re: Songs From the Black Hole

While writing a paper late last night, I completed a satisfactory version of Songs From the Black Hole. As I previously posted, there are a few pieces missing, but most of them are inconsequential set dressing/narrative type pieces that would have only been the proverbial "cherry on top" of this already amazing album. The tracklist has changed since last night, but not significantly. Anyways, here it is (explanation to follow):

1. Blast Off! (Alone I)
2. Who You Callin' Bitch? (Alone I)
3. You Won't Get With Me Tonight (Gimme Skelter)
4. Oh Jonas (Alone II)
5. Please Remember (Alone II)
6. Come To My Pod (Alone II)
7. Why Bother? (Pinkerton)
8. Oh No, This is Not For Me (leaked demo)
9. Tired of Sex (Pinkerton)
10. Superfriend (Alone I)
11. The Love I'm Searching For (Excellent Stocking Stuffer)
12. Dude, We're Finally Landing (Alone I)
13. Getchoo (Pinkerton)
14. I Just Threw Out The Love Of My Dreams (The Good Life EP)
15. No Other One (Pinkerton)
16. Waiting on You (The Good Life EP)
17. Devotion (El Scorcho UK CDS)
18. Longtime Sunshine (Alone I)


As I mentioned before, this version more closely resembles Tracklist One; the glaring exceptions here are the Pinkerton songs included ("Why Bother?" and "Waiting on You" were both to be included at some point, however don't appear on either tracklist) and the Rentals demo. The placement of "Why Bother?" seemed fairly obvious if you imagine it as part of Jonas' regret of going back to Maria's pod. "Waiting on You" also seemed somewhat obvious, taking on the regretful tone of the end of the album. It is a natural bridge between "No Other One" and "Devotion" and is the "Holiday" of SFTBH.

The really tough placement came with the Rentals demo. If you asked any other Weezer fan, this song has no place on the album, but since I'm way into Weezer's mythology and am an amateur conspiracy theorist, I believe this is at least one of the early Rentals songs that belongs on SFTBH. I think there are a few more that could have fit in somewhere, but that's for another day.

Everything written after this is purely opinion and I haven't decided whether I'm serious about everything or not, but here it is anyways. It's well known that Matt Sharp didn't really receive as much attention as Rivers did in terms of songwriting for Weezer; in fact, he wasn't credited as a writer on the Blue Album or on Pinkerton and sued the band for cutting him out of the credits for songs like "Undone (The Sweater Song)", "El Scorcho" and "The Good Life." The suit was settled out of court, with the band paying Sharp. The way I've always imagined it was that Sharp was a foil to Rivers, always playing the opposite end of the spectrum, whether it be writing hooks when Rivers wouldn't focus or making things weird when Rivers was trying too hard.

It seems to me that Sharp was excited by the idea of SFTBH because it seemed like more of a collaborative process; he would even have singing parts on the album that weren't backup parts. It seemed as though he began writing songs that would fit somewhere in the narrative arc, but wasn't told exactly what his part was going to be (he was set to play Dondo, one of the two stooges on the spaceship). He wrote songs like "The Love I'm Searching For" and "Waiting" around the time when SFTBH was being written, along with songs like "California" and "So Soon." When Sharp decided to record Return of the Rentals, it seemed like it was Matt's way of saying goodbye to Rivers; he took the Hadens and a bunch of really good pop songs (and was probably trying to take Pat Wilson too) and released ROTR in 1995. When asked in a chat room a few years ago what happened to SFTBH, Rivers answered "ROTR." Many people believe that Rivers didn't want his songs on SFTBH to sound too much like Sharp's ROTR, but I believe that a lot of SFTBH was Sharp and his releasing the Rentals' first album sent everything off the rails.

Anyways, I believe that this is a satisfactory version of Songs From the Black Hole and I hope you enjoy it.