As we await the outcome of our search for the Best Americana Song Of All Time, Dean Nardi kicks off the return of our popular Essentials series with a light-hearted look at the songs that pepper Season 3 of The Bear, following his earlier choices from Seasons 1 & 2.
If you ever had to sum up The Bear in one word, you really couldn’t go wrong with pressure. When we last left the Hulu TV series, the restaurant had just opened its doors to family and friends, and while the food and the experience seemed great, life behind the swinging kitchen door was anything but. The staff got in the weeds. Carmy got stuck in the freezer, accidentally broke up with Claire, and then got into a screaming match with Richie. He apologised to Richie in a phone call but hasn’t tried to work anything out with Claire, even if he should have been Say Anything-ing it at her window the second he got out of the fridge. He’s very determined to get the restaurant a Michelin star right out of the gates by decreeing the menu will change every night faster than you could say “fire agnolotti“. Maybe great restaurants do this, but they are run by teams of people who aren’t leveraged to the hilt to Uncle Jimmy or who desperately need therapy of literally any kind to deal with years of emotional trauma. Still, he could very well be the world’s new Gordon Ramsay (17 Michelin stars) or René Redzepi if only given the chance. Maybe it’s about learning to let go, to let it rip, if you will, as his brother Mikey, who committed suicide, told him. Take us there, Bear, to season 3.
Should anyone want to catch up on the songs and goings-on from the first two seasons – season 1, season 2.
Trent Reznor’s score for S3 was very Nine Inch Nails-ish, basically one long drone over the entire first episode (and parts of the other nine). It is a real snooze-fest, so we will be substituting freely with our Essentials picks.
10: Beau Jennings and R.R. Williams I Believe It’s Killing Me (Internet single release, 2025)
Oklahoman Beau Jennings joined R.R. Williams to put the rock in americana on this killer single. Williams wrote the song, which finds its narrator in a spin cycle of if it’s not one thing, it’s another. “Yeah, I believe it’s killing me / See the downside of everything”. The lyrics really sell the own-worst-enemy aspect of this guy’s existence, which we all can relate to, often with some people we probably wish we didn’t know. Loud, rocking guitars are always preferable to Reznor’s lame electronics.
While locked in the freezer, Carmy’s culinary life is flashbacked through the first episode. He works alongside Luca in Copenhagen, under the watchful eye of Olivia Coleman’s Chef Terry, and crumbles under the exacting pressure of his brutal NYC boss. After Carmy adds two sauces to a pretty austere dish, this chef rips into him, saying it’s trash and quipping, “You basically made nachos.” He can’t control his feelings around Claire and thinks she makes him unfocused, which won’t get him where he thinks he needs to go. The Bear is barely open, and already he’s looking ahead to the next step. He wants to exert control over everything in the kitchen and white-knuckle his way to success. One episode in and I was already screaming, “Chill out, dude!” Carmy’s make-up call to Richie was very nice. I’m sorry Marcus’s mom died. Claire’s shot-giving technique in the ER is unparalleled.
9: June Carter Cash Gatsby’s Restaurant (Appalachian Pride, Risk Records 1975)
Known mostly for singing duets with her more famous husband – Do I really have to say who that is? – she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2025. Presenter Vince Gill recalled Johnny Cash saying, “overshadowing her was his only regret about marrying June“. Appalachian Pride was her first solo album, and it contained some fine songs like The Shadow of a Lady and our selection, Gatsby’s Restaurant. “Now, down at Gatsby’s Restaurant, there’s a picture hanging there / Of a petrified Italian with escargot in his hair / Twenty big Italians had me bent down on my knees / And I cried, oh, ouch, help Lord, and Mama mia, please”.
