Leading up to the beginning of Weezer's Spring Tour, I'm going to feature PINKERTON era songs, including all 10 songs off the record, culminating on April 1st. We have tickets to go see the Myrtle Beach House of Blues show!
5 Days 'til Weezer!
For the sixteenth Weezer Song of the Day, Pinkerton continues with track #8 Pink Triangle. Another song that was written at Harvard and specifically meant for Pinkerton. Did you know that the subject of the song was not a lesbian at all? Rivers said so in his Fresh Air with Terry Gross interview from 2009. They talk about the song beginning about 20 minutes into the interview.It was floated to radio stations as the next single from Pinkerton, but it wasn't received well and Geffen decided not to make a video or release a commercial single. More than likely, the word lesbian kept it off of commercial radio in 1997.
Pink Triangle never got a real music video, but here is an excerpt from Video Capture Device:
And a cool version from Shorecrest High in 1996:
I've seen Pink Triangle performed live 4 times. According to Setlist.fm it has been played live 175 times since 1996. Weezer did not play it live between September 1997 and September 2008, except for 8 times in summer 2002. Why did this song fall off of the setlists for 5 years and then 6 years?
It's a sing-a-long at shows. It was especially great at the Orlando Memories show. This is almost my exact viewpoint, as I was in front of the camera, but to the left just a bit:
Pink Triangle was written while Rivers was at Harvard and it was an actual experience. He saw a girl he found attractive, but one day she had a pink triangle button on her backpack. He took this to mean that she was a lesbian and wrote this song. I'm glad we got this song out of the experience, even though his assumption about her was wrong.
The song rocks in the Pinkerton way, but the lyrics are interesting here. In the lyric:
"If everyone's a little queer; Can't she be a little straight?"
Is he referencing the Nirvana's All Apologies lyric, "Everyone was gay"? Rivers is a professed huge Nirvana fan. It's almost like he is doing a proof, using Nirvana's lyric as a given.
What do you guys think?
Weezerpedia Entry for Pink Triangle.
Is Nirvana coming through in Pink Triangle?
Project Info:
So why did I create this blog? To document my Weezer Song Project. Over the next year, I am going to attempt to listen to every...EVERY Weezer song recorded. All the album tracks and b-sides will be easy, but there are some unreleased songs that may or not be accessible. Hopefully, the search (and destroy) will be fun to follow. At the moment, the list has 213 songs! My list includes You Gave Your Love to me Softly, Longtime Sunshine, Turn Me Round, Waiting on You, and Back to the Shack. We learned early this year that a new Weezer record is on the way and we got to hear Back to the Shack twice on the Weezer Cruise II.
So here is the master list from Karl et al. on Weezerpedia!
I will soon publish my Google Doc Spreadsheet, which will document my progress.
Here is my Spotify playlist.
Paul Loves Weezer YOUTUBE Playlist
PLW Rater! It's not quite Leonard Maltin, but it will work.
1 - Go get a beer...It's still a Weezer song, but it's a good time to rent a beer
2 - Head Bobber...The song causes at least moderate movement
3 - Rock it out...Banging of the head and the arm is in the air \m/
4 - Undone...No choice but to jump around
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