Friday, July 13, 2012

Number One for the BIFF Musical Countdown?

BIFF is fast approaching. It's the final week! What is your top choice for 'end of the world' music? With today's addition, we have featured two dozen chosen tunes. It could be End Times by the Eels, Earth Dies Screaming by Tom Waits, maybe Seconds or Until the End of the World both by U2, or 3 Minutes to Midnight by Midnight Oil. But time is running out . . .

This week's choice is one that many think of at a time like this - - the
end of the World? It starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane and "Lenny Bruce is not afraid." And it only gets better as Michael Stipe continues winding through a whirlwind of images, from Lester Bangs to a flurry of furies while feeling just fine.

What music list about the end of the world could not include this song? It’s a happy little ditty that makes everything seem okay. This song also may be the premiere example of overcrowded lyrics. It's the End of the World as We Know It (1987) by R.E.M., a Georgia-based rock group. Can you sing the song in its entirety? Michael Stipe’s cheeky enthusiasm and Peter Buck's carefree guitar-jangle make you feel fine. Perhaps you could do what Chris Farley and David Spade did in Tommy Boy and just make-up the words? Depends on how excited you are about the end of the world.


That's great, it starts with an earthquake, 
birds and snakes, an aeroplane
and Lenny Bruce is not afraid. 
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churn,
World serves its own needs, 
regardless of your own needs. 
Feed it up a knock,
speed, grunt, no strength
no ladder starts to clatter with fear, fight, down, height. 
Wire in a fire, 
representing seven games in a government for hire
and a combat site. 
Left her, wasn't coming in a hurry with the furies
breathing down your neck. 
Team by team reporters baffled, trump, tethered crop. 
Look at that low plane! Fine then. 
Uh oh, overflow, population,
common group, but it'll do. 
Save yourself, serve yourself. 
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed. 
Tell me with the rapture and the reverent in 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,and book burning, blood letting. 
Every motive escalate. 
Automotive incinerate light a candle, light a motive. 
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

[Chorus]
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

I feel fine

[Repeat Chorus]

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! 
Symbiotic, patriotic, slam book neck, right? Right

[Chorus]
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 

[Repeat Chorus: x3]

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Number Two

The musical countdown continues, and this week's tune of doom goes back a dozen years to the year 2000: Idoeteque by Radiohead.

This song track from
Radiohead's album, Kid A, is seen as a departure for the band, as the song driven by electronic beats. Some think this is an apocalyptic song, a song about destruction brought by the hand of man (who's in the bunker) or nature (ice age coming) - - the end of the world! Lyric lines come off as thought capsules from assorted victims - - collective voices from all walks of life, persons in a state of panic with t
he hypothetical questions posed. ‘What would you do?’ 'Keep a cool head?'



Who's in a bunker?
Who's in a bunker?
Women and children first
And children first
And children
I'll laugh until my head comes off
I swallow till I burst
Until I burst
Until I . .

Who's in a bunker?

Who's in a bunker?

I've seen too much
You haven't seen enough
You haven't seen
I'll laugh until my head comes off
Women and children first
The children first
The children . .

Here I'm allowed, 
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed, 
Everything all of the time

Ice age coming

Ice age coming

Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both sides
Let me hear both . .

Ice age coming
Ice age coming
Throw it on the fire
Throw it on the fire
Throw it on the..

We're not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening
We're not scaremongering
This is really happening, happening

Mobiles working
Mobiles chirping
Take the money and run
Take the money and run
Take the money . .

Here I'm allowed, 
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed, 
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed, 
Everything all of the time
Here I'm allowed, 
Everything all of the time

Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children
Be fathers to the children