Losing My Mandolin Strum

R.E.M. (1980-2011)
#1

This has been in my YouTube playlist R.E.M. Instrumentals for some time, but I don’t remember hearing a version of Mandolin Strum with sort-of vocals before.

You can clearly hear him practicing a sort-of Losing My Religion lyric.

Here’s the clean version, from Everybody Hurts.

Was the vocal version the Automatic Box version?

Stay for the Forty Second Song.

6 Likes
#2

Thanks. Not 100% sure I’ve heard this version before, though it sounds kinda familiar. It sounds great!

I love all R.E.M., but the Out of Time/Automatic era is pretty special to me. I became a fan at the age of 12, with Out of Time, hungrily devouring every TV appearance, every magazine article, every book, every b-side, and excitedly discovering the back catalogue.

I feel like they were really in the zone then. Everything hit the mark. Even the weird non-lyrical demos, like this one. An album of rejected songs from the early 90s would have been a pretty decent album!

I might be wrong, but isn’t Organ Song, the Sidewinder b-side, a mandolin-less version of this?

2 Likes
#3

Nice playlist by the way! I love Winged Mammal Theme and Shine, in particular. Tried coming up with a vocal melody for Shine once. It was rubbish. I’m no Michael Stipe!

#4

I am wrong. Organ Song was Here I Am Again, without words, wasn’t it? Also a brilliant rejected song from the early 90s. I think some of the lyrics were re-used on Fretless. Another brilliant rejected song from the early 90s!

Somewhere, in some alternate universe, there’s another fucking brilliant R.E.M. album from the early 90s.

#5

Here’s where we were building out the list.

I’ve been able to add Tricycle and Airliner, though 165 HIllcrest and Adagio, I still can’t find.

The trouble with my Spotify instrumentals playlist is, the rights are always in flux and the songs drop out.

1 Like
#6

I know the band feel a little exposed by the release of demos, and I’m not necessarily a completist, but I think hearing these little sketchbook plans deepens my respect for the craft.

3 Likes
#7

Thank you Robert, I’m enjoying listening. :musical_score: :notes::two_hearts:

#8

I enjoyed that :heart:thanks :slightly_smiling_face::rooster:

#9

Thanks for posting.

#10

that came from a bootleg of out of time demos that had been floating around the internet in various forms for 15-20 years. i think was typically called time of outtakes. a lot of it ended up on the OOT deluxe reissue, but some cool/interesting outtakes like “mandolin strum,” “here i am again,” “speed metal,” and “night swim” were sadly left off.