Quality Time By Bipolar Bears
The Bipolar Bears released their first and only full length album in 2012, toured for a few years, and have since disappeared. Their last Facebook post was February of 2017, the last twitter post was November 6th of 2013, and saddest of all their website is 404ed. The Bipolar Bears have 42 monthly listeners at the time of this post making them a perfect candidate for our spotlight.
The disbanding of The Bipolar Bears is unfortunate because I really dig several songs this quartet from Austin, Texas put down on their self named album. In an interview with Austin After Dark writer Caleb Holland said, “most everything I write is conceptual… I try to write the songs as stand alone songs.” As a result each track each track in the album does offer some depth in the lyrics and I love being able to dig into a song. These guys also know how to rock. I love the guitar parts of Theme and the composition of Half Cigarette, but my favorite song on the whole album is Quality Time.
Quality Time is a narrative based song exposing the love lives of delicious royalty: Queen Frostine, King Kandy, Lord Licorice, & Princess Lolly. And no, I was not aware that these were characters from the board game Candy Land until I was writing this. The song combines snarky lyrics with a catchy tune and a fun spirit. Lyrics and a quick interpretation of the song are written below. I hope you enjoy.
LYRICS
OOooOO, Lord Licorice
Your castle don’t mean your rich
Cuz, OOooOO you’re out of touch
And those don’t raise your status much
You left footprint right up the door
Stiletto print molasses on your kitchen floor
You’ve got Princess Lolly’s love, but you throw it away
Cuz girls can only be your love by day
But we all know what you’re using them for.
OOooOO my queen Frostine
How could you be so mean
Your new umbrella dress
Has put your King in a bit of distress
You left footprints right up to his door
Peppermint and snowflakes on his new carpet floor
You’ve got King Kandy’s love, but you throw it away
Cuz men can only be your love by day,
But we all know what you’re using them for.
Trying to be as good as i can
I hope Lilly will understand
oooo, when the rocks have eyes
oooo, they’ll tell all your lies
oooo, when the rocks have eyes
oooo, they’ll tell all your lies
oooo, when the rocks have eyes
oooo, they’ll tell all your lies
oooo, when the rocks have eyes
oooo, they’ll tell all your lies
AN INTERPRETATION
As a I sit and ponder about the lyrics of this song there are questions that come to mind. Like Who is Lilly? What is it exactly that we all know they’re using them for? However, my favorite thing to think about is the prophecy they give regarding when all their secrets will be revealed – “when the rocks have eyes they’ll tell all your lies.” We know all their lies; we were told by the song. Therefore, Rock(n-roll), in the form of The Bipolar Bears, is making known to the world the scandalous nature of the Candy Land royalty, just as the songs said it would. I think that is just a neat thought.
A CONFESSION
I’m so glad you have made it this far down into the post. I have something on my chest that I need to bring into the light. You may already know this, but the lead singer of The Bipolar Bears doesn’t have a great voice. I know. I hear it. You’ll hear it too if you listen to the whole ablum. But I still like their music, I can’t help myself. To me they make it all work and I think you might can grow to love their music too if you gibe it a chance.
I hope you enjoyed this new discovery and if you do please purchase one of their songs wherever you get your music. I would love to hear from you. What do you think of this song? Is there an artist you would like people to discover? Let me know in the comments below.
SOURCES
https://www.austinchronicle.com/music/2012-04-20/the-bipolar-bears/
https://www.facebook.com/bipolarbearsband/
https://twitter.com/bipolarbearsatx?lang=en
https://youtu.be/XEh5zD9tk5M