[IAmGraydon]

I say this as a guy who’s been playing electric guitar for over 25 years - Rivers is certainly competent on guitar. He’s not some virtuoso and he’s definitely no Yngwie. His real superpower, however, is songwriting. He’s one the best who has ever lived.

[mcbishop]

The Blue Album is epically good.

[mp05]

Yeah you're right, who can forget such classics as:

"Goddamn, you half-Japanese girls/Do it to me every time"

"Everyone’s a little queer/why can’t she be a little straight?"

"When I'm away, she puts her makeup on the shelf."

"I wonder what clothes you wear to school/I wonder how you decorate your room/I wonder how you touch yourself and curse myself for being across the sea" (sung about a 14 year old when Rivers was certainly an adult)

Yeah that's some real National Archive level creepy content, I'll give you that.

[ants_everywhere]

> sung about a 14 year old when Rivers was certainly an adult

18 year old girl, according to the first line of the song. I still think the song has a creepy/desperate tone, but not because she's legally a child.

> "When I'm away, she puts her makeup on the shelf."

For what it's worth, No One Else and The World Has Turned (the following song on the album) are usually taken to be related songs, including by Cuomo himself. The first song is about the jealousy that pushes the girl away, and the second is about life after she leaves.

In the context of Cuomo being into meditation his whole life, I've always taken it as a personification and exaggeration of his actual jealousy, kind of like Mara in the Buddhist tradition. I'd like to hope those lyrics aren't a literal representation of his thinking at the time. At any rate, the two songs together make it clear that the jealousy is a problem rather than something to be celebrated.

As for the half-Japanese stuff... I don't know. I think that's likely accurate to what he was going through in college. Cuomo is in my opinion very likely to be autistic, and for whatever reason lots of people on the spectrum are into Japanese culture and lots of men on the spectrum are attracted to Japanese women.

The context for the whole second album is he feels conflicted about sleeping with groupies (Tired of Sex) and becomes celibate until marriage. So he's at Harvard and unable to have sex until he meets someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with. So yeah the album is dripping with sexual frustration and I don't fault anyone for finding it creepy.

But I do kind of feel like how many of us would go to Harvard as a rock star and refuse to have sex until marriage? The vast majority of men in that situation would be hooking up regularly, and I guess he felt like he couldn't respect himself or the women in his life if he was doing that.

[mp05]

Sorry I'm not really interested in psychoanalyzing this guy. There are a enough talented(?) songwriters around so that I don't have to put up with these sorts of things.... you know, abject misogyny. I feel like HN community has a very low tolerance for this sort of thing, why is this guy immune? Because he's relatable? Gross.

Look, if you're still an adult listening to this stuff and it's not just a "once a year because of nostalgia" deal... I have serious questions.

[ants_everywhere]

> Because he's relatable?

Just to be clear, the point I was making was the opposite. He seems to struggle relating to other people, and other people struggle to relate to him.

Personally, my take is that it's worth developing empathy in general and I think that responding to people with disgust is an anti-pattern. As the cliche goes, be hard on the problem, soft on the person.

[8675309t]

Is this satire?

[RajT88]

I think he was referring more to the notes than the lyrics.

But - there's definitely a type of fan who admires the "creepy stalker" bent of the lyrics. I have a friend who is in that camp for sure.

[mp05]

Yeah sure, he has a knack for melodies, I won't argue that.