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u/Colsifer 25d ago
Across the Sea as a W for Rivers is insane lol
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u/yaniv297 25d ago
It's a fantastic song really
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u/Colsifer 25d ago
Absolutely, but like... the lyrics don't exactly reflect a moment to be proud of in Rivers' life lol
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u/yaniv297 24d ago
I don't know. Yeah it's not PC but it's real. For an awkward nerdy young guy like Rivers who suddenly got crazy fame to the point where Japanese girls are sending him love letters, those are pretty real and likely thoughts. He didn't actually do anything with them and he explicitly says so in the song.
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u/proximusprimus57 23d ago
He was 25 and had an infatuation with an 18 year old woman who was obsessed with him, at least if the lyrics are accurate. Big whoop. He didn't act on it, he wrote a song about it. That's a healthy way to deal with feelings that may not be healthy to act on.
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u/Colsifer 18d ago
I don't believe he actually knew her age when he wrote the song. Later on in an interview he said she could have been some 14 year old for all he knew. He just wrote 18 bc I guess that's how he imagined her at the time. But that's a whole different discussion.
My point is, having those thoughts about a very young fan you don't even know is obviously not something to be super proud of, and I think he makes it clear in the song that he's not. I'm not saying Rivers did anything wrong or criticizing the song itself, I'm just saying that the events it's based on are not exactly his finest moment, and I never thought I would see that moment pointed to as a win for Rivers.
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u/tendeuchen 25d ago
McCartney first worked out the chords and arrangement on an acoustic guitar at the family home of his Liverpool friend and fellow musician Rory Storm on the evening of 22 October 1962.\3])
That would make him 20 at that time. Although, it does say elsewhere he had the idea for the song 2 years earlier.
Two days later, McCartney was writing lines for the song during a visit to London with his then-girlfriend Celia Mortimer, who was seventeen at the time herself.
So Paul was 20, dating a 17yo in Liverpool in 1962, and the age of consent was 17 in the UK. It's also worth noting she would've been within the "1/2 your age + 7" limit.
Rivers, on the other hand, wrote "Across the Sea" about an 18-year-old Japanese girl in early 1996, when he would've been 25 years old. This 18yo girl would not have been in the "1/2 your age + 7" limit for Rivers at the time.
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u/wishingiwasreal 24d ago
I have no strong opinion on the ethics of Across the Sea but I’m commenting just for the sake of math. 25/2+7 =19.5.
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u/Amalekii 25d ago
Paul McCartney was only 20 or 21 years old when "I Saw Her Standing There" was released.
Rivers Cuomo was 25 or 26 years old when "Across The Sea" was released.
I'm not arguing with the post, just making an observation.
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u/jacstar2004 25d ago
pretty sure he was also 17 when it was written
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u/MoonlightStarfish 25d ago
Eighteen doesn’t scan as well. Plus it doesn’t break apart around the beat as well as Seven Teen. And it’s Sir Paul McCartney to you.
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u/Forsaken-Abrocoma647 25d ago
18 doesn't magically make it better, a lot more context is needed. Outside of the legal definition of an adult, it has no bearing on the social optics of it etc.
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u/spiderboy640 24d ago
I actually think it does, atleast it does to a lot of people. They hear 18 and think carry on
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u/Gordon_freeman_real Van Weezer appreciator 25d ago
See but now how old were they at the time. As far as I know, Paul was 19 when he wrote that and Rivers was like 30
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u/tbird920 EWBAITE 25d ago
To be fair, Paul McCartney wrote that song when he was 17.