The Weezer track inspired by a classic Nirvana song: “It inspired me to do the same thing”
Although Nevermind is considered Nirvana‘s breakthrough album, supporters of their earlier material labelled the band a sell-out, citing their newfound pop-leaning sensibilities as an indicator of their forthcoming downfall. In response, Kurt Cobain pointed to a couple of earlier tracks to prove that catchy melodies were always a part of his repertoire.
For a band like Weezer, Nirvana’s more accessible aspects were gold dust. Although the band would change the entire course of Weezer’s career, the earlier days showed that this was likely a natural course of action, as frontman Rivers Cuomo embraced anything and everything that made his soul sing and his body move.
The sounds of Nirvana may not have been an obvious rabbit hole for someone as colourful as Cuomo, but it’s simple once you break it all down. Cuomo enjoyed immersing himself in many of metal’s major players, but he also branched out into pop, including Madonna, who helped shape their 1994 self-titled album and its accompanying melodic sensibilities.
The joys of playing rock ‘n’ roll always infiltrated Weezer’s music, but the introduction of Nirvana helped them to take on a more dynamic, edgier tone that had even wider mainstream appeal. According to Cuomo, a pivotal lightbulb moment came when he first heard one of their earlier, albeit still career-defining, tunes.
Recalling the first time he heard ‘Silver’, Cuomo described how it inspired him to become more authentic in his own approach to music: “I was working at Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard in the spring of ’91, and another cashier, Harold, said, ‘Hey, Rivers, I know something you might like. It’s called Nirvana’,” he explained. Adding: “As soon as I heard “Mom and Dad went to a show,” I immediately started dancing around. It was exactly how I felt, and they were putting it to music. It inspired me to do the same thing.”
Cobain may have written ‘Silver’ about abandonment, but the immediately upbeat nature of the bassline, followed by Cobain’s melodic vocals, demonstrated the band’s ability to craft cynical and heartfelt lyrics set to highly engaging and endearing musical arrangements. The song inspired Cuomo to go away and compose ‘Heart Songs’, which detailed all of the artists and records that have inspired him.
In fact, both songs became so heavily intertwined that, during a tour in 2008, Weezer would perform ‘Heart Songs’ on stage, stopping at the moment he sings about hearing Nirvana for the first time. At this point, Cuomo would smash the record player on stage before being joined by Scott Shriner and Pat Wilson to perform ‘Silver’ together.
