Most of my friends know about my Weezer obsession. Some people have Jesus, I have Weezer.

I was riding the bus today, listening to their 1996 album Pinkerton. As I am wont to do, I started analyzing the song “Falling For You”- one of my favorite hobbies. I have been dissecting this song and applying meaning to it for the last ten years. Usually the meanings I find are only applicable within the context of my own life but today was different.

Today this song made me think of Albertine and the Narrator. When I first started writing about it, I thought it was a bit of a stretch.  I texted my friend and fellow Weezer nerd, who has been kindly listening to me nerd out over Proust this whole quarter, and said: “Okay. I’ve gone full mental. I’m writing about how “Falling For You” could be interpreted as a line for line retelling of a major relationship in In Search of Lost Time”

Friend: “Haha, and that’s true? It’s gonna work?”

“I thought it was a stretch at first but I’ve been going through it and it totally works”

It totally works!! And so I present (as though you care) a line by line guide to the Proustian themes in Weezer’s “Falling For You”. The lyrics are in bold, with my commentary beneath.

Holy cow, I think I’ve got one here
Now just what am I supposed to do?
Reminiscent of the narrator’s obsession with women as an adolescent and the terror of obtaining someone he thought unattainable.
I’ve got a number of irrational fears
That I’d like to share with you.
By the time the Narrator and Albertine get together we are well aware of his many neuroses.
First there’s rules about old goats like me
Hangin’ round with chicks like you
The Narrator found any member of the Band of Girls unattainable and, yet, ended up with Albertine, which would have been unthinkable to him when he originally encountered them.
But I do like you and another one
Oh? Another one? Like maybe Andree?
You say “like” too much
This makes me think of the tendency of men-in-love in In Search of Lost Time have towards feeling fondly for women “despite” their common or uncouth tendencies.

But I’m shakin’ at your touch
I like you way too much
My baby I’m afraid I’m falling for you
This hearkens again to the Narrator’s obsession with sex and love. What do we do when we actually find it? Is it ever as good as we imagine? Is it ruined if it’s not what we imagined it to be?
I’d do about anything to get the hell out alive
We know at least one of them doesn’t make it out alive.
Or maybe I would rather settle down with you
Remember when he kept changing his mind over whether or not he should marry Albertine?

Holy moly baby wouldn’t you know it
Just as I was bustin’ loose
Around the time the Narrator and Albertine met the Narrator had started to recover slightly from his adolescent awkwardness.
I gotta go turn in my rock star card
Get fat and old with you
Though the Narrator had friends, he had begun to meet people that were important, both aristocratically and in his eyes and would have profound influence in his life, such as the Princesse de Guermantes, St. Loup and Elstir.
Cause I’m a burning candle, you’re a gentle mutt
Teaching me to lick a little bit kinder
Again, he loves women “despite” their flaws, but he begins to recognize what Albertine can, at times, offer him.
And I do like you, you’re the lucky one-
No, I’m the lucky one
As he goes between loving Albertine and being convinced that he is not in love with her he struggles with which of them is luckier to have the other.

Holy sweet goddamn, you left your cello in the basement
In The Captive they essentially seclude themselves, abandoning their hobbies for their obsessive relationship. Also the use of extra words when less would be necessary is an interesting comparison.
I admired the glowing stars and tried to play a tune
The narrator tries to continue working to become a writer.
I can’t believe how bad I suck, it’s true
But he doubts himself and it isn’t until much later in the novel that he realizes the full extent of his gift of observation.
What could you possibly see in little old three chord me?
How could anyone love such a hack? If only he knew he’d later be published in Le Figaro.
But I do like you, and you like me too
I’m ready, let’s do it baby.
Does he acquiesce and marry her? Or does he try harder to get to a place he’d rather be?

I texted my friend again. “It totally works. And now I’m forming this whole new theory about what Pinkerton is themed after”.