Friends of P.
| "Friends of P." | |||||
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| Single by The Rentals | |||||
| Album | Return of the Rentals | ||||
| Released | October 24, 1995 | ||||
| Format | CD | ||||
| Recorded | Poop Alley Studios | ||||
| Length | 3:32 | ||||
| Label | Maverick Records / Reprise Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Matt Sharp | ||||
| Producer(s) | Matt Sharp, Tom Grimley | ||||
| Status | Officially released | ||||
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"Friends of P." is the third track and first single from the Rentals' 1995 debut, Return of the Rentals.
Appearances
- Friends of P. - Promo EP (1995)
- Return of the Rentals - (1995)
- Friends of P. - US retail card sleeve CD, cassingle, and 7" (1995)
- Friends of P. - UK/Euro CD (1995)
- Excellent Stocking Stuffer (2001)
Overview
"Friends of P." was written and demoed in the fall of 1993, while Weezer was recording their debut album. The song was inspired by producer Ric Ocasek's wife Paulina Porizkova, who had expressed her frustration that all of the songs written about her were by heavy metal bands.[1] Matt Sharp's 4-track demo, recorded at the Gramercy Park Hotel, was released on a promotional single of the song. A more polished demo would be recorded with the Rentals (then named That's Incredible!) in April 1994. This demo appeared on the 2001 fan club-exclusive release Excellent Stocking Stuffer alongside the rest of the That's Incredible! demos.
It was released as the first single from Return of the Rentals in late 1995. It is the Rentals' most successful single, peaking at number 7 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart[citation needed] and selling 96,000 copies as of 1999.[2] When the song was initially released, the band was constantly questioned as to who the "P." was that the song referenced in it's title lyric, which Sharp avoided giving a straight answer to in interviews.[3]
The album art for the "Friends of P." single shows both Patrick Wilson and Petra Haden without their heads. Karl Koch explained: "Geffen did not allow its recording artists Patrick Wilson and Petra Haden's faces on the artwork, so Matt had their heads photoshopped away. This rather haunting image also appeared on large promo posters!"[citation needed]
Covers
In 2008, the band Tokyo Police Club covered this song on a digital-only Rentals tribute EP, Friends of P - Tribute to the Rentals (released in Japan as Lost Out in the Machinery: The Songs of The Rentals) and on the final date as the opening artists on Weezer's Troublemaker Tour. The band Ozma covered "Friends of P." (along with "Getting By" and "Waiting") accompanied by Matt Sharp at a concert in Pomona, CA on November 26, 2011. The band covered the song again in 2012 during a concert on the Weezer Cruise.
Music video
"Friends of P."'s music video was responsible for the bulk of the song's exposure. According to Matt Sharp, the video was filmed at Park La Brea Apartments in Los Angeles by Sharp's childhood friend Charles Hamilton[4] on Rod Cervera's black-and-white 16mm camera on a budget of less than $500[5][6]. The video portrays the band as vaguely Eastern-European setting, with the song's lyrics subtitled in Russian. Initially deemed "unsalvageable" due to falling out-of-sync with the music, the footage was later edited together by film student Jason Ruscio. Petra Haden reportedly suffered headaches during filming due to the thick prescription glasses worn during filming. A still from the video shoot was used for the Return of the Rentals album cover. A blog post on the official Rentals website explained the music video's aesthetic direction in December of 2005:
The look and concept of this stark minimalist video simply started as a loopy late night inside joke between Tom and Matt. At a late night recording session, the two friends came up with a silly back story about an all but forgotten new wave band called "The Rentals", a group from the late nineteen seventies that had long been lost behind the walls of the iron curtain. The storyline was thoroughly detailed with a plot line that included members of the group working with the underground movement during the cold war. The plot went on to include guitarist Rod Cervera being caught with a batch of micro film which promptly landed him in a local garrison for his anti-communist behavior. And this, of course, left The Rentals to be put on an indefinite hiatus.
Enter out of work actor named Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and the end of communism on the eastern block.
Sometime later just after fall of the iron curtain, somewhere in the early nineties during a late night after party on her "Blonde Ambition Tour", Madonna re-discovered The Rentals in a run down Czechoslovakian disco and promptly signed them to her brand new label "Maverick Records".
Track listing
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Personnel
- Matt Sharp - vocals, bass, synth, extra guitars
- Cherielynn Westrich - vocals
- Rod Cervera - guitar
- Tom Grimley - synth
- Petra Haden - violin, harmony vocals
- Patrick Wilson - drums
Lyrics
I'm a good guy for a gal
So won't you look my palm over
I've got time for a chat
So won't you tell me my future
I'm gonna break down at fifty
And I'm not quite a stallion
I'm a good guy for a gal
And I'm mentally slipping
Oh yeah, oh yeah
What's that you see?
Oh boy, find out
What's up with me?
Oh yeah, oh yeah
What's that you see?
Tell me, more of
What's gonna be
If you're friends with P.
Well then you're friends with me
If you're down with P.
Well then you're down with me
We're friends of P.
We're friends of P.
We're friends of P.
Friends
Some modest fame and fortune
Is going to come to me early
I get two loves in my life
And I'm dying at 90
Oh yeah, oh yeah
What's that you see?
Oh boy, find out
What's up with me?
Oh yeah, oh yeah
What's that you see?
Tell me, more of
What's gonna be
If you're friends with P.
Well then you're friends with me
If you're down with P.
Well then you're down with me
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
If you're friends with P.
Well then you're friends with me
If you're down with P.
Well then you're down with me
If you're friends with P.
Well then you're friends with me
If you're down with P.
Well then you're down with me
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
Friends of P.
See also
References
- ↑ Addicted to Noise interview with Matt Sharp - November 17, 1998
- ↑ Billboard interview with Matt Sharp - March 6, 1999
- ↑ ChartAttack interview with Matt Sharp - November 8, 2006
- ↑ therentals.com, archived by Wayback Machine https://web.archive.org/web/20061112171539/http://www.therentals.com/return/archive.cfm
- ↑ @_mattsharp "Using a Vietnam 🇻🇳 War 16mm 🎥 film camera, with a budget under 💰 500." Twitter. 10 September 2019. https://twitter.com/_mattsharp/status/1171489880930578432
- ↑ The Rentals - Daytrotter Session - Sep 24, 2007. Paste Magazine. https://www.pastemagazine.com/noisetrade/music/the-rentals/sep-24-2007-daytrotter-studio-rock-island-il