March 5, 2025 • 56 mins
Join host Eric Leckey on Listen to This, the podcast that dives deep into the music you need to hear—and the stories behind it. In this apocalyptic-themed episode, we’re cranking up the volume on songs that capture the chaos, beauty, and raw emotion of the end of the world. From classic rock anthems to haunting ballads, Eric explores the lyrics, history, and cultural impact of these doomsday-inspired tracks. Whether it's the fiery rebellion of punk or the eerie calm of folk, this playlist is the perfect soundtrack for the last days on Earth. So grab your headphones, brace yourself for impact, and listen to this!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to listen to this. This is the podcast dedicated
to bringing you stories behind the artists, behind the songs,
and hopefully we are introducing you to old songs that
have influenced all that music that we hear today.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The goal is we want you.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
To hear an artist that you might not normally listen to,
and why not search out their music on whatever streaming
service you subscribe to and maybe just maybe go out
and buy it on vinyl or cassette or eight track
or LaserDisc or anything. But when you digitally download something,
you don't actually own it. That's the lesson here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
People.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We do invite you, though, to subscribe, comment, and always, always,
always recommend this podcast to your friend. I'm sure people
ask for podcast recommendations all the time and recommend this one.
Every episode has a theme, and today the theme is
the end of the world.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Welcome to listen to this, a podcast that brings you
the stories behind the songs and artists with a theme
to tie it all together. Here's your hosts, Eric Lecky.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
As long as there has been life on this earth,
we have stared into the heavens and not only pondered
our own existence, but also wonder when the end time
will finally arrive. When does this roller coaster stop? It
is only natural to wonder when the end is going
(01:28):
to come. And there have been many false prophets and
wackadoo's that have predicted that they knew the exact date
of the end times Haley's comment in nineteen ten as
an example. People fear that the comet's close proximity to
Earth would actually destroy the planet with a collision or
poisonous gases. Harold Camping and nineteen ninety two. Camping predicted
(01:50):
that Christ would return in September of nineteen ninety four,
based on Bible dates and numbers that he somehow deciphered.
He also predicted the world would end on May twenty first,
twenty eleven, and only three percent of this population would survive.
And last time I checked, there's still plenty of us here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Why two K is another one? I mean?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
In nineteen eighty four, tech geeks predicted that on January first,
two thousand, computer code air would cause all technology to
stop working, sending the world back to the Stone Age.
The Millerites in eighteen forty three New England. A New
England farmer William Miller predicted the world would end based
on a literal interpretation of certain Bible passages Al Gore.
(02:32):
Even in two thousand and six, Gore said that humanity
only had ten years left and the world would reach
a point of no return. And once again, last time
I checked, we're still fine. Charles tays Russell, he's the
founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and predicted the world would
end in October of nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Once again didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I do know, however, exactly when this episode will end,
and I also know exactly when it will start, which
is right now.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Sun is high up in the sky in my car,
drifting down into year about twelve.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
You'll see what I set?
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Yeah, it grows heavy.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Listen to your break and twine together in this culture day.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
Do you see what I set?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Sliding over here?
Speaker 6 (03:45):
Let me give you squeek to avert us on holder,
have alution record to check the read?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Can you hear what I hear?
Speaker 8 (03:56):
May?
Speaker 9 (03:59):
Is it? Everything's to sop be but just code and.
Speaker 10 (04:14):
The scars on five dead.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
De Cross Lane.
Speaker 9 (04:20):
I went to bed last night in my mout Jane,
I'll woke up the swan in with a fra.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
That one from you there.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That was Nick Cave in The Bad Seeds with the
song Abatter Blues. It's one of a number of songs
in which Cave draws on a sense of post nuclear
apocalypse kind of a vision without even explaining what's actually happened.
The Australian singer explained in an interview in two thousand
and nine about the song, quote, it's the apocalypse that's happened,
(04:55):
or is happening, at least incrementally and gradually, and he
added the apocalyptic backdrop for a human story. Although I
do read the newspapers, I'm still not very interested in
writing about all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Risty Chris com Com make a m It was done communism.
Speaker 11 (05:26):
It's come a miser and over bumba gotchessag bumba bumpab.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Heetchum, living over one jungle monkey cage.
Speaker 12 (05:51):
Drink it over. She's been up and she has.
Speaker 8 (05:57):
She hain't in with.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
That was Prince with the song America. It was recorded
at the converted warehouse that Prince used as a recording
studio in Eden Prairie Minnesota on July twenty third of
nineteen eighty four. This is a rock and roll funk song,
I guess, and it finds him critiquing America and worrying
(06:48):
about a nuclear armageddon. Such concerns were common theme in
Prince's lyrics, especially in the eighties, most notably on the
song nineteen ninety nine. Nineteen ninety nine would have actually
been a perfect song for this episode's theme as well,
but I've played it for you before. America was culled
from a pretty epic group performance involving Prince, who did
(07:09):
vocals and pretty much assordid instruments because he did everything.
Brown Mark, which I'm not being racist, he's called Brown
Mark was on bass guitar, Wendy Melvin was on guitar,
Lisa Coleman on keyboards, Doctor Fink on keyboards as well,
and Bobby z on drums and percussion. Princess staff engineer
Susan Rogers said quote they would jam it for fifteen,
(07:32):
twenty even thirty minutes. We were working at the top
of a reel of tape of thirty in a second,
which gave us roughly sixteen minutes. We ran until the
tape runs out the band would get a groove going
and just play. He might call out for changes and
chord changes, but the song just Fall from a rehearsal
(07:53):
America was cut down to three minutes and forty seconds
on the album, though the twelve inch single does run
for the twenty one minutes. This was the third and
final single from the album, Around the World in a Day,
following the song's Raspberry Beret and the song pop Life.
The album showed up on April twenty second, nineteen eighty five,
(08:15):
just ten months after his blockbuster That was Purple Rain.
Prince had played the album for his distributor, Warner Brothers,
but would not let them run a promotional campaign. The
album simply just showed up in record stores in a day.
No one knew it was coming. It shocked fans and
got the result that Prince wanted.
Speaker 12 (09:00):
Down to.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
Gold.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That was the band Mega Death with Black Curtains. The
song is about death and destruction of evoking a nuclear armageddon.
Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine paints a picture of a
fiery hell as the black curtains of death close in
around him. It's a topic he's covered in other Megadeth
songs as well, including Rust and p Polaris and Ashes
(10:02):
in Your Mouth. The song opens as a reference to
Charles manson, Hey, look around you, Everything's helter skelter. Black
Curtains is from Megadeth's Youth in Asia album, one of
their most popular. Dave Mustain formed the group in nineteen
eighty three after he was kicked out of Metallica. A
(10:22):
pretty talented songwriter, he proved to be a compelling front
man as well, and Megadeth earned their place as one
of the Big four of thrash metal, along with Slayer,
Anthrax and of course Metallica. Well let's slow it way
down and let's get really old for a moment.
Speaker 13 (10:40):
Tell me who's that riding genrell Leada? Tell me who's
that riding genrerell Lena? Tell me who's that riding genrerell
Leada wrote the Book of the Seven.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
See who's that riding Genrell Lena? Tell me who's that
riding John reve lad Well? Who's that ride in genre?
Lenda relative book under seventh See you know, God walked
down in the cool of the da call anam By's
(11:17):
name and he refused the answer because he's naked and
no shame Who's that ride? In genre?
Speaker 13 (11:29):
Lena?
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Who's that riding?
Speaker 8 (11:32):
John?
Speaker 14 (11:33):
Lenda?
Speaker 6 (11:34):
Who that ride?
Speaker 7 (11:35):
In genre?
Speaker 12 (11:37):
Lena?
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Relative book under seventh see.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
That old man voice you heard? There was the artist.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Son House with the song John the Revelator. It's a
traditional gospel blues song. It was first recorded by Blind
Willie Johnson back in nineteen thirty or thereabouts, it's hard
to get an exact year, during his last sessions for
Columbia Records. The title refers to the apostle John who
penned the Book of Revelations, the last installment of the
(12:07):
New Testament, and a glimpse into the Apocalypse days after
the final judgment on mankind. Son House recorded several a
cappella versions of this song in the nineteen sixties. His
nineteen sixty five version includes lyrics about the fall of man,
the original sin of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the
(12:27):
Garden of Eden, and Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection. The White
Stripes were one of the many groups and performers to
be heavily inspired by this pretty influential number. The Canon
borrows lyrics their song Canon tell me who's that writing
John the Revelator? Wrote the Book of the Seven Seals,
Christ went down on an eastern morning, Mary Mother went
(12:49):
down to see Gotta tell my disciples to meet in
Gali Lee. He says in that song, MM game, Well,
(14:33):
I mentioned Metallica recently, and I think it was time
to play a Metallica song, So why not. We got
a few to choose from that are apocalypse, end of
the world themed, and I chose fight Fire with Fire.
