Smashing Pumpkins (Official Thread)

[Soot and Stars]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

^^^ GISH!! When Billy had hair!!

This album carries a song that I like quite a bit...good memories!!

SIVA!! (very Sabbath)

Cool track! Not surprising as the band knew that having influences was a strength rather than a burden. They carried their influences proudly!
Here's some connections with Black Sabbath!

Smashing Pumpkins/Black Sabbath Connection

Here's a quote from Wikipedia about the love for the band and metal in general:

"Corgan in particular was open about his appreciation of heavy metal, citing Dimebag Darrell of Pantera as his favorite contemporary guitarist.[40][94] When one interviewer commented to Corgan and Iha that "Smashing Pumpkins is one of the groups that relegitimized heavy metal" and that they "were among the first alternative rockers to mention people like Ozzy and Black Sabbath with anything other than contempt", Corgan went on to rave about Black Sabbath's Master of Reality and Judas Priest's Unleashed in the East."

Here's the Smashing Pumpkins covering "Iron Man"!

Iron Man


This shirt design off the Zeitgeist album seems like something Sabbath would dig!

 

[METALPRIEST]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread



OK That Sabbath cover was pretty bitchin'!!!!

Billy could probably sing the entire catalog. He has that "snear"

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

OK That Sabbath cover was pretty bitchin'!!!!

Billy could probably sing the entire catalog. He has that "snear"

Definitely! I love that edge of him and the fact that it comes from a vocal that can be really angelic soft as well!

Here's an even better version:

Iron Man


and check out the last minute of this track for a little bit of Paranoid!

Jellybelly (old version)-Enter Sandman/Paranoid (tease)

 

[METALPRIEST]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

That is a nicer version of Iron Man!!!

 

[Cosmic Harmony]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

I just listened to "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" for the first time in it's entirety (a friend loaned it to me) and I've got to say that in comparison to "Siamese Dream" I was kind of bummed out over it. There were lots of solid tracks but then there were others like "Tales of a Scorched Earth" and "Where Boys Fear To Tread" that I was not very impressed with... :/

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

I just listened to "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness" for the first time in it's entirety (a friend loaned it to me) and I've got to say that in comparison to "Siamese Dream" I was kind of bummed out over it. There were lots of solid tracks but then there were others like "Tales of a Scorched Earth" and "Where Boys Fear To Tread" that I was not very impressed with... :/

With Tracks like Galapagos, Bodies, By Starlight, Muzzle and Porcelina of The Vast Oceans it's right up there with Siamese to me. I think the two tracks you named are great for being in their because they are the heavy end of the spectrum and it's all the variety of tone, style and mood that made that album the most epic in their catalog! I also think XYU which is ridiculously loud was a great addition to the album!

 

[Tray73]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

Definitely! I love that edge of him and the fact that it comes from a vocal that can be really angelic soft as well!

Here's an even better version:

Iron Man


and check out the last minute of this track for a little bit of Paranoid!

Jellybelly (old version)-Enter Sandman/Paranoid (tease)

Cool - great stuff

I like their cover of Rock On by David Essex



Watch Melissa go on the bass

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

I Am One

​

I am one as you are three
Try to find a messiah in your trinity
Your city to burn
Your city to burn
Try to look for something
In your city to burn, you'll burn
Am I as I seem?
I'm down
Down, so down

Time is right for a guiding light
Your city to burn
Your city to burn
Try to look for something
In your city to burn, you'll burn

See you, don't you just want to
See you, I am one
See you, don't you just want to
See you

See you, don't you just want to
See you, I am one
See you, don't you just want to
See you, I am one​

The first track on Gish is also the first single to be released from the album. It was not the first release of the song as you can see further back in my thread it was released on a single back in 1990, two years before Gish. It's one of three songs rerecorded for the album. In another example of Billy's perfectionism he was disappointed that he hadn't done more with the song to change it from the original 1990 single version as they are so similar to each other. I Am One is unique in that is has a double guitar solo and that's something the Pumpkins didn't use again until '98 with Ava Adore!

There was a video made for I Am One but it was shelved until 2001 because none of the band members were pleased with the results. Here's the video that was finally released:

​

A concert video was shown in long form on the video release:

Vieuphoria
​

This video came out on VHS in '94 and I actually ended up owning the VHS, the DVD (2002) and CD (Earphoria also in 2002)! It's a great collection of the Pumpkins earliest and peak years showing their greatest live performances and awesome alternate versions of songs. I'll be looping footage from this release with each song review I do!

One thing you'll see in this version of the song is the spoken word rant that Billy does. These moments kind of remind me of a Jim Morrison performance and they are about as sporadic and crazy as his were. Even the band members themselves, not all of them as Chamberlain called it "Art-Breakdown", didn't always care for the rants. The band members called it abrasive and they do get that way. It's definitely a rant and Billy Corgan goes through it with often times negative spoken word in his most sneering vocals.

I personally like the live versions for this as honestly I think any live version I've heard was more enjoyable than the studio. Each time it was something different and it took on a life of it's own. The track was extended to double it's length or more and it was a lot more epic this way.

So without further introduction here's the video for the song:

​

Different lyrics were taken from these rants and actually ended up in future songs like Zero and the ideas behind his rants which premise centered around the "erosion of the belief structure in America's youth" was very influential in the ideas used for "Melloncollie....." in general! Here's a rant including lyrics from Zero!:

I Am One (rant using future Zero lyrics)
​

My thoughts overall on the song is that it's definitely made to be heard live as a moving organic piece that can be molded with each performance. The studio version is great as well! Billy's vocals are very understated but this is mostly an instrumental track as Jimmy's great drumming is very dominant and there are awesome guitar solos as well. The bass also has that cool tribal feel that I dig on most of the album. The lyrics were spiritual just like the rest of the album talking trinities and messiahs in a song only Billy knows the meaning of but will never tell leaving the fans to guess and take on their own. I prefer that method myself. The first song in a awesome debut album. Stay tuned for more!

