Much like Hamlet is a young man’s play, I feel that Pinkerton is something of a young man’s album. Surely, like the only Shakespeare that ever really resonated with me, members of both sexes can appreciate the album (and at any age), but there’s a very hormonal, teenage, testosterone-driven facet to it (at its very core, even), that just can’t help but sound best when you’ve got a Y-chromosome and are between the ages of 17 and 24.
Why is that? Well, aside from the obvious ability to relate between those ages, I think Pinkerton also serves as an inspiration. Musically speaking, it is by far Rivers Cuomo’s greatest work, and the sheer genius behind the arrangements of songs like “Across the Sea” and “Falling For You” represent some of the very best songwriting and musical composition since the 1960s. When you’re a young man, your body’s not the only thing in its prime — so are your hopes, your dreams, your ambitions. And whether you’re a musician or not, Pinkerton can serve as a model for the kind of greatness one can aspire to. Cuomo had spent the tail end of his early 20s writing these songs, and exited them just as it was being released — which is, all things considered, a mind-numbing achievement. If I am doing anything as well as Cuomo did rock’n'roll on this album by age 25, I will feel very, very fulfilled.
On that note, “Why Bother?” is probably the album’s worst case for musical achievement. It’s over quickly, a fast blast of 120-second rock, during which time there’s a bitchin’ solo, and some very cool vocal counterpoint at the end, but it’s a pretty standard power-pop power-chord arrangement that offers little in the way of the musically remarkable. On the other hand, it’s probably the best example of why Pinkerton is a young man’s play — that other hand being its literature, the lyrics. To wit:
I know I should get next to you
You got a look that made me think you’re cool
But it’s just sexual attraction
Not somethin’ real, so I’d rather keep whackin’!
In the span of that first verse alone, we get not only a reference to masturbation (phrased in terms that not even the more sexually compelled of the fairer can relate to), but also some schoolyard language that provides an obvious setting (“get next to you,” evoking the seating in a classroom; “made me think you’re cool,” self-explanatory), and, on a deeper level, the act of rejecting a love interest before yourself being rejected (and in this case, pathetically before even saying a word to her).
In some ways though, this is the young love anti-anthem for all. “This happened to me twice before” suggests a young inexperience, and the reference to getting one’s heart broken “next summer” evokes the uniquely high school/college oasis of a summer break — the time when hearts break and relationships fail more than any other. So if a female listener can get past the traces of paranoid misogyny, then the song can become her own, too.
Aside from the Pinkerton version, this song was officially released in a live format on 2003′s To Benefit Petra Haden split 7-inch (with AM Radio, Phantom Planet and Ben Kweller). Not sure where/when the performance is from, but it’s a solid version that brims with enthusiasm (Cuomo shouting “give it to ‘em!” during the solo). Why they decided to put a live “Why Bother?” out in 2003 is beyond me…Perhaps its Haden’s favorite Weezer song? (What, “Space Rock” didn’t do it for her?)
There’s also some acoustic versions from the FM radio sessions that Weezer did in support of Pinkerton. The one they did for 107.7 The End is pretty serviceable; I’m surprised it translates well to the acoustic, but I suppose if you’re playing with feeling, it always works (especially when Pinkerton is your source material).
The band surprisingly pulled out another acoustic version of “Why Bother?” for their 2008 AOL Sessions, albeit with guitarist Brian Bell on lead vocals, drummer Pat Wilson on guitar, bassist Scott Shriner on bass, and Cuomo on drums — a lineup that contains exactly zero constants from the way the band recorded it in 1996. While this isn’t anything new — Weezer has been switching places and fucking around with old Cuomo-written, Cuomo-sung songs since the Make Believe tours of 2005 — it’s a little bit insulting to be given a crowd pleaser (like a Pinkerton track) in a fucked-with format. Bell didn’t write “Why Bother?,” and never sung on it beyond his backing vocals on the end — so why is he singing lead now? It was unacceptable when Shriner, of all people, sang “In The Garage,” but this is hardly any better. Cuomo might be tired of being obliged to sing a few Blue and Pinkerton classics after all these years, but that doesn’t change the fact that *he* is *obliged* to (and yes, he can play nothing but Maladroit outtakes and The Red Album all night if he wants to, but then there’s no guarantee he won’t get his ass savagely beaten on the way to the tour bus). If people spend $50 to $150 to come see you play certain (reasonably expected) songs, you fucking play them, and you fucking play them the best way possible. Maladroit failed because it was masturbatory and fun to play, but boring as hell to listen to — this vocal-swap, “hootenanny” approach to the Weezer classics is just as self-indulgent and boring, but even more offensive. You can have all the fun you want at a free show, but if you’re getting tens of thousands of dollars to play a concert, please: do it right.
