18 replies to this topic

[twistedkite]

To me, “Title” ranks within the top 3 unreleased R.E.M. songs. In fact, think how cool it would have been if, instead of “Animal,” the band re-worked “Title,” “That Beat” or “Theme From Two Steps Onward” for the In Time album along with “Bad Day?”

My first experience with “Title” (like many of you, I imagine) was as an instrumental from the Green demo sessions. From there, I eventually found a live version from a 1987 bootleg and was immediately impressed: I still consider it a cruel twist of fate that the band opted not to play it at their famous September 14 show in Utrecht—arguably the best sounding (clarity-wise) and best performed show from the 1987 tour, available on the bootleg Red Rain.

“Title” was first performed in August 19 of 1987 and was last performed on October 30. In between this time the lyrics began as a bunch of garbled nonsense and matured into something resembling a song—this version recorded on October 27 1987 in Indiana still ranks to me as the definitive version in structure and lyrics. Even if a demo is released on the 25^th anniversary edition of Document chances are that it will be (sadly) only a sketch of a song.

While preparing the vocal for this cover, I listened to every version of “Title” I could find. “Title” itself follows a fairly repetitive vocal pattern; however, sometimes variations occurred (depending on Stipe’s mood). Accordingly, our cover version—for variety—contains as many of these variations as we could fit in (as well as an array of harmonies, both subtle and obvious) without making the song sound gaudy.

My lyrics (below) are a combination of Stipe’s—where discernable—and a combination of original words based on Stipe’s syllables and vowels. As always, thanks for listening.

I feel a longing coming
I feel a longing coming down
(and lying on the sidewalk)
Coming.

Fire on these old thoughts
Fire on this rolling ocean.

And we are calling on the right
For another home, another home tonight.
(Another hope—a way we lost before.)

[charky]

Great version man! THNX.
I love this tune. (& I highly doubt that a demo of it will be on the 25^th anniversary edition of Document )

[Remixomatosys]

Wow. One of my favorites of your covers so far.
I also enjoyed the background informations about the song, which I didn't know so well;
now I'm hoping to see a demo version released on the Document deluxe edition

[Sweden]

Good job with the vocals! The (almost just hinted at) backup vocals are great.

Would have been nice to hear a full rythm guitar behind both the verse riff and the choruses, to make it sound more like a full studio recording.

[fanofrem]

cool version of one of my top 10 favorite r.e.m. song

[Remixomatosys]

the guitar reminds me of disturbance at the heron house

[robertandrews]

Wow, I had never actually heard this, but great job.

He's making no sense -

[twistedkite]

Excellent! Thanks again. I always knew the "unreleased" stuff would be the major draw for this project, and that's why I space this stuff out. As for Sweden's comment about guitars, you're right. I'll let you guys in on a little dilemma that occurred before I posted this. If you listen to the clip of Title in our trailer (posted way back in DEC 2011) you'll notice the guitar on the chorus is different--softer. Well, this guitar just wasn't doing it for me, so I asked Clive to re-record this part (which he did--this is the version I've posted). However, I'll even admit that the guitar on this chorus might be a little too much the other way---too raw and/or grating. SADLY, Clive doesn't have the individual music tracks for this song anymore: just the final WAVs. Thus, I/we opted to go with the rawer chorus, but I'll fully admit that it could stand having a softer guitar behind it (something I've suggested he record on a different track later on down the road if he feels like it).

But in the end, I think the rawer guitar on the chorus was the way to go--I love that chorus!
As always, thanks---please know that I still have mixed feelings about a bunch of these covers. There are very few that I walk away from going "I nailed it!" [two would be Ha (We Get Paid For It)" and our cover of "That Beat"...(forthcoming)] Many of them (Title being an example) have parts that I like, while I tend to focus on other aspects that I find too whiny--or stuff that I'm insecure about...and yet I press on. I'm not the first singer to love singing, but have mixed feelings about the results.

[twistedkite]

charky, on 28 March 2012 - 06:39 AM, said:

Great version man! THNX.
I love this tune. (& I highly doubt that a demo of it will be on the 25^th anniversary edition of Document )

I checked the REM timeline recently and "Title" is included in the demo sessions for Document; that's why I thought if they include said demos with the release, that Title would probably make it...but it would not be the version we're hoping for! That said, multiple soundboard verisons of the song must exist from the 1987 tour.

And it's a LONG SHOT but maybe, just maybe, a more finished vocal version exists from the Green sessions..but I guess we'll have to wait for Green's 25th anniversary edition or the REM boxset to have that question answered...if ever.

[ebowtheloser]

Awesome. This might be your best one yet.

[sashwap]

i know you're waiting for the full album to be done, but you gotta put these on bandcamp! i'd buy 'em.

in any case, well done. carry on. i always thought the chorus to this one was "come on!" but your lyrics do the trick. i didn't know this was demoed for document, that's cool. i knew there was a green demo of course. would love it if a version with vocals turned up, i'm sure it'd be more fleshed-out than the live versions.

[Remixomatosys]

sashwap, on 29 March 2012 - 07:05 PM, said:

i always thought the chorus to this one was "come on!" but your lyrics do the trick.

Doesn't he (Michael) say "title" in the chorus ?

[beatadrum]

Great version, have always loved the song and this is a very interesting version.

[twistedkite]

Remixomatosys, on 29 March 2012 - 11:12 PM, said:

Doesn't he (Michael) say "title" in the chorus ?

