Lay Me Down: worth the wait

What can we say, this came out of nowhere. (We’re doing our best to sound normal in the lines that follow, while in reality, we’re terribly excited.)

OK, here it goes: registered members on Michelle Branch’s official site can now listen to the original, solo version of “Lay Me Down” (yes, this one) in its entirety (albeit in streaming fashion only).

The related announcement was posted on michellebranch.com on March 24th. (Thank you Krista & Ross for tipping us on this, rock on!) Branch wrote the following in a thread on her site’s message boards:

Just a heads up to let you know that I finally found the “OG” version of Lay Me Down and WB posted a streaming version for anyone caring to hear it. (www.michellebranch.com) Whoa, talk about a walk down memory lane.

The thread is full of thank you’s and compliments from fans, from all over the world; this is normal —

Because this song, in this version, fucking rocks. It’s all we ever imagined it would be. It’s rockier, it’s “putting my heart out there” done right, it’s perfect.

Also: we’ve always felt that the Wreckers’ version had a couple of weak, odd-sounding moments. They all had the same characteristic; they felt rushed, forced — locate your copy of the song and have a listen to the following:

• “since I begged for / anything but now I want…” (before the 1st chorus)
• “and you’d never even try to anyway” (end of 1st chorus)
• “as long as I can see it in your eyes” (before the chorus kicks in for the 2nd time — this is the most characteristic example)

Imagine our surprise when we found out that in Josh Abraham’s version all these kinks have been ironed out; the entire track flows with grace.

Finally, “I’m sorry / Lay me down / I’m lonely / Lay me down” sends chills down our spine on every single listen. (Josh Abraham, we must buy you a beer.)

So, all in all: “Lay Me Down” in its original version is nothing short of amazing. It was worth making such a big deal for those 56 seconds.

What’s next?
It would be a pitty for “Lay Me Down” to not get a proper release; a physical (B-side?) or digital (iTunes?) format, anything, it doesn’t matter. If you drop by the respective thread on michellebranch.com, do note that you’d be willing to see this gem of a track getting an actual release. And be sure to thank Michelle for taking the time to dig up this song and offer it to the fans! √ Mar 27th, 2008

Lay Me Down: update + call for action

16 months ago, we took the time to write about a song we’re feeling passionate about, and what makes it so special.

A few things to note:

• we’re not alone: checking out our referrer logs — a ton of people want to find out more about this song; not too bad for a track that hasn’t been released. Checking out our inbox — a bunch of emails from fans of the song wishing us good luck and hoping we get our hands on the track. (Some even took the time to send us live versions of the song — thanks!) This is odd — 16 months ago, when the original “Lay me down” entry was written we thought only we and maybe some people that frequented over at Branch’s message board cared. Turns out this is not the case.
• hey Josh, nice talking to you: two weeks after we posted about it, we got our very first email regarding this — from Josh Abraham, himself. (Pause for a minute, and think about it.) Unfortunately, Josh was rather, shall we say, cryptic in his message (i.e. told us nothing except from a “you guys are pretty funny!!!!”) and chose not to follow up in our emails (two of them, we didn’t want to spam the guy). Bummer, but we respect his decision — and thank you for sending us that email anyway, Josh; we’ve almost had a heart attack when we noticed an email from “Josh Abraham” waiting for us in our inbox.
• do something about it: finally, there idea of writing to Michelle’s label and asking for “Lay me down” to be released as a b-side on one of The Wreckers’ singles (their album drops on May 23rd) has been tossed quite a few times. Let’s sit on that for a while…

Call for action
How do we go about it so that our actions have the best possible result? Do we gather a list of names/emails first and then send a single letter to the company signed by that list, or each one of us sends a separate email? And are we talking email or snail mail? Maybe go with an online petition?

The “Comments” section below is yours — discuss, help us with writing the text, whatever. We’re all in this together.

(Also post a comment if you’d like to stay updated on the “Lay Me Down” front — just make sure you use a valid email address in the “email” field; don’t worry, it’s never published, we hate spam too.)

UPDATE — March 27th, 2008: You can now listen to the original version in its entirety, in streaming mode from Michelle Branch’s official website. Click here for more. √ May 15th, 2006

Lay Me Down

Background info
It was around May 2003, when MuchMusic’s “Exposed” broadcasted a video from Michelle Branch’s studio sessions, apparently to create some buzz for her (then) upcoming album, “Hotel Paper”.

In it, Branch is heard singing an extract of a song called “Lay Me Down”. The clip was instantly adored by many fans, its short length (56 seconds) didn’t stop them from naming it a “favorite” and it had them anxiously waiting for the album’s release, so they could listen to the song in its entirety.

You can listen to the clip here:

(We don’t consider ourselves fans, but we’ve stumbled upon said clip just recently, and we must admit we liked it a lot; hence this post.)

Surprise
“Hotel Paper” was released on June 24, 2003; for reasons unbeknownst to humans till this very day, “Lay Me Down” wasn’t in it.

“Lay Me Down: Reloaded”
On November 4, 2004, Michelle Branch announced she would be teaming with Jessica Harp to form the band “The Wreckers”. A couple of months later, it was known that “Lay Me Down” would be included in the the Wreckers’ debut album (title ‘tk’, probably dropping in March). Fears that the song would be re-recorded to suit the Wreckers’ country-esque style were confirmed 10 days ago, with the release of this video from the band’s studio sessions.

Crap (though, to be fair, many people like the new version too).

Producers, producers
The original version of “Lay Me Down” was produced by Josh Abraham (credits), who did “One Of These Days” in Branch’s latest record.

The newest version is probably being produced by John Leventhal who’s in charge of the Wreckers’ album. Leventhal (bio - credits) did “Hotel Paper” and “It’s You” on Branch’s latest record.

What’s the point of this post?
As you’ve probably figured out by now, this means that the original version of “Lay Me Down” will probably never see the light of day. Isn’t it bad for such a great song to end up this way?

We thought so.

This is the Internet, the place where everything’s possible. I’m sure that someone out there has a friend who’s close to Josh Abraham, maybe works in his label (JAB Records), or —I dunno— is a close relative to Staind (or Korn).

Bug your contacts, see what you can find, help us unearth this great song. Email us with hints and tips (or the full version of the song, thankyou) - full anonymity is guaranteed if you wish so, and you’ll be our next best friend.

Alternatively, you can just leave a comment below.

UPDATE: Please read “Lay Me Down: update + call for action”. Your help would be appreciated.

UPDATE #2 — March 27th, 2008: You can now listen to the original version in its entirety, in streaming mode from Michelle Branch’s official website. Click here for more. √ Jan 20th, 2005