It's a song basically about nuclear annihilation, describing the world
right before and during a nuclear apocalypse. In the song
(14:56):
fight fire fiber, it means fighting nuclear warfare with nuclear warfare,
hence the line nuclear warfare shall lay us to rest.
Frontman James Hetfield wrote the lyric at a time when
he was obsessed with death. Note that the album cover
shows on an electric chair after all. For this album,
Hetfield wrote the song with Metallica drummer Lars Auric and
(15:19):
bass player Cliff Burton. Headfield and Ulrich founded the band
in la When they spotted Burton performing with his band Trauma.
They made a full court press to get him in
their lineup and even moved to San Francisco to accommodate him.
Burton was a very distinctive player and a big contributing
to their songwriting overall, just the way he played bass.
(15:41):
When he died in the bus tour accident in eighty six,
his bandmates were pretty devastated. Fight Fire with Fire kicks
off Metallica's second album, Ride the Lightning. The first forty
seconds of the song is actually rather soothing, making more
than one fan check the cover to make sure they
put the needle on the right record. But then it
kicks in full thrash, fulling, fulfilling the promise of the
(16:04):
band's debut, Kill Him All, released the previous year. That
mellow acoustic intro was written by Cliff Burton.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
On acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
When the band heard him play it, they knew it
would open up the album.
Speaker 15 (16:23):
Occlusion comes up hot as.
Speaker 16 (16:52):
Juju Idio tech by radio Head is not a real word.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
That title may imply idiotic. It does not appear in
the lyrics. This is an electronic track, and it's been
described by the lead singer Tom Yorke as the happiest
song we've ever written. He's being smug because the song
takes place in a bunker during what happens to be
a nuclear apocalypse.
Speaker 9 (17:56):
One time ago, crazy dream came to me. I dreamtis
knocking or three. I went to the doctor the very
next day to see what kind of words he could say.
Said it was a bad dream. I wouldn't worried about
it nothing. All them on dreams were only in your head.
(18:25):
I said, Hold the doctor, world War past through my brain. Said, nurse,
get your pie. The boy is insane.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Grab my arm.
Speaker 9 (18:34):
I said, the ouse and landed on the south after
the couch, said tell me about it. The whole things
started at three o'clock fast. It's all over by a
quarter past. I was down in the sill with some
(18:56):
little lover want I picked out from a man the
whole cover wonder a new turn of that.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I was, mister Dylan there with talking World War three blues.
It's the song that kind of belongs in his comical
tongue in cheek talking blues genre that was popularized by
Dylan's idol Woody Guthrie. It was one of the last
songs recorded for the album The Free Wheeling Bob Dylan
was a replacement for the song Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues,
(19:26):
which had been rejected by Columbia Records. The song is
a satire of the Cold War and the then pervasive
fears and anxieties held by many Americans about the possibility
of the Third World War and what would happen in it,
which would likely be the end of times.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
That's great.
Speaker 17 (19:45):
It starts with the Nerds Great Birch Snake scenario play Lenny.
Speaker 12 (19:50):
Bruce's not a play.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Hurricane South Beach, Dummys of your own Naves, beat it
up a Knox Speed grun Street Battle starts the clatter
with fear By Down, Pipe, Wire and a fire represented
seven games.
Speaker 8 (20:05):
In the Government for Higher and the combat Site.
Speaker 17 (20:07):
Nothing was to come in a hurry with the Furies
bringing down York Death too much, Team Reporters Battle Trump
Ta Prod look at Down No playing by the best.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Of a Blo Bucky lets you come and say yourself
so you sell a lot some The John Keas is
in New York Heart.
Speaker 12 (20:23):
Reads, I mean with the retrom in the Reverend is
the right play you feature, Gonna Pature.
Speaker 17 (20:27):
Gonna slam by Bright, play Venus Pretty Sight.
Speaker 18 (20:30):
It's Seeds of the World best Knowing, It's Deeed Dove
the world Les knows It's deed Dove the world les
Knows a nice feel, fine season, Live TV Hour, don't
(20:51):
you cotton.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Boards our size of burn return? Listen to yourself churn,
I'll get you the Morman book, Burning Black Lady, every
Mother investing.
Speaker 8 (20:57):
Late at a mother center, rape not a candle light,
and I want to step down, stand down watching Cross.
Speaker 17 (21:02):
Cross up this Steane no beer count dear Rennegains Deer.
Speaker 8 (21:05):
Claire Tournament Tournament.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I'm wantin.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
A pretty obvious choice for me to choose for this episode,
but damn it, it's just too perfect to not choose.
I'm of course gonna go at the obvious here with
r E. M. It's the end of the world as
we know it. Explaining this song, lead singer Michael Stipe said,
the words come from everywhere. I'm extremely aware of everything
around me, whether I'm in a sleeping state, awake, or
(21:37):
a dream state. Just in day to day life. There's
a part and it's the end of the world as
we know it. That came from a dream where I
was at Lester Bangs's birthday party and I was the
only person there whose initials weren't LB. So suddenly I
was looking around and I saw Lenny Bruce, Leonid breshkev
Leonard Bernstein, so that ended up in the song, along
with a lot of the other stuff I'd seen while
(21:58):
I was flipping around TV channels. It's a stream of
consciousness type song. It was heavily influenced by my previous artist,
I played Bob Dylan, especially the way Dylan sang subterranean
homesick blues. Stipe had once imitated Dylan in a low
budget film called Just Like a Movie, which was a
play on the Dylan song just Like a Woman. Stipe
(22:20):
claims to have had a lot of dreams about the
end of the world, destroyed buildings and the like. His
stream of consciousness writing style is very similar to the
way a dream moves about.
Speaker 10 (22:38):
I don't know why my worlcome crashing down. I just
woke up in lonely town. I opened up mines and
much to my surprise, who look at this heaven?
Speaker 4 (23:00):
And I found.
Speaker 10 (23:04):
Don't need to care a bettom maro. I got no pain,
I got no sun man on earth, So tell me
what is worth?
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Am I a beggar or a pain?
Speaker 8 (23:28):
Got no trouble, got no time?
Speaker 10 (23:32):
Eternity is mine.
Speaker 19 (23:36):
I got a whole.
Speaker 10 (23:38):
Lot ofver ehing.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
That was Alice Cooper with Last Man on Earth. Welcome
to My Nightmare was recorded with longtime Alice collaborator Bob Ezren,
who produced the original Welcome to My Nightmare album in
nineteen seventy five, as well as ten other albums in
this Rockers catalog. Ezren, add the veteran rocker, also wrote
(24:08):
this song together. Cooper said of this song, quote, Bob
and I learned a long time ago that when you
start writing a song and it starts developing, it becomes
its own personality. You just have to let it be
what it is. You can't try to force a round
peg in a square hole. Just write the song and
see what ends up being. And you can start tweaking
and twisting it, but just let it be what it is.
(24:30):
The song really ended up coming out well, and it
really fit the storyline well. Reminds me of that old
Twilight Zone with Burgess Meredith where he ends up in
the basement because of an atomic explosion and when he
finally goes upstairs, he's now got all the books in
the world, but then breaks his glasses and can't read
the books. That was kind of this idea, Alice is
the last man on earth, and he can't he can stink,
(24:52):
he can swear, he can do anything he wants to
do because there's no one there to tell him yes
or no. And that turns out to be a curse
at the yes.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
When I came down, John, the sons were in mollies, sixteens,
all in fifteen years.
Speaker 12 (25:22):
Pres a end of ninety five.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Sent my sye, said family, And now shall I make
that be okay?
Speaker 12 (25:38):
Fine?
Speaker 8 (25:39):
Fair?
Speaker 20 (25:40):
Not Dowson, since.
Speaker 19 (25:43):
Upon the streets seeking of PSI.
Speaker 16 (25:49):
Were gonna makes me sures.
Speaker 12 (25:50):
And see that last one's here.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
You had their five ros.
