Devil Rides Backwards

On the eve of the 25th anniversary release of Automatic For The People I decided to upload my instrumental cover of, what is probably, my favourite unreleased R.E.M. song.

It's a song that was no doubt left off the album either because it was "too R.E.M." or, in the same way Fascinating was left off Reveal because the album didn't need another slow song, because Automatic For The People was already too sombre without another slow, minor key song. But presumably that, and the fact Stipe struggled to complete a lyric, was the only reason this gem remained a secret until recent weeks.

In terms of its composition it's R.E.M. by numbers, an acoustic driven song with a lively bass and organs brought in to add that extra element of impending doom and Stipe's crooning, half-finished vocals showing off a singer at the height of his vocal magnetism.

It is with love and adoration for their music that I present this cover which closely follows the demo version. Happy AFTP25!..

Electrolite

Electrolite was a song I had thought I was getting tired of or had heard too much. I think because the band had played it relentlessly live since its release I had grown tired of hearing it. But through covering the song I have learnt to appreciate it again, it is one of the standout tracks on New Adventures In Hi Fi and lets not forget the final song on a Berry/Buck/Mills/Stipe album.

When it was suggested I cover Electrolite I was a little sceptical with it being a piano driven song and my forte has always been guitar. Plus I've always loved the banjo in this song and felt its absence might be a problem. But it had never occurred to me to play the banjo part on mandolin instead. The arrangement is pretty much faithful to the original, even including the lovely violin part in the middle 8 although I feel the outcome is that my version sounds more bright and cheery than the original. No bad thing of course, plus I'm fairly happy with this, especially as I've been out of the game for a few months!

Body Count

I consider Body Count to be one of the more mature unreleased songs to emerge from the band's very early days. Partly in that it's the first song they wrote with a topical subject matter (though it is a rather cringe-worthy attempt at a song about the Vietnam War!). Also, in the structure of the song which is quite ambitious for the band at the time. It is essentially two songs with fairly similar melodies joined together by a sonic splurge of feedback and freeform noise in the middle of the song.

But it was an early favourite of mine when I first got my hands on some early R.E.M. bootlegs and it stood out from other early songs. It's more of a hint at what R.E.M. would become than other songs like Baby I and Dangerous Times. R.E.M. would of course adopt a much more subtle, effective approach to topical songs in years to come, Body Count stands as a rather immature first attempt.

In terms of my approach to the song, I found the best quality version I could on YouTube and used this as a template. I'm aware there are versions out there without the second half of the song but I particularly wanted to feature the whole song. I improvised with the bass as I couldn't clearly work out what Mike was doing most the time. I added guitar overdubs during the second half of the song too.

Electron Blue

With Electron Blue I've done a full on cover of the live version of the song. The album version is far too "spacey" for my liking. And, since I was going for a more raw sound with this, I had some fun adding layers of experimental guitar noises and feedback. I actually use a kitchen knife on the guitar strings at one point to achieve the sound I'm after.

Electron Blue was one of those songs I wasn't keen on when I first bought Around The Sun but it has grown on me over the years and I now consider it to be one of the more successful of their genre-experiment songs.

Aftermath

Aftermath may well be the most boring song R.E.M. have ever wrote, with lyrics that fall into Stipe's "pep-talk" category and a video that the band should be ashamed of! Instrumentally, the drums are so uninspiring, it would be interesting to know what Bill Berry might have done differently to give the song more life, that's assuming Bill would have allowed the song to make it on to an album in the first place. Even Mike Mills can't come to the rescue this time with an interesting bass line.

I was as bored covering this as I am listening to it so I wanted to make it a bit more guitar-orientated than the piano/organ dirge on Around The Sun. I also brought in the mandolin, mainly just for the hell of it. The result isn't that bad, I think, considering what I was given to work with...