A week ago, I was minding my own business when I got a Discord message from a friend in the Weezer fan community that made me jump out of my seat.
“CHERRY BERRY IS OUT“
This is simultaneously a message that I’ve waited decades for and one that I thought I’d never get.
If you’re not a Weezer fan (or a casual (not that there’s anything wrong with that)), these words might not make much sense. But for some of us, it was the resolution of a long-standing mystery.
Lost in the Black Room
So I should tell you that Cheri Beri (as it’s spelled on the official release) has a bit of a mythic/meme status in the Weezer fan community. And it’s partially my fault.
Rivers wrote and recorded his original demo of Cheri Beri in July 1998, right around his TKX period, the nadir of his ‘Black Room‘ era. The band practiced it at least once around then.
In early 1999, Rivers shut off all contact with the outside world to devote himself to songwriting. He emerged in 2000 with the batch of songs known as the Summer Songs 2000 (or SS2k). Everything from before 2000 was left behind.
Fast forward to the end of 2000, and Weezer is getting ready to record the Green Album. The SS2k material was not deemed commercial enough and was discarded, with the exception of Hash Pipe (which was Rivers’ choice, and a wise one at that). During the demo process, the band considered some older songs, including Cheri Beri.
Putting the Pieces Together
In 2010, I started writing Indecision and Abandoning the Past, an article about Weezer in 1998 and 1999, and the original journey for the band’s third album. I asked Karl Koch why Cheri Beri made the list. He said that was “Pat and Mikey saying ‘that song ruled why did we forget about it’? It’s a rocker, I don’t disagree it deserved fresh attention.”
When Rivers started selling his demos in 2020, there was no recording of Cheri Beri in the Black Room bundle. It made sense. Some songs weren’t included because they had other performers, or because he was planning on using them for future works. I asked him about this, he said at the time that it was possible he had the demo somewhere else, that it was just not digitized. During a separate conversation about possible songs to be performed acoustically, I jokingly mentioned Cheri Beri. Rivers responded by saying “I could do that…you’ve never heard the song so you don’t know how strange that seems.“
One of the great things about the bundles is that Rivers is continually adding music to them. If he finds a file, or if Weezer releases a song that used an old demo, the file goes in the bundle. But after a few years with no news on the Cheri Beri front, I haven’t been expecting much. But that didn’t stop me from bringing it up whenever I could.
Unearthing the Tape
Last week, Karl Koch found the attached recording in his archives and Rivers added it to the bundle, finally sharing the song with fans and leading to the message that started all of this.
I had a feeling it would be a rough recording. And it is. It’s around a minute long, recorded on a home recording unit. Vocals and electric guitar only. It’s incomplete; just a verse and a chorus. It’s Rivers’ writing tape, so at one point, he sings ‘Cheri Beri…she knows the words to the…knows the words to this song.‘
But for such a short recording, it’s got a lot. First off, it’s better than all of the other guitar-and-vocals TKX songs. It’s heavy and poppy. It’s got some charm, especially in the lyrics (flubbed as they are) and vocal delivery. With Mikey bringing the heavy vibe (he and Pat were big into Fu Manchu and early Queens of the Stone Age at the time), this definitely would have sounded good alongside Trampoline and Everyone. And you can see why Pat and Mikey would think it was a fun song that should be revisited. And the Weezer of 2000 would have had fun with it too.
What’s Next?
Fan response to the clip has been decent, especially for a rough recording that’s just a verse and a chorus. Rivers mentioned it’s possible a full-band rehearsal take from the summer of 1998 might exist, but he says he can’t find it. I’m not holding my breath for that, but then again, there were times I didn’t think I’d ever hear this track, either.
Which brings me to a new problem. For the last few years, Cheri Beri was my go to when I needed a bit. Now that we have it, do I need some new material? Should I start asking about Damn that Wine or Ol’ Backwater? Or should I stick with Cheri Beri?
