Boy In The Well

Another example of a song that is actually rather good but because it exists on an album surrounded by other slow-tempo ballads it comes across a bit bland and uninspiring. But, like a lot of songs on Around The Sun, Boy In The Well is rescued by the rich, emotion-laden quality of Stipe's voice.

As is often the case with my covers I aim to strike a balance between the album and live version. In this case, the live version is from the 2005 Dublin performance from the R.E.M. Live CD/DVD. The band have often commented that the songs from Around The Sun subsequently worked better live which is often true but there is a beauty about the album version that is lost when played live. 

In attempting to mix and match the best parts for my cover the most obvious thing is the electric guitar during the verses which is as per the live version. To my knowledge the band only played this song once acoustically and that was for the album recording. I've kept the strings and electric piano parts from the album version as they sound particularly nice in the intro and verses. I've gone for a more feedback-driven electric guitar sound for the choruses and middle 8 which, again, is based on the way they played the song live. Finally, I've added a mandolin to the choruses just to fill the sound out.