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100 Songs That Have Moved Me | Song #001: "Buddy Holly" (1994)
Title: "Buddy Holly"
Artist: Weezer
Composer: Rivers Cuomo
Producer: Ric Ocasek
Release Date: September 7, 1994
Peak Chart Position: #2 (US Modern Rock Tracks)
Album: Weezer (The Blue Album) (1994)
Rolling Stone metadata:
Words from the artist:
How this song moves me:
Oh, my... =) Listening to this song takes me straight back to college, when I first discovered Weezer (and rather heavily identified with its frontman, Rivers Cuomo, going so far as to post his picture on my dorm room door as my identification 'badge' required of all freshman). I loved the entirety of The Blue Album, for its infectious mix of pop-cheerfulness and poignant lyrics. There's a song there for almost any emotion, but its happy enough to warrant a singalong whilst traversing around campus.
This song, in particular, became something of an anthem for me. It was my first year of college, and my first major step out on my own: far away from my family and my HS friends, and the adjustments that had to be made in all of those relationships. It was tough, but I'd made a few new friends, and was slowly but surely settling into this new phase of life. Weezer was there for me, and this song in particular, with its defiant chorus:
Ooh-we-ooh I look just like Buddy Holly
Oh, oh, and you're Mary Tyler Moore
--> I don't care what they say about us anyway
I don't care 'bout that! <--
It was a reminder that my opinion of myself mattered more than what all of these freaky Midwesterners thought of me :P It was also nice to have that fantasy of someone cherishing and standing up for me, however silly it may seem =) My college friends and I bonded because we were the 'weird' ones, and that's one of the reasons I was drawn to Weezer to begin with. I really liked the idea of having a champion, even if it was a nerd, and this song inspired what little creative writing I did during this time period. Its a song of solidarity, of a guy defending his girlfriend to his friends, while also reassuring her of their bond, and that struck a chord with my romantic nature in a big way.
I eventually used this song, in full, for a cracktastic tennis-flavored musical that I was co-writing with a fellow JCF fan, with my character going a bit crazy and serenading her boyfriend in the middle of a hair-color aisle in a drugstore (um, don't ask :P) That was the first time I'd ever used the phrase, "I love you, but [...]" and it truly hit me, what those words meant, and how seriously they can be taken, even when tossed off as a causal remark. Whenever I hear this song, I think about that scene, and it brings back warm fuzzies not only of that story, but of a group of people who got me through a tough time in my life, and who were some of the first to encourage fannish behavior for a shared, common reason.
I usually break out this album whenever I need something to cheer me up - or, conversely, when I want to wallow in my angst. "Buddy Holly," for me, falls way more into the former category than the latter. It's geekery at its finest, from the dry opening verse, to the rush of adrenaline that drives the bridge, to the happy defiance of the chorus. Beautiful meaning, and a beat you can dance to - what more can you ask of a pop song? =)
Artist: Weezer
Composer: Rivers Cuomo
Producer: Ric Ocasek
Release Date: September 7, 1994
Peak Chart Position: #2 (US Modern Rock Tracks)
Album: Weezer (The Blue Album) (1994)
Rolling Stone metadata:
Rank: #499
Blurb: In the early 1990s, Cuomo had an awkward girlfriend who was routinely picked on. His efforts to stick up for her inspired Weezer's breakthrough, a track whose bubble-grunge hooks and lines such as "I look just like Buddy Holly/And you're Mary Tyler Moore" helped the band reach a nation of pop-minded suburban punks. It also earned Weezer autographed photos from the real Mary Tyler Moore. (Source)
Words from the artist:
Rivers Cuomo stated in one of his MySpace blogs from 2006 that he remembers questioning whether or not to include this song on Weezer. He almost kept it off the final track list, but encouragement from producer Ric Ocasek soon changed his mind. In the book River's Edge, Ocasek is quoted as saying, "I remember at one point he was hesitant to do 'Buddy Holly' and I was like, 'Rivers, we can talk about it. Do it anyway, and if you don't like it when it's done, we won't use it. But I think you should try. You did write it and it is a great song.'" Cuomo said that he felt the song was "too cheesy" and didn't know if the song represented the sound he was going for with the band's music. Matt Sharp recalls:
"...Ric said we'd be stupid to leave it off the album. We'd come into the studio in the morning and find little pieces of paper with doodles on them: WE WANT BUDDY HOLLY." (Source)
In the liner notes for Alone, Cuomo explained how he was inspired to write the song after a friend from his choir lent him a Korg keyboard. The lyrical inspiration derived from an incident in which the other members of Weezer were making fun of Cuomo's friend, Kyung He. Cuomo talks about how he originally didn't want to include the song on the album, but was convinced by producer Ric Ocasek. Cuomo also talks about the writing process of the song, stating that originally, the chorus lyrics were "You look just like Ginger Rogers/Oh-oh/I move just like Fred Astaire." (Source)
How this song moves me:
Oh, my... =) Listening to this song takes me straight back to college, when I first discovered Weezer (and rather heavily identified with its frontman, Rivers Cuomo, going so far as to post his picture on my dorm room door as my identification 'badge' required of all freshman). I loved the entirety of The Blue Album, for its infectious mix of pop-cheerfulness and poignant lyrics. There's a song there for almost any emotion, but its happy enough to warrant a singalong whilst traversing around campus.
This song, in particular, became something of an anthem for me. It was my first year of college, and my first major step out on my own: far away from my family and my HS friends, and the adjustments that had to be made in all of those relationships. It was tough, but I'd made a few new friends, and was slowly but surely settling into this new phase of life. Weezer was there for me, and this song in particular, with its defiant chorus:
Ooh-we-ooh I look just like Buddy Holly
Oh, oh, and you're Mary Tyler Moore
--> I don't care what they say about us anyway
I don't care 'bout that! <--
It was a reminder that my opinion of myself mattered more than what all of these freaky Midwesterners thought of me :P It was also nice to have that fantasy of someone cherishing and standing up for me, however silly it may seem =) My college friends and I bonded because we were the 'weird' ones, and that's one of the reasons I was drawn to Weezer to begin with. I really liked the idea of having a champion, even if it was a nerd, and this song inspired what little creative writing I did during this time period. Its a song of solidarity, of a guy defending his girlfriend to his friends, while also reassuring her of their bond, and that struck a chord with my romantic nature in a big way.
I eventually used this song, in full, for a cracktastic tennis-flavored musical that I was co-writing with a fellow JCF fan, with my character going a bit crazy and serenading her boyfriend in the middle of a hair-color aisle in a drugstore (um, don't ask :P) That was the first time I'd ever used the phrase, "I love you, but [...]" and it truly hit me, what those words meant, and how seriously they can be taken, even when tossed off as a causal remark. Whenever I hear this song, I think about that scene, and it brings back warm fuzzies not only of that story, but of a group of people who got me through a tough time in my life, and who were some of the first to encourage fannish behavior for a shared, common reason.
I usually break out this album whenever I need something to cheer me up - or, conversely, when I want to wallow in my angst. "Buddy Holly," for me, falls way more into the former category than the latter. It's geekery at its finest, from the dry opening verse, to the rush of adrenaline that drives the bridge, to the happy defiance of the chorus. Beautiful meaning, and a beat you can dance to - what more can you ask of a pop song? =)
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