Rivers Cuomo was inspired to write the song after his friends made fun of his Asian girlfriend, which explains the lines "your tongue is twisted/your eyes are slit." MTV put the video into heavy rotation and middle schoolers from Orlando to Seattle began buying The Blue Album in droves. Regardless of how much Weezer has accomplished over the past two decades, when many people think of them the first image that comes to mind is Fonzie dancing around Arnold's to "Buddy Holly." That's because Spike Jonze made a brilliant video for the 1994 track that made it seem like the band was part of an actual Happy Days episode. It touched him deeply and he wrote the Pinkerton track "Across the Sea" about the experience, though some of the lines come off as a little creepy these days, especially "I wonder how you touch yourself and curse myself for being across the sea." Cuomo never contacted the fan and it's unclear if she even knows what she inspired. "I was driving around in a van or tour bus and playing the same 10 songs every night." He became very isolated and lonely at school and one day he got a letter from a young female fan in Japan. "I was craving mental stimulation for about a year and a half leading up to that point, being on the road," he told Rolling Stone. Just one year after Weezer exploded with The Blue Album, Rivers Cuomo became disenchanted with fame and enrolled Harvard, moving into a dormitory and retreating from the spotlight. To this day, it remains a highlight of their live show. The group even reunited with "Buddy Holly" director Spike Jonze for the video. He helped them craft a group of sunny songs that touched a nerve with old school Weezer fans and a younger generation just learning about the group. The album's second single, "Island in the Sun," became a huge radio and MTV hit. But Rivers Cuomo still had a lot of songs in him, and the group wisely teamed up with The Blue Album producer Ric Ocasek for their third album. The group had been completely off the grid since they essentially disbanded after the commercial failure of Pinkerton in 1996. It's a goofy tune supposedly inspired by Lois Lowry's novel The Giver, which features a character named Jonas, who declares at one point "my name is Jonas." The song has opened up many a Weezer show and the fans scream along to every word, even though few people have any idea what they mean.Īt the turn of the millennium, not many people were predicting a Weezer comeback. His most enduring legacy is the acoustic guitar intro to "My Name Is Jonas," which is the first thing you hear on the first Weezer record. According to multiple reports, he's legally forbidden from talking about the details of his departure, though their relationship couldn't be that strained judging by the fact he attended Rivers Cuomo's wedding in 2006. He was their original guitarist and he spent a year in the band before he left right before the recording of The Blue Album. Only the most devoted Weezer fans know the name Jason Cropper. It never failed to make nostalgic 1990s kids squeal with delight. "'The World Has Turned and Left Me Here' is the same asshole wondering why she's gone." It's impossible to guess just how many teenagers in the 1990s blasted this song after a tough day and thought "this sums up my life perfectly," but it's probably in the millions. The song sat dormant for years and years until the group finally resurrected it on the Memories tour where they played their first two albums in sequence. "'No One Else' is about the jealous obsessive asshole in me freaking out on my girlfriend," he said. It follows "No One Else" on The Blue Album and Cuomo says that is no coincidence. The title pretty much sums up the theme of the song: It's about a super depressed guy struggling with the aftermath of a breakup. Rivers Cuomo and Weezer drummer Pat Wilson wrote "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" about a year before they even started the band.
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