I really enjoyed this post, and I fully agreed... up to a point.
It seemed like, up until the introduction of "No Other One," the author had reached a pretty good understanding of Pinkerton; that this is a confession, at its rawest, realest, most uninhibited. Why, then, does the author so conveniently refuse to acknowledge this idea with regards to "No Other One" or "No One Else"?
As she admits with regards to the lyrics of "Across the Sea," the creepiness does not go unacknowledged. I would say that, with "No Other One" and especially with "No One Else," his selfishness does not go unacknowledged. As for the latter, I always thought that the blunt lyrics were said in a really tongue-in-cheek manner; that ideally, wink-wink nudge-nudge, this is how I would prefer it. I am enormously jealous every time my girlfriend talks to someone else, and I CAN'T CHANGE THAT. I once read a Cuomo quote on "No One Else"; he said that it was him being an "asshole" to his girlfriend, and that "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" was about his girlfriend leaving him for being that asshole. Like I said, the selfishness does not go unacknowledged. And on the Blue Album, at least, it is delivered in a very joking-and-half-serious-but-still-kind-of-serious way.
As with every other song on Pinkerton, however, "No Other One" gets extremely candid. The author appears to have a good understanding of Pinkerton (perhaps barring "Butterfly," which is more probably about Cuomo falling in real, uncreepy love with a girl in Japan while on tour, going to bed with her and swearing that it won't just be some one night stand, that he will definitely return and see her again, all the while knowing, even then, that he never will, as much as he sincerely wants to), but for some reason throws off this understanding in her interpretation of "No Other One."
Goddamn it, yes, he is being an asshole in this song. He is absolutely treating this woman like she isn't a person. He knows that. But remember, as in the case of "No One Else," the lyrics are meant to be candid. This is what he's not allowed to say. The author did good at recognizing that these lyrics are pretty jarring, but misinterpreted, in my opinion, just what that means.
When you have Pinkerton minus "No Other One," you have a guy who just can't find love. Everything goes wrong. Girls won't talk to him, they'll only have sex with him. But this song effectively changes the entire tone of the album. It now says "I can never find love, and when I think I have, it's not what I thought it would be." In one interpretation, the author's, this song could render the rest of the album moot. Why are you complaining? You have found love, you are just extremely reckless with it. You're a child, and you're simply never satisfied with how much others do for you. But in another interpretation, more consistent with the author's intepretation of the rest of the album, Cuomo blames himself, not everyone else.
While the rest of Pinkerton laments not being able to find love, "No Other One" laments not being able to feel love after having found it. Can't you see what he's saying here? He's finally found someone he says he loves, someone that loves him, and it's still not what he's been looking for. This song changes the question of the album from "I can find love, can't I?" to the infinitely more terrible and tragic, "I can love, can't I?"
Pinkerton is meant to be confessional, an avenue through which Cuomo can say things that he can't "talk about." The possibility that he won't ever find love is pretty tragic indeed, but the possibility that he's simply inherently incapable of taking part in a mutual, consummate love, is infinitely moreso. I think he puts it eloquently enough in "El Scorcho," at the part where, vocally, he sounds most pathetic: "that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize because I can't even look in your eyes without shaking." The difference here is that, with one interpretation, everything can be ok, just as long as he finds the right person; but with the other, there's a possibility of no chance of resolution, that the thing that he wants so fully and so desperately is something that he can never have, simply because of who he is. This is his expression of his greatest fear, his greatest lament. This is who he is, this is who he has to live with his entire life, and you can take it or leave it.
On Rivers Cuomo Messes You Up Forever
I really enjoyed this post, and I fully agreed... up to a point.
It seemed like, up until the introduction of "No Other One," the author had reached a pretty good understanding of Pinkerton; that this is a confession, at its rawest, realest, most uninhibited. Why, then, does the author so conveniently refuse to acknowledge this idea with regards to "No Other One" or "No One Else"?
As she admits with regards to the lyrics of "Across the Sea," the creepiness does not go unacknowledged. I would say that, with "No Other One" and especially with "No One Else," his selfishness does not go unacknowledged. As for the latter, I always thought that the blunt lyrics were said in a really tongue-in-cheek manner; that ideally, wink-wink nudge-nudge, this is how I would prefer it. I am enormously jealous every time my girlfriend talks to someone else, and I CAN'T CHANGE THAT. I once read a Cuomo quote on "No One Else"; he said that it was him being an "asshole" to his girlfriend, and that "The World Has Turned and Left Me Here" was about his girlfriend leaving him for being that asshole. Like I said, the selfishness does not go unacknowledged. And on the Blue Album, at least, it is delivered in a very joking-and-half-serious-but-still-kind-of-serious way.
As with every other song on Pinkerton, however, "No Other One" gets extremely candid. The author appears to have a good understanding of Pinkerton (perhaps barring "Butterfly," which is more probably about Cuomo falling in real, uncreepy love with a girl in Japan while on tour, going to bed with her and swearing that it won't just be some one night stand, that he will definitely return and see her again, all the while knowing, even then, that he never will, as much as he sincerely wants to), but for some reason throws off this understanding in her interpretation of "No Other One."
Goddamn it, yes, he is being an asshole in this song. He is absolutely treating this woman like she isn't a person. He knows that. But remember, as in the case of "No One Else," the lyrics are meant to be candid. This is what he's not allowed to say. The author did good at recognizing that these lyrics are pretty jarring, but misinterpreted, in my opinion, just what that means.
When you have Pinkerton minus "No Other One," you have a guy who just can't find love. Everything goes wrong. Girls won't talk to him, they'll only have sex with him. But this song effectively changes the entire tone of the album. It now says "I can never find love, and when I think I have, it's not what I thought it would be." In one interpretation, the author's, this song could render the rest of the album moot. Why are you complaining? You have found love, you are just extremely reckless with it. You're a child, and you're simply never satisfied with how much others do for you. But in another interpretation, more consistent with the author's intepretation of the rest of the album, Cuomo blames himself, not everyone else.
While the rest of Pinkerton laments not being able to find love, "No Other One" laments not being able to feel love after having found it. Can't you see what he's saying here? He's finally found someone he says he loves, someone that loves him, and it's still not what he's been looking for. This song changes the question of the album from "I can find love, can't I?" to the infinitely more terrible and tragic, "I can love, can't I?"
Pinkerton is meant to be confessional, an avenue through which Cuomo can say things that he can't "talk about." The possibility that he won't ever find love is pretty tragic indeed, but the possibility that he's simply inherently incapable of taking part in a mutual, consummate love, is infinitely moreso. I think he puts it eloquently enough in "El Scorcho," at the part where, vocally, he sounds most pathetic: "that's just a stupid dream that I won't realize because I can't even look in your eyes without shaking." The difference here is that, with one interpretation, everything can be ok, just as long as he finds the right person; but with the other, there's a possibility of no chance of resolution, that the thing that he wants so fully and so desperately is something that he can never have, simply because of who he is. This is his expression of his greatest fear, his greatest lament. This is who he is, this is who he has to live with his entire life, and you can take it or leave it.