i wrote "bear 141" about one of my favorite movies: werner herzog's 2005 documentary "grizzly man," which chronicles the life and death of grizzly bear enthusiast timothy treadwell. the lyrics are from the perspective of bear 141, the grizzly that killed timothy & his girlfriend amie huguenard in 2003, after he'd spent 13 summers living among the grizzlies of katmai national park in alaska. imagining bear 141 realizing after the attack that he'd killed the person who loved & wanted to protect his kind made me really sad, so i figured it'd make a fun song.
"timothy lies restless in his bed" = refers to treadwell struggling to fit into modern society, ultimately feeling compelled to live in nature with the bears
"cheers the day we lived in shallow skins / caused to choke the whale that swallowed him" = here i'm sorta sarcastically/bitterly pointing the finger at society as the real monster ("the whale") that initially tried to "digest" timothy; he was bullied as a kid & felt rejected - that shallowness & cruelty helped drive timothy out into the wilderness
jim's cover is simply incredible, i basically cried with happiness the first time i heard it. his use of dynamics is perfect & his full-band arrangement still manages to surprise me, even though i wrote the damn song! follow jim on instagram -
www.instagram.com/_jimi_thing/ - for the occasional face-melting guitar sesh & extoll him to release some of his most excellent secret songwriting, which i've been lucky enough to be privy to & is INCREDIBLE