Michael Stipe finally reveals the real lyrics to REM’s ‘It’s the End of the World’
After nearly 40 years, REM’s Michael Stipe has finally cleared up the confusion regarding the lyrics to ‘It’s the End of the World’.
As the band didn’t often publish their lyrics within the liner notes to their records like other bands, combined with Stipe’s unique vocal delivery, many of the lyrics to songs are mysteries to even their most ardent fans.
However, Stipe took to BlueSky over the weekend to share a meme from The Simpsons to begin the dialogue with his fans. In the image, Homer Simpson says, “I can sing all of the words to ‘It’s The End of the World’ by REM,” to which the man sitting opposite him replies, “No you can’t, Mr Simpson. No one can!”.
The former REM frontman then captioned the post, “Me”.
He then revealed the actual lyrics to one particularly contentious verse on the track, which reads, “Left of west and coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck, Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped, Look at that low playing, fine, then.”
Per Stereogum, the lyrics for ‘It’s The End of the World’ are listed incorrectly on a variety of the biggest sites for lyrics, including SongFacts and Genius. However, as Spotify licenses lyrics from MusixMatch, it is correct on the streaming platform.
Stipe once said of the creation to Q in 1992: “The words come from everywhere. 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.” He also called it “a collection of streams of consciousness.”
While REM remain inactive, they did reunite for the first time in 16 years in June to play an acoustic rendition of ‘Losing My Religion’ at the Songwriters Hall Of Fame.
During his speech, Stipe poignantly said at the ceremony: “Writing songs and having a catalogue of work that we’re all proud of that is out there for the rest of the world for all time is hands-down the most important aspect of what we did. Second to that is that we managed to do so all those decades and remain friends. And not just friends, dear friends.”
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