“Cuyahoga” by R.E.M.

"Cuyahoga", from R.E.M.'s 1986 album Lifes Rich Pageant, is the band turning its gaze on the map and not liking what it sees. Mike Mills and Bill Berry wrote most of it, though the credit went to all four, and it's Mills' bassline that pulls the whole thing forward, with Don Gehman's production giving Michael Stipe's voice and Peter Buck's guitar plenty of air.

The subject is the Ohio river so choked with pollution that it caught fire more than once, 1969 included, and the song sets that beside the way American Indians were treated, a pairing Buck described as a metaphor for America and its lost promises. Grim stuff, but the chorus lifts like a rallying cry. Biographer Tony Fletcher named it the album's lyrical high point, and though it was never a single, Mills counts it among his favorites to play live.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.