Nevah Did No Haahm: The Agony and Ecstacy of "DARE (Live in Harlem)"

 by Sienna Axe

It's comin' up...

I'm here today to tell you about something very near and dear to my heart: Gorillaz' "DARE (Live in Harlem)." It's not often the live version of a song can be so iconic as to become the definitive version in my mind...but through the power of God, Damon Albarn, Rosie Wilson, and (crucially) English singer/songwriter and poet Shaun Ryder, anything is possible. I did some extensive research on Shaun for this article (about 1/3 of his Wikipedia page) and found out he was from Lancashire. Who'd've guessed!

I remember exactly where I was when I first saw it. I was on Discord with some friends, dicking around with the music bot after a Drive (2011) group watch (part of an aborted attempt at something we were going to call Augoslingust, where we watched Ryan Gosling movies in August). Someone had just accidentally played the audio of the full movie Heat (1995) dir. Michael Mann while trying to find the scene where Al Pacino says "she gotta (pause where he almost says "big") GREAT ASS," and we had listened to about an hour of it. Still riding the high of the Heatcast, my unsuspecting friend (and diehard Blur fan) Marley queued the studio version of Gorillaz' "DARE." My other friend, Joey, who I think is some kind of wizard, proceeded to change my life with eleven words: "wait can i rly quickly queue up the awful live version?"

Allow me to paint you a picture: the video opens with a disembodied, near-cartoonish English accent. The lights are down. The only information you're given is simply that "it's comin' up." And then, before you even have the chance to wonder what "it" is, you're given the only form of answer you'll ever get: "IT'S DARE!"

If you've never heard the song, there are three key components you need to remember: the chorus, sung by Wilson (and an inaudible Albarn, and a very-audible Ryder when he feels like it); "never did no harm," pronounced "nevah did no haahm" (Ryder); and, last but CERTAINLY not least, "it's comin' up, it's comin' up, it's comin' up, it's comin' up, it's comin' up, it's comin' up, it's comin' up, IT'S DARE," sometimes stylized as "it's DAEAH," "ISS DEAAYYAH," or "it's DEEEAAAAH."

So much of the joy of "DARE (Live in Harlem)" comes from the juxtaposition between the two artists onstage. Wilson is killing it! She sounds exactly like the recording, and she is, as the song says, "hold[ing] it down, yeah." Ryder, on the other hand, is performing like my roommates and I rocking up to K-Palace after four drinks at Marcy's. He's like a lasagna of delight. The layers just don't end. For instance: you may, at first glance, think he's smoking. Not so! The guy is SUCKING ON A LOLLIPOP. Half the time, he forgets he's holding it; over the course of the video, it moves in and out of his mouth at will like an indecisive cat.

The inarguable climax of the video comes when he suddenly decides that, being as it's a bit hot onstage, he'll give taking his hoodie off a try. Emphasis on "try." As with the lollipop, it's not long before he either forgets his goal or gives up on it entirely. He spends the rest of the video with it hanging from his mic arm, empty sleeve reaching for the ground like Icarus frozen in time.

But here's what I love most about the video: Ryder is having an absolute ball. His bizarre, off-putting dance moves are as straight from the heart as his miles-off-beat rapping. I don't think I've ever been that free in my entire life. And the energy extends to the rest of the room, too! Look closely and you'll see frontman Albarn laughing in silhouette in the back. The crowd is high off seeing a band they love live. Even Wilson, who gives us some very good what-the-fuck-is-going-on reactions, seems to be entertained by the whole thing; the video ends with her and Ryder hugging, which is very sweet in a sort of odd-in-context way (and, again, she's killing it).

Unfortunately, this being an officially-recorded video, all versions of it were taken down from YouTube. Fortunately, one brave hero unlisted it instead of taking it down, and that version happened to be in my watch history. Go forth, friends, and be cool. You don't want to see how I act if I lose this beautiful slow-motion car crash forever.