"Pink Triangle" is a song by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band

Weezer Weezer is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1992. Since 2001, the band has consisted of Rivers Cuomo (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Patrick Wilson (drums, backing vocals), Scott Shriner (bass guitar, keyboards, backing v ...

. As the third and final single from the band's second studio album ''

Pinkerton Pinkerton may refer to: Places * Pinkerton, Ontario, named after surveyor and early settler Matthew Pinkerton * Pinkerton's Landing Bridge, railroad bridge in Pennsylvania People * Allan Pinkerton (18191884), Scottish detective and spy * Bill ...

'' (1996), it was released to radio on May 20, 1997 by

DGC Records DGC Records (an initialism for the David Geffen Company) was an American record label that operated as a division of Interscope Geffen A&M Records, which is owned by the Universal Music Group. History DGC Records was launched in 1990 as a subsi ...

. The song was written by

Rivers Cuomo Rivers Cuomo ( ; born June 13, 1970) is an American musician. He is the lead vocalist, guitarist, pianist, and songwriter of the rock band Weezer. Cuomo was raised in a number of Buddhist communities in the Northeast U.S. until the age of 10, wh ...

Background

The song describes a man who falls in love with a woman with whom he imagines he could settle down and be married. However, he soon discovers that the object of his affection is a

lesbian A lesbian is a Homosexuality, homosexual woman.Zimmerman, p. 453. The word is also used for women in relation to their sexual identity or sexual behavior, regardless of sexual orientation, or as an adjective to characterize or associate n ...

who possibly thinks that the man himself is gay. The song is based on a real person that Weezer frontman

encountered while a student at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, whom he fantasized a life with until he saw a

pink triangle A pink triangle has been a symbol for the LGBTQ+ community, initially intended as a badge of shame, but later reclaimed as a positive symbol of self-identity and love for queerness. In Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 1940s, it began as one of the Na ...

—a

gay pride LGBT pride (also known as gay pride or simply pride) is the promotion of the self-affirmation, dignity, equality, and increased visibility of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people as a social group. Pride, as opposed to sham ...

symbol—on her backpack. According to Cuomo, a year and a half after the album was released he discovered that the woman was actually not a lesbian and had just been showing support for the gay community. A promo single was sent to radio stations that also contained an acoustic version of the song recorded at

Shorecrest High School Shorecrest High School is a public high school (grades 9 through 12) in Shoreline, Washington, United States, one of two high schools in the Shoreline School District. Shorecrest was founded in 1961. Its mascot is Otis the Fighting Scot and stude ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. The song received limited

airplay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

and never charted and thus was deemed not to warrant a video. In 2004, the band released its first DVD ''

Video Capture Device Video capture is the process of converting an analog video signal—such as that produced by a video camera, DVD player, or television tuner—to digital video and sending it to local storage or to external circuitry. The resulting digital data a ...

'', which features a video of the Shorecrest performance as well as a video cut by ''Weezer.com'' webmaster and longtime friend of the band Karl Koch that features footage shot by Jennifer Wilson, wife of Weezer

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Patrick Wilson Patrick Joseph Wilson (born July 3, 1973) is an American actor and director. He began his career in 1995, starring in Broadway musicals. He received nominations for two Tony Awards for his roles in ''The Full Monty'' (2000–2001) and ''Oklahoma ...

Composition

"Pink Triangle" is composed in the key of F# Major, with a tempo of 118 beats per minute.

Reception

Mark Beaumont of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

'' ranked "Pink Triangle" as Weezer's fifth best song. Josh Modell of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' considered the song to be "less successful—musically and emotionally" compared to other songs on ''

''.

Track listing

Radio Station Promo CD # "Pink Triangle" (Remix) - 4:02 # "Pink Triangle" (Live Acoustic) - 4:18 Live acoustic track is the same as on "The Good Life" OZ EP

Personnel

This would be the band's last single with Sharp before he left a year later. *

– lead vocals, guitar, glockenspiel *

– drums, percussion *

Brian Bell Brian Lane Bell (born December 9, 1968) is an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known as the rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist, and occasional lead vocalist of the rock band Weezer, with whom he has recorded fi ...

– rhythm guitar, backing vocals *

Matt Sharp Matthew Kelly Sharp (born September 22, 1969) is an American songwriter and musician. Until 1998, he was the bassist for the alternative rock band Weezer, which he cofounded in 1992. He appears on their first two albums, the ''Weezer (Blue Album ...

– bass guitar, backing vocals *Scott Riebling – bass guitar (remix only)

References

Weezer songs 1996 songs 1997 singles LGBT-related songs Songs written by Rivers Cuomo DGC Records singles {{1990s-rock-song-stub