Great Lost Weezer Songs: 2009 Edition Part 3
Another Sunday, another batch of “lost” Weezer songs. So lost in fact that I’m posting them up here. On a personal level, this set is about my favourite. While it contains a few weak links, the triple-P header of Preacher’s Son, Private Message and Prodigy Lover more than make up for them. Enjoy!
The least interesting of the songs here, Mr. Taxman was a song that appeared on the Weezer site once back in the album five demo era and then never again. I assume it was abandoned at an early stage. Probably for the best as it’s just a little too silly compared to some of the others.
This has to be one of the shortest Weezer songs ever. That isn’t really fair to it though as it was never intended to be a full song. It’s another one of the fabled Songs From The Black Hole that would have been an interlude that slotted in just before Tired of Sex. I’d love to be able to hear the entire SFTBH, but it seems odd songs and fragments is all we’ll ever get to hear.
I think this one dates back to somewhere around 2000 as a demo for The Green Album, but it never progressed further than this version. It’s on the same kind of level as Green when it comes to lyrical quality (”Go out to the movies / Tell my girl she’s groovy”). The only real appeal from this song comes the fun timeshifting and harmonising that’s thrown into it.
I’ve never been able to quite work out the meaning behind this one. Some seem to think Rivers is singing about himself as the “bitter man” in the third person, but I’m not entirely convinced. I mostly just like it for it’s sound. Certainly one of the most mellow songs Weezer has ever recorded. It’s also nice to see Rivers employ something of a storyline into the song, even if I don’t have a clue what it’s supposed to all mean.
Preacher’s Son is one of the songs that was recorded back in the summer of 2000 as a demo for The Green Album. This was the first period of the band recording together in a few years, and they sound pretty good. The song is solid enough, yet was dumped so classic songs like Crab could make it onto the album. What a good decision that was.
This was one of the album five demos, and one of the best of them. Essentially the story of an internet relationship forming (”When you are reading the words I write / You think that I’m just some dumb horny guy”), and how quickly they discover it just doesn’t work. There are several versions of this song floating around it, including the acoustic version that’s entirely different in it’s sound. The electric one actually has the classic kind of Weezer sound to it.
This song comes from the same set as Private Message did, and it’s interesting mostly because of the subject matter. I have no idea how accurate this theory is, but I think this was Rivers’ response to Matt Sharp quitting the band. It has the feeling of something changing in the band (”Something is different / Something has changed / You write me your letters / They’re not the same”) and then seems to take on a slightly more bitter stance (”Uncomprehending / I’m stupified / I wrote the rule book / You can’t abide”). Now I may be reading far more into all this than is actually there, but that’s what I’ve always assumed it was about as it seems to fit so well. It’s also another chance to hear piano on a Weezer song, which is always good.
Not a great song, but an interesting one for being one of the few songs where computer trickery is employed on Rivers’ voice, giving it a slightly more robotic sound. There isn’t a great deal to the song itself beyond “be with me because I don’t want to be alone”, but it’s always fun to hear Weezer experimenting with entirely different sounds. It’s just a shame that they never try and do this on their actual albums.
Another song sung in the third person, this time all about a perfectionist who tries to control every little aspect of his life. Obviously, this isn’t really an achievable thing to do. Anyone want to start taking bets on whether or not Rivers is actually singing about himself despite the repeated “he’s not me” line?
Join us again next Sunday for the final collection of songs. You could join us any other day too. We post great music all week you know!
Thanks a lot for sharing!
I’ve followed this site for eons and never posted, but thanks for these Weezer tracks (and thanks for Laura Sings Liver too!)
Thanks for this. Do you happen to have the old, live version of “Prettiest Girl in the Whole Wide World”? I like it better than the version on Cuomo’s released demos, and haven’t had an mp3 of it in 5-10 years.
I’m afraid that I don’t. I’m sure that I did at one point, but I don’t appear to anymore unfortunately.