The Rentals "Friends Of P"

I’ve been “PJ” since the day I was born. My first name is Paul, which is the same as my Dad. My parents didn’t want to stick me with “Junior” or “Little Paul” so they went for the initials.

If your name is Zebulon or Chrysanthemum or even Elizabeth or William, I can understand how kids might called you by a shortened nickname, something a little less unwieldy. Zeb. Chris. Liz. Bill.

But if your name is PJ---only two letters---does it really need to be shortened?

Somehow, in high school, and happening again with a separate set of friends in college, people close to me felt the need to shorten my unwieldy name.

They called me P.

I didn’t mind it, though I always thought it sounded a little silly. Like next, my friends would just shorten that, just pronounce the letter phonetically and call me “Pah.”

On the pro-side, when Matt Sharp left Weezer and put this song out, my friends got to claim the chorus as a theme song for being my friend.

“If you’re down with P, you’re down with me.”