Why Pinkerton Failed (and Then Didn't) - Weezer 

They really had rivers in the mechanism

I feel bad for Rivers in the 90s, that would've been a traumatic experience dumping all of these complex feelings onto an album only for it to bomb and everyone initially criticizes it

Pinkerton is an embarrassing album, but that's entirely the point. It's all the feelings that you wish you never felt, trapped in an album. But when you're in a darker place, and you feel things you know you shouldn't, it's incredibly comforting.

As a high school freshmen when Pinkerton came out I freakin loved the album and had no idea it was considered a failure. You can understand my confusion about finding that out!

“Shame leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to the green album” 😂😂😂 StarWars and Weezer=chef’s kiss! Great video, keep up the great work

One of my favourite Weezer stories is from Brian after Pinkerton went platinum, he made a post about how he made a visit to a recording studio he worked in back in 1990, and how he was proud to see the album Pinkerton hanging on the wall of the studio. He mentioned how he used to be the vacuum guy at the studio, and how his nickname was 'Jazz Rat' because of the 'improvisational ways in which he vacuumed the floors'

"Did anyone try the Pinkerton tonight?" "That's not so good Rivers."

my favorite line from pinkerton is: ''hey, it's pinkerton time'' then everyone starts yelling this album is so good it deserved a pinkertillion dollars

What I love most about Pinkerton is the raw honesty. It's like a musical diary with a clear story throughout all the songs. It's very artsy and gutsy.

I bought a physical copy of Pinkerton back in August of 2016, so I always liked to credit myself for being the one to push Pinkerton into platinum status. Cello jello

Pinkerton has been my favorite album of all time since probably 2008 but I think I've come to like it even more lately. Maybe becoming big on RU-vid over the last 6 years has made me finally able to relate to some of what Rivers was going through after Blue. (Thankfully I can't relate to "Pink Triangle"). Pinkerton is my #1 go to if I'm in a dark place. It never fails to make me feel something.

these weezer documentaries are keepin me goin rn

"The Good Life " I love this song from the album. Sometimes I feel like the protagonist, who looks the mirror and no longer recognizes himself. He feels old, with no one else to blame but himself and wants to go back to his younger days, carefree and dancing. He recognizes that he needs to make a change and get back on the path of living a good life. Great video 👍

Your storytelling is so good man.

Pinkerton was the first Weezer album I heard. It's always been my mom's favorite Weezer album and she's played it ever since I was a toddler. One of the few memories I have from when I was about 4 was hearing Why Bother, it getting stuck in my head, and humming it in preschool. Now that I'm not a tiny kid anymore Pinkerton is one of my favorite records of all time, it's always meant a lot to me.

I've barely listened to weezer in my life but I still love whenever one of your videos comes out. This is once again another spectatular video!

I fucking love Pinkerton

“I understand rivers better than he understands himself!” -leslie jones

I remember when I discovered Pinkerton existed. I had the Blue Album and loved it. But hadn't really kept up with new stuff coming and didn't know Weezer had released a second album. One day, a couple friends and I were in a pool hall playing pool and I heard a song come on... thought to myself, "This sounds like Weezer." The pool hall had one of those CD Juke boxes that was playing the music, so I went over to see who it was. Found the song and saw Pinkerton for the first time. The song was Tired of Sex. I didn't know it existed, but I recognized the sound. I've never thought Pinkerton was weird or different... I just thought it was Weezer. And I've always liked it.

There's something about this album, and I think it's just the pure unbridled honesty from Rivers, that solidifies it as my favourite Weezer album. No matter what I'm going through, it speaks to me in my emotional state and inspires me as a human to be real in my art.

I listened to this album every night for a year, from the first time I heard it. I still remember every air drum part. The SS2K video draws nearer, I can sense it

Love the video! But... I'm not sure I quite agree with your conclusion that Butterfly is "utterly hopeless". While it is a very difficult song to stomache, and perhaps does showcase Rivers at his lowest. I think that him finally accepting that he is the problem, and has been this whole time, is a hopeful message. At least to me, Butterfly has always felt like him stopping his descent into someone truly terrible, and beginning an ascent into a much more mentally stable person.

My favorite comment gets pinned in one week!

it still baffles me that they went with pink triangle for the third single instead of falling for you

I'll be honest, I don't listen to Wheezer, but listening to the way these albums were produced and the aftermath is so fascinating. It's like watching a car hit something, flip around in the air, land on all four tires, and countinue on as if nothing happened.

NEW MARCBUTEVIL VIDEO I MIGHT CREAM LET’S GOOOOO

I really listened to this album for the first time while going through a really bad bout of depression & suddenly I got it. Brilliant album, it takes a huge amount of guts to make something so honest and raw when everyone is expecting you to make a candy pop rock album.

Anytime I get a notification for a Weezer video from you, I click immediately. I am way too obsessed with this band it's a problem haha

bravo marcbutevil

Can't wait for the next episode. Fantastic work as always.

The fact that Pinkerton failed so badly is endlessly stupefying to me, as so many still relate to it at insane levels. It's an extremely dead horse by now but still, what were critics smoking?