Episode 2 is all about Carmy’s list of “non-negotiables” and the crescendos of cussing between him and Richie over said list. It’s not a bad list of goals to line the path toward the restaurant’s success, but changing the menu daily is a lot to take in at once. Everyone on the staff seems afraid of something. Marcus just lost his mom, and he’s scared of what his new world could be. Carmy’s scared of failing at the one thing he’s good at. Natalie/Sugar’s scared of becoming a mom in just two months. Sydney’s scared that they can’t sustain what they’ve started. Richie’s afraid of becoming a better person because of his mom’s “behavioural dysregulation“. The locals are scared that they’ll never get that Italian Beef window back because “some fancy fuck runs the place“.
8: Eddie Vedder Save It for Later (12″ single release, Republic Records 2025)
Here is one song that is actually in the soundtrack, a cover, by the way, of a tune by the English Beat. Songwriter Dave Wakeling explained it is about transitioning into your 20s and realising life isn’t as simple as promised, often rejecting the unwanted advice of others. There is an intense dedication to working in high-pressure jobs one is passionate about, e.g. chef de cuisine. Being a journalist on deadline is no day at the beach either, but I digress. While the original song has roots in a “dirty schoolboy joke” as a double entendre for “save it, fallator,” Vedder’s interpretation is perhaps a more sincere, emotional and contemplative take. In the show, it plays over a montage of the city of Chicago waking up to a new day and people preparing to go to work.
Each season has one episode that sits at a roiling boil the whole time, making your heart race and your anxiety pop, and leaves you feeling utterly exhausted. The restaurant is packed on opening night. Everything seems to be going smoothly until Sweeps breaks off a cork on a bottle of wine, and that’s when it becomes a cavalcade of kitchen chaos, broken plates, spilled saucepans, and confusing menu changes. Despite being packed every night, they are losing money, not that Carmy seems to care; he’s too busy spending $11,268 on “Orwellian” butter. Might want to raise the prices. Uncle Jimmy, who has fronted 300 large, naturally, is pissed. Carmy and Richie are constantly at each other’s throats – perfection vs joy. Watching Carmy hulk out, shaking and rumbling like a volcano about to explode, it becomes evident that something will have to give soon. I do love the way Tina asks Carmy, kind of mom-level, “Every day, Jeffrey Ballet?”
7: John Prine Far from Me (John Prine, Atlantic Records 1971)
This is essentially a breakup song. As the story goes, this song is drawn from a childhood experience in the Chicago suburbs. There is a recording of Prine talking about it, saying, “She gave me my ring back and told me she thought maybe it needed to have some work done on it. And I believed her.” Anyway, it highlights the gap between hope and reality, symbolised by the iconic lyric about a broken bottle looking like a diamond ring. The girl who had Prine’s heart was a waitress. “As the cafe was closing / On a warm summer night / And Cathy was cleaning the spoons / The radio played the hit parade / And I hummed along with the tune / She asked me to change the station / Said the song just drove her insane / But it weren’t just the music playing / It was me that she was trying to blame”.
Syd is stuck in neutral and can’t even open the partnership DocuSign. She runs into a restaurant critic and is horrified to find out he’s already been to the restaurant and they didn’t know it. They also learn some Chicago Tribune critics have snuck in. The Fak brothers (count ’em, nine) have put up pictures of critics on a wall, too late, however. The guy who is marrying Richie’s ex wants him at the wedding, but that seems a total gut punch. Carmy and Syd are bickering like an old married couple over changes he continually makes. Back in the office, Nat is researching Michelin stars, which Richie says he couldn’t give “a flying fuck into a rolling doughnut” about. Nothing good is coming out of that kitchen except the food.
6: My God, The Heat The Continuing Decline of Customer Service in the Food and Beverage Industry (Beautiful Men in an Ugly Town, CD Baby 2013)
The band comes/came from Rockford, Illinois, around 90 minutes West of Chicago. I think we can safely assume past tense in terms of ‘still a band’. I do have a corner booth at The Bear reserved for punchy, fuzzy rockabilly. The twang and tongue-in-cheek lyrics are delicious, and Pancake Johnson’s free-associative vocals have weight: “Man that waiter / he knows a lot about music / Man that waiter / he knows a lot about everything but pouring coffee / Someone grab that waiter / and have him bring us some napkins when he gets a chance”.
