Cash Box said that "a fully rocking chorus and a typically steady and murky verse give this cut superior pop character as well as giving mainstream listeners a taste of what college radio has known about for years."[8]
In another first for R.E.M., who had opposed including the lyrics with their albums, many of the words of "Cant Get There from Here" appeared in the video for the song.
The video features band members frolicking in hay fields, throwing popcorn at each other at a drive-in movie, and big insects. "We used the new-to-us 'blue screen' process," Buck explained to MTV UK in 2001, during An Hour with R.E.M. "So we have dinosaurs and monsters in the background. It's probably the most humorous video we've ever done. For a band that's kind of noted for not having a sense of humor, I kind of enjoy that aspect of it."[9]
The proper title of the song is unclear: unlike "Feeling Gravitys Pull" or Lifes Rich Pageant, this song's title does not maintain a consistent punctuation. On the album, it is spelled without an apostrophe on the back cover, but with the apostrophe on the CD. One version of the single has an apostrophe and the other does not.
On the 1988 compilation Eponymous, the song's title also is spelled without an apostrophe, except in the liner notes. The title has an apostrophe on the back cover of the 2006 compilation And I Feel Fine.
The band's U.S. copyright registration for the song includes the apostrophe.[10]
All songs written by Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe, "Bandwagon" is co-written by Michael's sister, Lynda Stipe.
7": IRS / IRM 102 (UK)
- "Can't Get There from Here" (Edit) – 3:12
- "Bandwagon" – 2:15
12": IRS / IRT 102 (US)
- "Can't Get There from Here" (Extended Mix) * – 3:39
- "Bandwagon" – 2:15
- "Burning Hell" – 3:49
- "Extended Mix" identical to album version
More information Chart (1985), Peak position ...
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"ALBUMS". R.E.M. HQ. 2011-12-18. Archived from the original on February 5, 2012. Retrieved February 9, 2012. An Hour with R.E.M., MTV Europe, April 28, 2001
R.E.M./Night Garden Music (June 6, 1985). "Can't get there from here". Public Catalog. U.S. Copyright Office. Archived from the original on October 17, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.