Speaker 8 (25:56):
Down its hat of thea.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That apocalyptic song by the Police was called Omega Man,
and it was written by the Police guitarist Andy Summers,
who was inspired by the nineteen seventy three movie Soylent
Green starring Charlton Heston. In the film poverty and Climate Change,
I guess you'd call it, have left led to food
rationing in a big corporation creates a food stuff made
(26:51):
by nefarious means. Summers use the idea behind the film
as the basis for the break World Omega Man and
Habits is the last Letter in the Greek alphabet and
in hierarchy, represents the lowest number. Thus, while the alpha
wolf is the leader, the Omega wolf is at the bottom.
Omega feels that he is at a lower level. All right,
(28:41):
all right, I cheated a little bit on this one,
but hey, come on coming up with these songs as hard.
The song is called rapture after all, and as in
you know the end times. But unfortunately the lyrics by
BLONDEI are mostly just mumbo jumbo, so it's a cheat
a little bit. This was the first number one hit
song though with a rap. Artists like grand Master Flash,
(29:04):
Africa Bombada and Curtis Blow had been rapping in the
streets since the mid seventies, and the Sugarhill Gang cracked
the Hot one hundred in nineteen seventy nine with rappers Delight,
but until the song Rapture, rap had never been incorporated
into a hit pop song. Well, Debbie Harry did the
rap and it was well, it was really ridiculous with
(29:25):
lyrics about the man from Mars eating cars, but the
novelty helped the song become a hit. Harry's rap is
so goofy that it sounds like she could be mocking
the genre, but this was.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Very early in the evolution of hip hop.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
The lyrics flashes fast Flash is Cool as a reference
to the pioneering hip hop DJ grand Master Flash. In
Christian theology, the rapture is an event where believers are
transported to heaven while others must endure the beginning of
the end times on Earth. The lyrics of the song
are a bit, a bit apocopalyptic, as the man from
(30:00):
Mars starts destroying the planet with this I don't know,
insatiable appetite, I guess is kind of what I get
from the song. But the word rapture is also a
play on the rap aspect of the song, So I
cheated a little bit.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Risky.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That song, Red Skies Is finds the Fix lead singer
and lyricist Cy Curnan, singing about the aftermath of a
nuclear fallout. Cy Curnan has said about this song quote,
I was feeling that sense of impotence back then, in
the early eighties or late seventies, when Ronald Reagan and
Margaret Thatcher were getting in bed together metaphorically speaking, and
(32:10):
designing a whole defense system that involved Europeans lives without
asking us. It was never on any electorate ballot that
I can remember, and that struck a chord with me.
The band performed this song on Saturday Night Live in
February of nineteen eighty four. The song was re recorded
for the fixes nineteen eighty seven album React at the
request of their label MCA Records, who wanted a better
(32:33):
sound production for the remake of the song.
Speaker 12 (32:37):
Gone everything.
Speaker 20 (32:40):
The thing we got, we got some out, we got
some everyone with changing everyone.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
We had them.
Speaker 21 (32:53):
Yeah, see your buddy Mount Rumpad run, you are from the.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
Ball delm you are the ball. Let me be the glass.
We live this up to the app.
Speaker 12 (33:37):
As you listen to my voice too.
Speaker 20 (33:41):
Tidy clowns.
Speaker 11 (33:42):
Marler blows, you've been here all the time, night or not,
like what.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
You got you under the soil.
Speaker 22 (33:54):
His teeth is the s.
Speaker 14 (33:59):
So say.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
That was the band Genesis with a song called Suppers
Ready and this one'stuff. I mean it's a really, really
long song. It's a concept piece that is actually twenty
three minutes long and divided into seven sections. It tells
the story of two lovers who traveled the strange worlds,
eventually returning to their world, only to witness the Apocalypse
(34:29):
happening at Genesis concerts, Pamphlets were actually distributed with notes
detailing what was going on in each section of this song.
It helped the crowd follow along. Peter Gabriel was the
band's lead singer at the time, and the lyrics he
wrote for this song were inspired by a night he
spent with his first wife, Jill, at her parents' house.
(34:50):
Gabriel believes Jill became possessed by a spirit, which gave
him the starting point for a song about the battle
between good and evil. Gabriel said, one of the times
that I felt that I was really singing from my soul,
almost like singing for my life. Section six of these
seven sections was titled Apocalypse, and that's the little piece
(35:11):
that I played for you. Gabriel got the idea for
it when reading the Book of Revelations in the Bible.
The section features a solo over a pretty unusual nine
to eight rhythm pattern. This was the first big production
number from Genesis that they came up with. It was
led by Gabriel and they started putting together extravagant stage
(35:32):
performances to please the fans and generate publicity.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
In nineteen seventy four, they took it to.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
A new level by performing their entire double album The
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway on tour. In that show,
Gabriel changed costumes a number of times and put on
a pretty entertaining show. A few years after Gabriel left,
Genesis moved from anthems like this to pretty short pop
songs led by Phil Collins. They lost some fans, but man,
(36:01):
they had a pretty big string of hits. When Gabriel
left the band in nineteen seventy five, they continued to
perform this song in concert with Phil Collins on vocals, and.
Speaker 6 (36:39):
Happened Stop.
Speaker 20 (36:45):
Happens happens.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Where you slam.
Speaker 19 (37:16):
Like the breaking.
Speaker 8 (37:19):
Like the bond.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
That band is called Hosier.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
He's not really a band, it's a single dude, but
he plays as a band. It's weird anyways. The song
is called Wasteland Baby. The title of Hosier's second album
is also this song. It finds him singing about the
death of the plane at the end of humankind and
how love can be found in the darkest of circumstances,
that love soon might end and be known, and it's
(37:52):
aching shown and it's shaking Lately of My Wasteland Baby,
it's dealing with the absolute worst case in a comical point.
Hosier has explained, it's an absurd love song that is
about the world ending in no metaphorical way, at least
in a whistle will type tune. You get the results
just out of approaching the song that way. Hosier had
(38:13):
said on ABC News that his subject matter on the
album was heavily influenced by current events. Quote, I think
this is just really approaching like some of the concerns
and anxieties I was having at the time, He explained.
I think you're familiar with the doomsday clock. I think
it moved two minutes towards midnight, and that was really
just engaging and making me think that I needed to
(38:33):
question how long we all have left.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
Fine the sun?
Speaker 23 (38:49):
Why does the scene rush.
Speaker 6 (38:55):
Dull?
Speaker 22 (39:00):
End of the world cause you don't love me anymore?
Why do the birds go on singing? Why do the
stars go abod?
Speaker 6 (39:23):
Don't that? No, it's.
Speaker 8 (39:27):
Of the world.
Speaker 19 (39:29):
It ended when I lost your love.
Speaker 23 (39:36):
I wake up in the morning and I wonder why
everything's the same as it was. I can't understand. No,
I can't understand.
Speaker 12 (39:57):
How I doll.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I really love that song. It was a tune that
was originally an international hit for country artist Skeeter Davis.
That's who I played for you there with the song
the End of the World. It peaked at number two
in the US and nineteen sixty three, the record achieved
the unusual feat of reaching the top ten on Billboard's
(40:24):
Hot one hundred Pop, Adult Contemporary, R and B, and
Country charts. It's pretty amazing. Davis's four chart top ten
accomplishment has never been duplicated by any other female vocalist
in the history of Billboard.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Davis's original version was produced by chet Atkins, Yes that
chet Atkins, and the song was played at the legendary
country producer's funeral in two thousand and one.
Speaker 12 (41:08):
George and so Over West Side.
Speaker 7 (41:14):
Back to the Bench with your boat twelve.
Speaker 12 (41:23):
This is the coastal time that they forgot to Time
on the Ghetto, on the Ghetto.
Speaker 7 (41:34):
Time on the Ghetto anyway.
Speaker 12 (41:41):
Every Days by say every Day side and January hold
on the punning up to.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
I was Morrissey with every Day Is Like Sunday. It's
from Morrissey's debut solo record Viva Hate. Every Day Is
Like Sunday was inspired by neville shoots apocalyptic novel On
the Beach about anticipation of a nuclear devastation in Australia
mos as he likes to be called Sings. This is
(42:49):
the coastal town that they forgot to close down.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Armageddon Come Armageddon.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Sundays are typically a pleasant time of rest and leisure,
but not. Morrissey describes these Sundays as silent and gray.
