Great Big Sea can as well

Randomly, we played it as we walked back down the aisle after we got married

Okay Michael. You win the Internet today 🏆

cc @thelouvreof.bsky.social

🤭

Made my day 💐

This wins the internet!

You symbiotic stupid jerk that's right Flanders I am talkin about you!

I've attempted it at karaoke a few times. Without the words in front of me is a whole other thing.

🎁🎉🧀🍰🪼🫘💥

Prove it🤣

OK so I can sing all the words to this song, it’s kind of my karaoke party trick It won me a magnum of sparking wine once

🙌🏾

♥️♥️♥️

I can't get pretty close. Right? Right.

so can all the members of my high school cover band lol

(the Murmur songs were the hardest to decipher, tbh. ah, the the days before mandatory lyric sheets)

Murmur and Reckoning are the albums that give me the most delight when I look at lyrics and realize I was singing it right all along!

Pfft prove it

👏👏

Birthday Party Cheesecake Jelly Bean BOOM (Okay, that’s all I got.)

Fucking lol dude.

I feel fine

So you say, but none of us can understand what you're singing. Smith and Wesson coming in a hurry with the beauries breathing down your neck?

Perfect flex, but terrible use of alt text.

Show off😉

Me too. Took effort, but I still can.

that's probably one you personally never need the prompter for (but everyone else does) as a covers guy if I don't play it for a couple years, I always forget the bit from "every motive escalate, automotive incinerate" to "uh-oh"

Hmmmm... I seem to remember way back on MTV Unplugged you had to get the lyrics printed off a computer (which at the time must have taken at least a couple of hours)

is it true this song was inspired by a policy debate round, or are debaters just trying to steal valor?

that’s not true. it isn’t about one singular theme and big parts of it are from a dream stipe had

Never trust a policy debater

Me too 😂

If I can, and I can.

Good one.

No you can't.

Admit it...you change them up every once in a while just to see if we are paying attention.

Perfect 😂😂😂

Sure you can 🥳🥳🥳 Is this really you? The real and one and only Michael Stipe? 🥳

Love you 🤣❤️

I can sing the Mike Mills part, most days.

Ohh really 🤔 looking good🥲 on your profile Michael

Is it? And do you? Hoping it isn't and you don't.

Hey, If there is a guy that I want conducting the proverbial orchestra when the ship goes down ... It was an honor 🫡

Michael,,,, Thank you

that's great!

It starts with an earthquake

It's true. I've seen him do it.

That’s great. It starts with an earthquake.

I can do it…. But I decline.

Right? Right.

😂❤️

Pahahaha 😆👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Most people can't understand what you're singing. CDs like Life's Rich Pageant didn't have words in the small sleeve. Imagine being a 20 year old University student trying to figure out Fall on me.

Ok but can you sing all the lyrics to we didn’t start the fire?

Everyone has their questions. Mine is: what’s your secret to feeling fine?

The best One!

I can. And I feel fine.

Thats not how alt text works

I don’t know. Is there any video proof? (Jk - I’ve actually seen you do it in person, Green Tour, STL).

🔥

That's great – I know it starts with an earthquake...

🤣🤣🤣 Me, too!

Prove it.

At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?

prove it

I can too!

Impossible

I’ll believe it when I see it.

@davedfb.bsky.social

Of course you can! Have a good week-end Mister Stipe!

NUH NUH NUH NUH NUH NUH NUH NUH LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Okay, super important question — do you have any fun stories about being at Paisley Park?

DID YOU GET TO PLAY THE BLONDE TELE WITH THE LEOPARD TORTOISE PICKGUARD DON'T LIE TO US STIPE

Alan Doyle can too

That's great (I am the 200th person to do this reply)

That's great!

how could we tell?

Might be some record of it somewhere. That record might even be for sale at a store for records.

live he could be fudging

Right? Right.

There was a radio station in Cleveland 20 years ago that played this song...and then played it again...and then again...over and over for about 3 days. The station was changing formats and this is how they announced it.

