After 21 northeastern winters in a row, I’ve grown pretty damn sick of the season. The cold always seems to pierce through my woolen layers and straight to the bone; the already sickly social scene at my college seems to fall headlong into a frost-bitten coma; and if there’s any magic to be found in snow anymore, it’s eluded me for at least a few years now. One of the few positives I still associate with winter is the brutal, unforgiving insecticide that comes with it.
Another would be Pinkerton. It’s an album that can be enjoyed in any season, but one that fits best in the kind of lonely, New England winter that birthed it. The music wields the same bitter sting as does a harsh wind chill, yet has a sort of kinetic warmth to it, vital and angry and hot-blooded. There’s enough friction between the guitars to start a fire, enough vitriol in the vocals to heat an empty apartment — lord knows I’ll be sweating by the time I’m done singing and thrashing along with it, no matter the temperature outside.
The same can be said for the album’s incredible clutch of b-sides, songs so good that they give their incredible parent album a run for its money. Taken as individual works separate from their overarching theme and cohesion, half the songs on Pinkerton proper would have a hard time matching the strength of a rock’n'roll behemoth like “Waiting On You.” Even acclaimed and often-hilarious music critic Mark Prindle — whose general hatred for Weezer is no secret — swoons for this one, noting in his review of the The Good Life EP:
I haven’t listened to the first couple Weezer albums in years, but if their guitar tones are anything like the one in “Waiting On You,” it’s no wonder I gave them such high grades! It’s basically just a ’50s love ballad, but the guitars are like BLACK SABBATH heavy! There’s also a nice Flaming Lipsy guitar line after the chorus…
That’s a pretty good summary of Cuomo’s musical influences of the time: classic pop songwriting, guitars weighted by a heavy dose of metallic angst, and a bit of contemporary indie rock flavor — during a 2008 radio interview, Cuomo admitted that the Lips’ sound was a big inspiration for that of Pinkerton.
There’s much more than that going on here, though. Musically speaking, there’s the fantastic falsetto melody Cuomo sings during the intro, one of the more obvious antecedents of his Puccini crush of the time, as well as the great vocal counterpoint Brian Bell provides on the chorus — and the reference to Harry Nilsson’s 1968 classic “One” in the line, “Mine is the loneliest of numbers.” It’s a song built on the traditions of ’50s and ’60s pop, ’70s and ’80s metal, ’90s rock, and early 20th century opera — all references that are executed with subtlety and panache, creating something that is bold and unique but manages not to insult your intelligence or palette by making it all too obvious.
And even after taking the brilliant songwriting into account, there’s yet more: this song reeks of unashamed, human emotion. In a melody gorgeous and harmless enough to be a lullaby, Cuomo drops his guard and asks why he hasn’t heard from a love interest in a while — “I need to know,” he pleads. “Now is the loneliest of times,” he despairs with Bell on the chorus, a bit out of sync and disoriented. It’s a song about being off, and knowing it — the girl’s call wouldn’t be “nineteen days late” (and counting) if Cuomo had it together, right? “Still, I sit and wait,” he admits. “Waiting and waiting on you.”
Of course there’s anger, too, in the acrid jealousy that starts to seep into the second verse: “Who have you been seeing, that made you forget me? / I bet you called him… / Where does he come from? I bet he lives close by / I bet he’s ‘just a friend!’” (Is it safe to add Biz Markie to the list of references in this song!?) And Cuomo’s tortured shouts before and between dancing around Bell’s vocal lines on the second chorus just drip passion, especially when the rising guitar line that enters at the 3-minute mark starts to push up against them. Cuomo’s operatic vocal re-enters, this time wedded to words — “I asked you if you had a good heart / You answered ‘Yes, I’ll never do you harm’” — a sad, fading mantra amidst a growing din of vocal interplay from Bell, tom rolls and cymbal rushes from Pat Wilson, Matt Sharp’s bass runs, and feedback swells spiraling out of Cobainesque anti-solos. The ending canon to “God Only Knows” is musical proof of how heavenly love can be: the ending cacophony of “Waiting On You” shows the lonely flipside, an ugly and maddening hell.
