Rivers Cuomo names the most underappreciated Weezer song
Weezer frontman and leader Rivers Cuomo has written his fair share of classics. As any fan of alternative rock will happily tell you, the group’s first two albums, Blue Album and Pinkerton, are masterpieces of the genre, even if it took the latter an extended period to fully resonate with listeners. Following this, the Green Album and Maladroit from the early 2000s also contain timeless moments. After that, things tailed off significantly for the Los Angeles quartet until they returned to form with 2014’s Everything Will Be Alright in the End.
Or so the story goes. Despite the widespread disapproval Weezer received from listeners during their ostensible period on the creative heath, Cuomo and the band still showed they had it at points, with ‘Pork and Beans’ from The Red Album an instant example of a later classic. Furthermore, ‘Perfect Situation’ from the 2005 album Make Believe is also incredibly infectious.
The point that Weezer has a collection of overlooked music from their well-publicised creative dip is something that Rivers Cuomo agrees with. When speaking to Vulture in 2023, he named the group’s “most underappreciated” song as ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’. It was the second single from The Red Album, following ‘Pork and Beans’.
Cuomo explained: “I always loved ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’ from The Red Album. That’s a totally unique song. It’s incredibly fun. It’s like what only a cool rock band could do. It has nothing to do with pop music or computers or anything. I don’t know, it’s just one of those songs that’s totally unique, totally Weezer.”
He continued: “It would be awesome to see it on Weezer’s top songs on Spotify along with the other hits, which also meet those criteria. Like, there’s really no other song like ‘Undone – The Sweater Song’ or ‘Hash Pipe’ or ‘Buddy Holly.’ I mean, they’re nothing like each other, even.”
Elsewhere in the conversation, the frontman looked back on “the worst thing” about the initial response to Pinkerton. He said: “There was one person who liked it. I still remember who it was — it was Russell Simins from the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion. No one else on earth liked it. I was so hurt and embarrassed and I really, really disliked myself for making the record I made and for thinking that that was the right record to make. As often has happened with me and maybe with other artists, you kind of flip-flop.”
Cuomo concluded: “With each album, you try to go in the opposite direction you went on the last album. So if Pinkerton was about articulating the deepest, most complicated emotions with deep and complicated songs, for The Green Album I set out to write the simplest possible songs that are just pure candy, that articulate nothing. Just pure fun and catchiness”.
Listen to ‘The Greatest Man That Ever Lived’ below.
