At long last, Michael Stipe is offering answers to questions that have long plagued R.E.M. fans: What the hell is he actually saying on “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”?
The single from R.E.M.’s 1987 album Document is a masterpiece of rock & roll stream-of-consciousness with Stipe striking that perfect balance of cheery and apocalyptic as he unloads a torrent of pop culture references and koans. Certain parts of the song were always easy to distinguish — “Leonard Bernstein!” — but the sheer volume of Stipe’s volubility has led to plenty of lyrical misreadings over the years, exacerbated by R.E.M.’s decision not to print song lyrics in their album liner notes.
But last week, Stipe started to clear up some of the most mysterious lines from “It’s the End of the World” on BlueSky. (The exercise was inspired by, of all things, a Simpsons meme, and not even the actual scene with an R.E.M. guest appearance and Homer belting out obviously-wrong lines like, “Leonard, what’s-his-name, Herman Munster, motorcade, birthday party, Cheetos.”)
The first two he clarified were, “Left of west and coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck”; and “Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped, look at that low playing, fine, then.”
To give a sense of just how easy it is to encounter incorrect lyrics, the “It’s the End of the World” page on Genius has those two lines listed as: “Left her and wasn’t coming in a hurry with the Furies/Breathing down your neck” and “Team by team, reporters baffled, trump, tethered, crop/Look at that low plane, fine, then.”
Although further proving just how confounding the lyrics are, Stipe’s R.E.M. bandmate Mike Mills chimed in to say he thought the line was actually “that low plane, fine, then,” telling Stipe, “I remember you said it was from a roadside sign about watch out for low planes flying.”
Stipe replied, “I’m doing my best. Thx Mike!”
Trending Stories
Over the weekend, Stipe cleared up a couple more lines from “It’s the End of the World”: “Feed it off an aux, speak, grunt no strength, the ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height, wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.” And, “Uh-oh, overflow, population ‘common food, but it’ll do,’ save yourself, serve yourself, world serves its own needs — listen to your heart bleed, dummy with the raptured and the revered and the right, right.”
He also addressed the futility of trying to discern other R.E.M. lyrics, especially off their early albums Chronic Town, Murmur, and Reckoning. To those looking to sing along or cover those tunes, Stipe advised: “Just form vowels and syllables, and mean it.”