Hash Pipe

"Hash Pipe"
Single by Weezer
from the album Weezer
B-side
  • "I Do"
  • "Starlight"
  • "Teenage Victory Song"
Released April 2001 (2001-04)
Format
Recorded
Genre Pop punk, alternative rock
Length 3:06
Label Geffen
Songwriter(s) Rivers Cuomo
Producer(s) Ric Ocasek
Weezer singles chronology
"Pink Triangle"
(1997)		 "Hash Pipe"
(2001)		 "Island in the Sun"
(2001)

"Pink Triangle"
(1997)		 "Hash Pipe"
(2001)		 "Island in the Sun"
(2001)
Music video
"Hash Pipe" on YouTube

"Hash Pipe" is a song by American rock band Weezer. Released in 2001, it was the first single off the band's long-awaited third album, Weezer (The Green Album), and the only one of the SS2K The Summer Sessions songs to make it onto the album, although "Dope Nose" and "Slob" were released on Maladroit.

Background

According to an interview with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, "Hash Pipe" was written on the same night as the hit song "Dope Nose" off Maladroit. The story goes that Cuomo took "a bunch of Ritalin and had like three shots of tequila," paced around for a while, then wrote both songs.[1]

Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson is featured on the cover of the song's CD single[2] holding a pack of Natural American Spirit cigarettes that has been blurred out. Since late 2001, the band has played the song live with a reworked guitar solo that no longer follows the verse melody.

Composition

With a tempo of 128 bpm, "Hash Pipe" is composed in the key of A minor, probably with a Dorian mode. [3]

Music video

The video for the song was directed by Marcos Siega, the first of many Weezer videos that Siega would direct. In the video, Weezer is shown playing while a group of sumo wrestlers are standing in the background.[4] As the song progresses, the wrestlers are shown wrestling and during the guitar solo, the wrestlers play the band members' instruments as the members watch from the background. During the final chorus, guitarist Brian Bell performs a move in which he bends backwards, taking the guitar with him, then thrusts his legs in the way he's bending. This move has become known among Weezer fans as "the impossible bend."[5] According to the mini book that accompanies the Video Capture Device DVD, Siega was asked to avoid referring to the lyrics of the song for the video, due to its themes of homosexual prostitution and drug references.

Track list

Radio station promo

  1. "Hash Pipe" – 3:06

US CD retail CD/US retail 7″ single (black vinyl)

  1. "Hash Pipe" – 3:06
  2. "I Do" – 2:10

UK retail CD

  1. "Hash Pipe" – 2:51
  2. "Starlight" – 3:35
  3. "Hash Pipe" (Jimmy Pop remix)
  4. "Hash Pipe" (CD-ROM video)

UK retail 7″ single (green vinyl)

  1. "Hash Pipe" – 2:52
  2. "Teenage Victory Song" – 3:11

US promo remix 12″ single (black vinyl)

  1. "Hash Pipe" (Jimmy Pop remix)
  2. "Hash Pipe" (Chris Vrenna's Kick Me remix)
  3. "Hash Pipe" (Chris Vrenna's Under Glass remix) – 4:13

Dutch retail CD

  1. "Hash Pipe" – 3:06
  2. "I Do" – 1:53
  3. "Starlight" – 3:21
  4. "Hash Pipe" (Jimmy Pop remix) – 3:22

Censorship

"Hash Pipe" was banned from UK airplay due to bosses at BBC Radio 1 taking a stance against the drug-taking culture implied in the title (hashish), although the station did play it when it featured on The Official Chart. The song title is displayed as "H*** Pipe" on MTV, while the song was referred to simply as "Pipe" on TRL; the exact reason for the inconsistency of the censored song title is unclear. When the band performed this song on Top of the Pops, the title and lyric was changed to "Half Pipe", which caused confusion as OPM had released their single "Heaven Is a Halfpipe" at the same time and incidentally performed the song on the show before Weezer. When Weezer performed the song on the Channel 4 weekend morning strand T4, the title was read out as "Half Pipe", despite the fact that the word "hash" was still heard. Geffen Records originally did not want "Hash Pipe" to be the lead single off the album, citing the song's lurid content (a cross-dressing prostitute) as inappropriate. They suggested that the lead single should be "Don't Let Go."

Awards and success

"Hash Pipe" is one of the band's biggest hits, best remembered for its driving guitar melody, offbeat lyrical content, Cuomo's falsetto vocals and the gang backup vocals of "whoa-oh-oh." The song peaked at #2 on Billboard's Alternative Songs chart, #24 on Billboard's Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and #16 on the Canadian Singles Chart. It was nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best Single. The video for the song was nominated for Best Rock Video at the 2001 MTV Video Music Awards as well as being nominated for High Times magazine's "Pot Song of the Year" in 2001.

Covers and remixes

Two remixes of the song were released as B-sides on official releases of the song. Chris Vrenna's "Kick Me" remix was released on the "Hash Pipe" 12" single (which was Weezer's first 12" single) and Jimmy Pop's remix of the song appears on that release as well as international releases of the "Hash Pipe" single and the international "Island in the Sun" single. The song has also been covered by Phantom Planet in concert and by Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine at one of their live shows. Noise punk band Flipper covered "Hash Pipe" for tribute album A Punk Tribute to Weezer. Anarbor released a cover of this song as the 3rd song in their EP "The Mixtape" that was released online.

References

  1. ↑ Eliscu, Jenny. "Rivers Cuomo's Encyclopedia of Pop". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2007-10-02.
  2. ↑ weezer.com tunes page - page 3
  3. ↑ Weezer "Hash Pipe" Sheet Music musicnotes.com
  4. ↑ Luerssen D., John. Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story. ECW Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-619-3 p. 335
  5. ↑ "The Impossible Bend". Weezerpedia.
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