
(1985)
Music video
"Cant Get There from Here" on YouTube

"Cant Get There from Here", or "Can't Get There from Here", is the first single released by R.E.M. from its third studio album Fables of the Reconstruction in 1985. The song peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100 Singles, equaling to a position of approximately 110 on the main Billboard Hot 100 chart. It also peaked at number 91 on the Canadian Singles Chart. It was re-released on the 2006 compilation disc And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982–1987.

It was the first R.E.M. song to feature a horn section. Matthew Perpetua's 2010 retrospective of R.E.M.'s work called it "oddball...approximated southern funk via Peter Buck's chiming Rickenbacker chords".[4][5]

The song mentions the small town of Philomath, Georgia.[6][7]

  1. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011 - R.E.M. | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  2. ^ Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Fables of the Reconstruction - R.E.M. | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved January 5, 2020.
  3. ^ "ALBUMS". R.E.M. HQ. 2011-12-18. Archived from the original on February 5, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2012.
  4. ^ Perpetua, Matthew. "Fables of The Reconstruction". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
  5. ^ Perpetua, Matthew (23 May 2007). "Can't Get There From Here". Popsongs 07-08. Retrieved February 26, 2017.
  6. ^ "The Complete R.E.M. Lyrics Archive: Fables Of The Reconstruction". File Under R.E.M. Retrieved October 18, 2007.
  7. ^ "Inside Music: Icon Series/R.E.M." MSN. Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved October 18, 2007.