I like Bell, and his version of “Why Bother?” isn’t bad, but it still feels like a cover band. I don’t mind having this version as an AOL Session, but it’ll be very disheartening to hear it live. Especially when Bell changes the key “I’d rather keep whackin’!” line to “you’d better start packing.” Bell claims he did that to better relate to the song, as he would rather tell the girl to leave and find a new one than just masturbate (cool, Brian), but it’s a complete misread of the song, and I’m shocked that Cuomo is apathetic enough to let it happen. It’s about “trying to get next to a girl” and then deciding better of it, for fear of getting hurt — not being in a relationship with a bitch that needs to “get packing.” It doesn’t fit in with the theme of the song at all, and makes its lyrical message entirely incoherent and self-contradictory.
39 Comments
A great song…but my least favorite off Pinkerton, for sure.
Also, I will TRY to refrain from my “don’t fuck with the classics!” spiel in the future, but it’s hard not to get revved up about that.
“That’s all it is, so I’d rather keep whackin’”
Isn’t it
“Not something real so I’d rather keep wackin’”
I love it, its angst filled, fast and a great rocking pop song. I think the lyric change is okay because now that their in their 30s/40s I don’t think ‘whackin’ is appropriate.
Bert: Right you are! I first heard it as “that’s all it is,” and never really heard it differently. Interesting…though in my defense, this is one of Rivers’ most muddled vocal performances ever. The “crack it open, let me outta here” line sounds like it’s being sung in a different language.
John: There are a lot of problems with that reasoning. Off the top of my head:
1. The majority of the people in the audience will not be in their 30s/40s.
2. It’s not like Weezer’s a ridiculously mature band now. Did you see the t-shirt Brian wore at the KROQ Breakfast? It’s a nun “whackin’,” for chrissakes!
3. It’s not what’s on the record/people will be trying to sing along with. It’s simply not the definitive.
4. If you MUST change it, can’t you at least change it to something that doesn’t completely obliterate the message of the song?
Etc, etc.
you went on a pretty hefty rant there, but I agreed with most of it.
Why Bother is just one of those songs Rivers should be singing.
And everytime I get “get packin’” I go a punch a member of my family in the face.
Why Bother is great because of it’s woe-is-me attitude. Everyone fears and receives rejection, and Rivers has nearly perfectly summed up those feelings and fears. Great post, btw, as always.
Best post yet.
In terms of the classics being messed with, I went to see them for the first time in 2002 and I couldn’t wait to hear the one defining song for me – Buddy Holly (obvious I know, but hey….).
Of course they played it right at the end, only to kill the moment with a different drumbeat and guitars, to my ears, in a different key. The vocals were also half-hearted, but you know that already.
I guess they dont play that song as per the record at all these days, but I wasnt to know that at the time.
Trust a weezer fan to search out the 1 negative from his first show and dwell on it all the way home…
Funny line about Space Rock by the way.
I love this song, and I’ve always found it pretty easy to relate to, and for a long time it was my favorite Pinkerton track. You could just pop this song on at any given moment and enjoy the hell out of it. Recently though, FFY has become not only my favorite Pinkerton track, but also my favorite song of all time.
Normally your little rants about song swapping bother me, cause I love the other band members getting to sing, it’s nice to hear other takes on these songs. But this time you were kinda right on. I loved Brian’s rendition, but right away I noticed that he had changed what is easily my favorite lyric to something ridiculous. I was pretty offended throughout the rest of that recording, and it’s made it hard to listen to for me. Now I don’t see other people singing a Riv song to be “ruining” it. But if you change a lyric that amazing, you’ve succesfully ruined the song.
He redeemed himself in his rendition of Susanne, imho. That was beautiful.
Maybe if this was my 4th time seeing Weezer live, I wouldn’t care so much, maybe even welcome the change…But it’s not. This is my first time, and I’m paying $90 to make it happen (not to mention about $30 in train fare and a significant amount of my time in the middle of a schoolweek). I want to hear these songs well, dammit.
Although, to echo others, if it’s Brian singing “Susanne” or Cuomo singing “Heart Songs” or “Keep Fishin’” or something, the choice is pretty obvious.
i love this song, but i hate how closely i relate to it. every time i listento it i think of the two times ive been screwed over by girls, and gets me thinking,”why bother” anymore.
sigh. depressing. :/
more solo talk.
less rant (reprise) talk.
i like this song. simple? yes. to the point? yes. well executed? you better believe it. least favorite from Pinkerton? now that’s a hard question.
I love this song.