Some things never change: perhaps the biggest complaint about the Weezer of the 2000s is the consensus that they have never once sequenced an album to contain the best material of its respective era. The same could be said for the band’s two ’90s albums, to be honest, but the difference there is that while “Waiting On You” might make a song like “Why Bother?” sound like child’s play, it was wisely left off the album for considerations of sequencing, flow, and conceptual unity. The end result is a couple great albums with some surprisingly great leftovers; something like The Red Album, on the other hand, winds up being a frustratingly haphazard mess with frustratingly superior outtakes.
“Waiting On You” actually predates not only Pinkerton, but even the release of The Blue Album, written immediately after the latter’s classic b-side “Susanne.” Although it made neither of the embryonic tracklist proposals, it was written as a part of Cuomo’s aborted Songs From the Black Hole space-rock opera, although no alternate lyric sheets exist to my knowledge. A couple alternate versions do, though, including a hissy Ft. Apache demo that replaces Cuomo’s operatic vocal line with a synth organ, and in fact has no lead vocals at all but only a few scattered backing harmonies. The song also got a rare live performance in 2008 at Cuomo’s Fingerprints in-store “hootenanny” jam with die-hard fans, a shaky but admirable one-take featuring something that sounds like some kind of middle school woodwind — as documented on the Not Alone DVD. Both are worth a listen for Weezer specialists, but no else in his right mind would give a shit.
A damn fine song, regardless, and one more reason to get excited for the forthcoming Pinkerton Deluxe two-disc release. Might wanna release that one while winter lasts, fellas. ‘Tis the season…
49 Comments
Damn fine write up boy. Agreed this song is superior to Why Bother, but alas, this just don’t belong in the tracklisting, it wouldn’t flow right. Oh, yea, whats the Biz Markie reference you mention?
you’re writting gave me a dry orgasm
Great piece, certainly worth the wait.
I would never have picked up the Puccini influence so thanks for pointing that out.
For what its worth this would always start any Weezer mixtape I put together.
The intro has such an incredible blend of euphoria and pathos.
The Biz Markie reference would be the “but you say you’re just a friend” hit song from the early 90′s, although, I’d argue that the line could have just as easily had nothing to do with any nod to another tune.
Regardless, it’s a killer line, and as Soy pointed out, it’s a great example of subtle lyricism that Rivers has almost completely lost these days.
The song conveys such pain and anguish, but at the same time there’s a hopeful quality to it, albeit it tiny.
And who doesn’t love “Are we rolling?” and then just getting a FUCKING WALL of distortion slapping you across the face. This is back when Weezer still knew how to put BALLS in to their music to counterbalance Rivers lyrics of weakness.
The ending is one of Pat’s finest drumming moments. Period. The way the tom’s just slow you down over the squealing organ as if you’ve just given up on the girl, and then the cymbals just sizzle quietly in defeat as the organ takes you up a half step or so at the last second and cuts off quietly.
Waiting on You is unquestionably one of the best songs the band has ever recorded, and you did one hell of a job summarizing it , Soy. If this doesn’t make Pink DE or Odds & Ends, someone should be beaten with a crowbar.
Thrilla: Yorke’s right, a total classic. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6a-AHLRoAw
It was a huge hit circa 1990, I believe (give or take a year), and I’m sure you’ve heard it before. As Yorke points out, there’s no way for us to no for certain, but I personally like to imagine that’s what Cuomo had in mind as he was writing, whether it was an explicit ‘reference’ or not.
“Waiting On You” wouldn’t fit on Pinkerton because of how heavy and slow it is. You need stuff like “Why Bother?” and “Getchoo” (which I believe is a better song than WOY, by the by) to keep the momentum, otherwise it’d just be too much of a downer.
And yes Thom, thank you for summing up the brilliance of that fadeout resolve, which I regrettably glossed over in my writeup. The intro, as you put it, definitely has its charm too. I don’t think there’s any way this one will miss making P:DE, my only hope is that the release unearths more material of this quality that we have simply never heard.
Waiting on You might possibly be my favorite Weezer song right now. I love that melody SO MUCH.
Also, I do believe the organ you cited in the Fort Apache demo is still on the album version, just not as pronounced due to the addition of Cuomo’s vocals.
No problem, Soy, I was surprised to see you didn’t mention the fadeout in your initial write-up.
Each time you listen to that ending, you just feel exhausted afterward. It’s THAT well written and executed.
