Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori
| "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" | |||||
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| Album track by Weezer | |||||
| Album | Weezer (The White Album) | ||||
| Released | April 1, 2016 | ||||
| Recorded | 2015 | ||||
| Length | 3:25 | ||||
| Label | Crush Music/Atlantic Records | ||||
| Writer(s) | Rivers Cuomo | ||||
| Producer(s) | Jake Sinclair | ||||
| Status | Officially released | ||||
| Live debut | December 3, 2016 | ||||
| Stream |  Spotify |
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 Apple Music |
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| Weezer (The White Album) track listing | |||||
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This song is part of the "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" lineage of songs
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"Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" is the seventh track from The White Album.
Contents
Overview
Rivers Cuomo has stated that "Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori" is his favorite song from The White Album. He also expanded on the song's development, both lyrically and sonically, on an episode of the SongExploder podcast, released on April 18, 2016. In the podcast, Cuomo explained that he compiles a Spotify playlist of songs with "cool chord-progressions" and that he lifted the chord progression from the song "Walk Away Renée" by The Left Banke. Cuomo titled an early version of the demo "Awaken Early" (a partial anagram of "Walk Away Renée). The final song's title came from an overheard conversation at a party at Rivers' daughter's school. One mother said that their husband called her "School-Year Elaine" during the year and "Summer Elaine" after the school year had ended, and another mother commented that her husband had two names for her as well, one of them being "Drunk Dori". Both mothers were thanked in the liner notes for The White Album. Cuomo went on to explain that he uses a spreadsheet to compile stream-of-consciousness lyrics by syllable.
The verse melody and some lyrics were originally from a 2002 demo titled "Oh She Left Me There."
The song's bridge melody was repurposed from previous demos titled "Back of Your Heart" and "Rest in Peace", written prior to the release of Everything Will Be Alright In The End. Short snippets of Cuomo working on the song in the studio with producer Shawn Everett were released in a short YouTube clip originally uploaded by Cuomo in January of 2011:
Audio
Personnel
- Rivers Cuomo – guitar, lead vocals
- Patrick Wilson – percussion
- Brian Bell – guitar, backing vocals
- Scott Shriner - bass guitar, backing vocals
Lyrics
Oh, she left me there
She left me all alone
Oh, but I don't care
No I don't mind at all
What really happened?
I got distracted
I suck at getting off the phone
Boy in the bubble
Saying "I love ya'"
I should have written her a note
Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori
When I'm feeling lonely
I don't want to go
Summer Elaine and Drunk Dori
Wish that they would show me
I can't let them go
Oh, she swam away
And flexed her mermaid tail
She was out too deep
When lightning struck the bay
Good witch or bad witch
God is a woman
I wish I hadn't played the prude
She touched my ankle
Paranoid Android
I felt it in my molecules
Slender and tall
They whisk my worries away
Sweet piano melodies play
Feet crushing Sauvignon grapes
I hear them whispering, whispering out at the pool
Remember when we were only sixteen
You made me believe in God
But when I finally wake
Both girls are gone
