I’m kind of curious as to exactly what you’re hearing. You say it’s a word that you can’t quite make out. I gather by your post that it always seems to be the same word. So, exactly what about it can’t you discern? Can you tell how many syllables it has? Can you give us a rough idea what it sounds like? Does it sound like you’re catching the whole word, or just the ending? I don’t know what any of this would mean, I’m just wondering.
Well, nitpick right back atcha. The song lyric is not the original “phrase”. The original “phrase”, whatever it really was, was heard, and quoted over and over, as “Kenneth what is the frequency”. Just because Michael Stipe got it wrong doesn’t mean I have to.