Playing My Piano
| "Playing My Piano" | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Album track by Weezer | |||||
| Album | OK Human | ||||
| Released | January 29, 2021 | ||||
| Recorded | 2020 | ||||
| Length | 2:36 | ||||
| Label | Crush Music/Atlantic Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | ||||
| Producer(s) | Jake Sinclair | ||||
| Status | Released | ||||
| Stream |  Spotify |
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| OK Human track listing | |||||
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"Playing My Piano" is the fifth track from OK Human.
Appearances
- OK Human (2021)
Overview
It's weird. I feel like naturally I'm this amazing musician and composer. Like I was born that way, but I didn't get any training and so I have very little skill. I feel that way as a piano player and as a singer, too. Inside I'm like Luciano Pavarotti - this huge voice and can hit all these glorious high notes, but I actually don't have the instrument for it in my throat.
So when I'm here in my room, I have the door locked and, in some cases, even put a sound machine outside. So nobody can see me, nobody can hear me. I don't really have to face the reality of my limited skills. In my mind, I'm just jamming away at the piano and I sound like Beethoven, Puccini, singing like Pavarotti. I think it allows me to go to all these places I really get so much pleasure out of.
Then the next day, I come back and listen to what I recorded. It's pretty pathetic, but the ideas are in there. I can go in there and practice them, touch them up, and hand them off to some actual skilled musicians. And it ends up sounding really great.
- —Rivers Cuomo, Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, 2021[1]
- —Rivers Cuomo, Apple Music interview with Zane Lowe, 2021[1]
Cuomo has described "Playing My Piano" as a metaphor for computer programming, explaining in a podcast recorded for Audible that he'd originally written the song to be explicitly about programming, but found it "really weird and unrelatable", and so instead opted for the use of metaphor.[2] Cuomo has also explained that "Zoom interviews" are intended as a metaphor for songwriting itself.[3]
Audio
Lyrics
My wife is upstairs
My kids are upstairs
And I haven't washed my hair in three weeks
I should get back to the Zoom interviews
But I get so absorbed and time flies
I just can't let go
When I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm pounding out the bass, singing out the tune
I never see the sun like I'm living in a womb
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
A cup of java at the edge of the keys
Dipping down from major to mixolydian
Put on some white noise
Double-bolt the door
Kim Jong-un could blow up my city; I'd never know
I just can't let go
When I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
I'm pounding out the bass, singing out the tune
I never see the sun like I'm living in a womb
I'm playing my piano, ooh-oo
Known recordings
| Performer(s) | Title | Filename | Date of recording | Recording location | Length | Appeared on | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rivers Cuomo | Playing My Piano | playing_my_piano_mod_verse_combo_69_2018_5_16_8_49_45.mp3 | May 16, 2018 | ||||
| Weezer | Playing My Piano | 05 Playing My Piano.wav | 2020 |
|
2:36 | Leaked online | Instrumental version of final mix, leaked online in 2021 |
| Weezer | Playing My Piano | 2020 |
|
2:36 | OK Human |
See also
References
- ↑ Lowe, Zane "Weezer: The OK Human Interview." Apple Music, 27 January 2021 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/weezer-the-ok-human-interview/pl.2b67d12686224245ac1bbbbfa7fb4aa8
- ↑ Lanier, Jaron. "Weezer - OK Human: Audio Liner Notes." Audible. 3 March 2021. https://www.audible.com/pd/weezer-ok-human-Audiobook/B08XC17KJ6
- ↑ King Tom. Mr. Rivers' Neighborhood. 4 June 2021. https://www.weezerpedia.com/wiki/File:Rivers-PlayingMyPiano.png
