| In April 2002, four-piece rock act Weezer received a green light to release their third album in February 2003, less than a year after their fourth album Maladroit had even been released and thus would have been their third album in twenty months. Yet the band realized they needed a downtime, and thus after the summer of '02 was finished, they fell out of the limelight for a couple of years. Yet if history was different, and Weezer would have released their fifth album in February 2003 instead of its May 2005 release, it would have been composed of songs demoed by the band throughout the spring and summer of 2002. And of those songs, it's safe to say that the biggest hit off that album would've been "Prodigy Lover."
With its peculiarly sweet lyrics and fantastic melody, "Prodigy Lover" would've been a worthy radio smash for sure. "Prodigy Lover" has a simple yet pleasant ride-cymbal intro from drummer Pat Wilson which is coupled with Rivers Cuomo's ear-candy electric guitar picking intro. The song then builds to a more upbeat tempo as rhythm guitarist Brian Bell and bassist Scott Shriner enter. The song continues with fantastic harmonies from Rivers, Brian Bell and Scott Shriner a finely crafted solo, some classic Brian/Rivers co-op guitar work on the songs bridge and the fantastic vocal outros from each singer makes this song great right down to the last couple of notes that escape Cuomo's guitar.
The song was written by Weezer front man Rivers Cuomo in mid-January 2002. It was first demoed by the band at Westlake Studios in West Hollywood, California on March 3rd, 2002 in a series of sessions done in between their Hyper Extended Midget Tour and their 2002 European Tour. They demoed it again during an April '02 session at Sunset Sound Studios and a version recorded on April 22nd was released in MP3 form on weezer.com. And before the day before their 2002 Enlightenment Tour began, they had an incredibly productive session at Sunset Sound in which they recorded sessions with keyboardist Ryan Maynes, better known as Shmedley as the bassist for the L.A rock outfit Arlo. A 16mm film of the band performing the song on July 16th, 2002 was shot by longtime close friend of the band Rod Cervera and was subsequently released on Weezer's DVD Video Capture Device.
Yet after the many shows throughout the summer of 2002, the band started to focus completely on recording. Slowly, songs they demoed in the spring and summer were falling out of consideration for their fifth album and the date for release of said album kept getting pushed further back, until they didn't even have a target date for it's release. Yet "Prodigy Lover" continued to pop up in these sessions, although by November '02, it had a new name "Kings of Money." Yet in 2003, after nearly a year of making music together in a variety of places from recording studios, friend's homes and the office of recently signed on producer Rick Rubin, it seemed that all the spring/summer '02 songs were scrapped for good. Yet, "Kings of Money," the new incarnation of "Prodigy Lover" was suddenly re-demoed at the Hollywood-based The Swing House recording studio in November '03 in Hollywood with Rick Rubin at the helm. From then until early-2005, the song was in-running to make the band's fifth album Make Believe, although it looks as though it won't be released after all.
The song has been heard from three different recordings:
*4/22/02 Westlake Studios Recording (weezer.com released MP3)
*7/2/02 Sunset Sound Studios w/ Shmedley on keyboards (weezer.com released MP3)
*7/16/02 Unknown Indianapolis Studio w/ Shmedley on keyboards (released on the Video Capture Device DVD)
The song seems to be about a misogynistic boy who doesn't believe that any woman can be nearly as smart as a man (thus "`Cause I wrote the rulebook/You can't survive"). Yet the boy is amazed when he falls for and begins dating an incredibly smart girl ("I'm stupefied") who plays the keyboards and greatly inspires him. Yet the girl gets wealthy and famous for her talent (thus the boy "Checking the airwaves") and doesn't have the time or want to keep in contact with the boy anymore (as stated in the opening verse). Yet eventually, the girl decides to bring the boy along for her ride of wealth and fame ("You say/okay/we'll both/become/the kings/of money") and as the song ends with the harmonies of "Oh no" the boy realizes just how wrong his sexist ways were.
Full lyrics:
Something is different.
Something has changed.
You write me your letters.
They're not the same.
Prodigy lover
Playing the keyboards
Drawing that music from me.
Uncomprehending,
I'm stupefied
`Cause I wrote the rulebook.
You can't survive.
Over and over
Checking the airwaves
Drawing that music from me.
You say
Okay
We'll both
Become
The Kings
Of money.
Over and over
Checking the airwaves
Drawing that music from me.
You say
Okay
We'll both
Become
The Kings
of money.
Uncomprehending,
I'm stupefied
`Cause I wrote the rulebook.
You can't survive.
I wrote the rulebook.
You can't survive.
I wrote the rulebook.
You can't survive.
Oh no
Oh no
Oh no
Oh no | 
