There are songs that you know are your favorites, and then there are songs you didn't realize are your favorites until you really listen. This tune is definitely the latter. I'm hard-pressed to think of anything else in the REM catalog that is like "Can't Get There..." with it's truly unique style that still maintains its essential REMiness. This is no novelty song like "End of the World" or "Stand", it's the real deal, it just delivers the goods with horns, falsettos, and winsome charm.
When I was a kid, my family was on a cross-country road trip when we got lost in Kentucky, and were in need of a pharmacy. My dad pulled over to ask a guy directions, and with with a cadence that still resounds in my memory thirty-some years later he said, "Just follow on through to Boone County Drugs." There's a neural connection in me somehow with that memory and this song, "can't get there from here" being the quintessential Southern folk saying that exudes Mayberry practicality and philosophy.
Lat thing - this tune has the best bridge in all of REM's discography - hands down (caliche bound).
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