The song takes place at an English seaside resort town
portrayed in the video by the Way as South End
on Sea, which is such a British name. It's during
the low season where there are no tourists and hardly
(43:18):
anyone around, especially on a Sunday. It's so bad that
he's awaiting Armageddon to put him out of his misery
and out of this place. Viva Hate was Morrissey's first
solo album, coming just just after the breakup of his
group The Smiths. The melody for every Day Is Like
Sunday came from a Stephen Street. This guy who produced
(43:39):
the track. Street sent the track to the Smiths and
when the band broke up, Morrisey recruited him to produce
his album and use this melody to make the song.
Speaker 10 (44:16):
A lot of people won't get no supper tonight.
Speaker 6 (44:22):
A lot of people won't get no justice too nice.
Speaker 8 (44:27):
The hotel is catching hard.
Speaker 9 (44:32):
In miss Irish sage.
Speaker 19 (44:50):
A lot of people running out of hide tonight.
Speaker 21 (44:56):
A lot of people won't get no justice tonight.
Speaker 6 (45:01):
The man too.
Speaker 8 (45:06):
No One, Little Guidy.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
That was the band, The Clash, one of my personal favorites,
with a song called Arma Gideon Time Spelled Totally Different,
Originally released in nineteen seventy eight by reggae artist Will Williams.
The Clash cover Arma geddyon Times the following year as
a B side to their single London Calling Pretty Famous
(45:36):
song to be the B side of The Clash famously
played the song at the concert for the People of
Compceea with its bleak look at the end of days.
A lot of people run and hiding tonight. A lot
of people won't get no justice tonight. Remember to kick
it over because no one will guide you. It's armageddeon time.
Speaker 6 (45:54):
Go to I know try, you know there's a reason
for this. You're feeling whoa.
Speaker 12 (46:09):
It's not my call be Could I love me memore
could love me? Mom could love me. I don't show mo.
Speaker 6 (46:26):
It's not that hard to hide to see.
Speaker 12 (46:31):
In a MoMA. I can't mail how to me.
Speaker 6 (46:38):
All you wanted?
Speaker 12 (46:40):
I could ever love hum more? I could love h more?
Could you want me?
Speaker 6 (46:53):
It's cry and pay my fack.
Speaker 12 (46:56):
I want you to sigh.
Speaker 8 (46:58):
No, Mama, we want this sight.
Speaker 6 (47:02):
Everyone else stay if you want to all way to
you say there's the.
Speaker 19 (47:13):
Last kise for all the time to Ron why It's
not Mine?
Speaker 1 (47:21):
From The Cure's twelfth studio album in two thousand and four.
That was the song the End of the World. Music
video shows Smith in a house which begins to destroy itself.
As he leaves the house, it becomes debris and the
rest of the band finds stuff from the debris. Video
ends with the house rebuilding itself and Smith going back
(47:41):
inside and plants growing all on the floor.
Speaker 24 (47:52):
The man find the television probit to train of one
who's goal sticking In this chat everyone was looking for
a Lilian team, and so their probably books ends upperating
Fantata's name, and then they shutdown of power.
Speaker 8 (48:11):
All along the line got.
Speaker 25 (48:14):
Stuck in a tunnel wind, knowing that shine and got
that touch in all and those who are too scared
to call out nobody saying add of that?
Speaker 12 (48:24):
And how whend of the world, when.
Speaker 8 (48:31):
In out of the world, when fited have a world?
Speaker 25 (48:37):
Dear loud and I s silant, hope you're comingcause he
really started something.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That was Elvis Costello with the song Waiting for the
End of the World from the album My Aim Is True.
It's the debut album from this English singer, song right
Elvis Costello in nineteen seventy seven. But I gotta tell
you it already sounds like the eighties, though, doesn't It
sounds like the eighties made in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Musically, My Aim Is True.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Is influenced by a wide variety of genres, from punk
and new wave to British pub rock, to elements of
fifties rock and roll and R and B, and even rockabilly.
Pretty interesting stuff, A really great debut album. Costello has
been performing a lot longer than you think. His actual
name is Declan McManus, and he began performing in clubs
(49:33):
and pubs in Liverpool in London in nineteen seventy It's
a long time He's been doing this over the years,
he's created some demo tapes but had little success in
retaining a recording contract. Waiting for the End of the
World as the closing song of this album.
Speaker 26 (49:52):
This is tranquilizing. Just look at us too asleep bath
the beach, and why he so I find it there
is surprising.
Speaker 19 (50:13):
He's coming to you, but I am thankful that he
help me to see you say he is not allowed.
Speaker 12 (50:30):
A chill thas I've.
Speaker 6 (50:34):
Seen you looking down at me.
Speaker 19 (50:41):
And see that death horizon, just the heart of you.
Speaker 20 (50:50):
Wait Wi Scott be all.
Speaker 26 (50:53):
See and I can feel at a temperature.
Speaker 19 (51:04):
Douse that death.
Speaker 8 (51:11):
Gone up.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
That was the Pixies with Death Horizons. Breezy acoustic tune
features apocalyptic, multi layered lyrics, which frontman Black Francis told
The Sun newspaper dwell on the death of a relationship,
the death of civilization, and the death of the planet.
It has a jaunty little tune, but the lyrics are
(51:39):
so bleak. Black Francis, the lead singer and songwriting for
The Pixie said it felt like a very velvet underground
inspired song to me, like Lou Reed's Tin Pan Alley.
Traditional chord shapes just juxtaposed with a dark lyric. You
know it's just about three levels of death, a relations, civilization,
and planetary. Well, the end is nah, and so must
(52:03):
this episode end. And we will play you our final song.
I'm gonna play you some some very late stage Johnny
Cash for our final song, and I think it's a
perfect final song. Cash's knowledge of the Bible clearly comes
into play throughout the song The Man Comes Around, with
(52:24):
indirect delusions and direct references abounding. Folks know the American
Recordings albums that topped off Johnny Cash's incredible career for
his renditions of works by some of the great songwriters
of the rock era. Yet Cash never stopped writing his
own material, and he rose to the occasion one more
(52:46):
time with The Man Comes Around.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
It appears on.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
The last of the American albums he released while he
was alive. It's a song full of important and mystery,
and one that likely sent fans scrambling to figure out
the biblical illusions that fill the lyrics. Johnny Cash recorded
American four The Man Comes Around throughout two thousand and two.
(53:09):
The album's release met with universal acclaim in November of
that year, and he passed away little more than ten
months later, so to say his last living album allowed
to him to go out on top would be a
massive understatement. The album American four was the culmination of
the approach Cash had been taking with producer Rick Rubin
(53:31):
for his American Recording album series since nineteen ninety four,
just stripped down and bare quote. It took me nine
months to write it, Cash said, I wrote verse after verse,
probably twenty five or thirty verses before I was satisfied
with the verses that I wanted in the song. It's
the first time I've ever overwritten a song, but I
felt like it was necessary since I knew my end
(53:54):
is near. Song is very special to me. It's a
spiritual about the second Coming of Christ, about judgment and
about the day of redemption. Well, I think this song
is a perfect song to end with. We definitely enjoy
hosting you here at the end of the world, and
we hope that you at least have time before the
world ends to turn this song up and we will
(54:16):
talk to you next week.
Speaker 14 (54:18):
And I heard, as it were the noise of thunder,
one of the four beasts sing, come and see, and
I saw and the hold a white horse.
Speaker 7 (54:41):
There's a man going around, taking names, and he decides
who to free and who to blame. Everybody won't be treated.
Speaker 6 (54:53):
All the same.
Speaker 7 (54:56):
There will be of golden letter reaching down. When the
man comes around. The hairs on your arm will stand up.
Speaker 15 (55:13):
At the terror.
Speaker 7 (55:15):
In each sip and in each son, will you partake
of that last offered cup? Or disappear into the potter's
ground When the man comes around. Here, the trumpets here,
(55:35):
the pipers one hundred minium angel singing. Multitudes are marching
to the big kettle.
Speaker 8 (55:47):
Drum.
Speaker 7 (55:50):
Voice is calling, voices crying. Some are born in the summer.
Dian's Alpha and Omega's King come.
Speaker 4 (56:05):
Thank you for listening. To listen to this, please recommend
to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe.
For more podcasts and online content, please visit this isfunner
dot com.
Speaker 19 (56:16):
This is Funner
Welcome to listen to this. This is the podcast dedicated
to bringing you stories behind the artists, behind the songs,
and hopefully we are introducing you to old songs that
have influenced all that music that we hear today.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
The goal is we want you.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
To hear an artist that you might not normally listen to,
and why not search out their music on whatever streaming
service you subscribe to and maybe just maybe go out
and buy it on vinyl or cassette or eight track
or LaserDisc or anything. But when you digitally download something,
you don't actually own it. That's the lesson here.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
People.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We do invite you, though, to subscribe, comment, and always, always,
always recommend this podcast to your friend. I'm sure people
ask for podcast recommendations all the time and recommend this one.
