Dare Tomorrow Comes Today The Valley Of The Pagans Ft Beck Gorillaz

Dare Album: Demon Days (2005)
Tomorrow Comes Today Album: Gorillaz (2000)
The Valley Of The Pagans Ft. Beck Album: Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez (2020)
by Gorillaz

Dare features the former Happy Mondays frontman Shaun Ryder. The main vocalist is Noodle (in reality the vocals are provided by backup singer Rosie Wilson).
The song was originally going to be called "It's There," but it was altered because Shaun Ryder's broad Mancunian accent made it sound like he was saying "It's Dare."

The video shows Noodle dancing and singing to her genetic creation - the giant disembodied head of Mr. Ryder kept alive by machinery in her closet.
This gave Gorillaz their first ever UK #1 hit.

Shaun Ryder told NME how the song's lyrics came about. "My version of events was that Damon (Albarn, Gorillaz frontman) put a track on, it had no lyrics, it didn't have anything. I had the cans on and he said, 'Go in the studio and try and do something'. Freestyle off the top of your head, make it up 'cos he wanted me to basically write a song or write something."

"So I put the headphones on and there was no track. I started saying to them to turn it up and the track was very slowly turning up so I started going 'it's coming up, it's coming up, it's coming up' and when it got as loud as I wanted it, I said 'it's dare.' As in like text speak language - 'I will c u der.' I then tried to freestyle something, a right load of gibberish bollocks it was, and it ended in, 'I never did no harm'. Then I took the cans off after about 10 minutes and Damon said, 'Do that ["coming up"] bit again but a bit faster.' So I did, and that was it."

Noodle is the star of the video, and she's not sorry: "The video is shot in my bedroom at Kong studios. As the tune starts, I flick a switch and all the tubes begin pumping various liquids into Shaun's head. The combination of liquid and the music is irresistible! And Shaun comes to life! The music's so good, I start busting some incredible moves, you know? And I do the Dare dance routine...

I'm not sure if the rest of the band mind that I'm the star of this video... but whatever! I mean, I saw way too much of Murdoc (Niccals, Gorillaz bass guitarist) showing off in the 'Feel Good Inc.' video. And I thought that the boys misbehaved badly in it. As I said, it's my song, you know? I wrote it! So, I can choose who's going in the video and how it's going to be made. In fact, when we started shooting the video, I didn't actually tell any of the band that we had begun. You can see 2D listening through the floorboards unaware of what is happening and Russel (Hobbs, Gorillaz drummer) is on the toilet with the newspaper also wondering what the noise is. They just don't know what's going on! Murdoc wasn't even there! He was asleep in his Winnebago and missed out on the whole shoot until right at the end when the camera's came into his bedroom. But it's his own fault. I think he should pay more attention."

Originally the title track of Gorillaz's debut EP, Tomorrow Comes Today was later released as the fourth and final single from their eponymous first album peaking at #33 on the UK singles chart.

Here's Murdoc Niccals (one of Damon Albarn's many alter-egos)'s attempt to try to explain Tomorrow Comes Today's meaning: "This song is sort of about the idea that… you think you'll ignore tomorrow and have your fun today. Take it all up front, y'know? Which sounds like a great idea until you realize that you're writing off today by taking tomorrow now. 'I'll pay with tomorrow….'? Yeah? It's kinda deep….Anyway."

Tomorrow Comes Today's music video features a piece of street art by renowned street artist Banksy. Said Murdoc: "We focused in on a little piece of graffiti by a then unknown artist called Banksy. It was a spray painted image we found daubed on a wall, a bit of graffiti of a monkey wearing the statement "Laugh Now But One Day We'll Be In Charge", as a kind of placard-cum-apron. I thought it was a good piece of imagery to stick in. Kind of summed up how I felt about our band."

"The Valley of the Pagans" is a song featuring Beck. The track was released on 5 November 2020 as the ninth and final single for Gorillaz' seventh studio album, Song Machine, Season One: Strange Timez, and the eighth episode of the Song Machine project, a web series which involves the ongoing release of various Gorillaz tracks featuring different guest musicians over the course of 2020.

The demo version of the song, titled "West Hollywood", was leaked on 2 August 2020. It was recorded at Damon Albarn's home studio in Devon, England in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The video, directed by Jamie Hewlett, Tim McCourt, and Max Taylor, opens up in the Kong Studios garage where Noodle is driving a similar car from the "Stylo" music video, but a portal opens up behind them and Noodle backs up into it. The portal transports the band into Grand Theft Auto V where Noodle speeds down various streets in the game. Beck appears in a smartphone seen on the bottom right of the screen and 2-D is shown talking to him in the back seat of the car. The video ends with the band driving through another portal that sends the car crashing into the ocean at Point Nemo, where Plastic Beach remains.

The music video on the band's YouTube page was taken down five days after it premiered. An alternative version of the video without the Grand Theft Auto V footage was uploaded in its place on 9 March 2021.