R.E.M.: A censurada "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)", lançada em 1987, no álbum "Document" é certamente um dos clássicos de uma banda cuja pauta principal foi, de fato, a construção de algumas das melhores faixas dos útlimos trinta anos: O R.E.M.

A conhecedíssima - e "incantável"- métrica esquizofrênica da melodia é complementada por uma letra surrealista, expelida como fogo pelas ventas de MICHAEL STIPE. Segundo o autor, a letra vem de um fluxo de pensamentos, não lineares, no qual admitiu, em entrevista de 1990 a Musician Magazine, que foi inspirado em um sonho no qual estava em uma festa rodeado de pessoas cujos nomes começavam pela sigla "L.B."- os citados LEONARD BERNSTEIN, LEONID BREZHNEV, LENNY BRUCE e LESTER BANGS.

Entretranto, mesmo com a letra nonsense, o REM teve a faixa censurada em 2001. Ocorre que, diante do pânico pós 11 de setembro daquele ano, foi criado o 2001 Clear Channel Memorandum, um documento criado pelo Clear Channel cujo teor tratava da "sugestão" de restringir a execução pública de faixas cujo conteúdo poderia ser enquadrado no conceito de "letras questionáveis". A lista, incluía 165 faixas, em um mundo tão diverso quanto "What a Wonderful World"(!!!!) de LOUIS ARMSTRONG e "Enter Sandman" do METALLICA. Para quem já havia criado o PRMC anos antes, o "País da Liberdade", mais uma vez demonstrava que a hipocrisia é, realmente, um privilégio que desconhece fronteiras.

A lista completa do memorandum:

