Weezer’s 1996 Pinkerton is my favorite album for many reasons:
1: Nostalgia. One of my longest friendships I have is with my friend Lauren who I have known since I was 10. When we were 12 she introduced me to Weezer and it felt like it was all we listened to that summer.
2: I don’t really listen to full albums. I mostly listen to songs and move on but Pinkerton had so many great songs I had to listen to the whole album.
3: It’s just a great album full of raw insecurity and love.
My freshman year I had to take English 101 and for our final we had to write an album review.. I chose Pinkerton (shocker).
After rereading my three year old paper here are a few fun facts about the album:
- Giacomo Puccini’s 1904 opera Madame Butterfly features the character B.F. Pinkerton who is an American naval officer that marries a 15 year old Japanese girl. He then sails to America to marry again leaving his first wife behind pregnant and depressed. The lead singer of Weezer, Rivers Cuomo described B.F. Pinkerton as an “asshole American sailor similar to a touring rock star” who became the inspiration for the album title.
- One of my favorite songs from the album “The Good Life” was written about Cuomo’s desire to go back to his old life before he had his leg surgery. Rivers Cuomo was born with one leg shorter than the other. In 1995, once Cuomo had the money to fix his leg, the doctors broke his leg to fix its length. Cuomo had to have a wire brace on the outside of his leg to make sure his bone grew correctly to the proper length. Because of the surgery, Cuomo had to walk around campus with a cane and take medicine for the pain. Therefore in a way he had become like an old man wishing to be young again
- Pink Triangle is a song about falling in love with a woman who is a lesbian… the song was written about a woman who was actually not gay.