Michael Stipe Clarifies Iconic R.E.M. Lyrics After Decades

Michael Stipe, the frontman of R.E.M., has been actively clarifying the famously difficult lyrics to the band's 1987 hit "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" on social media platform Bluesky. He corrected several widely misheard lines, including "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." The confusion over the lyrics has persisted partly because R.E.M. never printed them in their album liner notes, leaving fans and lyric websites to guess. Stipe's clarifications have come in response to popular inaccuracies, including a Simpsons meme parodying the song's complexity. He also shared more complex lines and joked about his unconventional punctuation style, emphasizing the stream-of-consciousness nature of the song. These insights have been welcomed as a rare glimpse into the creative process behind one of R.E.M.'s signature and most enigmatic tracks.