How REM inspired “DOC – in your hands”
If you have seen the third season of “DOC – nelle tue mani”, you will have noticed two scenes in the first and fourth episodes in which the protagonist – Doctor Fanti, played by Luca Argentero – attends a children’s concert. The song that the children sing is not original, like the rest of the songs heard in the series. It’s a new version of REM’s “We all go back to where we belong”.
“Doc in your hands”, produced by Lux Vide for Rai1, is one of the most successful series of generalist TV in recent years: such a big case that Fox – the channel that produced series such as “Grey’s anatomy” and “This is us ” –
is working on an American version. It tells the story of Luca Fanti, a doctor who loses his memory due to an accident and must rebuild his life, also dealing with his past – including the death of his son. The scenes in which the song appears are linked precisely to the recovery of these memories, which gradually return to the surface, changing the protagonist’s life. Music plays a central role in this process, and the third season of DOC was inspired by REM.
The text of the song is in fact present from the first lines of the first document with which the writing and processing of the third season began, Francesco Arlanch, showrunner and author of “Doc” together with Viola Rispoli, explains to Rockol.
“I’ve always loved this REM song,” says Arlanch. “The déjà vu of Doc that we tell are a mixed feeling of joy and melancholy. I thought about this song by REM, the one with which they said goodbye to the public, something irreparably from the past but of poignant beauty. Furthermore, the lyrics of that song seemed like a perfect commentary on our themes, on the emotions we wanted to tell.”
“We all go back to where we belong” was in fact REM’s final single, the farewell released in the autumn of 2011, shortly after the announcement of the end of his career. The idea, Arlanch explains, was to rearrange it for a children’s choir, taking inspiration from the Scala & Kolacny Brothers’ version of Radiohead’s “Creep” which appears in the trailer for “The social network”.
The REM song was thus reworked in this version by Tony Brundo – author of the original songs of the series – and sung by the InCanto Choir – Maris Stella”, directed by Alessandra Lussi. It is the first repertoire song that appears in the series, whose songs are all original: “Having to deal with déjà vu, there was the desire to have a chronologically placed, true and distinct song that had its own specific time” , explains Arlanch. “We usually use original songs to have more possibilities to adapt and calibrate the sound to emotional situations, which is more effective on a communicative level.”
The process of acquiring the rights to use the song took place through Universal Music Publishing, which manages the editions of REM in Italy. The band fell in love with the project, so much so that Michael Stipe shared the video of the performance on his social networks, defining himself as “honoured” by the presence of the song, recalling having sung it a cappella at the funeral of the artist John Giorno (who appeared in the video clip , in 2011).
“For us it is a classic like other great and more well-known songs of the group, but it was overshadowed by the fact that it was released at the same time as the news of the band’s dissolution”, Bertis Downs, the band’s manager, explains to Rockol, saying he is happy that such a placement can give new life to the song.
Downs compares the presence of REM in “Doc” to “The bear”, where songs by the band appear in both the first and second seasons, so much so that “Strange currencies” (present in several episodes) was re-released as a single “Non so se we can talk about an increase in the presence of R’s songs on TV and in the cinema.
EM. in recent years, it is rather a constant. Every week we receive and evaluate different requests: they are operations that the band likes, whether they are good films or series”, Downs explained to Rockol at the time. .
At the moment, the version of the song has not been published, but after the band shared it on social media and the spectators’ requests, we are thinking about it: “I proposed it, it would be nice to include it in the soundtrack”, concludes Arlanach.