3 Doors Down - "Duck and Run"
311 - "Down"
AC/DC - "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
"Hells Bells"
"Highway to Hell"
"Safe in New York City"
"Shoot to Thrill"
"Shot Down in Flames"
"T.N.T."
The Ad Libs - "The Boy from New York City"
Afro Celt Sound System featuring Peter Gabriel - "When You're Falling"
Alice in Chains - "Down in a Hole"
"Rooster"
"Sea of Sorrow"
"Them Bones"
Alien Ant Farm - "Smooth Criminal"
The Animals - "We Gotta Get Out of This Place"
Louis Armstrong - "What a Wonderful World"
The Bangles - "Walk Like an Egyptian"
Barenaked Ladies - "Falling for the First Time"
Fontella Bass - "Rescue Me"
Beastie Boys - "Sabotage"
"Sure Shot"
The Beatles - "A Day in the Life"
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
"Ticket to Ride"
Pat Benatar - "Hit Me with Your Best Shot"
"Love Is a Battlefield"
Black Sabbath - "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"
"War Pigs"
Blood, Sweat and Tears - "And When I Die"
Blue Öyster Cult - "Burnin' for You"
Boston - "Smokin'"
Los Bravos - "Black Is Black"
Jackson Browne - "Doctor My Eyes"
Buddy Holly and the Crickets - "That'll Be the Day"
Bush - "Speed Kills"
The Chi-Lites - "Have You Seen Her"
Petula Clark - "A Sign of the Times"
The Clash - "Rock the Casbah"
Phil Collins - "In the Air Tonight"
Sam Cooke - "Wonderful World"
The Crazy World of Arthur Brown - "Fire"
Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Travelin' Band"
The Cult - "Fire Woman"
Bobby Darin - "Mack the Knife"
The Dave Clark Five - "Bits and Pieces"
Skeeter Davis - "The End of the World"
Neil Diamond - "America"
Dio - "Holy Diver"
The Doors - "The End"
The Drifters - "On Broadway"
Drowning Pool - "Bodies"
Bob Dylan - "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
Everclear - "Santa Monica"
Shelley Fabares - "Johnny Angel"
Filter - "Hey Man, Nice Shot"
Foo Fighters - "Learn to Fly"
Fuel - "Bad Day"
The Gap Band - "You Dropped a Bomb on Me"
Godsmack - "Bad Religion"
Green Day - "Brain Stew"
Norman Greenbaum - "Spirit in the Sky"
Guns N' Roses - "Knockin' on Heaven's Door"
The Happenings - "See You in September"
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - "Hey Joe"
Herman's Hermits - "Wonderful World"
The Hollies - "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"
Jan and Dean - "Dead Man's Curve"
Billy Joel - "Only the Good Die Young"
Elton John - "Bennie and the Jets"
"Daniel"
"Rocket Man"
Judas Priest - "Some Heads Are Gonna Roll"
Kansas - "Dust in the Wind"
Carole King - "I Feel the Earth Move"
Korn - "Falling Away from Me"
Lenny Kravitz - "Fly Away"
Led Zeppelin - "Stairway to Heaven"
John Lennon - "Imagine"
Jerry Lee Lewis - "Great Balls of Fire"
Limp Bizkit - "Break Stuff"
Local H - "Bound for the Floor"
Lynyrd Skynyrd - "Tuesday's Gone"
Johnny Maestro & the Brooklyn Bridge - "The Worst That Could Happen"
Martha and the Vandellas - "Dancing in the Street"
"Nowhere to Run"
Dave Matthews Band - "Crash into Me"
Paul McCartney & Wings - "Live and Let Die"
Barry McGuire - "Eve of Destruction"
Don McLean - "American Pie"
Megadeth - "Dread and the Fugitive Mind"
"Sweating Bullets"
John Mellencamp - "Crumblin' Down"
"Paper in Fire"
Metallica - "Enter Sandman"
"Fade to Black"
"Harvester of Sorrow"
"Seek & Destroy"
Steve Miller Band - "Jet Airliner"
Alanis Morissette - "Ironic"
Mudvayne - "Death Blooms"
Ricky Nelson - "Travelin' Man"
Nena - "99 Luftballons"/"99 Red Balloons"
Nine Inch Nails - "Head Like a Hole"
Oingo Boingo - "Dead Man's Party"
Ozzy Osbourne - "Suicide Solution"
Paper Lace - "The Night Chicago Died"
John Parr - "St. Elmo's Fire (Man in Motion)"
Peter and Gordon - "I Go to Pieces"
"A World Without Love"
Peter, Paul and Mary - "Blowin' in the Wind"
"Leaving on a Jet Plane"
Tom Petty - "Free Fallin'"
Pink Floyd - "Mother"
"Run Like Hell"
P.O.D. - "Boom"
Elvis Presley - "(You're the) Devil in Disguise"
The Pretenders - "My City Was Gone"
Queen - "Another One Bites the Dust"
"Killer Queen"
Rage Against the Machine - All songs
Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Aeroplane"
"Under the Bridge"
R.E.M. - "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"
The Rolling Stones - "Ruby Tuesday"
Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels - "Devil with a Blue Dress On"
Saliva - "Click Click Boom"
Santana - "Evil Ways"
Savage Garden - "Crash and Burn"
Simon & Garfunkel - "Bridge over Troubled Water"
Frank Sinatra - "New York, New York"
Slipknot - "Left Behind"
"Wait and Bleed"
The Smashing Pumpkins - "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
Soundgarden - "Black Hole Sun"
"Blow Up the Outside World"
"Fell on Black Days"
Bruce Springsteen - "I'm Goin' Down"
"I'm on Fire"
"War"
Edwin Starr - "War"
Steam - "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye"
Cat Stevens - "Morning Has Broken"
"Peace Train"
Stone Temple Pilots - "Big Bang Baby"
"Dead and Bloated"
Sugar Ray - "Fly"
The Surfaris - "Wipe Out"
System of a Down - "Chop Suey!"
Talking Heads - "Burning Down the House"
James Taylor - "Fire and Rain"
Temple of the Dog - "Say Hello 2 Heaven"
Third Eye Blind - "Jumper"
The Three Degrees - "When Will I See You Again"
Tool - "Intolerance"
The Trammps - "Disco Inferno"
U2 - "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
Van Halen - "Jump"
"Dancing in the Street"
J. Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers - "Last Kiss"
The Youngbloods - "Get Together"
Zager and Evans - "In the Year 2525"
The Zombies - "She's Not There"