Harvard Blues
"Harvard Blues" | |||||
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Demo by Rivers Cuomo | |||||
Album | Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo | ||||
Released | November 25, 2008 | ||||
Recorded | 1997 | ||||
Length | 0:31 | ||||
Label | Geffen | ||||
Writer(s) | Nancy Yousef, Rivers Cuomo | ||||
Producer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | ||||
Status | Released | ||||
Professional reviews | |||||
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Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo track listing | |||||
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Rivers Cuomo song chronology | |||||
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"Harvard Blues" is a 30-second sound collage by Rivers Cuomo and the fifth track on Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
Appearances
Overview
"Harvard Blues" was recorded in 1997 while Rivers Cuomo was attending Harvard University. The track is composed of a phone message from Cuomo's answering machine played at two different speeds, one out of each speaker. The message was left by Cuomo's classmate, Lucia Brawley, who explains an essay assigned by Cuomo's professor, Nancy Yousef,[1] using extensive literary jargon. The track concludes with a frustrated scream from Cuomo. On Alone II, the track segues into "My Brain Is Working Overtime" to extend the frustrated theme of the song. A slightly longer version of the collage was released as part of the digital compilation Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years in 2020.
Liner notes
Audio
Known recordings
Performer(s) | Title | Filename | Date of recording | Recording location | Length | Appeared on | Notes |
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Rivers Cuomo | Harvard Blues | Harvard Blues (edit).mp3 | 1997 | 19 Corporal Burns Rd., Cambridge, MA | 4:07 | Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years | |
Rivers Cuomo | Harvard Blues | Harvard Blues (edit) 1.mp3 | 1997 | 19 Corporal Burns Rd., Cambridge, MA | 0:54 | Alone IV: The Blue-Pinkerton Years | Same as Harvard Blues (edit).mp3 but with silence truncated |
Rivers Cuomo | Harvard Blues | 1997 | 19 Corporal Burns Rd., Cambridge, MA | 0:31 | Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo | Shortened mix of Harvard Blues (edit) 1.mp3 |