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]

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 the 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

Number Three!

Written by Jim Morrison 'The End' (1967) was originally about his breakup with a girlfriend, but over time it evolved into nearly 12-minute track that was finally recorded live in the studio with no overdubbing. The song by L.A. band, The Doors, is best known in popular culture as being used in the 1979 Francis Ford Coppola film 'Apocalypse Now' during the opening sequence, as well as the movie's famous scene portraying the killing of a figure. "This is the end" is repeated throughout the track, thus depicting a doomsday mood.

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend

The end of our elaborate plans

The end of everything that stands

The end

No safety or surprise

The end

I'll never look into your eyes again

Can you picture what will be

So limitless and free

Desperately in need of some stranger's hand

In a desperate land

Lost in a Roman wilderness of pain

And all the children are insane

All the children are insane

Waiting for the summer rain

Ride the snake

Ride the snake

To the lake

The ancient lake, baby

The snake is long

Seven miles

Ride the snake

He's old

And his skin is cold

Come on, baby, take a chance with us

Come on, baby, take a chance with us

Come on, baby, take a chance with us

Meet me at the back of the blue bus

Meet me at the back of the blue bus

Do not be ride on the blue bus
Do not be ride
Come on babe
Ride

This is the end, beautiful friend

This is the end, my only friend

The end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

Musical Countdown No. Four

Apocalypse Please (2003) by English alternative rock band Muse is this week's Countdown choice. Written by lead vocalist, guitarist and pianist Matthew Bellamy, it reached number ten (Sept 2004) on the UK Official Download Chart. Drummer Dominic Howard described it as "a very theatrical song about religious fanatics and their wish that their prophecies come true . . . So that they can confirm their religion."

Declare this an emergency

Come on and spread a sense of urgency

and pull us through

and pull us through

and this is the end

This is the end
of the world

It's time we saw a miracle

Come on it's time for something biblical

To pull us through

and pull us through

and this is the end

This is the end
of the world

Proclaim eternal victory

Come on and change the course of history

and pull us through

and pull us through

and this is the end 

This is the end
of the world

Number Five - Musical Countdown to BIFF

The song Doomsday Clock by the alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins is this week's selection. The opening track for their 2007 album, Zeitgeist, starts with an energetic drum solo. At the time of this recording, Smashing Pumpkins was a reformed band led by singer and guitarist Billy Corgan and drummer Chamberlin from the original group along with newcomers including guitarist Jeff Schroeder, bassist Ginger Reyes, and Lisa Harriton on keyboard. Fans of the movie, Transformers, will recognize this song from the soundtrack.

The song title refers to the Doomsday Clock that since 1947 has been maintained by the directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago. The closer the clock is to midnight, the closer the world is estimated to be to global disaster.


Is everyone afraid?

Is everyone ashamed?

They're running towards their holes to find out

Apocalyptic means are lost amongst our dead

A message to our friends to get out

There's wages on this fear, oh, so clear

Depends on what you'll pay to hear

They're bound to kill us all in whitewashed halls

The jackals lick their paws

Please don't stop

It's lonely at the top

These lonely days

Will they ever stop?

This doomsday clock, ticking in my heart, not broken

I love life every day, in each and every way

Kafka would be proud to find out

I'm certain of the end

It's the means that has me spooked

It takes an unknown truth to get out

I'm guessing I'm born free, silly me

I was meant to beg from my knees

Please don't stop

It's lonely at the top

These lonely days

Will they ever stop?

This doomsday clock, ticking in my heart

These lonely days, will they ever stop?

We gotta dig in, gas masks on

Wait in the sunshine, all bug-eyed

If this is living, sake's alive

Well, then they can't win, no one survives

Is everyone afraid?

You should be ashamed

Apocalyptic screams mean nothing to the dead

Kissing that ol' sun to know all there is

Come on, last call, you should want it all

Ah, it's lonely at the top

These lonely days, will they ever stop?

This doomsday clock, ticking in my heart

These lonely days, will they ever stop?

This ticking in my heart, is everyone afraid?

