We know the boogies are out of control and the knee-stocking flavor is a favorite treat in "Hash Pipe," but what's it all mean? Lead singer Rivers Cuomo offered some insight when he called it, "A totally insane song about a homosexual transvestite prostitute."
This was Weezer's first release in five years. Rivers Cuomo went into seclusion after their second album, Pinkerton, in 1996. "Hash Pipe" was the lead single from the long-awaited Weezer (The Green Album), released in 2001.
Because of the song's content, their record label did not want to release this as the first single. The band fought them on it and won.
A hashpipe is a device used for smoking hashish, a potent form of marijuana.
MTV wanted Weezer to change the title to "Half Pipe" for the video so they could appeal to the skateboard crowd and avoid the drug reference. Weezer refused, so MTV played the video with the word "Hash" obscured, listing the title as "H*** Pipe." In 2005, the band relented when the network suggested they edit the song "
We Are All on Drugs" as "We Are All In Love."
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Sumo wrestlers are featured in the video. Nine are real wrestlers; the other three are just fat guys.
At the 2001 Video Music Awards, MTV announced this as "Hash Pipe," but still wrote the title as "H*** Pipe" when it was nominated for an award for Best Rock Video.
The tour to support the album was called the "Extended Midget Tour."
The Italian words inside the album, "Torniamo all antico e sara un progresso" mean "Let's go back to ancient and will be a step forward."
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Suggestion credit:
Bertrand - Paris, France
According to Kerrang! January 29, 2011, Cuomo said, "It's obviously not our favorite song," adding that he injected it with no feeling at all but viewed it simply as a musical exercise.
Drummer Patrick Wilson is featured on the cover of the single release holding a pack of Natural American Spirit cigarettes, though the logo is blurred due to copyright issues.
Classic TV fans will recognize the guitar riff from this song - it was partially inspired by the "Theme From Peter Gunn" (composed by Henry Mancini) for the '60s detective series, starring Craig Stevens in the title role. Cuomo said he heard a digitized version of the theme on the '80s arcade game Spy Hunter.
This song was used in the 2001 comedy American Pie 2.
Cuomo told WHYY's Fresh Air how his experiments in songwriting inspired this song: "For a couple of years there, well - I've always been an analytical person, but for a couple of years, I just got really analytical in keeping track of every detail of the process of writing a song and intentionally varying individual elements to see what the result would be. But sometimes these experiments were indistinguishable from how any other rock person would write a song. For example, in mid-2000, I - somehow my experiments evolved to a point where step one was take a pill of Ritalin. Step two was take three shots of tequila. Step three was go out in the backyard, sit down on a chair. Step four was close your eyes and imagine the song. And thats how I wrote 'Hash Pipe'."
In 2018, after Weezer covered their song "
Africa," Toto released their own version of "Hash Pipe."
According to
Ultimate Classic Rock, Ozzy Osbourne had first dibs on this song. "I think it was in 2000, he asked if I had any songs for him, and I just happened to have written 'Hash Pipe,' said Cuomo. "I sent it to him, but he didn't end up using it. In another reality, it might have been interesting to hear him singing that song."