The sound and feel of the tune in general makes me think of Greenish, peppy pop music and – being a fan of the Green album – I have no qualms with singing along to a fun chorus.
“Why Bother” has all the power chords and repeated choruses of a generic pop song, but its lyrics lift it above the level of songs like, say, “Crab.” Following the theme of loneliness which permeates Pinkerton, “Why Bother” speaks to self-acknowledged hopelessness, and does so with perfect emotive detail.
I personally love Rivers’ scream at the end of the guitar solo, introduced fittingly by a short, frenzied snare roll. The solo section itself takes the jovial feel of the song’s first half and transforms it into a more distinct sense of despair and anger evidenced in the song’s third and final verse. In the beginning of the solo, the guitar skips its way around, presumably as the speaker’s thoughts stay simple. ~Why bother with this relationship?~ He kids with himself, perpetuating the playful tone evidenced in the first verse. In the fifth measure, however, the guitar’s rising pitch parallels the speaker’s thoughts as he comes to realize the depth of his own loneliness. He continues to play with that idea for a few more notes; a steady bass and cymbal beat mirror the thinker’s growing anger, which is finally fully realized with the solo’s terminal scream. In the ensuing verse the speaker explains, frankly, the misery of his loneliness. He laments the thoughts which now torment his mind. He wants out.
As the chorus hits for a third time, its reiteration almost mocks the simple (ignorant?) thoughts displayed in the first half of the song. The following vocal counterpoint not only juxtaposes the two moods in the song (first half vs. second), but displays the madness to which the speaker has been reduced. Guitar feedback trailing off at the end leaves us with an appropriate sense of dissonance.
Maybe I’ve over-analyzed the song, but I absolutely love “Why Bother,” for more reasons than one.
Monk: I rant and talk as I please! Go listen to “Mr. Taxman” and suck a lemon, son.
H: You just got the fuck down. Love your insights, keep ‘em coming!
Great song. Brings Pinkerton back to life after the slow dreariness of No Other One.
I don’t mind it now and then when others sing Rivers’ songs, but I hate hate hate when they change the lyrics. And I think this is the only song (other than Scott’s botched PS from KROQ) where a lyric is changed. Glad I’m not the only one who feels that way.
The topic has been pretty well covered already… but I’ll throw my 2 cents in and reiterate the absurdity of Brian’s lyric change. The words to this tune are EXTREMELY direct; the meaning is not up for personal interpretation. This is an issue that demonstrates how out-to-lunch the band STILL is, despite some improvements in song quality this time around.
I actually have a theory that Brian KNOWS it doesn’t make sense, and the change had more to do with him being on the artsy pretentious sides, and thus not wanting to sing a line about himself beating off.
Lame, lame, lame.
On the positive side, I DO love what 1996 Brian came up with for the guitar solo. Brief but exhilarating. The whole song has a fire and intensity the band would do well to try to recapture at some point… nothing on TRA comes close.
I just wanted to throw in some female perspective on this song since there seems to be some discussion of gender.
First off, this was the very first song I found I could personally relate to on Pinkerton. I was around 15/16 years old when I discovered it, also around the time I was discovering relationships and all that fun stuff. After my first boyfriend and I broke up, I had that feeling of hopelessness, feeling like it wasn’t worth the effort to try to impress the next boy I had feelings for. I wanted to give up rather than get rejected again.
So as you can see, I could totally relate to the message of “Why Bother?”, even if I wasn’t relating to the exact lyrics of the song. Of course, over the next couple of years I was able to relate to every other song on Pinkerton. It’s such a coming of age album (for both sexes!).
Don’t get me wrong — it’s my girlfriend’s favorite album, too. I did try to convey that with the Hamlet comparison (a “young man’s play,” but still can be/is appreciated just as much by the female population)…my apologies if I failed to get my point across fully.
Should. Have. Been. The. First. Single.
Why wasn’t this the first single? From a commercial standpoint, it makes no sense. It would have been a nice gap from the fun, poppy side of Blue to the dark, despairing side of Pinkerton. It has both at the same time! “El Scorcho” was just a quirky, awkward song that was dropped onto an unexpecting audience. The record was just thrown out there, warts and all, instead of being eased onto the public. No wonder it was a flop!
As for the song itself, this is one of the best things about Pinkerton: Who hasn’t felt this way? This naked honesty and complete I’m-so-sad catharsis is exactly what makes everyone who really lets this record sink in fall in love with it: We can relate!
And by the way, being a theatre major, I love the Hamlet comparison. I think it’s right on the money. I’d love to try and work this song into some kind of analysis of the play somewhere down the line. (For the record, Hamlet is the only Shakespeare that’s ever resonated with me, too.)
