Michael Stipe Clarifies Misunderstood Lyrics of R.E.M.’s Classic

Michael Stipe finally put to rest a nearly four-decade-long struggle to understand just what he’s singing in R.E.M.‘s 1987 song “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine).”

As fans of the song — the second single from R.E.M.’s first Top 10 and gold-selling album, Document — know, the famously incomprehensible singer fires off a string of verses that for years could only be discerned in small portions: “World serves its own needs,” “Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn,” “Leonard Bernstein!” R.E.M. rarely reprinted their lyrics in any form.

Over the past few days, Stipe clarified on Bluesky some of the song’s most misunderstood lyrics, and it began with a Simpsons meme.

READ MORE: 50 Misheard Lyrics You May Have Been Singing Wrong

In the meme, Homer Simpson claims he can sing all the lyrics to “It’s the End of the World as We Know It,” only to be told, “No you can’t, Mr. Simpson. No one can.”

Stipe shared the image with a two-word reply: ” I can.”

I can

[image or embed]

— Michael Stipe (@michaelstipe.bsky.social) August 30, 2025 at 1:14 PM

Two days later, he proceeded to follow up his boast with proof, laying out two of the formerly unintelligible lyrics, noting “It’s ‘Left of west and coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck'” and “It’s ‘Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped, Look at that low playing, fine, then’.”

It’s ‘Left of west and coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck — Michael Stipe (@michaelstipe.bsky.social) August 31, 2025 at 8:10 PM

It’s “Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped,

Look at that low playing,

fine, then

— Michael Stipe (@michaelstipe.bsky.social) September 1, 2025 at 2:11 PM

As with the rest of the song’s quickly delivered verses, the words appear to be randomly tossed together, with no set destination in mind.

What’s the Story Behind R.E.M.’s ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’?

In a 1992 interview with Q, Stipe said of “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” “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, so that ended up in the song along with a lot of stuff I’d seen when I was flipping TV channels.

Watch R.E.M.’s Video for ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’

“It’s a collection of streams of consciousness,” he concluded.

The song reached No. 69 in the U.S. following its release as a single in late 1987.

Homer Simpson covered the song in a 2001 episode of The Simpsons titled “Homer the Moe.”

Watch Homer Simpson Cover ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)’

The episode featured the voices of R.E.M. members.

What Has R.E.M. Been Up to Lately?

While R.E.M. broke up in 2011 after 31 years and 15 albums, the original quartet has performed together a few times since then.

Their most recent reunion was in February, when Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry played a few songs with an R.E.M. cover band in their hometown of Athens, Georgia.

They also got together in 2024 for their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. It was the first time the original members played together since 2007. Berry left the band in 1997 following a brain aneurysm suffered onstage in 1995.