It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

"It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by R.E.M. (commonly mis-capitalized and abbreviated to "End of the World") is a song on the Canon for Lancaster, Carlisle, and LMU Canons during which students join hands and walk around/skip around/run around in a chaotic frenzy. At LMU students run in a circle for the entirety of the song, high-fiving RAs standing around the circle as the students run past. It is also a part of Siena and Saratoga Canon, but the dances are different. While this song is on the Baltimore Canon, the site has no dance for it.

One of the papers on the bulletin board in every hall at a few sites has a list of the dance rules, and one of which is that students may not run or pull people apart during this song. This prompts RAs to stand at intervals along lines of students and yell, "Don't run!" when it is played, whether or not people are in fact running. Students oftentimes skip to bypass this rule, although, depending on both site and RA, this may or may not be tolerated.

During the chorus at Carlisle, everyone jumps as high as possible. At LMU, runners don't hold hands, but high-five non-runners who stand outside the circle with their hands outstretched.

During LAN 15.1, the current Son pulled a friend to the front and slow danced with them. The Son for 16.1 plans to continue this.

Lyrics

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, dont misserve your own needs.
Speed it up a notch, speak, grunt, no, strength, turn, ladder start to clatter with fear, fight, down, height.
Wire in a fire representing seven games, in 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.

Chorus (v.1):
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 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 (v.2):
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 (it's time I had some time alone)

I feel fine I feel fine

Chorus (v.3):
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 and I feel fine (it's time I had some time alone)

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.

Chorus (v.3)

Chorus (v.2)

Chorus (v.3)

Chorus (v.3)

Fine
It's the end of the world as we know it (it's time I had some time alone)