El Scorcho
| "El Scorcho" | ||||||||||||||
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| Single by Weezer | ||||||||||||||
| Album | Pinkerton | |||||||||||||
| Released | September 3, 1996[citation needed] | |||||||||||||
| Format | CD, Cassette, Vinyl | |||||||||||||
| Recorded | Spring, 1996 at Sound City Studios, Van Nuys , CA | |||||||||||||
| Length | 4:03 | |||||||||||||
| Label | DGC Records | |||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | |||||||||||||
| RC# | 213 | |||||||||||||
| COR# | N/A | |||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | Weezer | |||||||||||||
| Status | Released | |||||||||||||
| Weezer singles chronology | ||||||||||||||
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| Pinkerton track listing | ||||||||||||||
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| Rivers Cuomo song chronology | ||||||||||||||
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| Spotify Canvas art | ||||||||||||||
 Spotify Canvas art |
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This song is part of the "El Scorcho" (RC# 213) lineage of songs
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"El Scorcho" is the first single and seventh track from Pinkerton.
Appearances
- Pinkerton
- El Scorcho (Radio Only Promo CD)
- El Scorcho (UK Retail 7"/UK Retail CD #1)
- El Scorcho (UK Retail CD #2)
- The Lion and the Witch (Live)
- Not Alone: Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live at Fingerprints (Live)
- Triple J Hottest 100 4
Overview
According to the Recording History, the guitar riff for "El Scorcho" was originally written as the intro to an 8-track demo by Rivers Cuomo around the spring of 1992 titled "Simply State". A similar riff was also used as the outro to the demo "Blast Off!". While attending Harvard in December of 1995, Cuomo composed a piece of music as a homework assignment for his Music 154 course. This piece would form the basis for the chorus melody of "El Scorcho". "El Scorcho" was one of the first songs written by Cuomo (following "Pink Triangle") to be written while Cuomo was attending Harvard and began moving away from the Songs from the Black Hole album concept. The title "El Scorcho" was inspired by the sauce "Del Scorcho" from the fast food chain Del Taco [citation needed].
In a 2006 interview with the Harvard Crimson, Cuomo confirmed that two of the lines in the song ("Watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack through a press table" and "Listening to Cio-Cio San fall in love all over again") were taken from an essay written by one of his classmates from an expository writing class. The former lyric references ECW's star Johnny Grunge leg-dropping New Jack, through a table, while the later references Cio-Cio San, the character from Madama Butterfly, the Puccini opera on which Pinkerton is loosely based. The lyric "I'm the epitome of Public Enemy" is a reference to the song "Don't Believe the Hype" by Public Enemy [1]. The reference to "shred[ding] the cello" suggests that the object of Cuomo's affection in the song is the same girl as in "Falling for You". This is corroborated by a blog post by Cuomo to his Myspace account in 2007 in which he confirmed that both "El Scorcho" and "Falling for You" were about a "Half-Caucasian/half-Asian" girl. In The Pinkerton Diaries, the lyrics for "Falling for You" precede a cello composition written by Cuomo for a woman with whom he was acquainted, referred to only as "B.G.". In a journal excerpt the book, Cuomo laments "exposing" B.G. on Pinkerton.
Brian Bell is the one who says "El Scorcho" and "rock and roll!" at the beginning of the song. Bell's first lead vocal on a Weezer record can also be found on the song during the bridge ("How stupid is it, won't you give me a minute? Just come up to be and say hello to my heart.") Bell was also responsible for the guitar solo, according to a 2002 fan interview with Cuomo. 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." When performing the song live, Rivers Cuomo has often substituted in other bands when singing the lyric, such as "I asked you go to the Foo Fighters concert" when touring with the band on the Foozer tour.
"El Scorcho" commercial performance was underwhelming; several radio stations refused to play the song, and the video did not receive airplay on MTV. This is considered to be one of the causes for the initial commercial failure of the album. The song was successful in Australia, however, reaching #9 on the Triple J Hottest 100 chart, the national poll conducted by alternative rock station Triple J for the year's most popular alternative songs. It was subsequently released on the 1996 Triple J Hottest 100 compilation. [2] [3]
A promotional CD for "El Scorcho" was produced featuring edits of the song that censor the lyric "Goddamn you half Japanese girls". One edit bleeps the word "God" ("Bleep Damn") and the other reverses it ("Dog Damn").
"El Scorcho" was released as a downloadable song for the rhythm video game Rock Band on February 19, 2008 and as part of the Rock Band Track Pack Vol. 2 on November 18, 2008. The version of the song included notably features an alternate guitar solo and vocal track from the version heard on the album, with a noticeably different delivery of the line "Come down on the street and dance with me".
The music video for "El Scorcho" was directed by Mark Romanek. Cuomo felt very strongly about being seen as a serious songwriter during the promotion for Pinkerton, strictly avoiding gimmicks ala the "Buddy Holly" music video. During the editing of the video for El Scorcho, Cuomo and Romanek disagreed about the way the video was to be made, which led to Romanek removing his name from the directing credit. Two versions came out of this dispute, a "Director's Cut" edition (Romanek's version) and a second, which is said to have been edited under Cuomo's supervision.
Personnel
- Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals
- Patrick Wilson – percussion
- Brian Bell – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Matt Sharp – bass guitar, backing vocals
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."
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
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
And 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.
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'm a lot like you
I'm a lot like you
And I'm waiting
I think I'd be good for you
And you'd be good for me
Known recordings
| Performer(s) | Title | Filename | Date of recording | Recording location | Length | Appeared on | Notes |
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| For earlier iterations of the song, see "Simply State", "Negativland" and "Blast Off!" | |||||||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | January 1996 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA | Video Capture Device | Footage includes two different takes with slightly different lyrics and guitar overdubs, partly composited with a live recording to create a music video | ||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | January 1996 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA | 4:03 |
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| Weezer | El Scorcho | elscorcho.mogg | January 1996 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA | 4:06 |
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Multitrack recording formatted under a single "multi-ogg" .mogg file. Includes alternate vocal takes, and a completely different guitar solo. |
| Weezer | El Scorcho | January 1996 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA | 4:06 | El Scorcho Clean Versions | Censored edit, bleeps "god" | |
| Weezer | El Scorcho | January 1996 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA | 4:05 | El Scorcho Clean Versions | Censored edit, reverses "god" | |
| Weezer | El Scorcho | January 1996 | Sound City Studios, Van Nuys, CA | 4:05 | Censored edit, mixes out "god". Used for the music video. | ||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | August 23, 1996 | Reading Festival, Reading, England, United Kingdom | 4:09 | Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition) | ||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | September 24, 1996 | Tower Records, Los Angeles, CA | Video Capture Device | Partly composited with recording session footage to create a music video | ||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | November 6, 1996 | Shorecrest High School, Shoreline, WA | 4:26 | Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition) | ||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | June 20, 1997 | Sonic Recording Studios, Philadelphia, PA | 4:07 | Pinkerton (Deluxe Edition) | ||
| Weezer | El Scorcho | May 27, 2002 | Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan | 4:08 | The Lion and the Witch | ||
| Rivers Cuomo | El Scorcho | November 25, 2008 | Fingerprints, Long Beach CA | 4:15 | Not Alone: Rivers Cuomo & Friends Live at Fingerprints | ||