Difference between revisions of "El Scorcho"

Revision as of 18:52, 21 January 2009

"El Scorcho" is the first single and seventh track from Pinkerton. The song was not a successful single; several radio stations refused to play the song, and the video stiffed on MTV. This is considered to be one of the causes for the initial commercial failure of the album. On WeezerJonas, the official online street team for Weezer, "El Scorcho" was ranked the 3rd best song on Pinkerton, losing to "The Good Life" and "Tired of Sex." Although "El Scorcho" had little success as a single, the song itself has become somewhat of a cult classic. It is only now that it is seeing large strides in mainstream popularity (in large part from being on the video game Rock Band).

Appearances

• Pinkerton
• The Lion and the Witch
• El Scorcho (Radio Only Promo CD)
• El Scorcho (UK Retail 7"/UK Retail CD #1)
• El Scorcho (UK Retail CD #2)

Overview

The premise of "El Scorcho" is the struggle between confessing your feelings, waiting for the girl to, or simply doing nothing about it. The opening lines explain the frustration of finding out if someone likes you, and finding out everything you can about the person through their friends ("The redhead said you shred the cello"). The girl in "El Scorcho" appears later in the song "Falling for You" when she leaves her "cello in the basement" of Rivers' place. Many fans have related the chorus to that of a Pet Sounds chorus because of it's simple nature, yet incredibly effective wording: "I'm a lot like you, so please, hello, I'm here, I'm waiting."

In the second verse, Rivers finds out the girl actually does like him when he reads her diary and mentions listening to Cio-Cio San. During the bridge, Rivers expresses his frustration with not being able to confront things directly, and instead having to make songs and records that are so personal. The song has many quirks, which attribute to it's fan favorite status. Such quirks include: the choppy, almost inept solo (sung in falsetto), Cuomo not being able to hit the note on the third verse (perhaps symbolic of not being able to realize his dream?), lines about keeping fingernails clean, etc.

The song is notable for its singalong chorus, and falsetto yells from Matt Sharp, which have become somewhat of a favorite.

Inspiration

"El Scorcho" is one of the first narrative songs Rivers wrote at Harvard. In a 2006 interview with the Harvard college newspaper, The Crimson, that the lines mentioning "Cio-Cio San" and "watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack" were actually taken from an essay from a classmate of his at Harvard in an Expository Writing class. The printed lyrics to the song identify these two lines as quoted with the enclosure of quotation marks. "...one example is, in 'Pinkerton,' in 'El Scorcho,' two lines in the song are actually taken from someone else’s essay in my Expos class. Because at one point, we had to do a little workshop thing, and we each got assigned to review someone else’s essay. So, I reviewed this one person’s essay, and I liked some of the lines in it, so I took them and used them in the song." The actual meaning of "watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack" is a reference to ECW's star Johnny Grunge leg dropping New Jack, through a table, possibly referencing a photograph of Grunge fighting wrestler New Jack that was published in Pro Wrestling Illustrated.

Cultural References

The line "listening to Cio-Cio San" is in reference to Puccini's opera, Madame Butterfly, The main characters of which are an American sailor - Pinkerton - and a Japanese girl named Cio-Cio San. The actress who played Cio-Cio San in the premiere cast of 1904 was named Rosina Storchio though the alternate spelling points to this being an unintentional reference. The reference may additionally be to the David Henry Hwang play M. Butterfly, which, at least to a degree, deals with themes of gender, sexuality and the confusion many people experience in that. This, in conjunction with the song "Pink Triangle", and the continued reference to the opera and/or play, gives the album an over-arching theme. Additionally, the line "I'm the epitome/of public enemy" is a direct quote from Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype."

The song also mentions the band Green Day in the lyric "I asked you to go to the Green Day concert/You said you never heard of them." In 2005 while on the Foozer tour, Weezer often changed the lyric to "I asked you go to the Foo Fighters concert" and changed it to "the Weezer concert" in late '05. During their stop in Chicago for Lollapalooza, this was again changed to "I asked you to go to the Pixies concert", who were playing just before Weezer on a nearby stage. The song also goes onto mention 1990's professional wrestling company ECW in the lyric "Watching Grunge leg drop New Jack through a press table."

Trivia

• The opening line, "Goddamn you half Japanese girls" has been censored in two different ways: *Bleep* damn and Dog damn.

• The title was taken from the name of the Del Taco sauce, "Del Scorcho".

• Brian Bell is the one who says "El Scorcho" and "Rock and Roll" in the beginning of the song.

Music video

The video director quit during editing because Rivers was so frustrating to work with. Rivers was left to edit the video himself.

Covers

Many covers of "El Scorcho" by various bands (Good Charlotte, Michael Cera's band The Long Goodbye, Dashboard Confessional, etc) are available on YouTube. Most of them are thoroughly disliked by Weezer fans.

Tracklist

Radio Only Promo Single

1. El Scorcho - 4:03

UK Retail 7"/UK Retail CD #1

1. El Scorcho - 4:03
2. You Gave Your Love To Me Softly - 1:57

UK Retail CD #2

1. El Scorcho - 4:03
2. You Gave Your Love To Me Softly - 1:57
3. Devotion - 3:11

"You Gave Your Love To Me Softly" was recorded for and released on the soundtrack to Angus. This version is a completely new recording.

Personnel

• Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals
• Patrick Wilson – percussion
• Brian Bell – rhythm guitar
• Matt Sharp – bass guitar

Lyrics

<lyrics>Goddamn you half-Japanese girls Do it to me every time Oh, the redhead said you shred the cello And I'm jello, baby But you won't talk, won't look, won't think of me I'm the epitome of Public Enemy Why you wanna go and do me like that? Come down on the street and dance with me

I'm a lot like you so please Hello, I'm here, I'm waiting I think I'd be good for you and you'd be good for me

I asked you to go to the Green Day concert You said you never heard of them -How cool is that?- So I went to your room and read your diary: "watching Grunge leg-drop New-Jack through a press table..." and then my heart stopped: "listening to Cio-Cio San fall in love all over again."

How stupid is it? I can't talk about it I gotta sing about it and make a record of my heart (How stupid is it? Won't you give me a minute Just come up to me and say hello to my heart) How stupid is it? For all I know you want me too and maybe you just don't know what to do or maybe you're scared to say: "I'm falling for you"

I wish I could get my head out of the sand 'cuz I think we'd make a good team And you would keep my fingernails clean But that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize 'cuz I can't even look in your eyes without shakin', and I ain't fakin' I'll bring home the turkey if you bring home the bacon.</lyrics>

See also

• List of Weezer songs