Crazy One

"Crazy One"
"Crazy One"
Demo by Rivers Cuomo
from the album Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo
Released	December 18, 2007
Recorded	December 1998
Length	3:14
Label	Geffen
Songwriter(s)	Rivers Cuomo
RC#	303
COR#	N/A
Producer(s)	Rivers Cuomo
Status	Released
Rivers Cuomo song chronology
Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo track listing
	18 tracks "Ooh"; "The World We Love So Much"; "Lemonade"; "The Bomb"; "Buddy Holly"; "Chess"; "Longtime Sunshine"; "Blast Off!"; "Who You Callin' Bitch?"; "Wanda (You're My Only Love)"; "Dude, We're Finally Landing"; "Superfriend"; "Lover in the Snow"; "Crazy One"; "This Is the Way"; "Little Diane"; "I Wish You Had an Axe Guitar"; "I Was Made for You";

"Crazy One" is the fourteenth track from Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.

Appearances

Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo (2007)
Alone VI: The Black Room (2020)

Overview

After trying Romantic-Minimalism in 1997, I turned to more traditional pop song forms, like verse-verse-bridge (with no chorus), the form used by most pop songwriters, like The Beatles, up until the 1970's. One such song I wrote with this form was "Crazy One"

The story of this song started a few years earlier, a time when people still wrote snail-mail fan-mail. Reading through one of my letters, I noticed that one of them was addressed from a woman who lived in an apartment I used to live in when I first moved to L.A. I couldn't believe it. I wrote the woman back all excited. It was a cool coincidence. But I thought that was the end of the story.

Then, in 1998, a woman approached me in a 7-11 into which I had gone after soccer practice. She introduced herself as the woman who had written me the fan letter from the apartment I used to live in. She was cool and chill and cute so I was instantly hooked on her.

I started seeing her very regularly, going into her apartment (my old apartment). Before long, I discovered some extraordinarily unsavory things about her lifestyle and her livelihood. Still, I wanted to spend all my time over there. I was in a particular needy space at the time and I needed a break from the long, frustrating hours in my writing studio. Eventually, her roommate got sick of me and toled her to tell me to stop coming over every night. I tried to pull a power move and told the woman that if she ever tried to restrict my coming over I would never talk to her again. A few nights later, she brought it up again, "you can't come over here every night." I got up and walked out and indeed, I never saw her or talked to her again. My power move had backfired. I thought that after a few days she was going to call me and say "I'm so sorry. I'll never try to restrict your seeing me again. Please come back." But she never did.

A few days after I walked out, I wrote "Crazy One." You can actually hear me whimpering a bit at the top of this track. I really missed her.

- Rivers Cuomo, Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo liner notes

"Crazy One" was previously unheard before the Alone's release, and it was one of the first tracks from 1998 to be heard by fans. The song was also released as part of the digital compilation Alone VI: The Black Room in November 2020.

Personnel

Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals, percussion, rhythm guitar, bass guitar

Audio

Lyrics

Crazy one
I think I'm coming undone
I think I lost and you won
I wanna see you again

Baby doll
I still am afraid of it all
I'm hoping that you would call
I wanna see you again

A friend to tender friend
A heart to tender heart
A love that never ends
A love that never starts

Crazy one
I think I'm coming undone
I think I lost and you won
I wanna see you again

A friend to tender friend
A heart to tender heart
A love that never ends
A love that never starts

Crazy one
I think I'm coming undone
I think I lost and you won
I wanna see you again

Baby doll
I still am afraid of it all
I'm hoping that you would call
I wanna see you again

Known recordings

*about this table*
Performer(s)	Title	Filename	Date of recording	Recording location	Length	Appeared on	Notes
Rivers Cuomo	Crazy One	`Crazy One.mp3`	1998	TK Productions & Rehearsal Studios, Los Angeles, CA	3:14	Alone: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo Alone VI: The Black Room