I strive to give such amazing advice as rivers

Cello Jello. Great vid as always!

This album has affected me in many, many ways. Every time I listen to it I get brought back to points in my own life, and no other album does that for me. What's funny is the first time I listened to this album, I just thought it was okay. Not bad, not great, just "eh, its good, I guess" but as events in my own life with someone I loved escalated, I found myself listened to the album everyday and relating to it more than I ever should've. I'd cry, laugh, and sing along loudly to the album for weeks on end. I still do sometimes whenever I feel that itch for the melancholic. I'd say it's Weezer's In Utero (with the raw production and different vibe when compared to the album that made them famous), but it's even better than that album. What Weezer did with Pinkerton was make an emo masterpiece that wasn't even emo.

I had been waiting for you to make a Pinkerton video! This was absolutely worth the wait. Great job, Marc.

Marc i could kiss you, thank you so much man

I was one of those Weezer fans that, though I'd heard their name beforehand and heard their blue album hits, "discovered" them as a fan (via prompting from a friend) during their long hiatus between Pinkerton and Green, when Pinkerton was getting that upwards momentum and no one was sure if they were going to ever resurface, so they had a kind of legendary mystique around them at the time. Having loved the first two albums so much, I tried really hard to stick with them beyond the Green album. But it got harder and harder to derive the same closeness and buy-in that oozed from their first two as everything seemed to flip: on Pinkerton, lines like "...since I was out on the floor...shaking booty..." and so many other angsty, playful moments both musically and lyrically came across as authentically bitter in their subtext. The raw emotionality and production of the album really struck of substance. But then Cuomo kept releasing more and more material that felt less and less tongue-in-cheeky and more subtextless and surface when it came to his lifestyle, desires, outlook, and such. It became almost impossible for me to reconcile the vulnerableness of Pinkerton with the almost slap-in-the-face, take it or leave it attitude of their subsequent output. And that's had me questioning ever since if Cuomo has been trolling us all along (like he loved to do to interviewers); has Cuomo always been insincere and was just messing with us the whole time? Or is he always honest and forthcoming in his songs? Can he really not stop partying in da clubs with celebs and his crew? Or is that contradiction/dichotomy the whole point? Is it all about keeping us guessing? All about the messiness of the human experience? Either way, as much as I try and hope, I haven't been able to emotionally connect with most of Weezer's music since Pinkerton.

I've been waiting for this for a year now, my life is complete, this channel is now the greatest channel of all time

That was a real chello jello video if you know what I mean Seriously though great video as always marc! You deserve all the success you have gotten so far and much much more, each video has gotten better than the last and I'm so excited to see what you do next

Marc, you should do a video on Brian Wilson/the beach boys, would be cool to hear your thoughts!

Pinkerton is my absolute favourite album since it’s not only the album which got me into music as a whole but also the album which has touched me the most on an emotional level

I did ALL of it. You guys don't credit me enough.

Its always a good day when MarcButEvil publishes a video. Quality content. I have no idea how you manage to get a collage of so much information an amazing script, 14 minutes recorded without mistake, and having all of those combined into a DaVinci resolve (or whatever you use) file with high quality video editing and sound design. All of that in a week? Its simply insane.

I just discovered your channel and this is the 6th of your Weezer vids I’ve watched today. Subbed 1000% keep up the great videos cause I’ll keep watching them!

One of my favorite lines from the album is on Falling For You, where Rivers, after attempting to play his love interest's cello, becomes intimidated by his inability with the beautiful, classical instrument. "What could you possibly see in little old three chord me?" (Of course, Falling For You is anything but a three chord song.) Excellent video, once again. I feel like I'm a hardcore Weezer nerd, but I always learn new things from your videos.

blue album: being a nerd is awesome!! virginity rocks!! Pinkerton: I'm tired of this loneliness. i want to find love

MarkButEvil pinkerton video I prayed for days like this

Doug Walker jump scare

it feels like every new video you post is my favorite video you’ve posted

Please keep making more content like this, its really interesting and genuinely fun

I love this channel, keep up the good work :D

hooray new MarcButEvil video!!

Im happy

Pinkerton, from day one of its release, has always been my favorite Weezer record. I remember buying it at Best Buy and placing it into my discman, plugging it into my 1994 Geo Tracker’s cigarette lighter and driving home listening to these amazingly raw songs!

Cello Jello!!! Marc youre literally my favorite RU-vidr, i enjoy all of your videos so much and appreciate all of the work that you put into them!

I love your videos. They were so complementary to my journey through Weezer's discography. (Cello Jello)

I used to play the cello, and I do like jello.

I bought it the day it came out and loved it.

Cracking stuff mate

I bought Pinkerton when it was first released, and loved it, and I still love it, it is one if the greatest albums ever. Cello jello.

12:07 Congratulations young traveler, you have found… THE POINT!

If you grew up on artists who wrote personal songs like The Replacements, Husker Du, or even the Descendents, Pinkerton was not unusual and made total sense ten years on in 1996. If, on the other hand, you went to Swarthmore and wrote for Rolling Stone after graduation, you had no frame of reference. Pinkerton was awesome the day it debuted. The poseurs weren’t secure enough to admit that until it became cool to like emotion.

