Weezer’s “Green Album”: A Demonstration of Musical Rebirth

Rebirth is a common theme throughout human history. Fear of death and the unknown prompt the human mind to believe in the ability to continue on in life. Most cultures acknowledge some kind of soul, spirit, essence, or shade of oneself that will continue to exist after the heart stops beating. Christianity believes in resurrection, and Hinduism believes in reincarnation. The ancient Greeks wrote of a bird that could recreate itself, even though it went down in a fiery death. This bird was called the phoenix, and its image is synonymous with the idea of rebirth.

In 1996, a band called Weezer released their second album, entitled Pinkerton. It was a statement by singer/guitarist/songwriter Rivers Cuomo of the difficulties of the life he had begun since his first album, Weezer (henceforth referred to as The Blue Album) went double platinum, won numerous awards, and sent his words into the heads of teens across the world. For a shy and introverted kid from Massachusetts, this was quite a lot to handle. But Cuomo was proud of his art, and he wanted it to be heard.

It can only be imagined, then, the crushing blow that was Pinkerton. The band released the album in 1996 to mediocre sales and far worse reviews. An abrasively personal album, Pinkerton took all the guts Rivers could work up to record and release. Virtually all of Weezer’s fans started to wonder why their happy, funny favorite band would release something that sounded so gritty and mean. All the fans who wanted another "Sweater Song" were unprepared to hear Rivers' confessions of alienation and the impersonal life a new rock star is forced to lead. They wanted the next big radio hit...and that wasn't what Pinkerton was about. With slow sales, the album eventually reached gold status, but not before being lambasted as the worst album of 1996 by Rolling Stone magazine.

So what is a man so scorned to do? Go into semi-retirement for four years. Imagine being riddled with all the insecurities we hear of on Pinkerton, building up the guts to expose them, and then being shot down completely. Rivers was done. The fire of emotion had incinerated his confidence in his skills and his band.

But the music wasn't done with him. Rivers started his career as an artist who could take a simple chord riff (if you want to disagree, listen to the Blue Album. Four-chord wonders) and relatively unimportant lyrics ("Oh no, it go, it gone, bye-bye," warbles “Undone”) and transform them, with a pop-rock gift, into something catchy and nearly universally appealing. That gift was evident on Pinkerton, but the world wasn’t ready for the development of Cuomo’s gifts. He still felt the music in him, but now the fans had spoken—they didn’t want blatant insecurity, they wanted something fun.

Thus the birth of the Green Album. Rivers wasn't selling out, he was just hiding his fears a little better, just as he did on the Blue Album. He still breached subjects in his life like drug use, rejection, and fears, but he also showed that he wasn't the depressed self-absorbed artist that he supposed Pinkerton demonstrated. He could recognize the goodness of life, the fun that it contains, and showed that in a simple album.

Green is the phoenix of Weezer. The band flew high in Blue, burned itself to the ground in a fire of emotion and intimate pain in Pinkerton, and recreated itself from its original roots with Green.

The songs are simple; the chord structures are unremarkable; the guitar solos are simply melodic paraphrase. But Green represents what Weezer was built around and what they were best at—a catchy, fun, and interesting sound.

One critic suggested that the timing of Green came as it did (five years after Pinkerton) because Rivers recognized that people were actually listening. The band did test the waters for a while, booking themselves on the Warped tour, and, to their surprise, being the hit of the tour. People did still care. And what’s more, a new generation had begun to recognize the greatness of Pinkerton. Assured that someone was listening, Rivers was comfortable releasing a new, though toned down, album.

The need to be heard is evident from Green’s opening track, in which Rivers, pleading to a lover (and to his fans) sings:

Anything you desire, I will set at your feet…

But if there comes a day
You should turn your heart away
I’ll be down on my knees
Begging for that girl [my fans?] to stay.

Don’t let go!