I’m a Blue-first guy, so my opinion might be colored by that, but I’ve always thought that putting “Waiting on You” (maybe my favorite Pink-era song) in place of “No Other One” (maybe my least favorite) doesn’t do much to detract from the flow of the album. But I guess that’s what CD burners are for. (While we’re at CD-R customization, I have this song set on iTunes to start 4.7 seconds in, so that that beautiful guitar tone kicks in immediately.)
The falsetto melody of the song is so infectious, and I love how it is rebirthed at the end of the song. Rivers’ emotion in this song is stellar.
This is probably my 3rd favorite song from the Pinkerton era, but you are spot-on when claiming it has no room on the album. I don’t think I could add or subtract anything from Pinkerton.
Great post, Soy!
Also, I can’t give Brian Bell’s back-up vocals enough credit. Rivers is a huge part of why I love Weezer, but I really wouldn’t appreciate the band nearly as much without Brian’s musicianship and taste.
I really hope with the release of Pinkerton Deluxe, they decide to perform this song (or another pink b-side) live. I just hope that if they do, it is performed sincerely without Rivers jumping around on that damned trampoline.
God, I love Weezer.
I agree with Clore, why this isnt played live is beyond me. This, Devotion, and YGYLTMS really should be played at some point. Lots of energy. They would be fantastic live.
I just wanted to add, Soy, that this isn’t SFTBH. It was demoed around that time, as was Why Bother?, but it was never going to be included on the album proper. Why it wasnt is beyond me, it would have been perfect after Devotion, showing how Jonas was still waiting for the Lauren, and it would’ve been a great penultimate set up for the balladry of Longtime Sunshine.
as far as i know ft. apache demo is not a demo just an early instrumental version that after few tweaks got released. i may be wrong as i’m not a huge fan of ear-piercing tape-hiss and haven’t listened to ft. apache version in years.
Great post, Soy! You’re dead on about the whole seasonal relation to these Pinkerton-era recordings. I still get chills at the sheer soulfulness in Cuomo’s vocals before he gets into the lyrics proper of each chorus.
Great post, i agree about the “I asked you if you had a good heart / You answered ‘Yes, I’ll never do you harm’” line, i absolutely love that lyric, it’s so heartfelt and saddening and it coveys a pet sounds vibe to me.
Definitely one of the best Weezer songs. It’s lyrically effective, nice emotive vocal, two great melodies. There’s great work by Matt, Brian, and Pat as well. This is the band at its peak; I don’t think they ever sounded this good as a unit after the Pinkerton sessions.
Great call, waitingandwaiting. That moment, melody, and lyric is definitely very Pet Sounds.
I think the “19 days late” line has a lot to do with SFBTH. It’s known that there was a pregnancy in the story, so what could possibly be 19 days late? That’s how I always took the line to mean, anyway.
While I always considered YGYLTMS and IJTOTLOMD to be two of the best songs in existence, for a long time I didn’t give either “Waiting On You” or “Dev0tion” the respect they obviously deserve. Compared to the faster pacing and more immediate accessibility of their preceding b-sides, these two just seemed too slow and drone-y to me, so they – along with “Butterfly” – were unfortunate victims of my musical tunnel-vision of the Pinkerton era. I guess that’s what happens when you’re so spoiled for choice.
I do still prefer YGYLTMS and IJTOTLOMD (they are each a hard act to follow), however thankfully the fog surrounding their “track 3” brothers has risen in subsequent years.
I saw Weezer perform the one time they ever came to Australia – over 13 years ago – and it pains me that I have almost no recollection of the show, or of what songs they played. Obviously being late-1996 I can make some fairly accurate guesses (and I do remember that they didn’t play either “Butterfly” or OID), but it bothers me quite a bit that they could easily have played any of these 4 songs or “Susanne” and I can’t even remember it…
I’m so glad that I’m not the only one that thought “19 days late” was referring to a pregnancy. Oh man.
I just can’t see them playing this one live, unless they decide to do Pinkerton shows to promote the deluxe edition-they seem to stick to songs that they think the crowd will know (which seems to exclude most of their new album!) The fact that Pinkerton Deluxe is coming out is enough for me, though. It’s so weird how much cool stuff we’ve gotten or are getting lately, two Alones, odds and ends, actual bonus tracks..much better than the Maladroit era, that’s for sure.
