GREEN: HAIRSHIRT

An amazingly beautiful song.  Originally, this mandolin riff was recorded with a bunch of other instrumentals and given to Michael Stipe before recording.  The riff was just a throwaway, or so the band thought.  The singer passed over a bunch of completed compositions and said, "Can you play this for 4 minutes?  I've got lyrics for that."  He proceeded to record the song in one(ish) take.
  A hair shirt is basically a way of performing penance for perceived sins or guilt.  The term is mainly used figuratively these days, but back in the day you could skin a goat and wear his or her coarse skin around if you were naughty.



HAIRSHIRT

I am not the type of dog
That could keep you waiting
For no good reason
Run a carbon black test on my jaw
And you will find it’s all been said before
I can swing my megaphone and long arm the rest

It’s easier and better
To just beat it from the chest
Of desire

I could walk into this room
And the waves of conversation are enough
To knock you down with the undertow
So alone
So alone

In my life

Bead me banks of light
And hang your hairshirt on the lowest rung
It’s a beautiful life
And I can hang my hairshirt
Away up high in the attic of the wrong dog’s life chest
And bury it at sea
All my life I’ve searched for this

Here I am
Here I am in your life
It’s a beautiful life
My life
It’s a beautiful life
Your life

  Sorry, there's no actual guitar on this track, only mandolin.  However if you tune the guitar as below and capo 12 (or play with no capo) it'll sound cool!  On the above video, note that once again it is Bill Berry playing the mandolin.

HAIRSHIRT

Verse:

e|-7---7---7---7---5---5>7-|

A|-5---4---3---2---3---3>5-|

D|-------------------------|

G|-------------------------|

Chorus:

e|-0-0----3---0---0-0---|

A|-5-7h---0---5---5-7h--|

D|----------------------|

G|----------------------|

Bridge to Verse:

e|-3---5>7--|

A|-0---3>5--|

D|----------|

G|----------|