In the 1990s, there were few bands more popular and ubiquitous than The Smashing Pumpkins. The group, fronted by the mercurial Billy Corgan, were a blend of the two most popular sub-genres of rock music at the time, grunge and alternative. Part-hard and part-emotional, the group walked the line betwixt and released songs that dominated the MTV and radio airwaves.
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But while the group was especially popular, the Pumpkins were also rather polarizing. And they remain so today, thanks mostly to Corgan’s controversial statements. But no matter what happens off stage or outside of the recording studio, the Pumpkins released songs that were excellent. Below, we wanted to present a trio of tunes for those listeners who say they aren’t fans of the group.
[RELATED: The Meaning Behind “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” by Smashing Pumpkins]
“1979” from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)
Corgan said this song was the last one he completed for the band’s 1996 LP Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. It was almost not included on the record. When the album’s producer said it should be cut, Corgan took it as a challenge, built it up and turned it into an obvious inclusion. The track, which is one of the band’s most popular (it hit No. 12 on the Billboard Hot 100), is about the passage from youth to adulthood. Corgan talks about the year 1979, when he was 12. He sings,
Justine never knew the rules,
Hung down with the freaks and ghouls
No apologies ever need be made
I know you better than you fake it to see
That we don’t even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don’t know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
The street heats the urgency of now
As you see there’s no one around
“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)
Another from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, this track earned the band a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1997. It is also may be the most signature song to the band, thanks to its opening line The world is a vampire, and the chorus Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage. This song seemed like it fell from heaven in the 1990s—meaning, it’s hard to believe any single person wrote it. Rather, it felt as if it was just discovered, it was so of the time. On the buzzing rock number, Corgan sings,
The world is a vampire, sent to drain
Secret destroyers, hold you up to the flames
And what do I get, for my pain?
Betrayed desires, and a piece of the game
Even though I know – I suppose I’ll show
All my cool and cold – like old Job
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
Then someone will say what is lost can never be saved
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
“Today” from Siamese Dream (1993)
Success isn’t always a good thing. To wit, after the Smashing Pumpkins released their debut LP Gish, Corgan got very depressed, experienced writer’s block and even became suicidal. There were other internal problems with the band, too, including a breakup between members and drug addiction. Corgan wrote this song, in part, as a result of that down time. In fact, it was the first song he wrote for the band’s then-forthcoming record Siamese. The song features sad, depressive lyrics but a largely upbeat and bright chorus. On the track, he sings,
Today is the greatest
Day I’ve ever known
Can’t live for tomorrow
Tomorrow’s much too long
I’ll burn my eyes out
Before I get out
I wanted more
Than life could ever grant me
Bored by the chore
Of saving face
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