Hey, just a heads-up to anyone who is interested, there is an auction of the 2 Pinkerton singles on eBay Australia at the moment (with postage only within Australia though, apparently):
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170431722951
Obviously all the songs on both CDs are likely to be on Pinkerton Deluxe, but I thought I would just point them out anyway in case anyone wants the actual singles. I know if I didn’t already have them I would be all over it, because I am a fool for that type of thing. (Important note: this auction is not by me or anyone I know. I guarantee if I knew this person I would be harassing them to correct their mistitling of IJTOTLOMD!
)
“19 days late” is definitely a phrase that evokes pregnancy in and of itself, but I don’t see that making any sense in the context of the song as it stands. Needless to say, Cuomo wouldn’t be berating his 9+ months pregnant wife about who she’s “been seeing” lately. Perhaps it’s a hold-over lyric from an earlier draft of the song that might have had more to do with waiting on a child’s birth, but I think it’s more likely that Cuomo wanted a line that could rhyme with “wait” and chose the line in spite of its ambiguity.
I think there’s zero chance “19 days late” has anything to do with pregnancy. The other 99% of the lyrics make it abundantly clear that he uses such a specific length of time to paint a clear picture to the listener that he’s THAT bent out of shape about her not calling back.
He’s so bummed about it, that he’s actually keeping track of the number of days it’s been all the way to 19. It’s just meant to evoke that feeling of crazy desperation.
I don’t think it refers to pregnancy, but it is plausible, especially if we were to fit it into SFTBH. 19 days late would mean her period is 19 days late, not the baby. Like in the Third Eye Blind song “10 Days Late.” It’s a pretty common term for pregnancy, so I doubt Cuomo would use it without knowing what it suggests. In SFTBH, this could fit after Laurel gets pregnant but before Getchoo and IJTOTLOMD. Jonas knows Laurel might be pregnant, but is bummed that she doesn’t want him anymore. I’m not sure that this is likely, but I think the chance is greater than zero.
Thom has the right idea here.
I agree with Brownerton. Although I would say that the general “waiting for you to call me for 19 days” interpretation is almost certainly the intended one as the Pinkerton b-side, I could easily see “I know your period is late, please just let me know if you are pregnant” being the original SFTBH meaning.
The second verse about seeing another guy does appear to point more towards the general “you haven’t called me” theme rather than the “are you pregnant” one, but given that we know Rivers doesn’t shy away from setting himself up as the asshole, I don’t think it’s out of the question that he would pull the jealous “if you’re not talking to me, you must be talking to some other guy” bullshit even in that touchy (and inappropriate) situation.
I really don’t think there is anything lyrically specific enough to definitively say “no” to either interpretation.
There’s significantly more evidence suggesting that it’s simply supposed to be a clever way saying he’s pathetically waiting for her to call and starring at the phone for 19 days.
There are zero references to him worrying about raising a child in this. Zero. He goes on and on about being lonely. The entire second verse is about him suspecting her seeing another guy.
I’m sorry, fellas. A+ for creative thought, but it just doesn’t add up. Granted, your always welcome to apply your own meaning to a tune, but there’s no way this was intended to be a pregnancy scare song.
The “Waiting on You” that we’re discussing here is definitely not a pregnacy-related song, although I think the SFTBH version would have been, especially considering the whole “She’s Had a Girl”-ending, with Jonas being the father. Rivers most likely knew the line would work in both contexts and used it here. (Just like in I’m Your Daddy!)
I love how the song starts off being somewhat sad and quickly turns into pure anger by the second verse-Rivers vocals are great here, especially on the “I bet you called him” section-just the right amount of sarcasm.
But, uh, who says there even WAS a SFTBH version of this? Rivers recorded a version of the song around the time he was doing SFTBH demos, but seeing as it’s not on either track list, that doesn’t mean he had any intention of including it on the album.
Has there ever been official word on that? I tagged this one as being a part of the Songs From the Black Hole arc because I’ve always heard it discussed in that context, and Weezerpedia lists it as one a few “SFTBH songs” that simply weren’t included on either early tracklist.
Remember that in both instances, SFTBH was far from any notion of completion — it wasn’t even out of the writing stage — so it’s hard to know exactly what Rivers Cuomo had in mind then. He might have wrote “Waiting On You” (perhaps with different, earlier lyrics) with the intention of it being a part of SFTBH at some point or another, but hadn’t yet figured out a place for it — and who knows what the final tracklist might have been if Cuomo had ever finished writing the thing and actually saw it through.
