| | Global warming is a concept that's been around for a while now, but it's finally becoming universally accepted by most folks. Some of you think this is due to the undeniable facts presented by scientists or maybe it's due to Al Gore's little flicker film, but the seeds were planted much earlier by a little band called Weezer. In fact, six years ago before this whole global warming and environmental movement became the hip thing to care about, Weezer was already on the ball and came out with one of the most anticipated albums of the year. Like all things that push the boundaries and force us to ask ourselves the tough questions, the green album was at first rejected. Years later, credit is finally going to where credit's due.
The Green Album really encompasses what the Green Movement is all about. Clocking in at around 30 minutes, the album is exemplifies efficiency. No filler. No fluff. No half assed "hybrid" nonsense here. Now, I know I know. You're thinking, "this guy can't be serious! Green was pure pop record with no substance. Doesn't come close to Blue or Pinkerton." That's where people have it all wrong. Rivers knew that change doesn't come easy and to make that pill a little easier to swallow, he coated it with sugary delicious pop.
In the song "Smile" Cuomo asks the listener to "give me a chance if you can force yourself". He tells us that the writing was on the wall in the song "Photographs" where he repeats that "it's in the photographs!" Next thing you know, Gore's showing photographs of glaciers and mountain ice caps disappearing. "Hash Pipe" is really a song about our addiction to foreign oil. Island in the sun? Can he be any more obvious? The message is there again and again. Cuomo really hits the nail on the head when he pleads in the classic rock anthem"Simple Pages" to " kick it on back, kick it on back, kick it on back to what you know."
Here, Rivers becomes the modern day Thomas Jefferson and reminisces about a simpler time. A time when America was a nation of small farmers... an "agrarian republic". Forget about 9/11. Forget about the Patriot Act! What happened to a small government? A limited federal government? Cuomo begged the listeners to remember the simple things. In the end of the day, it's all about putting food on that plate. Subsistence. Jefferson, like Cuomo, believed in a nation of small farmers. Land ownership allowed economic self-sufficiency and personal independence, which are the hallmarks of republicanism. "Dependence begets subservience and venality, suffocates the germ of virtue..." -TJ
Green by Weezer was more than a rapidly thrown together album with ingenious marketing, but really a call for change. While the rest of the album can be considered cryptic in its message and a master work of subtlety, the album closes with the emotion filled "O Girlfriend" which has drawn comparisons to Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" where we find Cuomo hoping that his message has been heard and that the listener feels not only a sense of urgency, but also outrage. Power chords symbolically scream as Cuomo ends the song and the album with the words "Now, I just want to shout".
The true genius of an artist is often not fully realized and appreciated until the death of the artist, and while Weezer is far from dead, the albums following Green (Maladroit and Make Believe) marked the death of the Weezer sound. Coincidence? I think not.
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Jenny Lewis with the Watson Twins has an album called Rabbit Fur Coat. I like it a lot.
Friday: path test, class, mercer orientation, stars in science TG, quilt show, hung out at amber's.
Saturday: woke up before 6 am, mercer clinic, saw over 130 animals, got out of there around 3 pm, hung out with jon bh (boba at lollicup, dinner at Vallejo's (valley joe's), etc), got a choc shake at in n out back in davis with rell).
Sunday: went to berkeley, thai temple, spice of life festival, at at gypsy's, coffee at strada, back to davis, pretended to study.
micro test tuesday. pharm test friday. peace.
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| | Posted 10/15/2007 1:31 AM - 65 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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