Release date: 05/02/93 | Length: 3:25 | Release: The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite | SuE: #267

Over the course of their 31 year career, R.E.M. recorded roughly 310 songs. That works out as ten songs a year, which at a very simplistic level could equate to 31 ten-track albums. Obviously this isn’t the case, as there’s b-sides, bonus tracks, covers, and all kinds of gubbins making up that number, but even still it’s a damn impressive amount.

This however means that there will be recordings like this, a b-side to Automatic for the People‘s 3rd single The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite. To return to the maths briefly, this album spawned six singles, and based on a rough approximation of three b-sides per single (added on top of the 12 tracks already on the album), this means that the band recorded 30 tracks in this short period. Therefore, I think it’s fair to let them off for including a rather dormant instrumental song, under the elementary name of Organ Song. 

It is the sound of an organ playing, no more, no less. I said I’d write about every R.E.M. recording, and that includes stuff like this. It’s actually objectively nice, as if it’s the soundtrack to walking through a cathedral. However, there is nothing incisive to say about this. There are numerous other songs like this tacked on to the singles of this era, so prepare for more insightful excerpts like this, such as the delectably-titled Fruity Organ, the side-dish to Man on the Moon.