| Songs from the Black Hole | |
|---|---|
| Studio album by Weezer | |
| Released | 1995 |
| Recorded | December 1994 - August 1995 |
| Genre | Alternative rock Power pop |
| Label | Interscope Records |
| Producer | Weezer |
Songs from the Black Hole (SFTBH) is an unreleased, unfinished Weezer album. A space themed rock opera/musical, it was originally envisioned as the follow-up album to The Blue Album, but over the course of recording, the album's concept was discarded and the album was transformed into Pinkerton.[1] SFTBH was, in the words of songwriter Rivers Cuomo, "supposed to be a whole album of songs transed together," meaning a seamless flow from one song to the next (previous examples of this technique include the closing medley of The Beatles' Abbey Road and various Pink Floyd albums including The Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here).
In a 2007 Rolling Stone Rock & Roll Daily feature the album was called one of rock music's "mythical lost masterpieces."[2]
Most of the album was written and recorded solely by Rivers Cuomo on an 8-track at his home in Connecticut in 1994.[1] The characters were to be Jonas (voiced by Cuomo),[3] Laurel [3] (voiced by Rachel Haden of that dog.), Maria (voiced by Joan Wasser of the Dambuilders),[4] Wuan & Dondó (voiced by Brian Bell and Matt Sharp of Weezer),[3] and a robot, M1 (voiced by Karl Koch, a friend of the band and roadie at the time).[3] At the time, Wasser was unaware of Cuomo's intention to have her play a role on the album.
In the words of Cuomo, taken from an interview in the November 15, 2007 issue of Rolling Stone, "There's this crew - three guys and two girls and a mechanoid - that are on this mission in space to rescue somebody, or something. The whole thing was really an analogy for taking off, going out on the road and up the charts with a rock band, which is what was happening to me at the time I was writing this and feeling like I was lost in space."
Over the course of writing the album, Cuomo, who had enrolled at Harvard in the fall of 1995, changed his focus from the space rock opera theme of SFTBH to the Madama Butterfly theme of Pinkerton. Pinkerton was released on September 24, 1996 and included the songs "Tired of Sex", "Getchoo", "No Other One", and "Why Bother?". These four songs had been written prior to the conception of SFTBH but reshaped for SFTBH, then changed again for inclusion on Pinkerton.[5] Further leftovers "Devotion" and "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" surfaced as b-sides to the Pinkerton singles "El Scorcho" and "The Good Life".
Three copies of the album are known to exist in CD-R form. Two of them are in the care of Karl Koch, while the third copy is in Cuomo's personal archive. These CDs contain the tracks from Track List 2 (see below).
In 2002, several Songs from the SFTBH demos were 'leaked' on the internet. These included "Blast Off!", "Oh No This Is Not For Me", "Come to My Pod", "Tired of Sex" and "Longtime Sunshine". Another demo, "You Won't Get With Me Tonight", was officially released on a Buddyhead compilation in 2003. A very short clip of the band rehearsing "Superfriend" in Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in January 1996, was released on the Weezer DVD Video Capture Device in 2004.
Sheet music and lyrics for several unreleased Songs from the Black Hole tracks were made available by Cuomo on his MySpace blog starting on April 30, 2006. Lyrics were posted for "Blast Off!", "Who You Callin' Bitch?", "Oh Jonas", "Please Remember", "Oh No This is Not For Me", "She's Had a Girl", and "Now I Finally See", while sheet music was posted for "She's Had A Girl", "Who You Callin' Bitch?" and "Oh Jonas".[6] He also posted that the song "Lisa", long thought to be part of Track List 2 (see below) and the name of the second female character, was not actually part of SFTBH. This left the character's name to be unknown (for the time being). Rivers could not recall the name, but referred to her as "the good girl."
