"El Scorcho
" is the first single off the second album Pinkerton
by Weezer, released in 1996. The music video features the band playing in an old ballroom in Los Angeles (as revealed by Weezer's Video Capture Device DVD), surrounded by light fixtures of diverse origin, flashing in time to the music. The name of the song was supposed to have come from a packet of hot sauce from Del Taco, labeled "Del Scorcho." [1]
The song was not a successful single; several radio stations refused to play the song, and the video stiffed on MTV. This is considered to be one of the causes for the initial commercial failure of the album.
On WeezerJonas, the official online street team for Weezer, "El Scorcho" was ranked the third best song on Pinkerton
, losing to "The Good Life" and "Tired of Sex."
It was, however, extremely popular in Australia, and made it to #9 on the Triple J Hottest 100 chart
, the national poll for the most popular alternative songs. It was subsequently released on the 1996 Triple J Hottest 100 compilation
.
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EL SCORCHO TICKETS
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Inspiration
Cuomo mentioned in a 2006 interview with the
Harvard college newspaper, The Crimson, that the lines mentioning "Cio-Cio San" and "watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack" were actually taken from an essay from a classmate of his at Harvard in an Expository Writing class. The printed lyrics to the song identify these two lines as quoted with the enclosure of quotation marks. "...one example is, in 'Pinkerton,' in 'El Scorcho,' two lines in the song are actually taken from someone else’s essay in my Expos class. Because at one point, we had to do a little workshop thing, and we each got assigned to review someone else’s essay. So, I reviewed this one person’s essay, and I liked some of the lines in it, so I took them and used them in the song." The actual meaning of "watching Grunge leg-drop New Jack through a press table" is a reference to
ECW wrestler
Johnny Grunge leg dropping
New Jack, through a table, possibly referencing a photograph of Grunge wrestling New Jack that was published in
Pro Wrestling Illustrated
.
[2]
Cultural references
The first line of the song is a reference to punk band
Half-Japanese. The line "listening to Cio-Cio San" is in reference to
Puccini's opera,
Madame Butterfly
, The main characters of which are an American sailor - Pinkerton - and a Japanese girl named Cio-Cio San. The actress who played Cio-Cio San in the premiere cast of 1904 was named
Rosina Storchio though the alternate spelling indicates that this is likely an unintentional reference. The reference may additionally be to the
David Henry Hwang play
M. Butterfly
, which, at least to a degree, deals with themes of gender, sexuality and the confusion many people experience in that. This, in conjunction with the song "
Pink Triangle", and the continued reference to the opera and/or play, gives the album an over-arching theme. Additionally, the line "I'm the epitome/of public enemy" is a misquoted lyric from
Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype."
The song also mentions the band
Green Day in the lyric "I asked you to go to the Green Day concert/You said you never heard of them." In 2005 while on the
Foozer tour, Weezer often changed the lyric to "I asked you go to the
Foo Fighters concert" and changed it to "the Weezer concert" in late '05. During their stop in Chicago for Lollapalooza, this was again changed to "I asked you to go to the
Pixies concert", who were playing just before Weezer on a nearby stage. In a continuation of the Green Day reference, at exactly 2:00, the song launches into a brief parody/homage of Green Day's style, with an increased tempo, quickly strummed chords and a mild parody of
Billie Joe Armstrong's vocals by Cuomo. The song also goes onto mention 1990's professional wrestling company
Extreme Championship Wrestling in the lyric "Watching
Grunge leg drop
New Jack through a press table."
Music video
For the single, Cuomo refused to make any "
Buddy Holly"-like videos explaining "I really don't want the songs to come across untainted this time around...I really want to communicate my feelings directly and because I was so careful in writing that way. I'd hate for the video to kinda misrepresent the song, or exaggerate certain aspects."
[3] The final video featured the band playing in an assembly hall in Los Angeles, surrounded by light fixtures of diverse origin, flashing in time to the music.
[4] It debuted on
MTV's program
120 Minutes and only received moderate airplay on the channel.
Mark Romanek directed the video.
Track listing
Radio Only Promo Single
# "El Scorcho" - 4:03
UK 7" Single/UK CD #1
# "El Scorcho" - 4:03
# "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly" - 1:57
UK CD #2
# "El Scorcho" - 4:03
# "You Gave Your Love to Me Softly" - 1:57
# "Devotion" - 3:11
"You Gave Your Love to Me Softly" was recorded for and released on the soundtrack to the film Angus
. This version is a completely new recording.
Charts
Chart (1996)
| Peak Position
|
UK Singles Chart
| 50
|
U.S. Billboard
Modern Rock Tracks
| 19
|
Covers
- Actor Michael Cera's band The Long Goodbye has covered the song. [5]
- Dashboard Confessional covered the song 'El Scorcho' on their 2007 cover's album 'The Wire Tapes Vol. 1'
- Manchester Orchestra recorded a cover of it for their youtube podcast.
- Chilean band Los Miserables in their album "Date Cuenta" made a cover called "Chow Chow Sen" inspired by the song El Scorcho. [6]
- The Band Cobra Starship covered this song in Cambridge, Mass in January of 2008 in a concert due to the excitement of the crowd. Many of whom, sang along.
Personnel
- Rivers Cuomo – lead guitar, lead vocals
- Patrick Wilson – percussion
- Brian Bell – rhythm guitar
- Matt Sharp – bass guitar
References
- =W= Story
- Rivers' End: The Director's Cut
- Luerssen D., John. ''Rivers' Edge: The Weezer Story''. ECW Press, 2004, ISBN 1-55022-619-3 p. 202
- Luerssen D., John, 2004 p. 195
- YouTube - The Long Goodbye: ""El Scorcho"
- http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Miserables_(banda)