Rivers, though shy and awkward, needed to be loved and to be heard, and was willing to do what his fans asked to achieve that. That is the basic motive behind the structure of the songs on Green. Everything about it is indicative of the original Blue Album, from the eponymous title (suggesting starting again) to the cover art of the band members in front of a solid color background. But the difference was that this color was brighter, this band was stylish and sharp (note River’s much sharper ensemble than the grunge t-shirt of Blue), and they weren’t just looking forward; they were looking up. This could be interpreted as a number of gestures: it could be to display that the band is now more upbeat and “looking up” than the dark Pinkerton; it could be looking to the future; perhaps, even, the band looks a little bit pleading, asking fans to return.

The album’s lyrics tend toward an apologetic and contrite Rivers asking those he loves to come back to him and work with what he has. In typical Weezer style, most of these pleas are, of course, to an unimpressed girlfriend. But the attitude of asking for one more chance permeates the album. The album, as stated by “Knock-Down, Drag-Out,” is “all that I can do right now to make it up to you somehow.”

“Kick it on back to what you know, give me some love…on the hard rock radio” pleads a man who was once on the top of the radio, asking to get there again, not asking “give me some money,” but “give me some love.” For Rivers, being heard and appreciated for his music is being loved—exactly what all timid geeks (which Rivers claims to be) are looking for.

The song “Photograph” is the great summation of River’s career to this point:

If you blew it [with Pinkerton]
Don’t reject it [my music or the music business]
Just keep drawing up the plans [the songs] and re-erect it.

With this, he acknowledges the self-destructive nature of Pinkerton, but says that it’s not over. The band has been re-erected and made all over again. The phoenix has been reborn, and in the case of Weezer, it's a bit shallower, but it’s catchier than ever.

Ev'ry New Beginning Comes From Some Other Beginning's End...

From Claudio's family blog. Names have been changed. A pox upon those who try to use this to hunt me down.

I speak, of course, of the end of pregnancy and the beginning of parenthood. That's right, faithful followers, the time has come for introductions.

Well...not quite yet.

Here's the deal. Mrs. Claudio went to the doctor this afternoon around 2:00. It was her 41-week appointment. For those not in the know, pregnancy is ideally a 40 week ordeal, but the madame has been, however unwillingly, pushing onward. The doctor did his check (it was really fun to watch the look on her face as this happened, by the way), and told here that she had three options:

Option the First: Keep on waiting. The problem with this, beyond the fact that Mrs. Claudio is ready to have this thing out of her body, is that the baby is getting big and is still being carried pretty high...so there's a chance it would just keep on hangin' out until things got dangerous. We declined this option.

Option the Second: Schedule a C-section. That doesn't sound fun. Though c-sections are incredibly safe these days, it's still more of a risk than we wanted to take.

Option the Third: Induce. This is done in a few different ways. First, Mrs. Claudio was told to return to the office that night for "cervix stretching." THIS SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD TIME. She would then report to the hospital where they would induce labor with a pitocin drip. The good doctor said that going this route, the baby would be here in the next 24 hours (!).

We, naturally, opted for the third option. The downside is that Mrs. Claudio's body isn't giving any signs of wanting to be in labor yet. She has had very few contractions, and the baby is still pretty high up. The fact is that even with a pitocin drip, she has, says Dr. Feelgood, about a 50-50 chance of needing a c-section. While it's not the end of the world if that's what has to happen, we're both hoping it doesn't come to that.

So. This blog is going to be a long one. Here's my plan. We're going to keep this same blog constantly edited over the next 24 hours. I'm going to get on and put in any fun stories, interesting facts, and, eventually, the grand climax of the story. Just follow along, if you'd like. Think of it as an obstetrically-centered episode of 24.

That being said...away we go!



