“It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” is one of the longer song titles in rock ‘n roll and one of the more oddball releases from R.E.M. (probably only superseded by “Leave” from New Adventures In Hi-Fi). The recently disbanded hall-of-fame caliber band took this quirky little single off of their 1987 album, Document.
No song with a message should ever have this cool of a groove. Its super-speedy tempo and melody ingratiate themselves into your brain so completely that you must end up moving at least one part of your body whenever you hear it.
Released when the Athens, Georgia band was at the peak of its powers the song has definite political and social overtones but, as was usually the case with the famous quartet, its stream of consciousness lyrics are cryptic to the point where listeners end up scratching their heads trying to understand whatever Michael Stipe and friends have come up with this time.
Not that it matters because indecipherable lyrics were always part of the record’s and the band’s charm.
Peter Buck said the song was influenced by Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” It also conjures up images of Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” (Joel haters will definitely despise any comparison of R.E.M. to The Big Apple’s resident musical whipping boy).
Because of its title, after September 11, 2001, “End of the World” was placed on Clear Channel’s list of inappropriate songs to play on the radio. Too out of the mainstream to be a big hit, the song still became an R.E.M classic even though it only went to No. 69 on the Billboard Hot 100 and to only No. 39 in the UK.
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“The Big Apple’s resident musical whipping boy”?
Billy Joel appears to have held up very well over the last 40+ years – much better, in fact, than REM has.
And ‘list’ songs date back to the late 1800s and the operettas of Gilbert & Sullivan.
Joel is no guiltier for writing his song than REM is for writing theirs.
In my opinion, his song is superior.
Hey, just so you know I wasn’t taking a shot at Billy Joel. I’ve always been a big fan of his. (It was really cool when I saw him play “Allentown” in that city when the song was a hit. The crowd went wild.)
I was actually taking a shot at people who hate him. Many of the effete rock snobs who love the alternative bands despise Joel. I know more than a few people who would be really pissed that I found a comparison between the two.
I’m sorry if you and any other readers interpret this post otherwise.
I understood your intention. As for the terminally hip Joel haters, they don’t really know the substance of his work.
Anyone who can actually ‘hate’ a musician is not all that different from people who hate kids, dogs and foreigners.
I always thought Billy Joel kind of stole the tune…seeing ‘We Didn’t’ didn’t come out until 10+ years after ‘The End of the World’
As John Lennon once said, “All music is rehash.” They’ve all been stealing from each other for a long time. The Beatles stole from Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Buddy Holly & Elvis the First. ELO and tons of others then stole from The Beatles. Zeppelin and the Stones stole from the old R&B and blues masters. So, it’s no big deal if BJ got his idea from REM. REM stole from everyone from the punk rockers to The Byrds.
Billy Joel didn’t steal anything from REM.
Just as REM didn’t steal anything from Dylan.
Gilbert & Sullivan, George M. Cohan, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Oscar Hammerstein, Frank Loesser, Lerner & Lowe, Lennon & McCartney and many other great songwriters have all written ‘list’ songs at one time or another. It’s a popular music tradition.
REM is by no means the first band to write a ‘list’ song. Theirs is just another song in a long line.
Joel’s song is a chronologically correct list of headlines of the Cold War era from 1949 to 1989 which he wrote to mark his 40th birthday. That’s it.
His melody is completely different, as is the chorus, the chord progression, the tempo, the instrumental arrangement, the production and the intent.
And Billy Joel doesn’t need to steal from REM.
These kinds of assumptions are usually made by hopelessly biased band fanatics or those who are mostly ignorant of songwriting history in general.