It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
| It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) | |
|---|---|
| SEM | |
| publication | 1987 |
| length | 3:29 (single), 4:04 (album) |
| Genre (s) | Alternative rock |
| Publisher (s) | IRS Records |
| album | Document |
| Cover versions | |
| 1991 | The Questionnaires |
| 1992 | Vic Chesnutt |
| 1993 | Extra wide |
| 1997 | Great Big Sea |
| 1999 | The String Quartet |
| 2001 | The Suicide Machines |
| 2011 | Chris Carrabba |
It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) is a song by the American rock band REM
The track was recorded by REM in 1987, released on the Document album and has also been released as a single. The song originated from a demo by the band called Bad Day , which was re-recorded in 2003, only came out as a single and finally appeared on the album The Best of REM - In Time 1988-2003 .
What is particularly striking about the song is the text, which is vaguely based on end-time scenarios and sung by singer Michael Stipe in a crazy and barely understandable way . This gave the song a kind of party atmosphere in the eyes of the fans, even if it was not intended by the band. So is It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) often called "bouncer" at concerts by REM
Some famous personalities are mentioned in the text with the initials L. B. ( Lenny Bruce , Leonid Brezhnev , Lester Bangs , Leonard Bernstein ). According to Stipe, this came about from a dream in which he was the only one at a birthday party who did not have the initials L. B. He put that in the song, along with some other stuff he saw while zapping on TV.
The song has been used in a number of films (for example, Independence Day , Heaven and the Chicken , Holiday Ripe and Flashback) and a modified version of the song was used in the Simpsons episode Homer the Moe . The song itself is in the tradition of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues . The title has been featured regularly in the credits of Upps! The super tension show used on RTL .
The song was used for two episodes of the US hit series Grey's Anatomy as the title; 2.16 Code Black (It's The End of the World (Part I) and 2.17 The Last Day (As We Know It) (Part II) .
The Canadian folk-rock band Great Big Sea also released a version of this song on their album Play . There are other cover versions of various bands, including the Italian rock musician Luciano Ligabue under the title A che ora e'la fine del mondo . The German band Extrabreit released their version with German lyrics under the title Das Ende der Welt in 1993 on the album Hotel Monopol .
In the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 , the radio association Clear Channel Communications published a list of 166 songs with the recommendation not to broadcast them for the time being. It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) was among them.
The song title has been picked up in many articles, films and books and often satirized . In the meantime, "the end of XY as we know it" has also become a household word in German . In 2009 alone, the books The End of the World as We Know It by Claus Leggewie and Harald Welzer , The End of Wall Street as We Know It by David Kansas and The End of Capitalism as We Know It by Elmar Altvater , all of which are social Predicting upheavals in the near future . Der Spiegel published its 46/2016 issue (after Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election ) under the title “The end of the world (as we know it)”. The title was chosen as cover of the year 2016 in the annual vote of New Business Verlag . A live version of the song was released on January 20, 2017 - the day of Donald Trump's inauguration - on the political music project website 1,000 Days, 1,000 Songs .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Re: title, US election, your mirror . In: Der Spiegel . No. 46 , 2016 ( online - cover picture).
- ↑ Vote for the cover of the year 2016 .
- ↑ From the creator of 30 Days, 30 Songs comes 1,000 tracks to keep you sane in Trumpworld. The AV Club, January 20, 2017, accessed February 8, 2017 .
Studio albums: Murmur (1983) | Reckoning (1984) | Fables of the Reconstruction (1985) | Lifes Rich Pageant (1986) | Document (1987) | Green (1988) | Out of Time (1991) | Automatic for the People (1992) | Monster (1994) | New Adventures in Hi-Fi (1996) | Up (1998) | Reveal (2001) | Around the Sun (2004) | Accelerate (2008) | Collapse into Now (2011)
Singles (selection): The One I Love (1987) | It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine) (1987) | Stand (1989) | Losing My Religion (1991) | Shiny Happy People (1991) | Man on the Moon (1992) | Bang and Blame (1994) | Imitation of Life (2001)