Sleeping Ute

Album: Shields (2012)
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Songfacts®:

  • The title of the lead single from Shields, the fourth studio album by Brooklyn-based indie rock band Grizzly Bear, refers to a mountain in Utah. The tune was posted on the band's website on June 5, 2012.
  • Co-vocalist and guitarist Daniel Rossen wrote the song. He has never visited Sleeping Ute but he told Q magazine, it's along the road from a load of monuments in New Mexico that he has been to. Rossen explained: "I was reading about the area and the native culture there, the lost civilizations in that part of the country, and it has a really interesting creation myth. The mountain looks like a sleeping warrior and with each season his coat changes - it's a very peaceful story. That part of the country really interests me."

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