MP3: The Bear Quartet - You built your life upon the ruins of mine
This week's Bear Quartet post comes courtesy of Lisa BK, Jim Kelly's better half:
The Bear Quartet's music and lyrics are so fascinating by themselves - so compelling and intricate and complex - they make me into an airhead. I don't know any of their songs' titles, see - I'm totally bewitched by the art. I usually have to hum or sing the song to Jim so he can identify it for me; failing that, we have to trot out the CDs and have a listen (bummer, I know) in order to find my favorites' names. The other day, he told me I really liked a song called "You built your life upon the ruins of mine", and I had no idea what he was talking about until he sent me the lyrics and I saw the following unforgettable lines:
but one day you'll get married
to someone big and scary
a hairy monster of a man
who'll make sure he's taken care of
'cause of burdens you've been carrying
kill him off if you can
Oh! That one! Yes! The one that our daughter used to walk around singing when she was three! Yes, yes, that one.
What kills me about the above part of this 1997 song (it appears as a b-side on the "His spine" EP) is not the lyrics, though they're certainly moving; no, it's the the slightly somber and conversational tone of the verse, with its acoustic guitar which then slides into a bootstrappy, oh-well chorus, with a strident piano and some handclaps moving things along. By the end of the chorus, though - after he sings kill him off if you can - it's turned into the most wistful thing, all "oooooo" with the background vocal and a little tiny bit of lonely, atmospheric slide guitar buried in the mix at the very end. Oh, the production. Ten straight plays in one sitting? I'm still hearing things I've never heard before. This is a b-side, people.
Bear Quartet, during this period, came completely into their own as a band. Their music and lyrics from the late 1990s possess depth, layers, maturity, great lyrics, and flawless songwriting and musicianship found nowhere else in their oeuvre; when songs like "YBYLUTROM" are castoffs, it's clear that BQ had discovered the Rosetta Stone for creating the kind of music that doesn't betray when it was written. The kind you hum for your husband so he can tell you what it is because, well, you were so taken by everything else going on...
The Bear Quartet - You built your life upon the ruins of mine