7 replies to this topic

[twistedkite]

Clive: “Letter Never Sent” felt like a walk in the park in terms of song density. It's a fairly basic song: there's not all that much going on. There's a distant fuzzy electric guitar during the chorus and a few additional strums throughout the third verse. I like the way the guitar riff changes on the third verse which is something you only notice subliminally - something the band either forgot or chose to abandon when they played this song at the Dublin rehearsals in 2007.

Where I fall short on this cover is failing to get the guitar sound right for the intro/verse riff. It sounds like Peter's Rickenbacker very cleanly recorded and double tracked. With no reverb whatsoever, it is very upfront in the mix—a technique used on Mike Mill's vocals in the song which sound so crisp on the album recording.

Rob: I think I can say with confidence that “Letter Never Sent” is my favourite song on Reckoning (since I’m rather sick of “So Central Rain” and “Pretty Persuasion”) This is probably so because the band rarely played it live in the early 80s and never played it in their later years (which can’t be said of the other two Reckoning songs I mentioned) with the exception of Dublin in 2007

I love Stipe’s crooning on this song (and, quite frankly, on every REM song)—and I’m not alone: at the Dublin live rehearsals a fan shouted out after the song’s conclusion “we love your ‘ohs!’” Stipe’s reply, sadly, is rather dismissive: “I’ve moved on.” Well, I haven’t—this song is a beautiful mixture of voices, words, and sounds.

As for the background vocals, well, I can’t claim I’m thrilled with them, but they are what they are—sometimes my approximations of Berry and Mills work, and sometimes they don’t. However, I do want to point out a rather significant lyrical discovery made by Clive: Mills sings “I know it’s scary. (but) It’s only scary for a while. I know it’s scary”—as opposed to the internet standard “another story, etc etc”—once this was pointed out to me, it’s rather obvious and clear as day (especially on live versions of the song).

[dsobel]

This is pretty terrific.....

[ebowtheloser]

Man. These keep getting better.

[AsktheSky]

I love this, Twisted Kite, you are very thoughtful.

It's one of my fav songs - I really love their early ones best - and its a shame they didn't include this one on their setlist more often. I was thrilled when they resurrected it for Dublin 2007. I was thrilled with the Dublin sets period! Awesome.

[Remixomatosys]

Very good, as always

[twistedkite]

Thanks again--you guys are either very easy to please, or these covers really are that fantastic [sarcasm]

Seriously, though, it's easy to "second guess" yourself doing this stuff--some stuff (false modesty aside) I think sounds great vocally, while other spots I get (completely and obsessively) hung up on. This is one of those covers that I kind of fell less in love with over time; however, it's done, so might as well post it.

In the next two weeks, something from Murmur...

[wagtail]

This is one of my favourite songs, although Camera is probably my favourite from Reckoning.  I really enjoyed this, but I love Michael's 'ohs' more than yours [sorry]. I was disappointed with the "I moved on" comment from Dublin too - I swear at him ever time I plays those discs.

What is curious about this project of yours is that as a listener with very little musical knowledge and actually no real curiosity about how music is made and put together, I start to pick out nuances in your versions and in then in the originals that I'd not noticed before.  very cool. thanks.

[twistedkite]

I know what you mean, Wagtail--the same applies for making these covers too, both musically and lyrically. It's no surprise that our covers are very faithfull right down to some minute details. So, when listening to the originals, Clive and I have both discovered stuff we've overlooked for the past 20 years listening to the REM songs!I plan to point out a few such instances in later posts, but for now I just wanted to say a big "I know what you mean--us too."