Grizelda

Album: Odd Blood (2010)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song was inspired by the Miami-based drug Queen Griselda Blanco. Bassist Ira Wolf Tuton initially penned the song and he told MTV News: "I kind of think of 'Grizelda' in the same way that I really like 'Children' being the first track. I thought of it for a long time as being a real nice benediction for the whole album. It just seemed a nice way to close an album. It lulls you into sitting back in your chair, puts you in a trance a bit, although the subject matter might be a bit dark."
  • Guitarist Anand Wilder told Drowned In Sound about his contribution to this song: "'Grizelda' was another track Ira had written on harmonium and then he sent it to me and I wrote all the lyrics. The subject of that song is Grizelda Blanco, one of the biggest... not a serial killer, but she was responsible for more murders in Miami's history than anybody else. We were watching this video called Cocaine Cowboys and we thought it would be interesting to write this song from the perspective of one of her hitmen, kind of writing her a love letter. She was this really crazy woman who ordered all these people to be killed, kind of to the detriment of her own industry, because it drew all this law enforcement to Miami, which was otherwise a very peaceful centre of the cocaine trade."

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