If I heard anything resembling single material from the Pinkerton sessions, it would have to be YGYLTMS. True, it does not fit on the record thematically (I mean, maybe it could, somewhere, but I think its conceptual and musical flow would be ruined), but if they had issued it as a stand-alone single in support of an upcoming album, a la the ’60s, that would’ve been dope.
Oh, yeah. That’s the other part of my argument. It basically goes, “YGYLTMS” should’ve been released as a single from Angus, but if not, they should have at least released “Why Bother?”.
‘I personally love Rivers’ scream at the end of the guitar solo, introduced fittingly by a short, frenzied snare roll.’
Hell yes. That build-up, that great drum fill, and that great scream are one of my favorite parts of Pinkerton.
‘This is one of Rivers’ most muddled vocal performances ever. The “crack it open, let me outta here” line sounds like it’s being sung in a different language.’
Yes, I can’t understand a single line of the whole verse after the solo. Kinda like that line in ‘El Scorcho’, something about a table?
“I personally love Rivers’ scream at the end of the guitar solo, introduced fittingly by a short, frenzied snare roll.”
“Hell yes. That build-up, that great drum fill, and that great scream are one of my favorite parts of Pinkerton.”
QF-motherfuckin’-T.
I strongly feel that this should be a Very Best selection.
I second the motion!
Closely considering it…I will say I spent a fair amount of time deliberating about it when this was posted. Someone convince me!
Well, I would consider anything on Pinkerton(and the Blue album) to be the very best. But that would be too much. If it’s not the Very Best, it certainly could be called Almost the Very Best. Yeah! Almost!
I also think everything on Blue and Pink should be The Very Best. Sweeney is The Very Best, and deservedly so, but I would still say each and every Blue/Pink album track is superior.
The hell with it, you guys are right. A quick relisten only sealed the deal.
An official “The Very Best” selection, it is!
*will sleep well tonight*
Alright, a Very Best upgrade!! I really love this song, for some reason, out of the entire 1st listen of Pinkerton, this one instantly connected with me. I think it’s the KDDO of Pinkerton (aka quick, catchy, imo underrated on the album itself). And I mean no slight to Why Bother? when I make that comparison.
The bass on this song is ridiculous. This song is so underrated.
Interesting note that I didn’t see in your write-up: The Ft. Apache demo of Why Bother? opens with the line, “I know I should be touching you,” rather than what you deemed the schoolyard lyric of “get next to you.” Perhaps Cuomo felt he had to make it less overtly sexual and “get next to you” holds a more sexual meaning than simply schoolroom seating? Just interesting to note.
I didn’t even remember there’s a Ft. Apache demo of this song. Gotta step my game up.
Damn straight.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFFe7uvo4EI&feature=PlayList&p=392B46590A6425DE&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=19
Great live version. The emotion that Rivers puts into “Won’t you knock me on my head/crack it open let me out of here” is amazing.
That was incredible! Great drumming from Pat, Mikey pogoing all over the place (I miss him), Rivers in top form, and best of all I think, Brian really killed it here. I’ve never heard that solo sound better, and that last “why bother!” from him is money. Great, great performance. I know they’re not all in their late 20s anymore, but it’d be cool to see them throw down like this again sometime.
Anyone have a video of Rivers singing it (for the first time in YEARS) from last night?
Hey Soy, you always wonder why I’m so high on the SS2k material – well, here you go. These are the kinds of shows I was hearing about and witnessing in 2000-2001. When you hear something like Preacher’s Son or Superstar in this kind of context, it really heightened the experience.
I’m not arguing that all the SS2k material is as good as this video of Why Bother (which was AWESOME by the way), I’m just pointing out that after a performances like that one, tunes like SuperStar that followed in the set list seemed to fit a lot better and make a lot of sense in their cannon. It seemed appropriate for a direction towards a third album.
I’m also curious how it was sung last night after being out of their set list for so long.
“I’ll fuck with them sometimes. I’ll start to play one of those Pinkerton songs and they start to cheer and then I’ll bust into one of my gay pop songs.” – Rivers Cuomo
Just imagine if he was still in this lunatic Maladroit-era phase, and he started off by hooking the crowd with the intro to this song or “Falling for You,” only to be replaced seconds later by “Girl Got Hot” or “I’m Your Daddy.”
I think I would cry and leave.
What a melody! Goddamn. And then straight into that solo mindbending solo…(anyone know if that’s Brian playing it on the album, too?) build build build YEAHHHH!!
And you gotta love how the little vocal interplay at the end sounds like Cuomo’s making it up on the spot.
Post a Comment