Everyone has their favorite bands. Grizzly Bear is not one of ours.
But we believe if you look hard enough, you can find a gem or two that can redeem an album or a band you don’t like. It might take a lot of time and patience.
David Shrigley Worried Noodles is a musical mine field of experimental rock interpretations of Shrigley’s book of song lyrics. Regardless, the first song that we enjoyed on the album was Grizzly Bear’s “Blackcurrant Jam.” Unfortunately, the album is so experimental that we don’t enjoy a most of it. We expected to like David Byrne’s interpretation but didn’t. We love Islands — they are experimental themselves. No dice. These facts make our enjoyment of “Blackcurrant Jam” even more dumbfounding.
From David Shrigley Worried Noodles:
“Blackcurrant Jam” by Grizzly Bear
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The other Grizzly Bear song that we like is “He Hit Me” which is a cover of the same song by The Crystals. Grizzly Bear has garnered a lot of attention from this cover. There are at least three recordings of them singing this song floating around on the Internet.
“He Hit Me” is a shocking, haunting song. We couldn’t believe that The Crystals, the same group that gave us “Da Doo Ron Ron,” originally recorded this song. Nor could we believe Carole King and Gerry Goff in wrote it — this is the duo that wrote “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” together. But we could kind of believe Phil “Shoot-To-Kill” Spector, and his famous Wall of Sound, would be involved. Supposedly, the song protests domestic violences, but it sounds more like it evinces the thought processes of a victim of domestic abuse.
So in Grizzly Bear’s hands this haunting song takes on new layers. The Crystals voices are contrasted against a rather jaunty beat for a song about domestic abuse and a richly textured arrangement. Grizzly Bear’s version sounds bleak and empty in comparison.
“He Hit Me” by The Crystals
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“He Hit Me” by Grizzly Bear
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