Michael Stipe continues to clarify ‘It’s the End of the World As We Know It’ lyrics

September 8, 2025 1

Michael Stipe attends Focus Features’ “The Phoenician Scheme” New York Premiere at Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 28, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

It’s been a week since Michael Stipe took to social media to clarify some of the lyrics to R.E.M.‘s iconic tune “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine),” but apparently he’s not done schooling folks.

In his original posts on Bluesky, Stipe clarified two particular lines in the song. He wrote, “It’s ‘Left of west and coming in a hurry with the Furies breathing down your neck,'” before correcting the following line, “Team by team reporters, baffled, trumped, tethered, cropped, Look at that low playing, fine, then.”

In another series of posts on Bluesky, Stipe has highlighted two more sets of lyrics folks may be getting wrong.

“Ok, its ‘feed it off an aux, speak, grunt no strength, the ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height, wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site,’” he wrote in one post. Another clarified the lyric, “Uh-oh, overflow, population ‘common food, but it’ll do’, save yourself, serve yourself, world serves its own needs—listen to your heart bleed, dummy with the raptured and the revered and the right, right.”

On the second post he also commented about his writing style, joking, “And let it be said I’m of the lets eat grandma school of punctuation, so.”

“It’s the End of the World” appears on R.E.M.’s 1987 album, Document, which celebrated its 38th anniversary on Sept. 1. The track was the second single from the record, peaking at #69 on the Hot 100, although it went on to be one of the band’s signature tracks.