On October 4, 2005 during a Weezer show at Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois, the band invited a fan up onstage to play the rhythm guitar for "Undone - The Sweater Song". The fan took advantage of this moment to attempt to get the band to play "Blast Off!" by beginning to play the intro to the song and sang the first four lines of the song.[7]
Once Cuomo posted the lyrics and music for some of the SFTBH tracks, fans were able to cover the songs despite not having heard them. Cuomo has even posted comments about the covers he has heard: "By the way, I'm very disappointed not to be hearing any women out there singing Maria's parts. What gives?" (on "Who You Callin' Bitch?") and "Good luck figuring out the time changes... No one's gotten it yet. Look at it this way: 3 beats in a 3/4 measure go by in the same amount of time as 2 beats in a 6/4 measure [sic]. Also, these last two sawngs (sic) are elided so that the pickup note of "Oh, Jonas" is the last beat of the last bar of "Who You Callin'" (on "Oh Jonas")."
In a November 2006 interview with a Bloomfield Hills local radio station Pat Wilson told two students that he remembers being caught in Germany and Cuomo using a recording studio to record what he wanted to be a rock album. Pat stated that he never knew more about SFTBH other than Cuomo wanting to make a concept album. Wilson also stated that he would be interested in releasing a compilation of "lost" Weezer tracks. This fueled rumours that the band would release previously unheard Black Hole songs or a completely re-worked version of the Songs from the Black Hole concept album in the near future.
On April 30, 2006, Cuomo released this statement in his blog: "Thanks for your interest in these songs! I'm putting up the lyrics now because I suddenly realized that I can. I'll also put up the sheet music (when I have time) so that you can play them for each other! I'll release my home demos as soon as I am legally able."
On October 15, 2007 Cuomo posted a blog on his website stating that he had permission from Geffen to release a collection of demos spanning 1992-2007, Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. Shortly after, in an interview with Rolling Stone, Cuomo revealed that many of the songs on the CD will be unreleased demos from Songs From The Black Hole.[8] A news post on Geffen's official website read, "The vast majority will be new to even the most die-hard Weezer fan," hinting that the SFTBH demos will be songs previously never heard.[9] In an Alternative Press interview from October 30, 2007, Cuomo revealed that "Blast Off!", "Who You Calling Bitch?", "Dude, We're Finally Landing" and "Superfriend" would appear on the album.[5]
On November 22, 2007, Cuomo updated his blog, stating "I want to share with everyone the excitement I felt when I went back and heard the original master tapes of these demos. In most cases, they sounded much better than the mp3s I've been listening to for years--clearer, warmer, deeper. I highly recommend that listeners buy the CD rather than the digital version so that they can enjoy the highest quality listening experience."
On December 18, 2007, Rivers Cuomo released a collection of his home demos entitled Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. The collection contained demos from 1992 until 2007. The collection also included five demos for songs intended for or included on Songs From the Black Hole: "Longtime Sunshine", "Blast Off!", "Who You Callin' Bitch?", "Dude, We're Finally Landing", and "Superfriend." In the Alone booklet, Cuomo explained some of the plot points of the musical, and, after having reviewed his journal notes of SFTBH, revealed that the Good Girl's name is Laurel.[3]
On November 25, 2008, Rivers Cuomo released a second collection of home demos entitled Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. The collection included an additional three tracks from Songs From the Black Hole: "Oh Jonas", "Please Remember" and "Come to My Pod". Also on November 25, 2008 at the jam session for the release of Alone 2, "Blast Off," "Devotion," and "Waiting on You" were all played live by Cuomo, marking their live debut.[10]
On November 2, 2010, weezer released a deluxe edition of Pinkerton. The 2-CD set contained the original Pinkerton album, live tracks, b-sides, demos and studio out-takes from the Pinkerton era. Included on the set were a studio version of "Longtime Sunshine" (with a SFTBH-related special coda), originally recorded at Electric Lady Studios in August 1995[11] and Rivers's previously-released demo of You Won't Get With Me Tonight. The liner notes for the deluxe edition of Pinkerton hinted at additional songs from Songs From the Black Hole having been attempted by the band during the Pinkerton sessions, including "You Won't Get With Me Tonight", "Dude, We're Finally Landing" and "She's Had a Girl", before the concept was aborted completely.
Tracklist 1 was compiled by February 1995. Cuomo compiled Tracklist 2 in Fall 1995.[1]
Track List 1
Track List 2
Other Songs
"Why Bother" was originally considered for tracklist #1, though it is not included in the proposed sequence for either version of the album. However, a version of "You Won't Get with Me Tonight" ends with the bass intro for "Why Bother?", suggesting that the song might have followed it in tracklist #1, after Jonas tells Maria he won't sleep with her because she doesn't really love him and she only wants him for sex, he explains that "it's just sexual attraction" and that he will be heartbroken when she deserts him.
