Lotus (R.E.M. song)

"Lotus"
Single by R.E.M.
from the album Up
B-side	"Surfing the Ganges"
Released	December 7, 1998 (1998-12-07)
Genre	Glam rock[1] psychedelic rock[2]
Length	4:30
Label	Warner Bros.
Songwriter(s)	Peter Buck Mike Mills Michael Stipe
Producer(s)	Pat McCarthy R.E.M.
R.E.M. singles chronology
"Daysleeper" (1998) "Lotus" (1998) "At My Most Beautiful" (1999)

"Lotus" is a song by American rock band R.E.M., released as the second single from their eleventh studio album, Up (1998). The song is somewhat minimalist, with Michael Stipe singing surreal lyrics in a percussive manner. It builds on a four-note keyboard part, with a distorted guitar riff at the beginning and after the second chorus. The song's recurring line "I ate the lotus" appeared in an alternate form ("I'll eat the lotus...") in a previous R.E.M. song, "Be Mine". The line "dot dot dot and I feel fine" is a reference to R.E.M.'s 1987 hit "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)".

For live performances of the song, Peter Buck alternates between electric guitar (chorus) and keyboard (verse). "Playing keyboard always excites me," Buck explained in a soundbite during MTV Uplink, a recording of the band's performance at New York's Bowery Ballroom in October 1998, "even though it's only with one finger." "But it's a big finger," joked Mills. "It's great."