I Was Scared: Difference between revisions

| Album    = Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo

"'''I Was Scared'''" is the fourth track from ''[[Alone II: The Home Recordings of Rivers Cuomo]]''.  

"I Was Scared" was rehearsed at various points in [[2003]] and [[2004]], including at [[Office demos|Weezer's rented office space]]. [[Rivers Cuomo]] later rehearsed the song in preparation for the band's [[Make Believe|fifth album]], but is not known to have been rehearsed again once the band entered the studio. In the ''[[Alone II]]'' liner notes, [[Cuomo]] explained that the song was inspired by an experience in high school in which he allowed his brother, [[James Kitts|Jimmy]], to get beaten up in exchange for peace from school bullies. In May [[2003]], Cuomo recalled this incident during a [[Vipassana]] meditation course and later wrote the song during a visit at his brother's house.

{{Alone liner notes|In May of 2003 I went to my first Vipassana meditation course in the hopes that the technique could melt away the thought patterns that infused my creative process, the self-doubt, the self-criticism, the fear of trying new things, the craving for a reliable formula. One of the first things that came up for me, during my second Vipassana meditation course, in June, sitting in the meditation hall for twelve hours a day for ten days in silence, with nothing but my mind and my memories, was a painful experience I had had fifteen years earlier. 1986-1987, my Junior Year of high school, was the toughest year of my life, in terms of getting hassled, picked on and bullied. That was the year that I had stumbled upon the perfect formula for "doing" my hair (wash, condition, apply several dollops of Dep gel, blow dry whilst scrubbing scalp with palm, then a heavy coat of Aqua Net "Extra Super Hold") and the jocks did not like it one bit. They also did not like the ripped jeans, spandex, chains, spiked wristbands, faux fox tails, and zebra bandanas that my friends and I wore to school every day. Especially, they did not like the music that we liked: Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Kiss. Scott H. (about twice my body mass) and the others taunted, pushed and shoved us and made us terrified for our physical safety when we had to walk through the halls in between classes.

David was one of Scott's group, and he, for some reason, picked my brother, [[James Kitts|Jimmy]], a year younger than I, for his mark. As I remember it, one day David challenged Jimmy to a fight and offered us what appeared to be attractive terms: if Jimmy would meet David, alone, in the back of the school after classes let out, and fight him one on one, then David's whole group would leave us all alone thereafter. This was the one fight that David really wanted to have, apparently.

*[[Rivers Cuomo]] – lead guitar, lead vocals, percussion, rhythm guitar, bass guitar

[[Category:Songs on Alone II]][[Category:Songs on Alone IX: The Make Believe Years]]