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"you want to go out friday and
you want to go forever."
[My interpretation of this line]
was to go out with your friends and party. [Another person's]
interpretation was to go out meant to die, leave the world. Kind
of heavy. [Stipe, from an
online interview.]
"and the intern was a mess"
An intern is a recent medical school graduate getting practical
training before practicing medicine. [Ron
Henry]
"and they did the same to Matthew"
If there is a real-world "Matthew", it's so far unknown.
It isn't Matthew Shepard (although there are some interesting
coincidences), because the song had already been recorded was
Shepard was killed. [Chris
Piuma]
"and you know it's allegory"
An allegory is a symbolic story in which characters and events
stand for abstract concepts, not meant to be taken literally.
[Ron Henry]
* The Limited Edition package has this lyric as "you know
its allegory" where the standard package has "you know
it's allegory". [jogan]