CHAPTER I: AT YOUR CERVIX!
5:30 PM

We returned to the doctor at the appointed time. We were a bit nervous, especially Mrs. Claudio, simply because "stretching the cervix" doesn't sound like a rollicking good time. I mean, I don't even have a cervix (I hope?), and I winced at the idea. All sorts of debate was going on. Would it be a manual operation? Does he have a neat machine (the Cervitron 2000!)? Would it take a long time? Would it hurt? Would it make labor happen, so the miracle drugs aren't needed?

We thought about all of this as we noticed that we were not by any means alone in the waiting room. It turns out that ol' Doc was having a regular cervix stretching fiesta that evening, attempting to induce labor on four different women. As the women debated what "stretching" really implied, I read an article about Italian grilling. SPLENDID TIMES FOR ALL.

The girl that got called in before Mrs. Claudio came out about five minutes later, so we figured it wasn't a long process. She also gave Mrs. Claudio the thumbs up and said, "It's completely painless," as she walked out the door.

"Mrs. Claudio," I said. "She's lying."

"I hope not....she wasn't walking funny or anything..."

Mrs. Claudio's turn came, Doc lubed up the happy fingers, and...well, it happened just about like you'd think. There was...um..."reaching" (the doctor), stretching (the cervix), and wincing (Mrs. Claudio). There was also sitting (me) and comforting (also me).

After a few minutes of premium cervix expansion service, complete with filter change and new windshield wipers, Doc gave us our marching orders: be at the hospital between 8:00 and 10:00 tonight, and we'll get this show on the road.

Eep.


CHAPTER 2: "I HATE TO BE THE BEARER OF BAD NEWS..."
9:28 PM

A note to all doctors and nurses present and future: THIS IS NOT A PHRASE TO BE THROWN AROUND LIGHTLY.

I'll get to the history in a second, but here's the scoop for the moment. They hooked Mrs. Claudio up to a fetal monitor that measures both contractions and the baby's heartbeat. They let this go for a while and saw a few of Mrs. Claudio's contractions. What they saw afterward, however, was a drop in the baby's pulse. It's a temporary drop, and it comes right back up, but it's still significant. The nurse said that the fact that the drop is coming AFTER contractions indicates that the baby is in a bit of distress, most likely due to the fact that she's overdue. The nurse introduced this information with the title statement.

Ladies and gentlemen, this freaked me right the heck out.

I get strange when I worry. I get a bit withdrawn and pretty serious. I hope that goes away soon, because it's not a good mindset for me or for Mrs. Claudio right now. The nurse says that this isn't a really big deal and that both of her kids did the same thing, which remains strangely non-comforting.

In any case, the nurses tilted Mrs. Claudio up on her right side and got her on an oxygen flow. That seems to have diminished the drop in the baby's pulse, which is making me feel a bit better. Mrs. Claudio and her mom (who is with us, by the way...I don't think I've mentioned her until now) are more upbeat. I guess I'm just really worried for the baby. I have my personal reasons, having to do with my views on God, etc., but I'm trying to do well with those.

OK, with that out of the way:

The doctor told us to come between 8 and 10. Mrs. Claudio was excited to get here, but thought that she would "look like a dork" if she showed up exactly at 8. Thus, we opted to be "fashionably late" and aimed to get here around 8:15. It turned out to be a really good thing that this wasn't an emergency, because I had to circle the hospital once or twice before we found the entry for Labor and Delivery. We got here eventually, got her registered, and were ushered to a rather large birthing room. Pardon me, birthing suite. And sweet it is (PUNTASTIC)! It's a spacious room that looks as though the Marriott family designed the hospital (then again, this is Provo, Utah, and such a thing is quite possible, I guess).

Mrs. Claudio got dressed (draped) in her special hospital "clothes" and the fun began. Her nurse seems like a feisty young lady. She needed the energy to check Mrs. Claudio's dilation. Apparently Mrs. Claudio's cervix...well, apparently it's pretty far up there. This nurse had to get REALLY involved to check the dilation (which, by the way, is up to two). As she threw away her soiled glove she exasperatedly said, "I'm sorry, I haven't had to be that rude in a long time!"

