Sarah O’Holla Picks: REM – It’s The End of The World As We Know It

I’ve been thinking about R.E.M.’s “It’s The End of The World As We Know It,” kind of a lot since I started the blog. One summer my cousins and I tried to figure out the lyrics (because there are none in the tape liner notes) by playing the tape, stopping, jotting down what we thought they were saying and then rewinding for literally about a week. We also knew about 5 of the cultural references they were talking about so it was really hard. One of the first things I did when the internet came around was look up the lyrics to this song, and was shocked at how wrong ours were. I still sort of remember our lyrics though, I wish so badly that one of us still had that notebook paper with our lyrics written on it. My point is, I’ve looked up not only lyrics but band, artist and song wikipedia pages on top of cultural references that I might notice, the possibilities are endless, while writing my reviews. And while its all amazing and fascinating and helps you learn about so many things, I can’t help but wax nostalgic about our summer project of figuring out the lyrics to “It’s The End Of The World As We Know It.” It was really fun, and I remember laughing a lot. I also have always really loved the video for this song. It’s so REM, it’s a little arty and it feels like summer time, I can smell the abandoned house this kid is in, can’t you? – Sarah O’Holla, My Husband’s Stupid Record Collection