Eulogy for a Rock Band

From Weezerpedia
"Eulogy for a Rock Band"
Album track by Weezer
from the album Everything Will Be Alright in the End
ReleasedOctober 7, 2014
Recorded2014, The Village, Los Angeles, CA
Length3:25
LabelRepublic Records
Songwriter(s)Rivers Cuomo, Daniel Brummel, Ryen Slegr
Producer(s)Ric Ocasek
StatusOfficially released
Live debutOctober 19, 2014
Stream Spotify
Apple Music
Everything Will Be Alright in the End track listing
13 tracks
  1. "Ain't Got Nobody"
  2. "Back to the Shack"
  3. "Eulogy for a Rock Band"
  4. "Lonely Girl"
  5. "I've Had It Up to Here"
  6. "The British Are Coming"
  7. "Da Vinci"
  8. "Go Away"
  9. "Cleopatra"
  10. "Foolish Father"
The Futurescope Trilogy
  2. "I. The Waste Land"
  3. "II. Anonymous"
  4. "III. Return to Ithaka"
"Rock Star" redirects here. For the Alone X demo, see "Troublemaker."
"Superstars" redirects here. For the Weezer song from 2000, see "Superstar."

"Eulogy for a Rock Band" (formerly known by several titles, including "Shining Star", "The Band We Loved the Most", "Rock Star", "Superfan", "Superstars" and "Beatle That We Loved the Most") is the third track on Everything Will Be Alright in the End.

Overview

According to attendees of fan listening parties in 2013 and 2014, the song that would eventually become "Eulogy" originally went by the titles "Shining Star" and "The Band We Loved the Most", and featured portions of Kurt Cobain's suicide note in the bridge. The existence of these early titles were confirmed when several title iterations of "Eulogy" were listed on the riverscuomo.com demo storefront in October of 2020.

The liner notes for Everything Will Be Alright in the End groups songs by one of three themes. "Eulogy for a Rock Band" is grouped under the category "Patriarchia" (songs about Cuomo's relationships with father figures). Ryen Slegr and Daniel Brummel of the band Ozma have writing credits on the song. Rivers Cuomo, when asked about the meaning of the song in an interview for the Wall Street Journal, said that the song was about one of Weezer's "fore-fathers:"[1]

In that case, I was reflecting on one of Weezer’s musical fore-fathers who is in his late stage of his career. Reached the highest highs and I couldn’t help realize that as much as he achieved, there’s gonna come a time when the next generations don’t continue listening to his music. And he will be forgotten, along with the rest of us. And that’s a sobering thought for those of us who are striving now to achieve even a fraction of what he achieved.

—Rivers Cuomo, The Wall Street Journal, 2014


The song contains a seemingly ambiguous lyric ("Fifteen/fifty years of ruling the planet"). Though the album version seems to use the lyric "fifteen", the earlier version of the song leaked online seems to use "fifty". The album's liner notes reinforce this ambiguity, displaying lyrics for the song with an inkblot over the word in question. In an episode of the podcast Post-Pinkerton, host John Carroll observed that Cuomo was known to have listened to the Beach Boys album That's Why God Made the Radio via Spotify a year prior to EWBAITE's release, an album released nearly fifty years into the band's career, suggesting that Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, known to have been a massive influence in Weezer's early sound, may be the musician described in "Eulogy".[2] In 2020, various demos were released as part of the digital compilation Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers, including an earlier version titled "Beatle That We Loved the Most," suggesting that the song may refer to a member of the rock band the Beatles (most likely Paul McCartney). When asked who, specifically, the song was about during a Reddit AMA in 2014, Cuomo replied "We'll tell you on the day he dies."[3]

Shortly after EWBAITE's release, an instrumental-only version of the album was leaked online. In December 2017, an early version of the album was leaked, featuring an early iteration of "Eulogy" previously heard in a teaser video for the album.[4]

Personnel


Audio

Lyrics

The lyrical variants for "Eulogy for a Rock Band" are too numerous to list here. For an exhaustive list, see Lyrics: Eulogy for a Rock Band.

