King Tom's Kingdom

11: 17 Beautiful Demons

From the Black Room

January 1998

Another sub-minute sketch from Rivers’ romantic/droney/Oasis period. This acoustic sample is the first of four on the tape labeled Beautiful Demons, all seemingly part of a song Rivers would officially catalog on February 20 1998. This bit of the song is sweet and melodic. Definitely a teaser for more.

⭐️⭐️

12: No One Else (Monterey Jack)

From The Blue-Pinkerton Years

August 1992

When I first heard No One Else shortly after cracking open my Blue Album CD, I fell in love with Weezer. I absolutely loved the sound of the song and still do to this day.

It was also a song that had an incredible influence on the band’s sound. After Rivers produced the demo in August 1992, the band spent some time debating whether to stray from a Pixies-influenced sound or into a No One Else-inspired and into a more pop-oriented direction. So they went down the No One Else road and it changed their sound for the better.

The original demo by Rivers is structurally similar to the completed song. But the tempo is slower. The pop feel is there, but it’s not quite yet the song that it will be. Having said that, the demo is still a very good listen.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

13: He’s My Sweetheart

From The Blue-Pinkerton Years

October 5, 1992

If he were born 100 years earlier, Rivers Cuomo would have been a barbershop quartet superstar. Weezer used to do vocal warmups to barbershop and even had a barbershop tune, My Evaline, as a B-side on the Undone (The Sweater Song) single. And there are a handful of barbershop numbers (with Rivers performing all four tracks) in his home recordings.

He’s My Sweetheart is a short little ditty seemingly about friend of the band Patrick Finn. It’s a sweet little tune and it’s nice to see Rivers branch out.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

14 Crazy Rock n Rollers

From Pre-Weezer

October 1991

For years, all Weezer fans had of Crazy Rock n Rollers was a handwritten lyrics sheet and a notation from band historian Karl Koch that with this song, “Rivers was starting to explore some new writing style. “Not so “giddy,” a little more “serious.””

There is a serious element to this song. It’s about a man living up on a hill who doesn’t get the ‘crazy rock n rollers.’ He goes to join them and still doesn’t get it. It doesn’t feel like there’s an ending to the song. The last line of the song is ‘and in his defense he said,’ before the song just fades out. (And contrary to fan belief, the ‘We will/not end up in bed’ scrawled on the lyrics sheet is not part of the song).

Despite the seriousness and truncated nature of the song, it’s still a bouncy catchy tune. And despite writing a song about an old guy who didn’t get the kids, the writer of this song ended up being one of the best crazy rock n rollers.

⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2⭐️

15 Ballsy

From EWBAITE

2013

Rivers Cuomo played with a lot of styles and ideas in the time between Hurley and Everything Will Be Alright in the End.

Ballsy is a riff-oriented pop jam that doesn’t quite go anywhere. The theme (married guy having a platonic meeting with an attached woman) and chords would be reused on Pacific Daydream’s Mexican Fender. But outside of the opening riff and title, nothing about Ballsy particularly stands out in the song’s 1:38 runtime.

⭐️⭐️

6: Two to Tango

From Pre-Weezer

November 1991

Rivers’ early demos are all over the place in terms of musical style. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There are some enjoyable songs where the only drawback is that the quality may not be as good as some of his later recordings. T

wo to Tango is a slow atmospheric jam with some definite promise. And this is an early version of the song, with Rivers barking out instructions (to himself, most likely) in the middle.

Some may call that kind of thing unprofessional, but I like that, especially in home demos like this.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2⭐️

7: pretty great piano melody 2-7-2013 8

From EWBAITE

February 7, 2013

In light of today’s news I’m foregoing the random number generator and picking the single little bit of music we know will be on Weezer’s upcoming OK Human.

Pretty Great Piano Melody is a seven-minute long sketch of Rivers improvising on the piano with a metronome in the background.

The melody will be part of OK Human’s second track, Aloo Gobi.

Rivers snuck it in the EWBAITE bundle despite him saying he wouldn’t include demos to be used in future Weezer releases.

The melody itself is, as the title says, pretty great. But the idea of this whole project is to rank the demo files as actual songs (as in how would they sound on the radio or on an album) and not their potential.

So because it’s a seven minute track of Rivers noodling on the piano focused on the same melody over and over, the rating might seem a bit harsh.

Having said that, there’s been a lot said about Weezer’s ‘masterpiece’ album – heavier songs (in terms of subjects), orchestral backing. But knowing there’s a melody like this on OK Human, something melodic (which is classic Weezer) has me looking forward to the album even more.

⭐️1/2⭐️

8: You Stupid Piece of Shit (168)

From the Green Years

Early 2000

When Weezer returned to action in 2000 after a multi-year hiatus, one of the new potential song titles that got fans’ attention was ‘The Ska Song.’

Fans got even more interested in this

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

9: Since You Came Around 15

The White Year

2015

Jacked Up is one of the best songs on Weezer’s White Album. The song’s bridge is unexpected; sounding completely different from the rest of Jacked Up and taking the tune to a whole new level.

It turns out Rivers took the bridge from a completely different song, Since You Came Around, another White Album contender. SYCA evolved from a concept Rivers had called Hawaii.

Unlike most of the other White Year demos, all the versions of SYCA contain full instrumentation.

And it’s a good laid back song on its own. Even though Rivers used the tune as the bridge for another song, the concept (how someone else changed his life) would go on to be used on Sweet Mary from Pacific Daydream.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2⭐️

10: 88 Piano and Melody

From The Black Room

May 1998

Some of Rivers’ demo bundles (most notably White Year, EWBAITE and Black Room) have a lot of sketches or voice memos, short clips where Rivers is working something out. And this is the first one of these addressed by this project.

Back in 1998, Rivers was still searching for a new sound for Weezer. He ended the previous year interested in drone rock, then shifted to Beatles/Oasis-style melodies (before landing on a final phase which would be way different).

The early 1998 time period features the fewest fleshed out songs of any time period in the released demo catalog. Most of what’s available are snippets or sketches.

88 Piano and Melody has potential. It’s sweet and melodic. But it’s only 42 seconds.

⭐️1/2⭐️