33 years since its initial release, R.E.M’s anthem It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) has exploded back into the public consciousness.
The track, that originally came out in 1987, appeared on the band’s album Document and reached a peak of No. 69 on the Billboard Top 100.
Having last charted back in 1987 during its original release, R.E.M’s It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) has re-entered global charts.
The song describes a stream of consciousness rant from lead singer Michael Stipe, which includes references to practically everything under the sun. The lyrics come at the listener at bullet speed, talking about famed music journalist Lester Bangs, through to the Cold War and Televangelists.
Stipe has described the writing of the song in many interviews, “I wrote the words to ‘End of the World’ as I sung it. When they showed me that song in the studio I just said, ‘It’s the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.’ I wanted it to be the most bombastic vocal that I could possibly muster. Something that would completely overwhelm you and drip off your shoulders and stick in your hair like bubblegum.”
The song is currently at number 64 on the iTunes charts however this is almost certainly going to change. Let us hope people at least feel fine while listening to this classic song from a classic band.