Every episode has a theme, and today the theme is
the end of the world.
Speaker 3 (00:51):
Never in the history of the United States a monster
of such size and power.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Welcome to listen to this, a podcast that brings you
the stories behind the songs and artists with a theme
to tie it all together. Here's your hosts, Eric Lecky.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
As long as there has been life on this earth,
we have stared into the heavens and not only pondered
our own existence, but also wonder when the end time
will finally arrive. When does this roller coaster stop? It
is only natural to wonder when the end is going
(01:28):
to come. And there have been many false prophets and
wackadoo's that have predicted that they knew the exact date
of the end times Haley's comment in nineteen ten as
an example. People fear that the comet's close proximity to
Earth would actually destroy the planet with a collision or
poisonous gases. Harold Camping and nineteen ninety two. Camping predicted
(01:50):
that Christ would return in September of nineteen ninety four,
based on Bible dates and numbers that he somehow deciphered.
He also predicted the world would end on May twenty first,
twenty eleven, and only three percent of this population would survive.
And last time I checked, there's still plenty of us here.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Why two K is another one? I mean?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
In nineteen eighty four, tech geeks predicted that on January first,
two thousand, computer code air would cause all technology to
stop working, sending the world back to the Stone Age.
The Millerites in eighteen forty three New England. A New
England farmer William Miller predicted the world would end based
on a literal interpretation of certain Bible passages Al Gore.
(02:32):
Even in two thousand and six, Gore said that humanity
only had ten years left and the world would reach
a point of no return. And once again, last time
I checked, we're still fine. Charles tays Russell, he's the
founder of the Jehovah's Witnesses, and predicted the world would
end in October of nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Once again didn't happen.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
I do know, however, exactly when this episode will end,
and I also know exactly when it will start, which
is right now.
Speaker 5 (03:13):
Sun is high up in the sky in my car,
drifting down into year about twelve.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
You'll see what I set?
Speaker 7 (03:28):
Yeah, it grows heavy.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Listen to your break and twine together in this culture day.
Speaker 6 (03:39):
Do you see what I set?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Sliding over here?
Speaker 6 (03:45):
Let me give you squeek to avert us on holder,
have alution record to check the read?
Speaker 2 (03:55):
Can you hear what I hear?
Speaker 8 (03:56):
May?
Speaker 9 (03:59):
Is it? Everything's to sop be but just code and.
Speaker 10 (04:14):
The scars on five dead.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
De Cross Lane.
Speaker 9 (04:20):
I went to bed last night in my mout Jane,
I'll woke up the swan in with a fra.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
That one from you there.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
That was Nick Cave in The Bad Seeds with the
song Abatter Blues. It's one of a number of songs
in which Cave draws on a sense of post nuclear
apocalypse kind of a vision without even explaining what's actually happened.
The Australian singer explained in an interview in two thousand
and nine about the song, quote, it's the apocalypse that's happened,
(04:55):
or is happening, at least incrementally and gradually, and he
added the apocalyptic backdrop for a human story. Although I
do read the newspapers, I'm still not very interested in
writing about all that stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:15):
Risty Chris com Com make a m It was done communism.
Speaker 11 (05:26):
It's come a miser and over bumba gotchessag bumba bumpab.
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Heetchum, living over one jungle monkey cage.
Speaker 12 (05:51):
Drink it over. She's been up and she has.
Speaker 8 (05:57):
She hain't in with.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
That was Prince with the song America. It was recorded
at the converted warehouse that Prince used as a recording
studio in Eden Prairie Minnesota on July twenty third of
nineteen eighty four. This is a rock and roll funk song,
I guess, and it finds him critiquing America and worrying
(06:48):
about a nuclear armageddon. Such concerns were common theme in
Prince's lyrics, especially in the eighties, most notably on the
song nineteen ninety nine. Nineteen ninety nine would have actually
been a perfect song for this episode's theme as well,
but I've played it for you before. America was culled
from a pretty epic group performance involving Prince, who did
(07:09):
vocals and pretty much assordid instruments because he did everything.
Brown Mark, which I'm not being racist, he's called Brown
Mark was on bass guitar, Wendy Melvin was on guitar,
Lisa Coleman on keyboards, Doctor Fink on keyboards as well,
and Bobby z on drums and percussion. Princess staff engineer
Susan Rogers said quote they would jam it for fifteen,
(07:32):
twenty even thirty minutes. We were working at the top
of a reel of tape of thirty in a second,
which gave us roughly sixteen minutes. We ran until the
tape runs out the band would get a groove going
and just play. He might call out for changes and
chord changes, but the song just Fall from a rehearsal
(07:53):
America was cut down to three minutes and forty seconds
on the album, though the twelve inch single does run
for the twenty one minutes. This was the third and
final single from the album, Around the World in a Day,
following the song's Raspberry Beret and the song pop Life.
The album showed up on April twenty second, nineteen eighty five,
(08:15):
just ten months after his blockbuster That was Purple Rain.
Prince had played the album for his distributor, Warner Brothers,
but would not let them run a promotional campaign. The
album simply just showed up in record stores in a day.
No one knew it was coming. It shocked fans and
got the result that Prince wanted.
Speaker 12 (09:00):
Down to.
Speaker 8 (09:14):
Gold.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
That was the band Mega Death with Black Curtains. The
song is about death and destruction of evoking a nuclear armageddon.
Megadeth front man Dave Mustaine paints a picture of a
fiery hell as the black curtains of death close in
around him. It's a topic he's covered in other Megadeth
songs as well, including Rust and p Polaris and Ashes
(10:02):
in Your Mouth. The song opens as a reference to
Charles manson, Hey, look around you, Everything's helter skelter. Black
Curtains is from Megadeth's Youth in Asia album, one of
their most popular. Dave Mustain formed the group in nineteen
eighty three after he was kicked out of Metallica. A
(10:22):
pretty talented songwriter, he proved to be a compelling front
man as well, and Megadeth earned their place as one
of the Big four of thrash metal, along with Slayer,
Anthrax and of course Metallica. Well let's slow it way
down and let's get really old for a moment.
Speaker 13 (10:40):
Tell me who's that riding genrell Leada? Tell me who's
that riding genrerell Lena? Tell me who's that riding genrerell
Leada wrote the Book of the Seven.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
See who's that riding Genrell Lena? Tell me who's that
riding John reve lad Well? Who's that ride in genre?
Lenda relative book under seventh See you know, God walked
down in the cool of the da call anam By's
(11:17):
name and he refused the answer because he's naked and
no shame Who's that ride? In genre?
Speaker 13 (11:29):
Lena?
Speaker 5 (11:30):
Who's that riding?
Speaker 8 (11:32):
John?
Speaker 14 (11:33):
Lenda?
Speaker 6 (11:34):
Who that ride?
Speaker 7 (11:35):
In genre?
Speaker 12 (11:37):
Lena?
Speaker 5 (11:37):
Relative book under seventh see.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
That old man voice you heard? There was the artist.
Speaker 1 (11:44):
Son House with the song John the Revelator. It's a
traditional gospel blues song. It was first recorded by Blind
Willie Johnson back in nineteen thirty or thereabouts, it's hard
to get an exact year, during his last sessions for
Columbia Records. The title refers to the apostle John who
penned the Book of Revelations, the last installment of the
(12:07):
New Testament, and a glimpse into the Apocalypse days after
the final judgment on mankind. Son House recorded several a
cappella versions of this song in the nineteen sixties. His
nineteen sixty five version includes lyrics about the fall of man,
the original sin of Adam and Eve's expulsion from the
(12:27):
Garden of Eden, and Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection. The White
Stripes were one of the many groups and performers to
be heavily inspired by this pretty influential number. The Canon
borrows lyrics their song Canon tell me who's that writing
John the Revelator? Wrote the Book of the Seven Seals,
Christ went down on an eastern morning, Mary Mother went
(12:49):
down to see Gotta tell my disciples to meet in
Gali Lee. He says in that song, MM game, Well,
(14:33):
I mentioned Metallica recently, and I think it was time
to play a Metallica song, So why not. We got
a few to choose from that are apocalypse, end of
the world themed, and I chose fight Fire with Fire.
