Talking of music on The Bear, this song, Save it for Later, appears several times, either in the original version by The Beat, or covered by Eddie Vedder.
It's a song that had somehow passed me by until the last year or so. To be fair, it was not a big hit single nor was it ever played on the radio. The whole story of it is pretty interesting.
The Beat were (certainly in my perception of them) primarily a ska group, a multiracial band who had a few hits but were a notch below The Specials and Madness in success.
Dave Wakeling, the lead singer, wrote Save it for Later before the band even began, but the bassist Dave Steele did not want it released it by the band as he felt it was too "classic rock". Eventually, it was only on their third (and last) album, and at the insistence of the record company, that it got recorded and released.
The tuning is DADAAD, which is, apparently, pretty unusual, and only came about by mistake because Wakeling was trying to tune to DADGAD. Wakeling recounts that he once got a phone call from Pete Townshend and David Gilmour asking how the tuning worked. It is one of Townshend's favourite songs, and he recorded it and played it in concert.
It has also been covered by Counting Crows and Pearl Jam, and has gradually become The Beat's most popular song. I've never been a fan of Pearl Jam (one of those bands, like The Beat, that are near what I like but have just always passed me by) but the version by Vedder on The Bear is lovely, and really brings something out in the song.
The song has been a complete earworm for me for the last month - I really can't get it out of my head, but it's one of those specific earworms (do you know the ones) where I also can't quite get it completely into my head either. I guess, perhaps, because of the song's unusual tuning, I have real trouble pinning it down exactly when I recall it. Perhaps by writing about it here I will put that to bed. Anyway, here are The Beat and Vedder versions.
Save It for Later - Eddie Vedder
It's a pretty perfect song, I think - intriguing, somehow profound, but also joyous and catchy.
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