Hash Pipe is a song by Weezer, released in April 2001. It was the first single off the band’s third album Weezer (The Green Album), and the only one of the Summer Songs of 2000 songs to make it onto the album, although “Dope Nose” and “Slob” were released on Maladroit.
According to an interview with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, Hash Pipe was written on the same night as the song “Dope Nose” off Maladroit. The story goes that Cuomo took “a bunch of Ritalin and had like three shots of tequila,” paced around for a while, then wrote both songs.
Weezer drummer Patrick Wilson is featured on the cover of the song’s CD single. Since late 2001, the band has played the song live with a reworked guitar solo that no longer follows the verse melody. According to Cuomo the song is a “Totally insane song about a homosexual transvestite prostitute.”
Also according to Cuomo, he had intended on giving this song to Ozzy Osbourne in 2000 after he approached Cuomo for song ideas, but he did not use it. Presumably, it would have been used for his eighth studio album, Down to Earth, released the same year as the Green Album.
The video for the song was directed by Marcos Siega, the first of many Weezer videos that Siega would direct. In the video, Weezer is shown playing while a group of sumo wrestlers are standing in the background.
As the song progresses, the wrestlers are shown wrestling and during the guitar solo, the wrestlers play the band members’ instruments as the members watch from the background. During the final chorus, guitarist Brian Bell performs a move in which he bends backwards, taking the guitar with him, then thrusts his legs in the way he’s bending.
This move has become known among Weezer fans as “the impossible bend.” According to the mini book that accompanies the Video Capture Device DVD, Siega was asked to avoid referring to the lyrics of the song for the video, due to its themes of homosexual prostitution and drug references.
Tracklist:
- Hash Pipe
- I Do
Weezer
Rivers Cuomo: vocals, guitar, keyboards
Patrick Wilson: drums, percussion
Brian Bell: guitar, backing vocals, synthesizer
Mikey Welsh: bass, backing vocals
