The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite and laughs at his own inability to pronounce that correctly, which Mike Mills kept trying to get him to do. Stipe says he loved Dr. Seuss as a kid but always pronounced his name the wrong way. The song's complete title is not featured in the lyrics, but there is the line "the sidewinder sleeps in a coil" as well as the later line "the sidewinder sleeps on its back". A sidewinder is a species of rattlesnake ("Crotalus cerastes"), and also an antique style of telephone, with a winding handle on the side. The lyrics frequently refer to making and
The Enchanted Snake The Enchanted Snake The Enchanted Snake or The Snake is an Italian fairy tale. Giambattista Basile wrote a variant in the "Pentamerone". Andrew Lang drew upon this variant, for inclusion in "The Green Fairy Book". It is Aarne-Thompson type 425A, the search for the lost husband. Others of this type include "The Black Bull of Norroway", "The Brown Bear of Norway", "The Daughter of the Skies", "The King of Love", "The Enchanted Pig", "The Tale of the Hoodie", "Master Semolina", "The Sprig of Rosemary", "East of the Sun and West of the Moon", and "White-Bear-King-Valemon". A poor woman longed for