"You Won't Get with Me Tonight" can be found on the compilation album Gimme Skelter by Buddyhead Records. "Longtime Sunshine", "Blast Off!", "Who You Callin' Bitch?", "Dude, We're Finally Landing", and "Superfriend" were officially released on Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. "Oh Jonas", "Please Remember" and "Come to My Pod" were officially released on Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo. "Oh No, This Is Not for Me", "She's Had a Girl", "What Is This I Find?" and "Now I Finally See" were officially released on Alone III: The Pinkerton Years as part of the "Suite From The Black Hole".
Formal studio versions of "Tired of Sex", "Getchoo", "No Other One", and "Why Bother?" are included on Pinkerton as the first four tracks. "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams" and "Waiting on You" may be found on "The Good Life" single and "Devotion" may be found on the "El Scorcho" single.
The lead-off track (Act 1, Scene 1)[3] for Songs from the Black Hole is a dramatic rock song with a high-reaching melody and shifting dynamics. The song takes place on the main deck of the spaceship Betsy II on May 10, 2126.[3] The lyrics are a conversation between the main character Jonas and his shipmates Wuan and Dondó. Jonas is excited yet reserved about the prospect of doing what he thinks is his dream job. Wuan and Dondó are much more upbeat about the experience. In the middle of the song M1 interjects via vocoder to remind them of the task at hand. In the last verse we find that a female character, Maria, the ship's cook, has entered the scene and that Jonas has a history with her from back at Star Corps Academy.[3]
Although previously leaked many years before, this song saw an official release on Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo,[12] where it leads directly into "Who You Callin' Bitch?" as was intended for Track List 2.
An interesting parallel in this song (and indeed the whole album) is the space mission concept being a metaphor for the rock star life that Cuomo was about to embark upon, heading out on tour and up the charts with a rock band.[3]
A music video was made for the song and released on Yahoo! on January 11, 2008.
An acoustic rehearsal of "Blast Off!" was performed by Rivers Cuomo, Scott Shriner and Brian Bell on Rivers's July 10, 2011 pre-concert Ustream feed. This version featured different lyrics during the "M1 section" of the song. These lyrics mentioned "chicks, money and news crews waiting back home" and mention a "magic bus".
The acoustic guitar chord motive of "Blast Off!"'s outro is similar to the riff from "El Scorcho".
Weezer performed the song for the first time live as an encore to a Memories show in Seattle on August 19, 2011.
This 8-track demo recording was done completely by Cuomo , who sings as both characters.[4] The vocals are panned in order to differentiate the different character parts. In the Gimme Skelter liner notes, Karl wrote that Joan Wasser was to play the other character.[4] The song is high-energy with a fast tempo and features a synthesizer/guitar duet during the instrumental break.
For Track List 1, the song leads on from "Blast Off!" as a conversation between Jonas and Maria, the female character from the previous track. Maria really wants to hook up with Jonas but he only wants to be her friend, not her lover. He knows that she will use him for sex, not love. Jonas affirms his friendship with Maria though by telling her that he will protect her from Wuan and Dondó, making sure they won't bother her any more. The story's premise here is preserved in the Buddyhead release of the song.
On Track List 2, the song is essentially split up into two new tracks, "Who You Callin' Bitch?" and "Please Remember" - their titles are both derived from this song and they have similar lyrics. The full "You Won't Get with Me Tonight" was not completely dropped from the track lists though, instead being placed near the end. It is unknown whether the Track List 2 version of "You Won't Get with Me Tonight" would have had any lyrical changes to accommodate its new track placement at the end rather than at the beginning of the album/story.
A full-band version of the song was leaked on to the internet in April 2011, a rough version recorded during the Pinkerton sessions. This version features Brian Bell singing the female vocals, likely as a placeholder for the final vocal. It is unknown if this version is simply a rehearsal or if the band were attempting to track drums for a final version.
