Weezer's Tragic Girl

Note: This is a Weezer-centric post, consider yourself warned.

Weezer's Pinkerton was re-issued last month and I can heartily recommend it to anyone interested in finding out what 1990's rock music was all about. Pinkerton Deluxe serves as a testament to the world that the song writing of Rivers Cuomo of the 1990's was only surpassed (in my humble opinion) by that of the Beatles in the mid-60's. It's a crazy argument that will get it's own post someday.

Anyway, back to the task at hand. Last spring the online community learned that there would be a track on the Deluxe edition of Pinkerton that had been recorded but unbelievably forgotten about. This was a huge shock, as Rivers had meticulously documented just about every song he ever wrote onto a spreadsheet. Even song fragments and chord progressions got documented. Here was a song that seemed to come out of nowhere. An un-heard b-side of that era, Getting Up and Leaving was already legendary. This was a revelation.

Weezer in 1996 - Weezer's always had a thing for weird photo shoots but back then the douche factor much lower. 

The unearthed song was titled "Tragic Girl" and instantly there was suspicion that it was a new song or a fragment that was being re-recorded. Even the title was denounced as sounding "post-Pinkerton" (a common reference in the online Weezer community, usually inferring inferiority of anything after 1996).

After a few weeks we finally received confirmation from the band's sixth man, Karl Koch. He stated it was indeed a lost track that was recorded when he was out of town and just completely forgotten about. The song was touched up in 2010, but Karl hinted the changes were less than 5% of the total song. Most importantly he said the song was good (at one point claiming it was "god X 1000...you think I'm kidding").

What made this so tantalizing was that Cuomo during the Pinkerton-era was at his most ambitious, most confident and most free. It was a dream come true for a Weezer fan.

As the release day finally approached I kept trying to keep my expectations down, thinking it was more than likely about as good as a demo or b-side of the era (which, is actually, pretty amazing). I kept thinking that it can't be that good if it was forgotten about.

When I finally heard the song, it just about blew my expectations out of the water. It was everything a lost-Pinkerton track should sound like. On the first listen, I smiled as the drums kicked in (God, I've missed this type of sound on a Weezer record). The guitars are messy and the lyrics are (at times) amazing. The song structure is non-typical and the guitar solo and musical interludes are a breath of fresh air from the cookie-cutter song writing approach Weezer has typically produced lately (with a few notable exceptions on The Red Album).

(That was a lot of parentheses in one paragraph)

This isn't Weezer, I just found it Googling Weezer pictures. Just look at 'em - some random band.  I'm a pacifist and this photo elicits violence in me. I want to send them a comb for Christmas.

The song centers on a relationship that is ending. As with all of Pinkerton-era songs, the lyrics are brutally honest. However, in this case the narrator isn't as sympathetic in his presentation of himself as he is on the album. In Pinkerton, Rivers presents himself as at various times, creepy, horny, obsessive and weird but the main theme of the album is unrequited love. We feel bad for Rivers in most of the songs. Only on the album's closer, Butterfly does the narrator finally accept most of the blame for his relationship problems.

In Tragic Girl, Cuomo is up-front that this withering relationship that is mostly physical for him "Even as I anoint your door, I'm looking out for something more". In fact, he's "...crying too - because no one else touches me like you do". In classic Cuomo fashion, he feels bad about it all, but covers it up, "I'll try my darnest to be a bastard, I want you to think I don't care."

It's this duality of men that women will never understand. "Look, I'm using you, but I feel really bad about."

He goes on to say to the woman, "You're a tragic girl, you lead a tragic life, I'm just meant to be your latest tragedy". Rivers recognizes something inherently sad about her. Maybe he knows she's just had a dramatic, sad life. Maybe it's just this specific relationship that's tragic. The point is, he loves her physically but deep down, he knows that she's just not right for him.

The apex of the song has Cuomo lamenting, "This ain't no butterfly girl, this ain't' butterfly love, I'm gonna have to be your latest tragedy".

Here is where I am having trouble with the song - I associate butterflies with child-like innocence, beauty, and fragility. Wouldn't that be the epitome of a tragic girl? Is he saying, "Look, you might be fragile and tragic and all that, but this was never some sort of deep, meaningful relationship to me"? Maybe he believes she was never "innocent" to begin with...I'm unsure.

It's a beautiful song. It's sung with so much conviction that it sounds like it hurts. It's a mixed emotional bag of a self-loathing, living in denial of who-I-am, sex-obsessed, recluse/rock star life.

I recently read a review of Pinkerton Deluxe that claimed Rivers was a "creepy jerk" (or something like that). I suppose there are some creepy parts...but that's what I love about it. It was brave. He's honest about who he was and what he was experiencing. He did not give in to the temptation we have of just telling others about the good side of us. Rivers showed us who he was - warts and all.

In doing so, we related to who he was -- what guy hasn't ever been creepy at one time or a total jerk to a nice girl? What guy hasn't gotten a little obsessive about someone that rejected him? We all go through this. It's part of growing up.

Many in the Weezer community were reminded that this is probably the last we'll ever hear of the late-great band that was. I don't feel sad at all - I'm just thankful for a little more 90's Weezer than I ever expected to hear. I got over what I wanted Weezer to be a long time ago. Yeah, it's disappointing, but why focus on the negatives? Without "crappy" Weezer today, this would still be rotting on a forgotten tape somewhere.