The End of the World

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"The End of the World"
Cover by Rivers Cuomo
Recorded December 2002
Writer(s) Arthur Kent, Sylvia Dee
Status partial MP3 circulating
Not to be confused with the AM Radio song "If This Is the End of the World".

"The End of the World" is a song written by composer Arthur Kent and lyricist Sylvia Dee for American country music singer Skeeter Davis. Rivers Cuomo covered the song in the early 2000s.

Overview

According to the Recording History, Rivers Cuomo is first known to have recorded a demo of the song in December of 2002. A partial clip of this recording was thereafter circulated by Cuomo on his website, riverscuomo.com, as "las_dos.mp3", a sound clip of him performing "The End of the World" with segments of his 2000 Weezer demo "Burning Sun" interspersed throughout. Fans later edited both clips to create separate sound files of "Burning Sun" and "The End of the World".

On March 21, 2003, during rehearsals at S.I.R. Studios for Weezer's planned eventual fifth album, Cuomo and Weezer bassist Scott Shriner, accompanied by musicians Luke Adams and Jimmy Messner due to the unavailability of Brian Bell and Patrick Wilson, recorded a full-band cover of "The End of the World", and continued recording it during rehearsal sessions over the next several days, rehearsing new Weezer songs in addition to covers of "Without You" by Harry Nilsson and "Unbreak My Heart" by Toni Braxton. Beginning March 26th, with the rest of Weezer out of town, Cuomo was accompanied by Andrew Scott, Patrick Pentland, and Chris Murphy of the band Sloan. The four recorded a cover of "The End of the World" alongside covers of the aforementioned "Without You", "I Woke Up in Love This Morning" by the Partridge Family, and "Little Diane" by Dion and the Belmonts. Producer Rick Rubin is known to have suggested the songs "Little Diane" and "Unbreak My Heart" to Cuomo[1][2], and so may have also been the one to suggest "The End of the World", though this is unconfirmed.

The March 21 demo of "The End of the World" was leaked online through the demo storefront on riverscuomo.com on November 7, 2020. As a result of being a cover song and featuring other musicians, the song was not made available for sale through the storefront.

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Rivers Cuomo The End of the World las_dos.mp3 December 2002 Home recording (partial) 0:55 Interspersed with partial recording of "Burning Sun"
Rivers Cuomo, Scott Shriner, Luke Adams, Jimmy Messner The End of the World March 21, 2003 S.I.R. Studios
Rivers Cuomo, ? The End of the World March 25 (?), 2003 S.I.R. Studios
Rivers Cuomo, Andrew Scott, Patrick Pentland, Chris Murphy The End of the World March 26, 2003 S.I.R. Studios
Rivers Cuomo, Andrew Scott, Patrick Pentland, Chris Murphy The End of the World 01 End of the World.mp3 March 29, 2003 S.I.R. Studios 3:40 Unreleased, leaked on riverscuomo.com.

Audio


Lyrics

Why does the sun go on shining?
Why does the sea rush to shore?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
'Cause you don't love me anymore

Why do the birds go on singing?
Why do the stars glow above?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
It ended when I lost your love

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
How life goes on the way it does

Why does my heart go on beating?
Why do these eyes of mine cry?
Don't they know it's the end of the world?
It ended when you said goodbye

See also

References

  1. Cuomo, Rivers. Liner notes. Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. 2007. https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/Alone_liner_notes
  2. Schlansky, Evan. "Exclusive: Rivers Cuomo Explains Weezer’s Cover Of “Un-Break My Heart”". American Songwriter. 22 October 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20101025034723/https://americansongwriter.com/2010/10/exclusive-rivers-cuomo-explains-weezers-cover-of-un-break-my-heart/