This song is similar to "You Won’t Get With Me Tonight" (which it replaces on Track List 2), though it is much shorter and takes the form of an interlude. Karl Koch described the song as being “slow but huge, rocking.” "Who You Callin' Bitch?" was officially released on Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.[12]
In the song, like "You Won't Get With Me Tonight", Maria becomes angry after she hears Dondó call her a bitch in "Blast Off!".[3] Jonas attempts to calm her down.
Maria sings of her affection for Jonas in this short interlude.
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's second album, Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
Leading on from Maria's feelings in "Oh Jonas", Jonas pleads with Maria to remember that he is only a friend and that he can't possibly settle down with her, just like he says in "You Won't Get With Me Tonight". Unlike that song however, Maria is stubborn and attempts to change Jonas' mind, who eventually succumbs.
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's second album, Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
"Come to My Pod" is a duet between Jonas and Maria, continuing their earlier conversation. Here, Jonas quickly falls for Maria's charms and gladly goes to make love with Maria in her private "pod" on the spaceship.
A demo of this track was leaked onto the internet. A short song at one and a half minutes long, it features acoustic guitars, sparse drumming, and some synthesizer (Electronic Music Laboratories Electrocomp 101).
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's second album, Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
Immediately following "Come to My Pod", Jonas realizes the mistake he's made and puts a stop to it. Maria tries to convince him to stay, but he's had enough and is filled with shame. Unlike the slow and soothing previous track, "Oh No, This Is Not For Me" is heavy and dramatic as Jonas comes to terms with what he has done.
This song was also leaked in demo-form over the internet.
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's third album, Alone III: The Pinkerton Years.
Once Jonas pulls away from Maria, he realizes that his lifestyle is unfulfilling - he seeks true love, not sex.
"Tired of Sex" is the lone SFTBH song that has survived and appeared on all incarnations of SFTBH and Pinkerton. Cuomo's original home demo has been posted online, and an earlier mix of the Pinkerton version featuring different elements has also leaked; the lyrics remain the same in every rendition.
"Superfriend" is a slow ballad where Jonas confides to Laurel, the other female character in the story. It takes place during Act 1.[3] During the song, Jonas reprises his sentiments from the previous two tracks, chiding himself for giving into Maria's seduction despite the fact he does not love her. Laurel urges Jonas to grow up and be better than that. Jonas finds himself smitten with Laurel, but she can see through his act and tells him to get real.
The song has a completely different track placement on the two different track lists - on Track List 2, "Superfriend" comes several tracks after the pivotal "She's Had a Girl". Like "You Won't Get with Me Tonight", whether the meaning and/or lyrics of this song would have changed as a consequence is unknown.
This song was released as a demo, with Cuomo singing both parts, on Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.[12]
Until its release, "Superfriend" had become a "most wanted" track by Weezer fans. It previously appeared in two separate, incomplete incarnations on Video Capture Device: one of Weezer recording the song at Sound City Studios in January 1996, and one of Cuomo playing it on an acoustic guitar without singing.
Karl Koch has stated that the "Superfriend" reprise on Track List 2 is a short instrumental of the song.
Reply by karl koch [karlophone] on October 2, 2010 at 4:17am the total lack of superfriend on any tape was surprising but its now assumed it was wiped back in '96 for some reason that probably seemed good at the time, i.e. shortly after the run though that i caught on video (seen on VCD)
A significant amount of time has passed on the ship and Maria has given birth to a daughter, of whom Jonas turns out to be the father. In this song, Jonas laments what has happened. The song appears to be a soft, somehow sad ballad about how he realizes what he truly needed and wanted.
Like "Oh Jonas", the lyrics and sheet music have been released by Rivers Cuomo, allowing people to perform their own interpretations of the track via sites such as YouTube.
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's third album, Alone III: The Pinkerton Years.
This song takes place in Act II.[3] In this song the three main male characters, Jonas, Wuan and Dondó sing about how the ship is finally landing after 327 days in space.[3] It shows how excited and more upbeat Wuan and Dondó are and how timid and quiet Jonas is about the situation of landing. In this way the song is similar to "Blast Off!" with a nervous and pessimistic Jonas clashing with the joyous Wuan and Dondó. The song is mainly a cappella, with the three characters all singing their points of view over each other. Some acoustic guitar appears near the end of the song.
