El Scorcho: Difference between revisions
→Inspiration
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*[[El Scorcho]] (UK Retail 7"/UK Retail CD #1) | *[[El Scorcho]] (UK Retail 7"/UK Retail CD #1) | ||
*[[El Scorcho]] (UK Retail CD #2) | *[[El Scorcho]] (UK Retail CD #2) | ||
==Overview== | |||
The premise of "El Scorcho" is the struggle between confessing your feelings, waiting for the girl to, or simply doing nothing about it. The opening lines explain the frustration of finding out if someone likes you, and finding out everything you can about the person through their friends ("The redhead said you shred the cello"). The girl in "El Scorcho" appears later in the song "[[Falling for You]]" when she leaves her "cello in the basement" of Rivers' place. Many fans have related the chorus to that of a Pet Sounds chorus because of it's simple nature, yet incredibly effective wording: | |||
"I'm a lot like you, so please, hello, I'm here, I'm waiting." | |||
In the second verse, Rivers finds out the girl actually does like him when he reads her diary and mentions listening to Cio-Cio San. During the bridge, Rivers expresses his frustration with not being able to confront things directly, and instead having to make songs and records that are so personal. The song has many quirks, which attribute to it's fan favorite status. Such quirks include: the choppy, almost inept solo (sung in falsetto), Cuomo not being able to hit the note on the third verse (perhaps symbolic of not being able to realize his dream?), lines about keeping fingernails clean, etc. | |||
The song is notable for its singalong chorus, and falsetto yells from [[Matt Sharp]], which have become somewhat of a favorite. | |||
==Inspiration== | ==Inspiration== | ||
"El Scorcho" is one of the first narrative songs Rivers wrote at Harvard. 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" is a reference to ECW's star Johnny Grunge leg dropping New Jack, through a table, possibly referencing a photograph of Grunge fighting wrestler New Jack that was published in Pro Wrestling Illustrated. | "El Scorcho" is one of the first narrative songs Rivers wrote at Harvard. 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" is a reference to ECW's star Johnny Grunge leg dropping New Jack, through a table, possibly referencing a photograph of Grunge fighting wrestler New Jack that was published in Pro Wrestling Illustrated. | ||
==Cultural References== | ==Cultural References== | ||