MONSTER: LET ME IN

  During the recording of MONSTER, Michael Stipe was blindsided with the deaths of his friends River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain. He dedicated the album to River, and this song is a direct plea to Cobain based on conversations Stipe had with the troubled singer. In fact, during the recording of MONSTER Stipe shared some of the raw tracks with Cobain and they talked about music and the possibility of collaborating on a film soundtrack. After Cobain's suicide multiple members of the band commented of the triviality of recording and releasing a rock album in light of an event that literally changed the lives of close friends. Michael claims that he didn't want to write this song--particularly since AUTOMATIC was almost entirely about loss, but that it just came out: "I had to express the frustration I had." Standing by 'with our hands' vs 'lift our hands' from the lyrics in the 25th Anniversary lyrics.
  The video below is a great promo with the band talking about where the song comes from.



LET ME IN

Yeah all those stars drip down like butter

And promises are sweet
We hold out our pans with our hands to catch them
We eat them up, drink them up

Up, up, up

Hey

Let me in
Hey

Let me in

I only wish that I could hear you whisper down
Mister Fisher moved to a less peculiar ground
He gathered up his loved ones and he brought them all around to say goodbye

Nice try

Hey

Let me in

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey

Let me in

Let me in

I had a mind to try to stop you

Let me in

Let me in
But I've got tar on my feet and I can't see
All the birds look down and laugh at me
Clumsy, crawling out of my skin

Hey

Let me in

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey

Let me in

Hey

Let me in

Yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey

Let me in

Let me in


  This one is all the work of Mike Mills playing on Cobain'e guitar re-strung for a right handed player.  The chords are very basic and distorted to within an inch of their lives. I remember watching Mills attack this one live onstage as if he were channeling music itself.

LET ME IN 

Verse

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Chorus

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Go to D before last Verse