Throwback Thursday: Weezer Sing About Their ‘Half Pipe’
Back in 2001, Weezer made their triumphant return to rock and roll with a song about, well, skateboarding, apparently. At least that's what anyone whose first exposure to Weezer's self-titled Green Album was from the band's appearance on British music show Top of the Pops.
Because, for some reason, the song's original, mildly controversial title, "Hash Pipe," became the cutely innocent "Half Pipe" somewhere along the way -- check out their performance in the video above. We're assuming BBC producers were concerned about the dangers of a drug reference within a rock song worming its way into the hearts and minds of British youth.
It would seem that the suits at BBC Radio One who got all worked up over the title of the song never bothered listening to it, since the song is about male prostitution. Bespectacled bandleader Rivers Cuomo even managed to keep the "ass wide" line intact.
"Hash Pipe" was actually, for a brief period of time, banned from airplay in the United Kingdom altogether, though whoever made that decision must have settled for a compromise.
But our stuffy friends across the pond weren't the only sticks in the mud.
MTV often showed the title as "H*** Pipe," or just "Pipe." Even Weezer's label at the time, Geffen Records, wanted them to release the sugary "Don't Let Go" as the lead single instead of "Hash Pipe":
Whether it's "Half Pipe," "Hash Pipe" or just plain "Pipe," we still love the song, even 14 years later.