As R.E.M. sprinted toward a long-developing commercial breakthrough in 1987, they came to more fully understand their powers as a band – both musically and socially. They also came to terms with everything they'd left behind, a workaday existence where nothing is guaranteed. And all of that happened within "Finest Worksong," the opening cut on Document. "The minute we wrote that," Peter Buck said in Reveal: The Story of R.E.M., "we pretty much knew that it had to be side one, track one."
Document reached the Top 10 on Billboard's album chart, a first, even as the band prepared for a shift from indie I.R.S. Records to the major-label exposure provided by Warner Bros. They ended up reeling off five straight Top Five studio projects in the early '90s, including two chart-toppers, but this is where R.E.M. officially made the transition from college-rock upstarts to mainstream rockers.
"Finest Worksong" showed they weren't shying away from it, either. This riffy, U2-esque statement of populist purpose blended radio-ready, largely improvised sounds with a new lyrical assertiveness. The intent here, Michael Stipe said in Reveal, 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." He seethes with anger while singing lines like, "What we want and what we need has been confused."
This topical bent was a new development for a band that had largely avoided politics early on, choosing instead to couch their intent in elliptical phrases and just as elliptical guitar figures. They tended to walk a fine line, partly because of a reluctance to be seen as dilettantes, and also to keep some sense of mystery around the songs. "I don't like sloganeering, especially when it gets to something like the Clash who don't know what they're talking about," Buck once said. "They're fucking boneheads. People think that's revolutionary, and it's garbage!"
By 1984, however, R.E.M. was turning a corner, as Stipe began to engage in the issues of the day during extemporaneous comments on stage. Document showed they were now ready to fully integrate those steadfast beliefs into their musical narratives, as well.
"Rock 'n' roll is supposed to be about personal freedoms," Buck told UPI in 1987. "How can you do this and act like a clown, jump around in striped trousers, and then just go home and not worry about it because you've got your million? That's just sickening. I'm not saying you have to make social messages, but the Motley Crues and Van Halens, they have a tool to talk to every disenfranchised lower-middle-class kid who works in a garage and tell them something about what's happening to them – but all they tell them is 'go ahead and jump.' A lot of these bands make it on rebellion, but it's really safe rebellion. All the kids raise their hand in the air and yell and drink a bunch of malt liquor for about three hours, then they go right back home and go to the mall." From: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/rem-finest-worksong/
