Weezer (1994 Album) - Writing and Composition

Writing and Composition

Most of the album was written by Rivers Cuomo. Exceptions are "My Name Is Jonas", which was co-written with Jason Cropper and Patrick Wilson, and "Surf Wax America", which was composed and written by Cuomo and Wilson. Weezer touches upon various life experiences of Cuomo, including subjects such as his brother's car accident, heartbreak, jealousy, alcohol, and former girlfriends.

Many songs from the album are inspired by Cuomo's past personal experiences. The single "Undone - The Sweater Song" was described by Cuomo as "the feeling you get when the train stops and the little guy comes knockin' on your door. It was supposed to be a sad song, but everyone thinks it's hilarious." The video marks one of the early directorial efforts of Spike Jonze, whose pitch was simply "A blue stage, a steadicam, a pack of wild dogs." The video became an instant hit on MTV. "My Name is Jonas", deals with Cuomo's brother Leaves who had been seriously injured in a car accident while a student at Oberlin College and was having problem with his insurance. Jason Cropper earned co-writing credit for coming up with the intro to the song. The final single, "Say it Ain't So", was again inspired by Cuomo believing his parents split up when he was four because he thought his dad was an alcoholic. The music video, which was directed by Sophie Muller, was less successful than the previous two Spike Jonze-directed videos. It featured the band performing in the garage of their former house, and the bandmates playing hacky sack in the backyard.

The second single from the Blue Album was "Buddy Holly", whose music video was also directed by Spike Jonze. It portrayed the band performing at the original Arnold's Drive-In diner from the popular '70s television show, Happy Days. The video combined contemporary footage of the band with clips from the show. Happy Days cast member Al Molinaro made a cameo appearance in the video. The video was met with great popularity and heavy rotation on MTV. The music video was also featured as an extra in the Microsoft Windows 95 Upgrade CD, along with Edie Brickell's "Good Times" music video and the movie trailer for "Rob Roy". The video won four awards at the 1995 MTV Video Music Awards, including prizes for Breakthrough Video and Best Alternative Video. Both "No One Else" and "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" are lyrically connected, with Cuomo describing the narrator of "No One Else" as "the jealous-obsessive asshole in me freaking out on my girlfriend" and claiming that "'The World has Turned and Left Me Here' is the same asshole wondering why she's gone."