They got her strapped in and monitored, then all the big stuff spoken of up above ensued. You will recall that this was the freak out time.

Our nurse called Doc, who said that he wanted to observe her for an hour and see if anything would happen naturally before introducing a pitocin drip. And that, my friends, is where we are right now. Just waiting out the next hour to see if Mrs. Claudio's body will go into labor and if anything bad happens with the pulse (which is looking better and I'm starting to relax about). Her contractions are starting to come more and more often. Right now she's having them about every two minutes or so. We're hoping that means things will go naturally, which would just be lovely.

And now...off to throw up!


CHAPTER 3: IN THE WHICH MRS. CLAUDIO HAS WEAKSAUCE VEINS
10:48 PM

It took half an hour, three nurses, seven needles (and the same amount of pokes), and Mrs. Claudio almost shattering the bones in both of my wrists, but Mrs. Claudio is finally fitted with an IV. Seriously, this was absurd. I would like to point out that the nurses here were not at fault. They were, in fact, very skilled. The problem, as they told her, was her anatomy. Apparently her veins are very sensitive to shutting off. She seems to have more valves in her veins than most people, which means that when the vein gets penetrated, it seals itself off. Good if you're bleeding...bad if people are trying to force you to bleed.

The whole thing the last post was about has gone away. Sorry for the panicked tone...I'm just pretty nervous about the whole thing. I'll probably freak out many more times throughout the evening, but I'll try to keep them in perspective for our viewers at home.

In other news, Mrs. Claudio has a very strong grip. She used my wrist to take out her pain, and it changed to a very interesting shade of red.


CHAPTER 4: NO NEWS IS GOOD NEWS?
1:05 AM

I suppose that the baby's birthday is now pretty much officially here. Other than that, we haven't really realized anything new. We have a new nurse who seems to have slightly longer fingers, which will hopefully make cervical checkups a little easier. Unfortunately, Mrs. Claudio has made virtually no progress in the last two hours. She's still dilated to a 2+, which just isn't that high. Nevertheless, she insists that the contractions are getting stronger and hurting worse, so...well, hopefully something will start happening soon.

Mrs. Claudio's mom is trying to help her out in any way possible. She's trying to get her to relax during contractions, rather than tensing up. Mrs. Claudio, however, said that that hurts even worse. "Mom, relaxing isn't the way to go."

CHAPTER 5: SHE WAS TIED TO THE BED WITH A MIRACLE DRUG IN ONE HAND
3:17 AM

After suffering through a few hours of pretty intense contractions, Mrs. Claudio's doctor approved an epidural for her. The vibe in this room has completely reversed. Where before things were dark and Mrs. Claudio was writhing and wincing, the room is now just happier in general. As Mrs. Claudio said, "That was not a fun place where I was...and the idea of it getting worse is just hell." Luckily, her doctor approved the anesthesia relatively early on, so she's really getting the good end of things. She's back to being herself again, which is just...well, things are much better now. By a long shot.

For those who have never seen an epidural, I have to recommend it. It was totally awesome to watch. That was one big ol' needle.

Basically, we're all in a much happier place now, especially Mrs. Claudio. She even has a happy button, which will increase the flow of the drugs to her spine. Most excellent.

Mrs. Claudio just got measured, and despite the rather frequent and painful contractions, she's no more dilated than she has been for the last number of hours. Her doctor just said that we'll wait for a bit and then he's going to break her water. Apparently...well, that's gonna be the dealbreaker. It's almost showtime.

But now, thank heaven, we get some time to sleep. Hopefully we actually can. Nerves are coming and going for both of us.

Well, regardless of anything else, Mrs. Claudio is now and shall forever sing praises to the epidural.