A heavy metal station in Minneapolis that was switching to alt-pop did the same thing.

Here it was 107.9 The End...apparently the new owners took control on Monday, so on Friday, with no more fucks to give, they started repeating this.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwCA...

That's great...

That’s great. How does it start?

Jose, Can you see The ICE thugs Coming for Thee....

Chapeau! 😅

Yes, You Can.

I love when you read the whole post and comment before noticing who posted. I went through a journey with this one!

same

michael it’s so nice to see u here on bluesky

I know, right? 😍

@swin24.bsky.social probs can

Banger post

NNNICE!

Many nights were spent with a cassette tape and the rewind button trying to decipher what you were saying - not that I'm complaining.

That was half the fun of listening to them as a youth.

Right.

Right.

Dude, that's shitty alt text. I mean, it ISN'T alt text, which is even worse. Alt text isn't there as a joke. It's there to give folks who don't otherwise have access... access.

I love this post

hey so around 1993-1994 a friend told me a rumor about you guys buying the sheet notes with the lyrics before a concert because you needed to be reminded, true or false? (that friend made up some lies about me as well, so i don't trust her at all and we're not friends anymore)

I heard that rumour too, it travelled.

i think we need an answer here from the only true authority on this subject.

it’s not a rumor. it was a scene in a documentary called “rough cut”

Ah, that makes sense.

Prove it. 😳

Alt text: Homer Simpson is in an office sitting across a desk from a man wearing a suit & spectacles. It appears Homer is being interviewed. He says “I can sing all the lyrics to ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It’ by REM.” The interviewer says “No you can’t, Mr. Simpson, no one can.”

Witnessed.

I heard you're pretty good with that whole singing thing!

That's great

My roommate and I (who share a fondness for The Simpsons, obviously) had a radio show in college, and had a "sing along" segment. It's The End of the World was our first, best, and only installment. We failed to attempt singing the verses 🤣.

😂😂😂😂

Right? Right!

Since making it one of my go to karaoke songs, I can as well.

♥️

I remember you singing this song with R.E.M. live just after the Black Monday Wall Street crash of 1987 and it felt so right. Great show, Providence RI, 10000 Maniacs opened. I was wearing a flannel shirt, I waved but you were in the zone

You'll have to prove it. Otherwise no-one is going to believe you 🙃

That’s great

I sang it fully at the concert in São Paulo, 2008. Today, I can’t anymore 😭😭😭

At one point, so could @guskitty.bsky.social !!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻♥️♥️♥️

Bet someone in college that I could learn all the lyrics in one week. Lost that bet. And I could do Modern Major General and Lehrer's Chemical Elements back then!

Impressed. Even Lehrer said he struggled with Elements.

Drunk at a party, a friend broke out an acoustic and started banging it out. I jumped in singing and made it into verse 3, then things fell apart. At least that's the way I remember it. LOL

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa te amo,meu amor

No one sings it as good as you. 🎤

This made my day. ❤️

Same.

❤️

I just listened to Accelerate and longed for the days when the president was just incompetent instead of malignant.

Me too! I was a very nerdy/autistic child 😁

I've heard you do it in person at least 5 times. Proof.

Remember 1991?

cowards

This was the first thing I thought of.

Btw: I’m like 80% sure this is an impostor.

Something something something something Leonard Bernstein!

Right? Right.

Michael Stipe is the only guy who can sing about the end of the world and still make you feel like recycling.

Fun fact: I saw them at the Wiltern in LA and he was using index cards with the lyrics on them (which he tossed into the crowd after each line).

That's great!

Just the best response.

Thanks, Michael. For this, of course, but also for a lifetime of my favorite songs. And it's thanks to you and the rest of the guys.

That's.. disturbing.

One of my favorite Stipe-isms from over the years is when you'll circle back around to an older song and tell the audience "I had to look up the words for this one. On a computer!"

