The world is a vampire sent to drain is a lyric that sums up ’90s alt-angst. While the Smashing Pumpkins ascended to alternative rock dominance, the indie crowd called them “careerists,” “fake,” or, as Steve Albini put it, insignificant. Bob Mould called them “the grunge Monkees.” Stephen Malkmus, playing frontman Billy Corgan’s nemesis, mocked the group in Pavement’s “Range Life.”
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Corgan returned fire in “Cherub Rock,” the first single from Smashing Pumpkins’ second album, Siamese Dream. Some of the indie world’s hatred must have been jealousy as Corgan, James Iha, D’arcy Wretzky, and Jimmy Chamberlin blew past them. Corgan’s outspokenness didn’t do him any favors. Still, he was writing consistently better songs. Also, the anti-sellout posture of some bands was transparently just another ornament.
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Iha and Corgan began as a duo with a drum machine, writing sad songs inspired by The Cure. When Chamberlin arrived, his drumming pushed the band to deafening heights. The Smashing Pumpkins were lumped into the grunge movement, but their Butch Vig-produced debut, Gish, predates Nirvana’s Nevermind by three months. At the time, they were sonically much closer to Jane’s Addiction.
When Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness arrived in 1995, the Smashing Pumpkins became cultural icons, delivering what Corgan called “The Wall for Generation X.” The double album is 28 songs of melancholy and nihilism, with big riffs and even larger bravado with Corgan’s messiah-adjacent lyrics. It was a massive success. It’s certified Diamond (10 million copies sold) and received seven Grammy nominations. Unlike most double albums, this Pumpkins classic has no filler.
Old Job
After surviving indie scorn, Billy Corgan faced the unrelenting storm of fame. “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” is about Corgan’s struggle with being a rockstar. He refers to biblical Job, whose faith in God is tested by a series of disasters, but Corgan cannot play it cool and publicly lashes out at the media or anyone else who’ll listen.
The world is a vampire sent to drainSecret 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
With growing fame, he felt like everyone around him wanted something to take. The lyrics are brutishly angsty, though Corgan claims some of them are a joke. What is taken literally or figuratively is up to the listener, but the album’s whimsical cover art suggests fantasy.
The opening riff dates back to 1993. Corgan later wrote the chorus while the Smashing Pumpkins recorded their Fleetwood Mac cover of “Landslide.” He told Kerrang he wrote the chorus while the BBC engineers adjusted microphones for the “Landslide” recording.
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
In the second verse, he comments on his experience headlining the 1994 Lollapalooza Festival: Can you fake it for just one more show? Corgan’s answer is an earsplitting No!
“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” is one chapter in the overarching nihilism of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, like Nietzsche with a Big Muff distortion dusted with romanticism.
An Alternative “White Album”
Ambition was never Corgan’s secret. While others quietly hoped for success, clinging to the construct of cool, the Smashing Pumpkins reached higher. Reviewing the album, Jon Pareles wrote for the New York Times about alternative rock’s obsession with fragmentation. It was a real-life caricature of the too-cool record store clerk snubbing his nose at customers’ poor choices.
But Corgan was thinking big. He wanted a “White Album” for his generation. When he met James Iha years ago in a Chicago record store, they wore paisley shirts. The Smashing Pumpkins borrowed from ’60s psychedelia, John Lennon, The Cure, Black Sabbath, and Cheap Trick. As other bands acquiesced to the underground, Corgan clawed above the dirt. It was Bauhaus goth with hooks and mammoth riffs.
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness is colossal in its inception, success, and cultural impact. Corgan’s shaved head, black “Zero” shirt, and silver pants are central visuals of the decade.
I Wanna Be Adored
Nineties bands were obsessed with the idea of “selling out,” and Corgan’s ambition didn’t fit it. But any artist, regardless of popularity, that prints their band name on a t-shirt for sale has, by definition, sold out. If you don’t want your art commodified, don’t book shows, don’t sell records, and don’t sign a record deal. It’s like raging against the machine … from your iPhone.
Photo by Jason Kempin/FilmMagic