This song was released on Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.[12]
Jonas echoes his sentiments from "She's Had a Girl" at the direction his life is taking. The lyrics (which are reprised from "She's Had a Girl") were released to the public by Rivers Cuomo. A portion of this song was played by Rivers during a pre-concert Ustream on November 29, 2010.
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's third album, Alone III: The Pinkerton Years.
Although "Getchoo" was scrapped on Track List 2, the song (along with a batch of other SFTBH-era songs) made it onto the Pinkerton album. Jonas presumably feels stung by Laurel who appears to have rejected him, possibly as a consequence of the events in "She's Had a Girl" and/or "Now I Finally See".
The 1995 Ft. Apache demo of this song features slightly different lyrics to those on the final Pinkerton version that better fit the SFTBH mold. "What I did to her, you've done to me" seems to refer to Jonas ditching Maria for Laurel, only to end up empty-handed himself.
Laurel is upset about throwing away her love. She is torn between what she thinks she wants and what she thinks is right. It is unclear whether this means she has rejected Jonas, as is implied in "Getchoo" and is now doubting herself since, or if she's singing about someone else she may have left for Jonas ("I... see him every day, even though my love is a world away").
This song was recorded in studio and officially released as a b-side to "The Good Life" single. Rachel Haden sings lead vocals (representing Laurel for the SFTBH album) and Cuomo joins in on the last verse. This song makes extensive use of the Electrocomp 101. It is the most complete example of a Black Hole song with full male and female vocal parts and the released version is the best representation of what SFTBH would have sounded like had it not been scrapped.
Like "Getchoo", "No Other One" appears on Pinkerton. After losing his chances with Laurel, Jonas contents himself with having Maria by his side, despite his negative feelings for her. The song does not appear on Track List 2.
Developing his sentiments explored in "No Other One", Jonas realises how much he has taken Maria's devotion to him for granted while "searching for Mrs Right", and falls in love with her for it.
"Devotion" was dropped from the SFTBH Track List 2, but was later recorded in studio and officially released in 1996 as the b-side to the El Scorcho single.
The song is the finale on Track List 2.
This song was officially released on Rivers Cuomo's third album, Alone III: The Pinkerton Years.
"Longtime Sunshine" is a slow, piano-driven ballad about the singer's dissatisfaction with life, wanting to return to times when things were more simple for them. It is assumed that the song would be from Jonas' point of view after the chaotic events of the whole opera. The song acts as a contrary to Jonas' feelings about the space mission in the very first track, "Blast Off!", simply wanting to give everything up and return to simpler times. The track was later dropped from the Track List 2.
The song was leaked onto the internet by Cuomo before being officially released as a demo on Alone - The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo.
Although "Longtime Sunshine" appears on Track List 1 (even getting a reprise), there is debate over whether it was ever supposed to fit in the Songs From the Black Hole universe. In the liner notes of Alone, Cuomo reveals that the song is of a more personal nature to himself. It's worth noting that "Longtime Sunshine" was written in 1993, prior to the Songs From the Black Hole concept, although Cuomo felt it could fit in with the theme.
A "Special Coda Mix" of the song was experimented with at the time of SFTBH.[11] A studio version, consisting of an overlapping medley of vocals from "Longtime Sunshine", "Why Bother?", "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams", "Blast Off!", and "No Other One", was released on the deluxe edition of Pinkerton. This version is also notable for having a different final verse from the demo, consistent with the themes of SFTBH. The reprise remains unreleased.
A version also appears at the end of 'Suite From The Black Hole', featuring on Rivers Cuomo's third album, Alone III: The Pinkerton Years.
When Rivers Cuomo was asked on a chat room interview what the reason was for not releasing Songs From the Black Hole, he simply stated "ROTR," referring to Weezer bassist Matt Sharp's band The Rentals, whose first album, released in 1995, was titled Return of the Rentals.[13] Cuomo has further hinted that sonically and aesthetically, Sharp's Return of the Rentals borrowed much of its sound from drafts of Songs from the Black Hole, thus discouraging Cuomo from further pursuing the sound.[14]
When the Rentals reunited in 2005 and began touring, the band covered Weezer's "I Just Threw Out the Love of My Dreams", a song originally intended for Songs from the Black Hole. Rachel Haden, who performs vocals on the original version, handled lead vocal duties.