⌂ Fretless (R.E.M.)

This most beautiful song (a takeout from Out of time) was inconveniently buried in the Until the End of the World soundtrack. It resurrected in the second CD of the In Time collection, in whose notes Pete Buck states:

I have no idea why this was left off of Out of Time. In retrospect, I like this a lot better than some of the songs that made the record.

Fretless is not an easy song. My tablatures (Lilypond sources) reflect my attempts to pack up in a single guitar several features in the record (for instance, the sliding sixths on the piano). One of the key points is that eighths are divided as 2+3+3+3+2, not as 3+3+3+3+2+2. To make things more complex, the strongest bass note on the verse (an E) is not on the first fourth, but on the second one, making even easier to shift inadvertently towards 3+3+3+3+2+2.

The bridge is shown in chords. Note that the first time you play the refrain on the last measure you can play the first measure of the bridge, hitting just once the bass on the first fourth, and then letting it slide towards an E. When instead you go to the bridge, the G measure coincides with the first measure of the bridge. The bridge ends (after some repetitions) on the second measure, "dying" gracefully into the verse (play just the very first notes, pause and start the verse).