The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)
| "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" | ||||
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| Single by Weezer | ||||
| from the album Weezer | ||||
| Released | May 13, 2008 | |||
| Format | Digital download | |||
| Recorded | 2008 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock, power pop, progressive rock | |||
| Length | 5:52 | |||
| Label | Geffen | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Rivers Cuomo | |||
| Producer(s) | Rick Rubin | |||
| Weezer singles chronology | ||||
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"The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" is a song released as an iTunes single from American alternative rock band Weezer's sixth album, Weezer (2008). "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived (Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" was released to radio on December 9, 2008. The song bears a resemblance to the Shaker song "Simple Gifts" hence the "(Variations on a Shaker Hymn)" in the title. According to lead vocalist and writer Rivers Cuomo, "The Greatest Man" has 11 different themes, including rapping and imitations of other bands such as Nirvana and Aerosmith (both of whom also recorded for Weezer's then-label Geffen Records at one point).
This song received favorable critical reviews. After being announced as the third single, a music video was also announced; however, this never materialized and instead the song was featured in a film directed by Warren Miller.
Rick Rubin produced "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" with the band between April 2007 and February 2008. In the liner notes of the deluxe edition of The Red Album, Cuomo stated that the song did not originally have the subtitle "Variations on a Shaker Hymn", but when guitarist Brian Bell's mother came into the studio to see them, she mentioned that the melody from the song sounded similar to a Shaker hymn that the choir sang in her church. Cuomo wrote that he realised that people might notice the resemblance: "I knew people were going to come at us after and say 'Hey, you guys ripped off that hymn.' So I put the credit in there off the bat." As a result, the band looked up the hymn and indeed the melody was so similar to Joseph Brackett's "Simple Gifts" that they credited the hymn with the subtitle.
The song was originally recorded in a room that the band nicknamed "The War Room." Bell states that "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" took a long time to record; "I think the song 'The Greatest Man That Ever Lived' used about 20 feet of butcher paper and we discussed how we were going to successfully record it almost as long as actually recording it."
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