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

Siva

​

Siva was not released before I Am One but it is the first single to be released for Gish! The name Siva seemed to very appealing to Corgan as he's said in an interview that he had an obsession with the name to the point of considering it as the bands name! Personally I'm glads they didn't! Once again on this album the song has spiritual connotations as the song is derived from the Hindu word:

Shiva

Billy had originally liked it for it's use in relationship to the tantric practices in the sense of the spiritual battle between masculine power Shakti and feminine power Shiva.

Shakti and Shiva
​

The dual forces battling with each other intrigued Corgan but upon looking further into it and seeing how much Shiva really connected more to the Hindu God he cut off the "h" to fit it more to his original idea and make it more ambiguous!

Siva was the first video directed by the band! The video is a collage of image shots and the band playing! I love the imagery used as it fits in with the motif of the album and really sets up the listener for what they are getting from the album. The immersing of the head underwater, the candle, the tribal like mask, etc. This is one psychedelic spritual "trip"! Here's the video:

Siva


I spin off and lose my head
Throwing stray a spark instead
Gather strenghth down in my heel
And dig it in the world I peel

Way down deep within my heart
Lies a soul that's torn apart
Tell me, tell me what your after
I just want to get there faster

I don't live - I inhale
I don't give - I unveil
Don't want to live in your misery
I don't live - I inhale

Sprinkle all my kisses on your head
Stars full of wishes fill our beds
She said, "I'm dead"

All this pain smothers me
Like a bomb that you can't see
Tell me, tell me what your after
I just want to get there faster

I don't live - I inhale
I don't give - I unveil
I don't live - I inhale
I don't live​

This song started off as an acoustic that Corgan had been working on while working at a record store in Chicago! It turned into an epic guitar track with great drumming by chamberlain. The riffs are great, the drumming frantic and this proves that the Pumpkins are just as much a guitar rock band as anyone before or since! It was also epic enough to be made a downloadable track by Rock Band even though it wasn't really a hit single!

​

Here are some cool early performances of Siva:

Siva (1991 Metro Chicago)

​

Here's the acoustic version:

Siva (1991 Acoustic @ Atomic Records, Milwaukee, Wisconsin)
(A real cool jam)
​

 

[Soot and Stars]

Re: "The Official" (The) Smashing Pumpkins Thread

Rhinoceros and The Lull EP


​

Rhinoceros is the first Gish track I'd ever heard. It's the slowest of all the singles but captures the dreamy melodic feel of the majority of Gish the best. I love it and so does Billy as he's carried it throughout his career more than any other song off of the album. The other band members, namely D'Arcy, jokingly refer to it as "that slow song"! It does build to something that represents their soft/loud style as it picks up in it's second half with plenty of guitar soloing. I love the meditative feel of this track and it's my favorite Gish single as far as the studio versions go!

The video for Rhinoceros was a collage of various ideas in which some worked out and some didn't. The result was a putting together the footage of what was left of these ideas they were shot. The original idea was to be similar to this Cure video where the band would be in very close quarters:

The Cure-Close To Me
(audio doesn't come in for some reason so I put an accompanying vid for audio in sync)
​

The room provided for the vid was actually huge so The Pumpkins chose to do just the opposite and keep as much distance as they could from each other. Here is the final vid:

Rhinoceros

Planned a show
Trees and Balloons
Ice cream snow
See you in June

Could have known
I would reveal
Should have known
I would conceal your way

She knows, she knows, she knows
She knows, she knows, she knows
How's it
She knows, she knows, she knows

Colors show
After the moon
I should go
See you in June
Your way

Open your eyes
To these must I lie
​

The Rhinoceros track didn't technically have it's own single pressing but rather was included as the leading track of the aforementioned pictured Lull EP! Corgan always considered that the Rhinoceros single regardless! The EP had three other tracks! Any tracks that are covered in later full albums I'll cover in more depth later in the thread!:

Blue
(This track was late put on the Pisces Iscariot B-Side Collection which I'll cover later)


Slunk
(only released as a live portion on the Vieuphoria VHS/DVD release)


Ride on, mother****er
Sister above
Lead on my lover
Daddy's not comin' home
So long my mother
So long ago
She loves me like a lover
Every house is now your home
Even though you lied to me
We love you
Right on, mother****er
Sister above
Yeah, my lover
Every house is now your home
​

Slunk is a cool real aggressive track. It doesn't really fit in with Gish so even the b-sides out during the same time period of the album changed sounds. It's just an aggressive balls out rock song with Billy's sneering vocals full on and the guitars at a chugging rockin' pace rather than the soft/loud style or dreamy ambiance of Gish. Here's the version off of Vieuphoria which is even more raw:

Slunk (Live In Japan)
​

The last track is an acoustic that I've loved and it was the first time I heard a song as bare as this by the Pumpkins. The first album I heard, Siamese Dream, was very layered even in it's softer tracks so hearing the simply acoustics and the echoey quality with Billy's angelic vocals was a real treat for me! The track was recorded on what's known as the Moon Demo but showed up on Lull! The track is:

Bye June


Bye June
I hope you make it too
I'm wishing you're there too
I hope you make it June
Bye bye June.​