The Bear always makes a splash by drawing A-list Hollywood actors in supporting roles. Jon Bernthal as Mikey. Solid. Bob Odenkirk as the cranky uncle. Sign me up. Jamie Lee Curtis as a drunk, unhinged mom. Disturbing. But casting John Cena – and I liked Peacemaker – as one of the Fak brothers? I’m cool with the other crazy siblings because they all approximately look alike, but this huge, muscular guy (Cena) is a bridge too far. The Faks become more of a main ingredient than a seasoning in episode 5. Their banter is fun in a Marx Brothers way, even if I can’t understand half of it. Elsewhere, Marcus sold his mom’s house and is dealing with the finality, while Sydney wants to but, like doesn’t want to talk about an awkward moment they had. Thanks to Natalie, I learned what lightning crotch is. But the big story is the impending closure of Chef Terry’s restaurant (Ever IRL and still very much open).
5: The Hold Steady Lord I’m Discouraged (Stay Positive, Vagrant Records 2018)
One more song from the actual soundtrack. There is an old blues song by Charlie Patton with the same title. In an interview, Hold Steady frontman Craig Finn said that he saw the Charlie Patton boxed set while listening to other records at his lawyer’s house. He thought the title sounded great, and it reminded him of a saying his mom always used when she was disappointed. “Lord, I’m discouraged / The circles have sucked in her eyes“. I must mention that Tad Kubler has a blazing guitar solo on this track.
As a character, Tina has never really gotten enough shine. “Napkins” opens the door wide into Tina’s life, apartment, marriage, and past, giving us a glimpse at how she landed at the Bear. We see her as a mom, a wife to David (played by Liza Colón-Zayas’ husband, Dexter’s David Zayas). She gets laid off from her job as an office worker and goes through a dehumanising and depressing job hunt. It’s a sobering message about how employers shy away from middle-aged applicants when younger people are vying for the same job. They don’t have families at home to care for and decades more to offer the company. It’s bullshit, but it’s real. She stumbles into the Original Beef for a cup of coffee, then bursts into tears when Richie comps the coffee and offers her a prepaid sandwich that wasn’t picked up. Mikey commiserates with her and ends up offering her a job as a line cook.
4: Jeff Beck Constipated Duck (Blow by Blow, Epic Records 1973)
Yeah, I hear y’all. Not exactly americana from J-Beck, but we needed a duck reference. Besides, Beck plays guitar like a brilliant chef de cuisine, dipping his ladle into big pots of epic shredding and just splashing the results all across the sonic spectrum. The tune may seem random or haphazard, and it’s definitely overwhelming to listen to at first, but eventually, a pattern emerges, one that clearly communicates the guitarist’s ideas and emotions. Even if it is difficult to make them out sometimes, hey, that sure is a lot of bright-colored paint he flung at the wall, isn’t it?
Things haven’t fallen apart yet at the restaurant, but they’re teetering ever closer. Richie seems down in the dumps, listless and unsure of himself, while he and Carmy are tossing around the hard-Fs like sprinkling garnish on a gourmet plate. Syd’s been handed an offer from Ever with partner status, benefits, bonuses, the whole enchilada. She may have that already at the Bear, but still hasn’t opened the partner DocuSign. She’s sure things will fail, and frankly, Carmy’s not helping. He’s an open book to Marcus, but he shuts down her menu ideas without even saying, “Sorry, nice try“. Carmy is determined to run the whole show, and the guy is going full unhinged. Whenever he can’t figure out that duck dish he’s making, he just tosses the whole thing in the trash. Let me be the first to say I would eat that duck out of the trash, as long as it was on top. Period. It looks incredible.
3: 10,000 Maniacs Eat for Two (Blind Man’s Zoo, Elektra 1989)
Not a joke about overeating, this one takes up babies making babies. Natalie Merchant’s (as opposed to Natalie on The Bear) lyrics of a struggling teen, “but she couldn’t stand for the way he begged and gave in”, imply a girl coming to grips with the anxiety about starting to show a baby bump, and how in the world she is going to take care of the wee child. This isn’t how she imagined it would be, pregnant and presumably alone with “a nightmare born in a borrowed bed”. The video for the song is disturbingly stark as creepy dolls get more screen time than adorable babies.