Eulogy for a Rock Band

Goodbye, heroes
You had a good run
Fifteen years of ruling the planet
But now your light is fading

Adios, rock band that we loved the most
This is a toast to what you did
And all that you were fighting for
Who could do more?
When time marches on
Worlds come and go
We will sing the melodies that you did long ago

Women were screaming
Guys were copying you
As you moved the people to sobbing, inspiring
You spoke for the world in your songs

Adios, rock band that we loved the most
This is a toast to what you did
And all that you were fighting for
Who could do more?
When time marches on
Worlds come and go
We will sing the melodies that you did long ago

Ooh, we'll never forget the jams you made
Ooh, let it fade
Ooh, it's time that we laid you in your grave
Ooh, let it fade
Ooh, goodbye

Adios, rock band that we loved the most
This is a toast to what you did
And all that you were fighting for
Who could do more?
When time marches on
Worlds come and go
We will sing the melodies that you did long ago

Known recordings

Performer(s) Title Filename Date of recording Recording location Length Appeared on Notes
Rivers Cuomo The Band We Loved the Most The Band We Loved The Most      inst.mp3 1:24 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo The Band We Loved the Most The Band We Loved The Most      inst 2.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo The Band We Loved the Most The Band We Loved The Most      3.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo The Band We Loved the Most The Band We Loved The Most      4.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo The Band We Loved the Most The Band We Loved The Most      5.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo The Band We Loved the Most The Band We Loved The Most      6.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Stars       8.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star       9.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           10.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           11.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           12.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           13.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           14.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           15.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Shining Stars Shining Star           16.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Superfan Work 11-26-2012 11h23m42s.mp3 November 26, 2012 2:29 Alone XI: The EWBAITE Years
Rivers Cuomo Superfan Superfan            17.mp3 3:07 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Superfan Superfan            18.mp3 3:07 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Superfan Superfan            18 1.mp3 3:07 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers Duplicate of "Superfan            18.mp3"
Rivers Cuomo Superfan Superfan     20.mp3 3:06 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Beatle That We Loved the Most Beatle That We Loved The Most     21.mp3 3:04 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Rock Star Rock Star     23.mp3 3:04 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Rock Star Rock Star     24.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Eulogy for a Rock Band Eulogy For A Rock Band    26.m4a[5]
Rivers Cuomo Eulogy for the Rock Stars Eulogy For The Rock Stars    28.mp3[5]
Rivers Cuomo Superstars Superstars    29.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo Superstars Superstars     31.mp3 3:08 Weezma: Daniel, Ryen & Rivers
Rivers Cuomo(?) Eulogy for a Rock Band Eulogy For A Rock Band   37.mp3[5]
Weezer Eulogy for a Rock Band Eulogy For A Rock Band   38 band.wav[5]
Weezer Eulogy for the Rock Stars Eulogy For The Rock Stars 36 band.wav[5]
Weezer(?) Eulogy for a Rock Band(?) Eulogy - 1-12-14.mp3[5] January 12, 2014
Weezer Eulogy for a Rock Band 10 Eulogy For A Rock Band.mp3 2014 The Village, Los Angeles, CA 3:10 Early mix. Clip heard in EWBAITE Teaser #10.[4] Leaked in December 2017.
Weezer Eulogy for a Rock Band 2014 The Village, Los Angeles, CA 3:25 Instrumental version of album release
Weezer Eulogy for a Rock Band 2014 The Village, Los Angeles, CA 3:25 Everything Will Be Alright in the End Album release
about this table

See also

References

  1. ↑ Ayers, Mike. "Rivers Cuomo: ‘I Can’t Imagine Weezer Stopping’ The Wall Street Journal. 7 October 2014. "http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/10/07/rivers-cuomo-weezer-interview/
  2. ↑ Carroll, John. "Eulogy for a Rock Band" Post-Pinkerton. 28 August 2019. https://postpinkerton.com/eulogy-for-a-rock-band
  3. ↑ u/rivercuomo "I am Rivers Cuomo from weezer. AMA." Reddit. 20 November 2014. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/2mxh4o/i_am_rivers_cuomo_from_weezer_ama/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 weezer "EWBAITE 10 "Eulogy For A Rock Band"" YouTube. 2014 June 26. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9Du6JOTkz4
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 List of unreleased demo files
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