It's a song basically about nuclear annihilation, describing the world
right before and during a nuclear apocalypse. In the song
(14:56):
fight fire fiber, it means fighting nuclear warfare with nuclear warfare,
hence the line nuclear warfare shall lay us to rest.
Frontman James Hetfield wrote the lyric at a time when
he was obsessed with death. Note that the album cover
shows on an electric chair after all. For this album,
Hetfield wrote the song with Metallica drummer Lars Auric and
(15:19):
bass player Cliff Burton. Headfield and Ulrich founded the band
in la When they spotted Burton performing with his band Trauma.
They made a full court press to get him in
their lineup and even moved to San Francisco to accommodate him.
Burton was a very distinctive player and a big contributing
to their songwriting overall, just the way he played bass.
(15:41):
When he died in the bus tour accident in eighty six,
his bandmates were pretty devastated. Fight Fire with Fire kicks
off Metallica's second album, Ride the Lightning. The first forty
seconds of the song is actually rather soothing, making more
than one fan check the cover to make sure they
put the needle on the right record. But then it
kicks in full thrash, fulling, fulfilling the promise of the
(16:04):
band's debut, Kill Him All, released the previous year. That
mellow acoustic intro was written by Cliff Burton.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
On acoustic guitar.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
When the band heard him play it, they knew it
would open up the album.
Speaker 15 (16:23):
Occlusion comes up hot as.
Speaker 16 (16:52):
Juju Idio tech by radio Head is not a real word.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
That title may imply idiotic. It does not appear in
the lyrics. This is an electronic track, and it's been
described by the lead singer Tom Yorke as the happiest
song we've ever written. He's being smug because the song
takes place in a bunker during what happens to be
a nuclear apocalypse.
Speaker 9 (17:56):
One time ago, crazy dream came to me. I dreamtis
knocking or three. I went to the doctor the very
next day to see what kind of words he could say.
Said it was a bad dream. I wouldn't worried about
it nothing. All them on dreams were only in your head.
(18:25):
I said, Hold the doctor, world War past through my brain. Said, nurse,
get your pie. The boy is insane.
Speaker 6 (18:33):
Grab my arm.
Speaker 9 (18:34):
I said, the ouse and landed on the south after
the couch, said tell me about it. The whole things
started at three o'clock fast. It's all over by a
quarter past. I was down in the sill with some
(18:56):
little lover want I picked out from a man the
whole cover wonder a new turn of that.
Speaker 1 (19:02):
I was, mister Dylan there with talking World War three blues.
It's the song that kind of belongs in his comical
tongue in cheek talking blues genre that was popularized by
Dylan's idol Woody Guthrie. It was one of the last
songs recorded for the album The Free Wheeling Bob Dylan
was a replacement for the song Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues,
(19:26):
which had been rejected by Columbia Records. The song is
a satire of the Cold War and the then pervasive
fears and anxieties held by many Americans about the possibility
of the Third World War and what would happen in it,
which would likely be the end of times.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
That's great.
Speaker 17 (19:45):
It starts with the Nerds Great Birch Snake scenario play Lenny.
Speaker 12 (19:50):
Bruce's not a play.
Speaker 3 (19:54):
Hurricane South Beach, Dummys of your own Naves, beat it
up a Knox Speed grun Street Battle starts the clatter
with fear By Down, Pipe, Wire and a fire represented
seven games.
Speaker 8 (20:05):
In the Government for Higher and the combat Site.
Speaker 17 (20:07):
Nothing was to come in a hurry with the Furies
bringing down York Death too much, Team Reporters Battle Trump
Ta Prod look at Down No playing by the best.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Of a Blo Bucky lets you come and say yourself
so you sell a lot some The John Keas is
in New York Heart.
Speaker 12 (20:23):
Reads, I mean with the retrom in the Reverend is
the right play you feature, Gonna Pature.
Speaker 17 (20:27):
Gonna slam by Bright, play Venus Pretty Sight.
Speaker 18 (20:30):
It's Seeds of the World best Knowing, It's Deeed Dove
the world Les knows It's deed Dove the world les
Knows a nice feel, fine season, Live TV Hour, don't
(20:51):
you cotton.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Boards our size of burn return? Listen to yourself churn,
I'll get you the Morman book, Burning Black Lady, every
Mother investing.
Speaker 8 (20:57):
Late at a mother center, rape not a candle light,
and I want to step down, stand down watching Cross.
Speaker 17 (21:02):
Cross up this Steane no beer count dear Rennegains Deer.
Speaker 8 (21:05):
Claire Tournament Tournament.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I'm wantin.
Speaker 1 (21:16):
A pretty obvious choice for me to choose for this episode,
but damn it, it's just too perfect to not choose.
I'm of course gonna go at the obvious here with
r E. M. It's the end of the world as
we know it. Explaining this song, lead singer Michael Stipe said,
the words come from everywhere. I'm extremely aware of everything
around me, whether I'm in a sleeping state, awake, or
(21:37):
a dream state. Just in day to day life. There's
a part and it's the end of the world as
we know it. That came from a dream where I
was at Lester Bangs's birthday party and I was the
only person there whose initials weren't LB. So suddenly I
was looking around and I saw Lenny Bruce, Leonid breshkev
Leonard Bernstein, so that ended up in the song, along
with a lot of the other stuff I'd seen while
(21:58):
I was flipping around TV channels. It's a stream of
consciousness type song. It was heavily influenced by my previous artist,
I played Bob Dylan, especially the way Dylan sang subterranean
homesick blues. Stipe had once imitated Dylan in a low
budget film called Just Like a Movie, which was a
play on the Dylan song just Like a Woman. Stipe
(22:20):
claims to have had a lot of dreams about the
end of the world, destroyed buildings and the like. His
stream of consciousness writing style is very similar to the
way a dream moves about.
Speaker 10 (22:38):
I don't know why my worlcome crashing down. I just
woke up in lonely town. I opened up mines and
much to my surprise, who look at this heaven?
Speaker 4 (23:00):
And I found.
Speaker 10 (23:04):
Don't need to care a bettom maro. I got no pain,
I got no sun man on earth, So tell me
what is worth?
Speaker 6 (23:23):
Am I a beggar or a pain?
Speaker 8 (23:28):
Got no trouble, got no time?
Speaker 10 (23:32):
Eternity is mine.
Speaker 19 (23:36):
I got a whole.
Speaker 10 (23:38):
Lot ofver ehing.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
That was Alice Cooper with Last Man on Earth. Welcome
to My Nightmare was recorded with longtime Alice collaborator Bob Ezren,
who produced the original Welcome to My Nightmare album in
nineteen seventy five, as well as ten other albums in
this Rockers catalog. Ezren, add the veteran rocker, also wrote
(24:08):
this song together. Cooper said of this song, quote, Bob
and I learned a long time ago that when you
start writing a song and it starts developing, it becomes
its own personality. You just have to let it be
what it is. You can't try to force a round
peg in a square hole. Just write the song and
see what ends up being. And you can start tweaking
and twisting it, but just let it be what it is.
(24:30):
The song really ended up coming out well, and it
really fit the storyline well. Reminds me of that old
Twilight Zone with Burgess Meredith where he ends up in
the basement because of an atomic explosion and when he
finally goes upstairs, he's now got all the books in
the world, but then breaks his glasses and can't read
the books. That was kind of this idea, Alice is
the last man on earth, and he can't he can stink,
(24:52):
he can swear, he can do anything he wants to
do because there's no one there to tell him yes
or no. And that turns out to be a curse
at the yes.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
When I came down, John, the sons were in mollies, sixteens,
all in fifteen years.
Speaker 12 (25:22):
Pres a end of ninety five.
Speaker 8 (25:24):
Sent my sye, said family, And now shall I make
that be okay?
Speaker 12 (25:38):
Fine?
Speaker 8 (25:39):
Fair?
Speaker 20 (25:40):
Not Dowson, since.
Speaker 19 (25:43):
Upon the streets seeking of PSI.
Speaker 16 (25:49):
Were gonna makes me sures.
Speaker 12 (25:50):
And see that last one's here.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
You had their five ros.
Speaker 8 (25:56):
Down its hat of thea.
Speaker 1 (26:26):
That apocalyptic song by the Police was called Omega Man,
and it was written by the Police guitarist Andy Summers,
who was inspired by the nineteen seventy three movie Soylent
Green starring Charlton Heston. In the film poverty and Climate Change,
I guess you'd call it, have left led to food
rationing in a big corporation creates a food stuff made
(26:51):
by nefarious means. Summers use the idea behind the film
as the basis for the break World Omega Man and
Habits is the last Letter in the Greek alphabet and
in hierarchy, represents the lowest number. Thus, while the alpha
wolf is the leader, the Omega wolf is at the bottom.
