Lost Music: It's The End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) R.E.M.

Remembering Forgotten Songs!

 

Today's Lost Music post is It's The End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine), a wild apocalyptic rock anthem by R.E.M.  At first listen, this track simply knocked me out due to its incredible energy.  As the song moves forward, the band kicks things into high gear and produces more power than I'd ever heard in a R.E.M. song.  Sweet fancy Moses!

"The track is known for its quick-flying, seemingly stream of consciousness rant with many diverse references, such as a quartet of individuals with the initials L.B.: Leonard Bernstein, Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs. In a 1990s interview with Musician magazine, R.E.M.'s lead singer Michael Stipe claimed that the L.B. references came from a dream he had in which he found himself at a party surrounded by famous people who all shared those initials. 'The words come from everywhere,' Stipe explained to Q Magazine in 1992. 'I'm extremely aware of everything around me, whether I am in a sleeping state, awake, dream-state or just in day to day life, so that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I'd seen when I was flipping TV channels. It's a collection of streams of consciousness.'  Years later, amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, the song received an increase in downloads and streaming in March 2020 alongside other apocalypse- and sickness-themed songs." (Wikipedia)

 

It's The End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine)

 That's great, it starts with an earthquake 
Birds and snakes, and aeroplanes 
And Lenny Bruce is not afraid 

… Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn 
World serves its own needs 
Don't mis-serve your own needs 
Speed it up a notch, speed, grunt, no, strength 
The ladder starts to clatter 
With a fear of height, down, height 
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games 
And a government for hire and a combat site 
Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry 
With the Furies breathing down your neck 

… Team by team, reporters baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped 
Look at that low plane, fine, then 
Uh oh, overflow, population, common group 
But it'll do, save yourself, serve yourself 
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed 
Tell me with the Rapture and the reverent in the right, right 
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam fight, bright light 
Feeling pretty psyched 

… It's the end of the world as we know it 
It's the end of the world as we know it 
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine 

… Six o'clock, T.V. hour, don't get caught in foreign tower 
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn 
Lock him in uniform, book burning, bloodletting 
Every motive escalate, automotive incinerate 
Light a candle, light a motive, step down, step down 
Watch your heel crush, crush, uh oh 
This means no fear, cavalier, renegade and steering clear 
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies 
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline 

… It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it (I had some time alone) 

It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone) 
I feel fine (I feel fine) 

… It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone) 

… The other night I drifted nice continental drift divide 
Mountains sit in a line, Leonard Bernstein 
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs 
Birthday party, cheesecake, jellybean, boom 
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam but neck, right, right 

… It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone) 

… It's the end of the world as we know it 
It's the end of the world as we know it 
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone) 

… It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone) 

… It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it (time I had some time alone) 
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine (time I had some time alone)

 


 

Johnny Pierre's new single

Johnny Pierre started writing this song back in 1995

and then recently finished it after seeing the horrors of the invasion of Ukraine.

LISTEN

 


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