Well played, Michael. Well played 😂

Can Michael Shannon? @jasonnarducy.bsky.social

Yes! You can and did!

Awesome.

That’s great

Bluesky is occasionally a beautiful place.

No you can’t, Mr Stipe. No one can.

🤣

Why haven't you released a version without Donald Trump mentioned? Record Store Say needs it.

It might amuse you to know that that was what my cousin and his wife chose as the song played during their wedding service. "I now pronounce you husband and wife." 🎶That's great it starts with an earthquake...🎶 Not everyone got it, but my partner and I burst out laughing.

You're getting on now.... Are you sure you still can?

Donald Trump was mentioned, because he's such an attention whore. And, now, here we are... Waiting for the end of the world as we know it. I feel fine.

Thanks for being you!

He he

👏👏🤣🤣🎵🎵

Pretty sure I can do the first few lines 😂

This is an awesome shirt & I want it. I know all the words but always get tripped up in the middle. It’s hard! 😂

I needed a good thing today.

My friend Davey J could do it whilst simultaneously playing the drums in his cover band back in the ‘90s. 🤯🥰

Well, I remember it starts with an earthquake

All respect, Michael, but I’d like to see you try.

At Soldier Field in Chicago please?

It was a long time ago but I have seen him do it

Tee-hee!

and I've seen you do it! (did you use a music stand for the lyrics in the late nineties?)

Right? Right!

Classy!

I am a great memorizer—in fact, I know most of your catalog by heart, but this song has forever remained out of my reach. It’s my white whale. I will conquer it. 😭 You’re amazing.

Yay Michael Stipe! I feeel fiiine

Still such an impressive song. ❤️

omg Is that you in the corner??? 😍

Yes, in the spotlight

Heck, if you forget a verse or two just make more up. Who will know?

You sang it at Starwood in Antioch Tn in 1995, at the end of the encore, just as it began to pour down rain, and I will never forget! Tyvm!

Pretty sure you're the only one who can, mate!

I definitely could in 1990. Sure I could fake it fine these days.

Feeling pretty PSYCHED

In Vancouver in 1994 you got about 3/4 of the way through and then just started yelling "AHHH AHHHHH AHHH AHHH." It was actually pretty great.

LEONARD BERNSTEIN

Oh yeah? Prove i... oh.

Well

Glad you’re here, your band is p good too

🤘🫶🤘

LEONID WHAT'S-HIS-NAME HERMAN MUNSTER, MOTORCADE BIRTHDAY PARTY, CHEETOS POGOSTICKS AND LEMONADE SYMBIOTIC STUPID JERKS THAT'S RIGHT FLANDERS I'M TALKING ABOUT YOU

cheetos ?!! I always thought it was cheesecakes🤦🤣

WE DIDN'T START THE FIIIRE!

Vanessa from Pylon tells the story of “birthday party cheesecake jellybean”: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

I love this in so many ways ♥️🤣👍🏼

Woo! 😎

Prove it.

"A tournament, a tournament, a tournament of lies" captures this moment in time so well.

Oh heck! Out of the blue question - managed to see you live at Twickenham (2008) and it was an absolutely fantastic gig. There was one track - I *want* to say it was Ignoreland? - that you did in what seemed like a minor key instead? Very different, and very cool! But no recording of it, sadly?

That's great!

if you couldn't we would never know anyway.

This is incredible.

Was just watching Wednesday a few minutes ago. Heard an instrument version of an REM song and boom, I see Michael Stipe on Bluesky!

But you needed a lyric sheet.

Woah Michael Stipe is here!

I know a composer is in there somewhere. Stephen Sondheim I think it was.

SO WHY DON'T YOU come on do it come on man

My arse you can Stipe.

A radio station in mpls. In the it's was bought out and played that song continuously for 3 weeks

That’s great!

/BCC @offhandremarks.bsky.social

“Leonid Brezhnev, Lenny Bruce, and Lester Bangs” is my favorite alliteration in the entire canon of popular music.

That's great