Omega feels that he is at a lower level. All right,
(28:41):
all right, I cheated a little bit on this one,
but hey, come on coming up with these songs as hard.
The song is called rapture after all, and as in
you know the end times. But unfortunately the lyrics by
BLONDEI are mostly just mumbo jumbo, so it's a cheat
a little bit. This was the first number one hit
song though with a rap. Artists like grand Master Flash,
(29:04):
Africa Bombada and Curtis Blow had been rapping in the
streets since the mid seventies, and the Sugarhill Gang cracked
the Hot one hundred in nineteen seventy nine with rappers Delight,
but until the song Rapture, rap had never been incorporated
into a hit pop song. Well, Debbie Harry did the
rap and it was well, it was really ridiculous with
(29:25):
lyrics about the man from Mars eating cars, but the
novelty helped the song become a hit. Harry's rap is
so goofy that it sounds like she could be mocking
the genre, but this was.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Very early in the evolution of hip hop.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
The lyrics flashes fast Flash is Cool as a reference
to the pioneering hip hop DJ grand Master Flash. In
Christian theology, the rapture is an event where believers are
transported to heaven while others must endure the beginning of
the end times on Earth. The lyrics of the song
are a bit, a bit apocopalyptic, as the man from
(30:00):
Mars starts destroying the planet with this I don't know,
insatiable appetite, I guess is kind of what I get
from the song. But the word rapture is also a
play on the rap aspect of the song, So I
cheated a little bit.
Speaker 6 (30:39):
Risky.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
That song, Red Skies Is finds the Fix lead singer
and lyricist Cy Curnan, singing about the aftermath of a
nuclear fallout. Cy Curnan has said about this song quote,
I was feeling that sense of impotence back then, in
the early eighties or late seventies, when Ronald Reagan and
Margaret Thatcher were getting in bed together metaphorically speaking, and
(32:10):
designing a whole defense system that involved Europeans lives without
asking us. It was never on any electorate ballot that
I can remember, and that struck a chord with me.
The band performed this song on Saturday Night Live in
February of nineteen eighty four. The song was re recorded
for the fixes nineteen eighty seven album React at the
request of their label MCA Records, who wanted a better
(32:33):
sound production for the remake of the song.
Speaker 12 (32:37):
Gone everything.
Speaker 20 (32:40):
The thing we got, we got some out, we got
some everyone with changing everyone.
Speaker 8 (32:53):
We had them.
Speaker 21 (32:53):
Yeah, see your buddy Mount Rumpad run, you are from the.
Speaker 8 (33:10):
Ball delm you are the ball. Let me be the glass.
We live this up to the app.
Speaker 12 (33:37):
As you listen to my voice too.
Speaker 20 (33:41):
Tidy clowns.
Speaker 11 (33:42):
Marler blows, you've been here all the time, night or not,
like what.
Speaker 6 (33:50):
You got you under the soil.
Speaker 22 (33:54):
His teeth is the s.
Speaker 14 (33:59):
So say.
Speaker 1 (34:08):
That was the band Genesis with a song called Suppers
Ready and this one'stuff. I mean it's a really, really
long song. It's a concept piece that is actually twenty
three minutes long and divided into seven sections. It tells
the story of two lovers who traveled the strange worlds,
eventually returning to their world, only to witness the Apocalypse
(34:29):
happening at Genesis concerts, Pamphlets were actually distributed with notes
detailing what was going on in each section of this song.
It helped the crowd follow along. Peter Gabriel was the
band's lead singer at the time, and the lyrics he
wrote for this song were inspired by a night he
spent with his first wife, Jill, at her parents' house.
(34:50):
Gabriel believes Jill became possessed by a spirit, which gave
him the starting point for a song about the battle
between good and evil. Gabriel said, one of the times
that I felt that I was really singing from my soul,
almost like singing for my life. Section six of these
seven sections was titled Apocalypse, and that's the little piece
(35:11):
that I played for you. Gabriel got the idea for
it when reading the Book of Revelations in the Bible.
The section features a solo over a pretty unusual nine
to eight rhythm pattern. This was the first big production
number from Genesis that they came up with. It was
led by Gabriel and they started putting together extravagant stage
(35:32):
performances to please the fans and generate publicity.
Speaker 2 (35:35):
In nineteen seventy four, they took it to.
Speaker 1 (35:37):
A new level by performing their entire double album The
Lamb Lies Down on Broadway on tour. In that show,
Gabriel changed costumes a number of times and put on
a pretty entertaining show. A few years after Gabriel left,
Genesis moved from anthems like this to pretty short pop
songs led by Phil Collins. They lost some fans, but man,
(36:01):
they had a pretty big string of hits. When Gabriel
left the band in nineteen seventy five, they continued to
perform this song in concert with Phil Collins on vocals, and.
Speaker 6 (36:39):
Happened Stop.
Speaker 20 (36:45):
Happens happens.
Speaker 6 (36:55):
Where you slam.
Speaker 19 (37:16):
Like the breaking.
Speaker 8 (37:19):
Like the bond.
Speaker 2 (37:28):
That band is called Hosier.
Speaker 1 (37:31):
He's not really a band, it's a single dude, but
he plays as a band. It's weird anyways. The song
is called Wasteland Baby. The title of Hosier's second album
is also this song. It finds him singing about the
death of the plane at the end of humankind and
how love can be found in the darkest of circumstances,
that love soon might end and be known, and it's
(37:52):
aching shown and it's shaking Lately of My Wasteland Baby,
it's dealing with the absolute worst case in a comical point.
Hosier has explained, it's an absurd love song that is
about the world ending in no metaphorical way, at least
in a whistle will type tune. You get the results
just out of approaching the song that way. Hosier had
(38:13):
said on ABC News that his subject matter on the
album was heavily influenced by current events. Quote, I think
this is just really approaching like some of the concerns
and anxieties I was having at the time, He explained.
I think you're familiar with the doomsday clock. I think
it moved two minutes towards midnight, and that was really
just engaging and making me think that I needed to
(38:33):
question how long we all have left.
Speaker 6 (38:42):
Fine the sun?
Speaker 23 (38:49):
Why does the scene rush.
Speaker 6 (38:55):
Dull?
Speaker 22 (39:00):
End of the world cause you don't love me anymore?
Why do the birds go on singing? Why do the
stars go abod?
Speaker 6 (39:23):
Don't that? No, it's.
Speaker 8 (39:27):
Of the world.
Speaker 19 (39:29):
It ended when I lost your love.
Speaker 23 (39:36):
I wake up in the morning and I wonder why
everything's the same as it was. I can't understand. No,
I can't understand.
Speaker 12 (39:57):
How I doll.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
I really love that song. It was a tune that
was originally an international hit for country artist Skeeter Davis.
That's who I played for you there with the song
the End of the World. It peaked at number two
in the US and nineteen sixty three, the record achieved
the unusual feat of reaching the top ten on Billboard's
(40:24):
Hot one hundred Pop, Adult Contemporary, R and B, and
Country charts. It's pretty amazing. Davis's four chart top ten
accomplishment has never been duplicated by any other female vocalist
in the history of Billboard.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Pretty impressive.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Davis's original version was produced by chet Atkins, Yes that
chet Atkins, and the song was played at the legendary
country producer's funeral in two thousand and one.
Speaker 12 (41:08):
George and so Over West Side.
Speaker 7 (41:14):
Back to the Bench with your boat twelve.
Speaker 12 (41:23):
This is the coastal time that they forgot to Time
on the Ghetto, on the Ghetto.
Speaker 7 (41:34):
Time on the Ghetto anyway.
Speaker 12 (41:41):
Every Days by say every Day side and January hold
on the punning up to.
Speaker 1 (42:27):
I was Morrissey with every Day Is Like Sunday. It's
from Morrissey's debut solo record Viva Hate. Every Day Is
Like Sunday was inspired by neville shoots apocalyptic novel On
the Beach about anticipation of a nuclear devastation in Australia
mos as he likes to be called Sings. This is
(42:49):
the coastal town that they forgot to close down.
Speaker 2 (42:52):
Armageddon Come Armageddon.
Speaker 1 (42:55):
Sundays are typically a pleasant time of rest and leisure,
but not. Morrissey describes these Sundays as silent and gray.
