Writing process
In 2004, Rivers Cuomo began taking private music composition lessons from Bruce Reich at UCLA.[1] Some of the vocal harmonies written for "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" were originally composed for a focal counterpoint excercise from these lessons. Cuomo excitedly contacted Reich after the release of The Red Album, but was dismayed to learn that Reich had recently passed away.[1][2][3]
In describing his initial inspiration for the song, Cuomo has said, "I just had this really strong and kind of sudden conviction that I am sick of writing verse-chorus-verse songs. I've been doing it for so many years, that's what everyone else does; I wanna do something completely different."[3] Cuomo decided to instead write a song using the musical structure of theme and variations, as used in classical music, using different bands and musician styles (Slipknot, Jeff Buckley, Aerosmith, etc.) as the different variations. Cuomo intially also attempted to utilize different lyrical perspectives for each variation, but found the results too disjointed, and resolved to maintain the same persona throughout. Early alternate song titles in consideration included "Mack Daddy," "The Player," "Player 4 Life," and "The Ballad of Oswaldo Sánchez" (named for the Mexican soccer goalie). Cuomo was inspired by Sánchez after seeing him play the World Cup in 2006 despite Sánchez having just lost his father to a heart attack.[3]
Cuomo had difficulty writing the spoken word section of "The Greatest Man", and so contacted Rick Rubin to get examples of spoken word sections in pop songs. Rubin suggested Elvis Presley's rendition of "Are You Loneseome Tonight?," which Cuomo studied.[3] The lyrics for the spoken word section from "The Greatest Man" is derived from similar lyrics in Presley's song (which itself was partially derived from the play As You Like It by William Shakespeare).
At the time of the release of The Red Album, Cuomo called the song his favorite song on the album, and one of his favorite songs he's ever written.[4] Bassist Scott Shriner, in an interview, called the song "a masterpiece that includes ten different styles of music based around a common theme. It's awesome."[5]
The song's title includes the parenthetical "Variations on a Shaker Hymn," referring to the 1848 Shaker song "Simple Gifts," generally attributed to Joseph Brackett. As explained in the liner notes for the deluxe edition of The Red Album:
The subtitle of the song for "The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived" is "Variations on a Shaker Hymn."
Rivers: Yes, actually, I didn't realize I was ripping off a shaker hymn. It wasn't until we were in the studio and Brian's mom came by one day and she heard us play "Greatest Man" and said afterward, "You know that melody sounds like this hymn we sing in church." So indeed we checked it out and it's very similar. I knew people were going to come at us after and say, hey you guys ripped off that hymn. So I put the credit in there off the bat.
— Weezer (The Red Album) liner notes
Recording
"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" was recorded in the "War Room", a space backstage at the Malibu Performing Arts Center in Malibu, California. The band taped butcher paper to the mirrors to write down ideas and plans for recording songs. According to Brian Bell, the band used about 20 feet of butcher paper just for "The Greatest Man" and spent about as much time discussing how to record the song as they did actually recording it.[6] According to Cuomo, the band rehearsed the song for about a month before embarking on the Troublemaker Tour, and about half of the rehearsal process was dedicated to learning "The Greatest Man."[4]
Sections
Different sections of the song were inspired by specific artists, in the theme and variation style of classical music:
- Rap (0:35)
- Slipknot (1:00)
- Jeff Buckley (1:26)
- Chorale (1:51)
- Aerosmith (2:17)
- Nirvana (2:43)
- The Andrews Sisters (3:08)
- Green Day (3:33)
- Spoken word (4:06)
- Johann Sebastian Bach (4:37)
- Ludwig van Beethoven (4:54)
- Weezer (5:11)
Release
"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" was the first song from The Red Album to be released on iTunes, releasing as a digital single on May 13, 2008.
The song was released as a downloadable track for the rhythm video game Rock Band on June 24, 2008, along with the songs "Troublemaker" and "Dreamin'."
The song was performed live as the finale of the Spike Video Game Awards, which aired on December 14, 2008. The performance featured a marching band drummer, a women's choir, and musician Dave Kushner (formerly of Velvet Revolver) on rhythm guitar. Rivers Cuomo wore a white suit with no shoes.
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