Numbers

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"Numbers"
Numbers cover
Album track by Weezer
Album OK Human
Released January 29, 2021
Recorded 2020
Length 3:21
Label Crush Music/Atlantic Records
Writer(s) Rivers Cuomo
Producer(s) Jake Sinclair
Status Released
Stream Play on spotify.png Spotify
OK Human track listing
"Grapes of Wrath"
(3)
"Numbers"
(4)
"Playing My Piano"
(5)

This song is part of the "Numbers" lineage of songs

"Numbers" is the fourth track from OK Human.

Appearances

Overview

The existence of the song "Numbers" was first confirmed by Rivers Cuomo on October 12, 2020. In explaining his Spotify playlist "Rivers Radio" in a Riverpedia entry[1], Cuomo said:

[...]it's important to me that this playlist represents my current interests with no consideration for anything or anyone else. Therefore, I'm resisting the urge to tailor the playlist to pique others' interest, to gain followers. (There's actually a song on OK Human about the negative effects of stats like followers. It's called "Numbers". )

The sequence of numbers spoken at 2 minutes and 32 seconds (0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13) is the beginning of the Fibonacci sequence, a sequence in mathematics in which each number is the sum of the two preceding ones, starting from 0 and 1. Brian Bell stated in an interview with Kyle Meredith of 91.9 WFPK that he came up with the idea of using the sequence.[2]

In an interview with Zane Lowe on Apple Music[3], Cuomo said of the song:

“That one was very personal. I think I was in a really good mood and I was feeling like "Wow, Weezer's pretty great. I'm pretty great." I think I must have looked at an email or like a Billboard chart somewhere and got some bad data. There was a number next to my name or Weezer's name that told me, "You know what? You kinda suck, man. You're really not that great." I don't know - we were falling down a chart or something. Immediately, my mood was crushed.

I was thinking, if you look, you're always going to find a number that makes you feel bad about yourself. So that's the opening line of the song. You know, obviously, for a musician like myself, that's true. But I think everyone has different scales they may look at to end up feeling bad about themselves. There's always data out there.

That song just fell out of me there in a really emotional moment. Ever since then, I've been much more careful about - you know? I'm not even going to look. I don't care where we are on the chart. If you start looking, you're going to just look until you find something bad. At least that's how I am. As soon as I start to look, I'm like "oh yeah, the song says 'forget about it.'"”

The song's bridge melody is re-appropriated from a demo recorded by Cuomo in January of 2012, titled "If You Want Me Tell Me So" and released in November of 2020 as part of the digital compilation Alone XI: The EWBAITE Years.

Audio

Lyrics

There's always a number that'll make you feel bad about yourself
You try to measure up, try to measure up to somebody else
Numbers are out to get you
Numbers are out to get you
Numbers, ooh ooh

They say that you're too short to join the team
And your I.Q.'s too low for poetry
Numbers are out to get you
Numbers are out to get you
Numbers, ooh ooh

I hear the sadness in your laughter
So call on me and tell me what you need
Just call on me and tell me what you need

Look at him, look at her
They got a million Likes
You better figure out how to multiply, divide
Numbers are out to get you
They'll kill you if they get through
Numbers, ooh ooh

I hear the sadness in your laughter
So call on me and tell me what you need
Just call on me and tell me what you need

I'm a one, I'm a zero
In the end, does it matter?
All that we even really know
Is that every nail needs a hammer
But the numbers won't compute when we love
And a two becomes one

(0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13)

I hear the sadness in your laughter
I hear the sadness in your laughter

See also

References

  1. "Rivers Radio." Riverpedia, riverscuomo.com, 12 October 2020, https://www.riverscuomo.com/wiki/Rivers%20Radio
  2. "Kyle Meredith with... Weezer." YouTube, uploaded by Kyle Meredith, 12 February 2021, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ-JfPVbxXk%7C
  3. Lowe, Zane "Weezer: The OK Human Interview." Apple Music, 27 January 2021 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/weezer-the-ok-human-interview/pl.2b67d12686224245ac1bbbbfa7fb4aa8