The song takes place at an English seaside resort town
portrayed in the video by the Way as South End
on Sea, which is such a British name. It's during
the low season where there are no tourists and hardly
(43:18):
anyone around, especially on a Sunday. It's so bad that
he's awaiting Armageddon to put him out of his misery
and out of this place. Viva Hate was Morrissey's first
solo album, coming just just after the breakup of his
group The Smiths. The melody for every Day Is Like
Sunday came from a Stephen Street. This guy who produced
(43:39):
the track. Street sent the track to the Smiths and
when the band broke up, Morrisey recruited him to produce
his album and use this melody to make the song.
Speaker 10 (44:16):
A lot of people won't get no supper tonight.
Speaker 6 (44:22):
A lot of people won't get no justice too nice.
Speaker 8 (44:27):
The hotel is catching hard.
Speaker 9 (44:32):
In miss Irish sage.
Speaker 19 (44:50):
A lot of people running out of hide tonight.
Speaker 21 (44:56):
A lot of people won't get no justice tonight.
Speaker 6 (45:01):
The man too.
Speaker 8 (45:06):
No One, Little Guidy.
Speaker 1 (45:14):
That was the band, The Clash, one of my personal favorites,
with a song called Arma Gideon Time Spelled Totally Different,
Originally released in nineteen seventy eight by reggae artist Will Williams.
The Clash cover Arma geddyon Times the following year as
a B side to their single London Calling Pretty Famous
(45:36):
song to be the B side of The Clash famously
played the song at the concert for the People of
Compceea with its bleak look at the end of days.
A lot of people run and hiding tonight. A lot
of people won't get no justice tonight. Remember to kick
it over because no one will guide you. It's armageddeon time.
Speaker 6 (45:54):
Go to I know try, you know there's a reason
for this. You're feeling whoa.
Speaker 12 (46:09):
It's not my call be Could I love me memore
could love me? Mom could love me. I don't show mo.
Speaker 6 (46:26):
It's not that hard to hide to see.
Speaker 12 (46:31):
In a MoMA. I can't mail how to me.
Speaker 6 (46:38):
All you wanted?
Speaker 12 (46:40):
I could ever love hum more? I could love h more?
Could you want me?
Speaker 6 (46:53):
It's cry and pay my fack.
Speaker 12 (46:56):
I want you to sigh.
Speaker 8 (46:58):
No, Mama, we want this sight.
Speaker 6 (47:02):
Everyone else stay if you want to all way to
you say there's the.
Speaker 19 (47:13):
Last kise for all the time to Ron why It's
not Mine?
Speaker 1 (47:21):
From The Cure's twelfth studio album in two thousand and four.
That was the song the End of the World. Music
video shows Smith in a house which begins to destroy itself.
As he leaves the house, it becomes debris and the
rest of the band finds stuff from the debris. Video
ends with the house rebuilding itself and Smith going back
(47:41):
inside and plants growing all on the floor.
Speaker 24 (47:52):
The man find the television probit to train of one
who's goal sticking In this chat everyone was looking for
a Lilian team, and so their probably books ends upperating
Fantata's name, and then they shutdown of power.
Speaker 8 (48:11):
All along the line got.
Speaker 25 (48:14):
Stuck in a tunnel wind, knowing that shine and got
that touch in all and those who are too scared
to call out nobody saying add of that?
Speaker 12 (48:24):
And how whend of the world, when.
Speaker 8 (48:31):
In out of the world, when fited have a world?
Speaker 25 (48:37):
Dear loud and I s silant, hope you're comingcause he
really started something.
Speaker 2 (48:48):
I love that song.
Speaker 1 (48:49):
That was Elvis Costello with the song Waiting for the
End of the World from the album My Aim Is True.
It's the debut album from this English singer, song right
Elvis Costello in nineteen seventy seven. But I gotta tell
you it already sounds like the eighties, though, doesn't It
sounds like the eighties made in the seventies.
Speaker 2 (49:08):
Musically, My Aim Is True.
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Is influenced by a wide variety of genres, from punk
and new wave to British pub rock, to elements of
fifties rock and roll and R and B, and even rockabilly.
Pretty interesting stuff, A really great debut album. Costello has
been performing a lot longer than you think. His actual
name is Declan McManus, and he began performing in clubs
(49:33):
and pubs in Liverpool in London in nineteen seventy It's
a long time He's been doing this over the years,
he's created some demo tapes but had little success in
retaining a recording contract. Waiting for the End of the
World as the closing song of this album.
Speaker 26 (49:52):
This is tranquilizing. Just look at us too asleep bath
the beach, and why he so I find it there
is surprising.
Speaker 19 (50:13):
He's coming to you, but I am thankful that he
help me to see you say he is not allowed.
Speaker 12 (50:30):
A chill thas I've.
Speaker 6 (50:34):
Seen you looking down at me.
Speaker 19 (50:41):
And see that death horizon, just the heart of you.
Speaker 20 (50:50):
Wait Wi Scott be all.
Speaker 26 (50:53):
See and I can feel at a temperature.
Speaker 19 (51:04):
Douse that death.
Speaker 8 (51:11):
Gone up.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
That was the Pixies with Death Horizons. Breezy acoustic tune
features apocalyptic, multi layered lyrics, which frontman Black Francis told
The Sun newspaper dwell on the death of a relationship,
the death of civilization, and the death of the planet.
It has a jaunty little tune, but the lyrics are
(51:39):
so bleak. Black Francis, the lead singer and songwriting for
The Pixie said it felt like a very velvet underground
inspired song to me, like Lou Reed's Tin Pan Alley.
Traditional chord shapes just juxtaposed with a dark lyric. You
know it's just about three levels of death, a relations, civilization,
and planetary. Well, the end is nah, and so must
(52:03):
this episode end. And we will play you our final song.
I'm gonna play you some some very late stage Johnny
Cash for our final song, and I think it's a
perfect final song. Cash's knowledge of the Bible clearly comes
into play throughout the song The Man Comes Around, with
(52:24):
indirect delusions and direct references abounding. Folks know the American
Recordings albums that topped off Johnny Cash's incredible career for
his renditions of works by some of the great songwriters
of the rock era. Yet Cash never stopped writing his
own material, and he rose to the occasion one more
(52:46):
time with The Man Comes Around.
Speaker 2 (52:48):
It appears on.
Speaker 1 (52:49):
The last of the American albums he released while he
was alive. It's a song full of important and mystery,
and one that likely sent fans scrambling to figure out
the biblical illusions that fill the lyrics. Johnny Cash recorded
American four The Man Comes Around throughout two thousand and two.
(53:09):
The album's release met with universal acclaim in November of
that year, and he passed away little more than ten
months later, so to say his last living album allowed
to him to go out on top would be a
massive understatement. The album American four was the culmination of
the approach Cash had been taking with producer Rick Rubin
(53:31):
for his American Recording album series since nineteen ninety four,
just stripped down and bare quote. It took me nine
months to write it, Cash said, I wrote verse after verse,
probably twenty five or thirty verses before I was satisfied
with the verses that I wanted in the song. It's
the first time I've ever overwritten a song, but I
felt like it was necessary since I knew my end
(53:54):
is near. Song is very special to me. It's a
spiritual about the second Coming of Christ, about judgment and
about the day of redemption. Well, I think this song
is a perfect song to end with. We definitely enjoy
hosting you here at the end of the world, and
we hope that you at least have time before the
world ends to turn this song up and we will
(54:16):
talk to you next week.
Speaker 14 (54:18):
And I heard, as it were the noise of thunder,
one of the four beasts sing, come and see, and
I saw and the hold a white horse.
Speaker 7 (54:41):
There's a man going around, taking names, and he decides
who to free and who to blame. Everybody won't be treated.
Speaker 6 (54:53):
All the same.
Speaker 7 (54:56):
There will be of golden letter reaching down. When the
man comes around. The hairs on your arm will stand up.
Speaker 15 (55:13):
At the terror.
Speaker 7 (55:15):
In each sip and in each son, will you partake
of that last offered cup? Or disappear into the potter's
ground When the man comes around. Here, the trumpets here,
(55:35):
the pipers one hundred minium angel singing. Multitudes are marching
to the big kettle.
Speaker 8 (55:47):
Drum.
Speaker 7 (55:50):
Voice is calling, voices crying. Some are born in the summer.
Dian's Alpha and Omega's King come.
Speaker 4 (56:05):
Thank you for listening. To listen to this, please recommend
to a friend, and don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe.
For more podcasts and online content, please visit this isfunner
dot com.
Speaker 19 (56:16):
This is Funner
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