Natalie’s baby is finally here. Her mom regales the hospital staff with how she wanted to have a baby so bad to show those smug mothers blocking department store aisles with their strollers. Donna Berzatto is a handful. What a fun mother/daughter moment for them! Just kidding: not the bonding moment Nat hoped for, maybe. The OBGYN comes in and tries to assure Natalie things are progressing normally, but a patient down the hall starts screaming, and she hears a call for the crash cart. Panic! She wants the Pitocin; she wants the epidural, and she wants that baby out STAT.
2: Barenaked Ladies Stomach vs Heart (Born on a Pirate Ship, Reprise Records 1996)
This is about the age-old question: to go with the gut or the heart in matters of love, or frankly, with just about any decision you will make. It can also be about eating too much – big eyes, small stomach – or perhaps food as a metaphor for sex: “In through my veins, without brains / I involuntarily take what I need / then I bleed / And it comes right back to me / But guts only eat / And sometimes they repeat on you / Keeping you on your toes or crouched above the loo / That’s what you get when you confuse your stomach with your heart”. Warning: I think it’s nearly impossible to play this song more than once without getting indigestion.
The penultimate episode. It’s not as if I’m totally ‘shipping Carmy and Claire, v.2, but he really needs to apologise to her. He’s back in the group finally, and the leader is talking about how the longer you wait to apologise, the deeper the apology buries itself into your throat, guts, brain. That apology, the leader says, gets “stuck in your ribs and heart and lungs, and every mistake you ever made, everything you’ve ever done wrong grabs onto them and holds onto those words so tight, they ain’t never letting go“. The Fak brothers infiltrate the hospital to tell Claire that they don’t think Carmy knows how to apologise. That he’s stuck; that he loves her, and that he’s all in. Their best line: “He likes you more than he likes himself“, which is both a compliment and a neg because he doesn’t seem to like himself very much at all. On another couple’s note, I like what I see between Richie and Sarah Ramos’s Jess, who I think would be the perfect plus-one for Tiffany (Richie’s ex) and Frank’s wedding.
1: Jennifer Castle Blowing Kisses (Camelot, Paradise of Bachelors 2024)
The serendipitous story of how Castle’s music came to be used on The Bear begins with a longtime friendship with Matty Matheson, a chef and restaurateur who portrays the handyman Neil Fak on the show. He and Castle once worked together in a Toronto restaurant. The lyrics suggest that words are often inadequate when simply sending affection will suffice. It is also a reflection on mortality and legacy (hello, Carmy): “And don’t get it twisted / my heart’s still in it / my dedication’s a star and it shines on our differences / and there’s love in the meantime / I’m so proud of this moment in the stimulation here with you”.
The title of the season finale is “Closure,” don’t worry, not The Bear despite a couple of ambiguous reviews. The show packed its call sheet with culinary stars, all supposed to have worked at or touched Chef Andrea Terry’s Ever at some point in its decades-long run. Joel McHale, Carmy’s nightmare boss in NYC, is in the house, and a final reckoning (in Carmy’s mind) should take place. When one of the chefs at the dinner party notes, anecdotally, that “the greatest mistake is working for a bad boss“, especially because he adds that just being around that person unlocks the notion that it’s okay to create the same chaotic, dysfunctional culture. You know that shoots right through Carmy. The wonderful Olivia Coleman’s Chef Terry gives him a pep talk: “Don’t do what I did.” She spent her whole life pursuing something you can’t catch, and now she wants to “travel, go to parties, and take nights off“. That’s clearly what Carmy should do. We’ll see. What if Carmy’s legacy isn’t The Bear but rather how he “nurtures people’s goals and dreams no matter how batshit crazy they sound“. Assuming, that is, that he doesn’t chew out his assistants every single time they overcook some Wagyu.