In short, there’s no way to be sure of anything here. Except the fact that Thom Yorke is right on the money about one thing: as it was released in 1996, “Waiting On You” is a song about romantic jealousy. Pregnancy ain’t in it.
Super great post for one of the best Weezer songs. This band had GOLDEN moments, that’s for sure. As for the 19 days line, I always thought it was about pregnacy as well.
awesome post. actually made me dig this song a little more, as i seem to’ve always liked it a lot less than most people. i never really saw what was so cool about it. but, yes, those harmonies are great. and i never knew what rivers was saying there at the end. nice little line there.
oh, and speaking of it being added to Pinkerton and working well, this is a tracklist that sergeantscruffy posted in a thread on atw. i think it works really well, especially as an LP.
1. Tired Of Sex
2. Getchoo
3. No Other One
4. Why Bother?
5. Across The Sea
6. Waiting On You
7. You Gave Your Love To Me Softly
8. The Good Life
9. El Scorcho
10. Devotion
11. Pink Triangle
12. Falling For You
13. Butterfly
That IS a nice track list!
I kind of thought the ending lines were “I asked you if you’d ever do me harm/ You answered, “Yes, I’ll never do you harm.” In my mind, thats a pretty clever lyric. It makes the waiting seem even more… potentially harmful? Having a non-following answer like that really drives home the idea that all the suffering he is going through is in his head. Of course, I like the line the way everyone else hears it too.
Pattycakes — to me, it sounds like the lines the first time are “I asked you if you had a good heart”, whereas the second time, it sounds like “I asked you if you’d ever do me harm.” It’s hard to tell though sometimes. I could be wrong…I’d have to give it another listen.
Yeah Running Monk, if one were set on expanding the Pinkerton tracklist, that’d be the way to do it. Glad it exists as it does, but that wouldn’t be too bad at all…
Personally, I would have Devotion after No Other One. It would flow fantastically together. And then have Waiting as the penultimate track, I think that it would be a great climactic piece.
Someone on ATW pointed out that this song lyrically references KISS, as well:
“You’re starin’ at the band, you want to land / A six foot, hot look, all american man, yeah”
from “All American Man,” from the Alive II album!
Um, that’s Devotion, this post is Waiting on You. SILLY GOOSE.
Haha, fuck.
I was surprised that you brought up the connection between the Flaming Lips and Pinkerton without mentioning that perennial Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann was an engineer on Pinkerton.
Well, it was actually Prindle who brought up the Lips, not me — although yes, I forgot that part of the album’s story. Fridmann had some very cool words to say about the recording of “Butterfly.”
where did you hear about that? i would love to know more about the recoding of that great song
It was in an interview that surfaced a few months back. Sorry, I don’t have a link – anybody else?
someone should post that link….
I’ve been reading for months, but this is my first time posting…great site Soy!
Anyway, I got curious about that interview and figured I’d look for it. Here is the link…he talks about the Pinkerton sessions starting about 8 minutes in:
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/music_specials/producer_series_09/
First of all, I have to say I’m greatly enjoying this blog and the song-related discussion. Great work!
Regarding the comment above:
“Has there ever been official word on that? I tagged this one as being a part of the Songs From the Black Hole arc because I’ve always heard it discussed in that context, and Weezerpedia lists it as one a few “SFTBH songs” that simply weren’t included on either early tracklist.”
I believe that the fact that both Why Bother and Waiting On You appear alongside Blast Off! (the ‘official’ SFTBH song) in the Longtime Sunshine Coda Mix puts Waiting On You in with the SFTBH songs.
Weezer Recording History Page 8:
Longtime sunshine: Special ‘coda’ version experiment
This started as Longtime Sunshine, but after the first verse, lyrics from the above 3 songs, plus others incl. “Why Bother” were recorded on top of it to create a cool overlapping medley, with the different songs vocal parts meshing together. It was then mixed as a fade-out. I think Rivers was trying to emulate a technique used in classical music, where all the major elements of a musical piece are briefly recalled at the end.
Makes sense. I always wondered why neither this or Why Bother weren’t in any SFTB tracklists. They fit perfectly in with the themes, and fit easily into the storyline.
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