Actually, you're right! But kind of. I have a different (earlier) version of this song where he does shout TITLE! at that part, and then later (through the 1987 tour) he says (what sounds like) "coming" or "common" or whatever. At one point I had a vocal where I switched between the two: title/coming, but it didn't work. In the end, I opted to go with the more "complete" later versions from late Oct 1987. Frankly, I was really proud of my "fire on this rolling ocean" line because  who the hell knows what he says there? It almost sounded like "roller coaster" or "roller coast-en". I almost sang "rolling curtain"....

Moving on, to address the whole bandcamp thing, I understand that some people want to download these (flatteringly, enough) but bandcamp doesn't allow you to post them unless you own the copyright. I suppose I could post them and tell you guys, but then they'd potentially get taken down and I just don't want to deal with that nonsense. And we never planned to sell these anyway--just a free fan distribution project, but even then you need to own the mechanical and performance rights of a song to post or sell legitimately. I'm not about to make legal wavs with my favourite rock band--that'd be disrespectful beyond belief. Once the whole project is done, I was going to explore my options to get certain rights to post these and to see how much this would cost in bulk (through various contacts). It's a shame Ethan isn't still around and working with the band--it'd be so freakin sweet if he did all the legwork there [ie: talked to people at the label and Bertis etc etc]. I just didn't want to pursue this part of the project until the music side was done since we still don't really have a definitive tracklist to work with...

I also thought about uploading them to Megaupload (now shut down) or rapidshare or something...maybe I'll look into this. Once I post a song on Youtube, Clive and I kind of consider it done, so it's not like we plan to edit it, but then again you never know. I'll run the idea about uploading these somewhere in the meantime by him.

In the end, there are plenty of audio rippers that can download just the audio MP3 from youtube videos....but I can understand wanting them in a more easily accessible way...I'll talk to Clive. Let me get back to you.

[beatadrum]

Title's lyrics are enigmatic. I've only got a few versions of it, the one on Youtube that's titled 'title bootleg' for example has phrases in the choruses that vaguely resemble:

(1st one)

Higher on a hill
Why am I not see your size
We are calling all alone
And a highway by my own

(2nd one)
Higher on a hill
Come outside you're high lie high
Your time we've light a home
And I'm not a lighter load

(3rd one)
analyse the load
Why not see your life it's time
Your might be died alone
And I'm not a lonely load

Listening to a version from October 87 though, I reckon a few of the chorus lines (structure as opposed to specific lyrics, though certain words are in both songs' chorus) ended up in Orange Crush's chorus which was very embryonic at that time.

Higher on the hill stop
Down we fall, a rollercoaster
And you're crawling on the ride
For another home, I'd rather stay tonight

[sashwap]

twistedkite, on 31 March 2012 - 09:33 AM, said:

In the end, there are plenty of audio rippers that can download just the audio MP3 from youtube videos....but I can understand wanting them in a more easily accessible way...I'll talk to Clive. Let me get back to you.

even moreso than the ease of access, it's the downgrade in quality that the audio suffers going through the youtube wringer. although the videos sound good, you and clive are the only people who have heard these in the highest quality, which is shame considering the care put into other aspects of the project. bandcamp is a great because it lets the listener choose the quality of the files downloaded, which is why i suggested it... also because i guess i had assumed you'd be selling the album when it's completed (i'm also assuming you two have saved the lossless files somewhere along the line). i'm happy to hear you never planned on selling this album, though. i should have known you were just in it for the love of the music

that is a good point about putting covers on bandcamp (they officially discourage it, however i have seen many cover songs and even tribute albums hosted there). in any case, i understand the urge to wait until the album is done to explore options. i would definitely help out setting up a torrent for it.

[Sweden]

twistedkite, on 31 March 2012 - 09:33 AM, said:

It's a shame Ethan isn't still around and working with the band--it'd be so freakin sweet if he did all the legwork there [ie: talked to people at the label and Bertis etc etc]. I just didn't want to pursue this part of the project until the music side was done since we still don't really have a definitive tracklist to work with...

I put you in touch with a few people at HQ a month or two ago, didn't anything come out of that? They just referred you to the labels and publishing companies (the latter of which they presumably would be more connected with that the former), or what happened?

[twistedkite]

Sweden! I thought that that was our little secret!?
Anyway, in all honesty, I have not pursued that yet--I have emailed no one for the simple reason that I assume they'd want a complete setlist for all 40 songs, and the simple truth is that Clive and I are undecided about which 40 songs we want. It seemed kind of silly to email people and say "yeah, we want the rights to some REM songs...we haven't decided which ones yet or how many...etc etc..." Kind of a cart before the horse scenario. I was just waiting until I had a clearer idea of which ones we wanted. You'd be surprised: songs that we thought would just sound average (ie: Good Advices) Clive and I really like; on the other hand, songs you'd think would be easy and awesome to cover (ie: Radio Free Europe) are kind of a real struggle to get right (vocally at least)! So in the end, we just want to have a clearer idea of what song we want rights to, and of course, how many are actually owned by a record company...remember, some of these unreleased songs just belong to the band (I assume). I just wanted to contact people when I had firm numbers and titles--that's why the delay.

But I haven't forgotten about that contact! And it is much appreciated!

[Sweden]

OK, cool. Just wanted to ensure I hadn't messed up somewhere along the way.