Hairshirt

Rather than buy a mandolin (which would only probably cost £50-£60 second hand) I decided I'd take the cheaper option and tune my acoustic guitar like a mandolin (open G in this case I believe).

This discovery, combined with my recent obsession with Green prompted me to record and arrange this in one two hour session - sounds impressive but it really is quite easy as the song is basically the same riff looped four times. The bass part is the same three note pattern played all through the song.

I'm actually really pleased with the results despite the fact I know it does sound like an acoustic guitar and not a mandolin!. Plus, I'm always really fond of songs that come together really quickly rather than others where weeks of tweaking are necessary.

The One I Love

First and foremost the drums are stolen from the original backing track. I found the drum track on YouTube posted by a company who has the impressive ability to isolate particular instruments from songs without access to the mixing decks!

It was this find that inspired me to cover this song at all as I wouldn't have dared to touch such a legend of song with just my shitty electronic drums. But the problem with having Bill Berry's original drum part as a basis for my cover is that it set the bar very high in terms of all the other instrumental parts.

I also discovered a web site in which certain R.E.M. songs have been stripped of certain instruments, The One I Love had been stripped of it's lead guitar part leaving the chorus bare and revealing some subtle parts that I was able to bring in to help fill out the sound. There is actually an electric guitar part playing a more jangly version of the verse riff behind the chorus but you can't hear it in the final mix. There is also an electric guitar echoing the bass notes in the chorus giving it a 12 string sound, again this can't be heard in the final mix. It felt like I'd finally been given the recipe book and only now did I know all the ingredients to be able to piece the song back together to sound something like the original.

Only in the overall tone of the electric guitar during the chorus and the solo do I fail miserably, but I put this down to equipment issues rather than lack of trying!

Ignoreland

Ignoreland is a song from 1992's Automatic For The People, often considered one of the weaker tracks on the album and not a favourite of the bands. It was never performed live until 2008 when it secured a frequent place on their set list.

I'm never sure whether the reason the band disliked the song was because of the song itself or whether they felt self-conscious about the blatant political rant featured in the lyrics. Maybe Stipe's contribution to the song was motivated by a moment of anger or resentment in which he felt a little embarassed about in years to come, that's always been my take on the song.

It is one of those songs where you couldn't sit down and play any one of the instrumental parts and have someone recognise what song you are playing. It is what it is because of the sum of its parts.

Usually when I approach a cover I'm familiar with the music, I've been playing the song on guitar for years, but Ignoreland is a song I didn't even know the chords to. But I managed to get a rough approximation of what the guitar parts are although it's hard to know exactly because there is so much going on in this song.

I'm really pleased with the results given my knowledge limitations of the song, it may not be note perfect but I feel I've re-produced the sense of urgency that comes with the song pretty well.