CHAPTER 6: BREAKING WATERS FLOW LIKE RIVER
7:35 AM

Most of this chapter will have to come from secondhand sources, as I was left completely and utterly unconscious through the entire thing. I'm a bit upset about that. Mrs. Claudio says that they tried yelling at me and at one point her mom got up and was coming to shake me, but the doctor said that it was no big deal and that I should just sleep on. Seriously. I feel as though I've missed out on something.

The events go as follows: Mrs. Claudio got a little bit of sleep. They checked her three or four times during the night and things looked good, except for the fact that her dilation had still only reached three by this morning. Not fast enough, they decided, and thus the hook was introduced.

For those not aware, water breaking is when the amniotic sac is ruptured and all the "water" (that's in quotes because it's a lot harder to say, "Wow, Mrs. Claudio, look, your sac of grotesque goo is breaking!") rushes on out. This is usually a naturally occurring thing, but it can be done artificially to drive labor. And how is it done artificially? In essence...a crochet hook. The doctor reaches it up there, hooks the sac, twists it around the hook, and yanks. Voila! Instant rupture!

Apparently it's worked. They checked her half an hour later and she had dilated a full centimeter more. She's still got quite a ways to go. In fact, according to the dilation standards, she has only now officially entered "active labor" (4-7 cm). The baby is delivered at 10. We're hoping she can make it there on her own and in a timely manner. We'll keep this updated as to her hopefully speedy progress.


CHAPTER 7: MO DRUGS MO BETTER
8:25 AM

Well, they measured Mrs. Claudio again and, alas, she hasn't dilated any more. As such, pitocin has finally been introduced. They have her on a very slow drip, hopefully just enough to get her body into more of a labor-y state.

And....that's about it.


CHAPTER 8: BREVITY
9:50 AM

The baby isn't reacting well to the pitocin drip. Her heartbeat is sort of erratic, and Mrs. Claudio's body isn't ready for labor. She's going in to have a c-section immediately. Will update later.

-Aunt's insert-
Mrs. Claudio and Claudio are in the delivery room getting ready for the c-section. They seemed pretty nervous, but we're confident that everything is ok! They should be out soon and we'll be posting pictures of my new little niece.

CHAPTER 9: ALL IS WELL
11:43 AM

Everything went just fine. Mrs. Claudio and the baby are both doing fine. Thank you all for your prayers and concern. I'll post more later, but be aware that everything is just fine.

CHAPTER 10: BEGINNINGS
1:09 PM

Well, she's here! Little Claudia was born at 10:24 AM on August 5, 2008. She weighs 7 pounds and 13 ounces, and is 20 inches long. She's mostly bald, but has some thin but hopefully promising strawberry blond hair. In fact, here, I'll start putting up pictures:

And there's our little girl.

Mrs. Claudio's c-section went very well. Her doctors were very skilled and very fast with their work. Mrs. Claudio had a curtain blocking her view, but I watched most of the proceedings. I guess anesthesia makes a man bold, because the doctors were just ripping into Mrs. Claudio. Luckily, she was blissfully unaware of everything going on.

The doctors brought Little Claudia out and she tried a couple of pretty weak cries before really getting the hang of it. And then she kept going for a while, all through her cleaning and weighing. Apparently there was a little bit of fluid in her lungs that would only come out if she kept crying, and...well, she did. She's since stopped, and her breathing sounds much better. Now she's pretty intent on sleeping, even refusing the chance to eat in favor of catching some z's.

There has been a lot of emotion running around my mind. I had a really hard time controlling myself for a while. I don't really know exactly what it was, but it was generally good. I don't even think there was a lot fear there. Don't get me wrong, the fear came later, but while I was in the nursery with Little Claudia when Mrs. Claudio was getting stitched up...well, there was a lot going on in my mind.

Now we're all together in the Mothers/Babies floor...I guess it's our first time together as a family. It seems to make sense. That sounds like an odd way to describe it, but that's how it feels. Nothing here feels illogical or strange. It just feels like this is the way it is supposed to be. It makes sense to my heart and mind.