This video is very good Marcbutevil, of the entire Weezer discography, the climax was achieved in '96 with Pinkerton.

Ham sandwich

Across The Sea is one of the best songs ever made

Cello Jello

I just realized that the “old man cane” line in The Good Life is actually autobiographical!! I would never have guessed that without knowing more about its backstory from this video! Love how it’s subtle and invisible if you don’t know Rivers’ full story writing the album. Very cool. Also yeah I watched this yesterday, fantastic video! :)

Cello Jello! Greetings from Buenos Aires Argentina!

If Pinkerton didnt fail we wouldnt have hurley so maybe its best it did

Pinkerton is 50 percent why im in their 0.01% of listeners on Spotify

Pinkerton was very influential on my music creation. To this day it's probably my favorite album by them, even though I have a soft spot for the Red Album. Getchoo and Tired of Sex are just top notch Weezer. I could skip El Scorcho and never feel guilty though.

Pinkerton will probably always be my favorite Weezer album, even if they may create something technically "better", I doubt anything will carry the same emotional resonance. Oh, and Cello Jello 😉

Keep up the good work!

Pinkerton is just a bangin album. I’ll listen to it when I’m up, I’ll listen to it even more when I’m down. I’ve listened to it in good times, and I’ve listened to it even more in bad times. But I always feel good when I listen to it, it’s an album I’m sure I’ll love for the rest of forever! In conclusion cello jello

Cello jello! 😁 great video, man!

I was in high school when this album came out and I bought it after school at Target across the street from my school on day one. I loved it then and I love it now!

this guys videos are underrated

hell yeah brother

As a hard core Weezer fan, this video had stuff even I didn't know. Great job!

I loved it the day it came out & I got it from the radio-station I was working for. it it’s stayed in my rotation ever since. It’s some of the rawest & heaviest stuff. I think Matt Sharp brought a tension there that made for a beautiful noise.

BABE WAKE UP!!!! MARC POSTED NEW WEEZER VIDEO

coincidentally, i just saw jimmy eat world and they played ‘hear you me’, their tribute to mykel and carli. rip. great video

Pinkerton came about and I missed it,was into other music by then. My friends had a Death Metal band and we're DJing raves. Just passed me until a friend recommended it. Been my favorite next to the blue album. 💙 I was 16 driving a Mustang my dad and I built jamming "My Name is Jonas" nothing makes me feel that young and free again like that song..Weezer's music is a gift 🎁 🎶

just saw weezer irl. rivers didnt deserve the amount of hard feelings he has felt. but then again rivers wont be rivers without them.

Fun fact, the girl from pink triangle wasnt actually a lesbian. She was just showing her support for the LGBTQ+ community. Whoopsie daisy. Chello jello :)

excellent video

HELL YEAH PINKERTON

Raditude will be the next Pinkerton, people will look back at it with love in the future because it will define a generation

Look everyone!!! Marcbadevil is talking about weezer!!

He finally made it

8:14 I bet you had so much fun choosing the perfect stock images for this 😂

What im most interested in now is weezers future cuz i feel like sonce white their quality has been getting better (on average) so im excited to see where they go from here

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I remember buying this album when it came out and just being baffled by how different it sounded. It wasn't until a few years later when I listened to it again and it became one of my favorites of all time.

I hate Pinkerton. Not because it’s bad but because every time I listen to it I cry.

Mentioning seppuku will get you flagged? Intense! Anyway I scoured Napster for glimpses of new material only finding Ozma’s demo of “Game over” labeled “New Weezer Song” and a crappy recording of “My Brain”. Needless to say I was chomping at the bit to hear Weezer about to drop a new song. My first reaction to Hash Pipe was pure hatred. What had become of the magic of Pinkerton? Had Rivers finally sold out? I’ve since some around but boy was I steamed when the green album dropped

Growing up in the 90s in SoCal, I remember things differently. I remember Pinkerton bombing, it was a very radical shift from the Blue Album that took time to appreciate. And Weezer disappeared. Then they reappeared with the Green Album and people were excited until the Rivers said that he was done making personal music, that he, and Weezer were selling out, and just making dumb pop music. And that is exactly what they have done. I have not heard anything of substance from them than trendy pop music meant to sell records.

Proud to say I bought Pinkerton on day of release. Still have my original copy.

I haven't listened to the album yet but i can guarantee it's more creative than rappers that rhyme "Cello" with "Jello".

so earlier this year i was sure i heard Rivers Cuomo had been cancelled at one point by metoo and I looked up his wikipedia article and he hadn't been, but I found out he was a weird dude. Then I kept thinking about a few weird things that stuck out and ended up writing a dumb song about his wikipedia article a few months later. then i started getting suggested weezer stuff and came across your channel. I sat watching almost all the videos when i woke up at 3am this morning and couldnt fall back to sleep. this is a really long pointless paragraph to say your channel is super entertaining as someone who was never a huge weezer fan (i was "too punk" in hs and thought they were poseurs) I feel like I'm becoming a weezer fan now. but def a fan of your channel! Its really well done even as someone not from the fanbase at all, which i think is a sign of a skilled video essayist.