Ever since 1987, we have been singing R.E.M.’s It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine). And Michael Stipe just told us we have not been singing all the lyrics as written by him, and his bandmates, Bill Berry, Peter Buck, and Mike Mills.
It is not, “Team by team reporters, baffled, trump, tethered, crop, Look at that low plane, fine, then.” Instead, he says it’s, “Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped, Look at that low playing, fine, then.”
The other line he corrected is, “Left her, wasn’t coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.” It is actually, “Left of west and coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck.”
So, which way have you been singing those two lines?
That’s great, it starts with an earthquake,
Birds and snakes, an aeroplane
Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane,
Listen to yourself churn
World serves its own needs
Regardless of your own need.
Feed it up a knock, speed
Grunt no, strength no
Ladder structure clatter with fear of height, down height
Wire in a fire, represent the seven games
In 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, trump, tethered crop
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 – TV hour.
Don’t get caught in foreign tower
Slash and burn, return
Listen to yourself churn.
Lock him in uniform and book burning, blood letting
Every motive escalate
Automotive incinerate
Light a candle, light a motive. Step down, step down
Watch a heel crush, crush.
Uh oh, this means no fear Cavalier
Renegade and steer clear
A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline
[Chorus]
The other night I tripped a nice continental drift divide.
Mount St. Edelite, Leonard Bernstein
Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam, but neck, right? Right.
