2005 single by Gorillaz featuring Shaun Ryder
"Dare" (stylised as "DARE" and "挑戦 (DARE)") is a song by English virtual band Gorillaz and is the second single from their second studio album, Demon Days (2005). The track features Happy Mondays and Black Grape frontman Shaun Ryder, and is sung by Rosie Wilson (also known as Roses Gabor) with backing vocals from Damon Albarn. It peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart in September 2005, becoming the band's only UK number one. "Dare" additionally reached the top 10 in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Iceland, Ireland, and New Zealand.
Background and release
The CD single of "Dare" was released in the United Kingdom on 29 August 2005.[6] It reached number one in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2005.[7] In the US, it peaked at number 87 on the Billboard Hot 100 on 14 January 2006[8] and at number eight on the Modern Rock Tracks chart on 4 March 2006.[9]
For this song, English vocalist Roses Gabor (birth name Rosemary "Rosie" Wilson) took over the role of Noodle from Miho Hatori, who had previously sung as the character on the first Gorillaz studio album.
Chris Evans stated at the 2006 Brit Awards that the song was originally to have been called "It's There", but was changed due to Shaun Ryder's strong Mancunian accent making it sound like he was saying "It's dare." In a 2017 interview with Chris Moyles on Radio X, Ryder confirmed his version of events that it was him requesting a change to his headphone level, "it's going up, it's going up, it's there!" and that originally there was no title to the track at all.[10][11] In August 2019, Ryder told NME that the claim about the title being changed because of his accent was "an urban myth".[12]
"Don't forget, I'm dyslexic and I've been writing in text since I was fuckin' four years old. R u ok? B4. It's der! Now we're all finally coming around to how I've been fuckin' writing all my life!" — lyrics from "Dare"
In 2016, vocals of the song were interpolated in Friction's song "Dare (Hold It Down)". In 2017, the song was featured in an episode of the British soap opera EastEnders. The song was also featured in the video game Just Dance (2009).
Music video
The music video for "Dare" included an appearance by Shaun Ryder (of Happy Mondays and Black Grape fame, at the request of Damon Albarn) as a giant disembodied head kept alive by machinery in Noodle's wardrobe. In a departure for the band, the song is mostly performed in the video by Noodle, with 2-D, Russel and Murdoc only appearing in short cameos in the video; 2-D is seen listening into Noodle's room by pressing his ear to the floor, Russel is shown seated on a toilet reading a newspaper directly below Noodle's room and Murdoc appears at the end of the video lying in bed with Shaun Ryder, who wakes up, apparently having dreamt up the entire sequence of the video. A voice beside him growls, "go back to sleep, honey," revealing the voice to belong to Murdoc, after which it is further revealed to be another nightmare. That time, it was actually dreamt by Murdoc, who also wakes up bolt upright in his own bed gasping and panting.
In the commentary, Noodle claims that Murdoc initially protested her doing the entire video by herself, but she countered that she wrote the song and she had seen him show off too much in the "Feel Good Inc." music video. Additionally, Noodle adds that Murdoc was asleep in his Winnebago for the entirety of the shoot up until the final scene.
The video was directed by Jamie Hewlett and Pete Candeland. The video was leaked a few days prior to its 17 July 2005 release on the official Gorillaz website. The video was later recalled from other websites and the final scene was tweaked slightly; Murdoc's Confederate Naval Jack flag was replaced with that of the Jolly Roger. (The version with the Naval Jack is played in some countries, including Canada.) The video had its first UK play on Channel 4 on 16 July 2005 at 11.45pm, just hours before its release online.
This video calls back to classic horror movies. In the very beginning of the video we see Gorillaz' 'reject false icons' statue, which one may recognize as Pazuzu, the figurine from The Exorcist (1973) and son of the devil. Crows are flying around the building, in a tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Shaun Ryder is depicted as a Frankenstein-like monster who is brought to life as the music begins. Amongst the contraptions that are part of the life-support system appear to be two Atari joysticks and a Speak & Spell from the early 1980s. Ryder's head being kept alive is a reference to the movie The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962). The tube attached to Ryder's cheek switches from side to side as a tribute to the goofs commonly made in early horror movies. When we see Russel sitting on the toilet, he is holding a newspaper with a headline that reads CANNIBAL MASSAKREN, the Danish title of Cannibal Holocaust (1980). The zoom on Noodle's eye at the end of the video is taken directly from Ringu (1998) and its American remake, The Ring (2002).