Late with the Musical Countdown - Six Weeks till BIFF

So what's the excuse for this week's Musical Countdown selection being late? There has been Wildfire here in Wayne County, Utah. This past week, over two-thousand acres were blackened but things now are under control.

Get your FastPass soon; make sure that you have a seat on Friday night for the first film of "Duck and Cover: It's Doomsday 2012." Take a look at the schedule of BIFF events such as the Party of the Stars, the Survivor Challenge, the World's Fastest Parade and much more!

In light of the recent forest fire, this week's selection comes from another American thrash metal band, Metallica. It’s the opening cut to Metallica‘s best album, And Justice For All, back when Lars Ulrich still used a double bass. “Blackened” (1988) refers to the charred remnants of the planet after a nuclear war. It's about the end of the world and human civilization - - through the destruction and pollution of the environment. And don’t forget the nuclear winter that follows.

Blackened is the end

Winter it will send

Throwing all you see

Into obscurity

Death of mother Earth

Never a rebirth

Evolution's end

Never will it mend

Never

Fire

To begin with the dance of the dead

Blackened is the end

To begin with the dance of the dead

Color our world blackened

Blistering of Earth

Terminate it's worth

Deadly nicotine

Kills what might have been

Callous frigid chill

Nothing left to kill

Never seen before

Breathing nevermore

Never

Fire

To begin with the dance of the dead

Blackened is the end

To begin with the dance of the dead

Color our world blackened

Blackened

Opposition (Opposition)

Contradiction (Contradiction)

Premonition (Premonition)

Compromise

Agitation (Agitation)

Violation (Violation)

Mutilation (Mutilation)

Planet dies

Darkest color

Blistered Earth

True death of life

(Termination) Termination (Termination)

(Expiration) Expiration

Cancellation

Human race

(Expectation) Expectation

(Liberation) Liberation

(Population) Population laid to waste

See our mother

Put to death (Death, death)

See our mother die

Smoldering decay

Take her breath away

Millions of our years

In minutes disappears

Darkening in vain

Decadence remains

All is said and done

Never is the sun

Never

Fire

To begin with the dance of the dead

Blackened is the end

To begin with the dance of the dead

Fire

Is the outcome of hypocrisy

Darkest potency

In the exit of humanity

Color our world blackened

Blackened

Seven Weeks 'till "Are You Ready for Doomsday 2012?"

Are you ready for BIFF? The Countdown Continues . . . Number Seven:

We Will Become Silhouettes (2005) by The Postal Service. A song with a pretty melody and beautifully sung but alarming lyrics - - of impending doom! Nuclear holocaust and being to close to the explosion; the intensity of the flash burning your body's image into whatever is around you. The music sounds happy, but it's not!


Released in February by Sub Pop Records on an album with the same name, We Will Become Silhouettes was the band's most successful recording, reaching number eighty-four on the Billboard charts. The song was used in the trailer for the movie Funny People and was also used in Love Happens, both released in 2009.

I've got a cupboard with cans of food, 
filtered water, and pictures of you 
and i'm not coming out until this is all over

And i'm looking through the glass

where the light bends at the cracks

and i'm screaming at the top of my lungs
pretending the echoes belong to someone

Someone i used to know

And we become
silhouettes when our bodies finally go

Ba, ba, ba, ba . . . ba, ba, ba, ba

I wanted to walk through the empty streets

and feel something constant under my feet,

but all the news reports recommended that I stay indoors

Because the air outside will make
our cells divide at an alarming rate 
until our shells simply cannot hold all our insides in

and that's when we'll explode

(and it won't be a pretty sight)

We will become
silhouettes when our bodies finally go

Ba, ba, ba, ba

We will become, we'll become, we'll become
silhouettes when our bodies finally go

Ba, ba, ba, ba

We will become, we'll become, we'll become
silhouettes when our bodies finally go

Ba, ba, ba, ba

We will become, we'll become, we'll become
silhouettes when our bodies finally go


(Faintly)

Ba, ba, ba, ba
We will become, we will become . . .