R.E.M. 1986, 1987

fall on me, Album: Lifes rich peasant 1986

There's a problem, feathers iron
Bargain buildings, weights and pullies
Feathers hit the ground before the weight can leave the air

Buy the sky and sell the sky and tell the sky and tell the sky
Don't fall on me (what is it up in the air for) (it's gonna fall)
Fall on me (if it's there for long)(it's gonna fall)
Fall on me(it's over it's over me) (it's gonna fall)

There's the progress we have found (when the rain)
A way to talk around the problem (when the children reign)
Building towered foresight (keep your conscience in the dark)
Isn't anything at all (the statues in the park)

Buy the sky and sell the sky and bleed the sky and tell the sky...
Don't fall on me....

Well I could keep it above
But then it wouldn't be sky anymore
So if I send it to you you've got to promise to keep it whole
Buy the sky and sell the sky and lift your arms up to the sky
And ask the sky and ask the sky...


We read in wikipedia about this song:

Though Stipe described the song once as "pretty much a song about oppression," the song is about acid rain and its effects on the environment, hence the first line of the chorus, "Don't fall on me."

It's The End Of The World, Album: Document 1987

That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes,
an aeroplane - Lenny Bruce is not afraid.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
world serves its own needs, dummy serve your own needs.

Feed it off an aux speak,, grunt, no, strength,
The ladder starts to clatter with fear fight down height.
Wire in a fire, representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site.
Left of west and coming in a hurry with the furies breathing down your neck.

Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing! Fine, then.
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 rapture and the revered and the right - right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.

Six o'clock - TV hour. Don't get caught in foreign towers.
Slash and burn, return, listen to yourself churn.
Locking in, uniforming, book burning, blood letting.
Every motive escalate. Automotive incinerate.

Light a candle, light a votive. Step down, step down.
Watch your heel crush, crushed. Uh-oh, this means no fear cavalier.
Renegade steer clear! A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies.
Offer me solutions, offer me alternatives and I decline.

It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.
(I feel fine)

The other night I dreamt of knives, continental drift divide. Mountains sit in a line
Leonard Bernstein. Leonid Brezhnev. Lenny Bruce and Lester Bangs.
Birthday party, cheesecake, jelly bean, boom!
You symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right.

It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it. (It's time I had some time alone)
It's the end of the world as we know it (It's time I had some time alone) and I feel fine.


A song with flashes the turbulent politics and everyday life as watched in TV news. There is a sense that we are in front of dramatic changes in global level, but the artist is ironically optimist about the oncoming order. He was quite prophetic, because there were dramatic global sociopolitical changes 4-5 years later by the collapse of communist regimes. But things didn't get any better either in social justice terms or environmental.

you can hear these songs in youtube:

Fall on me

It's the end of the world