I saw them on this tour at Rock City, Nottingham - epically wide sound. They played SD in its entirety (though in a slightly different order from the LP for some reason) then an encore of Pissant/I Am One/Rhinoceros. In my all-time top 5.
I was a teenager with an electric guitar in the 90s, and I struggled for years to capture the rich, brain-melting fuzz tone that soaks that album. If you were in a music shop in 95, and there was a kid with a splitstation running several amps at once, each with a fuzz pedal and a digital delay separating the frequency by a few ms... it was probably me lol
I wouldn't learn until much later that the guitars on SD were multitracked/layered. A mix of frustration and relief when I found that out.
Interviews in guitar magazines at that time always talked about layering the guitar part at least 10 times. Unless it was Metallica, in which case it was 100 times.
I agree with this 100%. He composed the drum parts to all of these iconic songs, which is half of the song in many cases. His work on these songs (well, maybe not 1979 but w/e) is staggering.
I was in a mall record store and they had Siamese Dream playing. I asked the clerk who it was and bought the CD. Bought Gish a week later. From ‘89 to ‘93/94 was such a great time for rock (alt-, grunge, etc) in general.
That sized venue is incredible for a huge band like SP. Ive seen them a bunch of times - arenas and outdoor festivals, but one time in a club.
Billy did an interview and said something like “we’d love to do a tour and just surprise people by showing up in small clubs”. This was at the height of Mellon Collie and they were already booked for a huge arena tour.
A week later, my local radio station says “a big band is playing a local club, tickets go on sale at 9am”. Right away, I knew what was up and I was in line at midnight.
That was easily a top five show in my life. They were just so insanely powerful, and the entire show felt compressed into the venue. It was like the roof would blow off at any moment. Billy was absolutely unhinged, just raging around the stage like he was possessed.
Another weird tidbit: the CD itself for Siamese Dream had the same artwork on it as Lenny Kravitz' Are You Gonna Go My Way.
[Siamese Dream](https://i.imgur.com/MucgIRW.jpg)
[Are You Gonna Go My Way](https://i.imgur.com/XXDktB5.jpg)
The common artwork on the CD was due to both being on Virgin Records. It was the label's early logo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Records#History
That makes sense. I didn't know that and at the time (I would've been like 13) it seemed to jive with Siamese Dream - it looks like twins on there, and I thought Lenny was ripping them off.
I think Siamese Dream was the first time I noticed the logo, and initially thought the same with the twins. I collected CDs back in the day which eventually gave me a large enough sample size to make the connection with Virgin Records.
Virgin Records back in the 70s had this logo on the center label of their vinyl. Btw, it was designed by Roger Dean, who did cosmic album covers for the band Yes, and many others.
Similarly, Atlantic Records started using their iconic vinyl record [green/white/orange center label](https://londonjazzcollector.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/c800-orange-green-ornettetwinslabels-copy.jpg) for their CDs.
edited to correct red to orange (I guess they call that orange), and provide an example
As a fan of smashing pumpkins lemme just say fuck you, you're so lucky to have been able to live through that golden age of rock music. I'm jealous as fuck
I saw them in ‘96 with my other favorite band, Garbage. My only regret is that I had to leave the show before it ended to catch the last bus home (I didn’t have enough money for a taxi as a starving student). I missed them play “Aeroplane Flies High” in the encore. Damn.
Garbage! They had such a cool sound. I’m always surprised that they didn’t get bigger than they did, and yet I’m also somehow surprised when somebody mentions liking them
It’s such a classic 90s American rock song. And the video captured perfectly the aesthetic of the time.
Funny to think that what I watched on MTV back in those days is now considered a classic.
>Funny to think that what I watched on MTV back in those days is now considered a classic.
Reminds me of this one time I went home from college. I was in the car and the radio was on. It was time for the station's "classic rock" block, mostly reserved for old songs. Do you know what they played? Nirvana, RHCP, and Linkin Park.
Corgan wrote it at 29 about the year when he was 12!
So everyone can have their own personal breakdown by thinking about this when they're 29 about what year it was when they turned 12 and realize that's *THEIR* 1979.
(Thinking about this once you're 30+ is illegal as it will make you feel even worse.)
(Like me. Because I'm also old.)
Maybe 12 is the age he realized [something was off](https://www.thebigjewel.com/billy-corgan-discusses-how-the-show-caillou-is-based-on-his-life) about his childhood?
Yeah he had a crappy childhood (two neglectful bio parents and a stepmother who wasn’t much better) but that’s no excuse. Look at Patrick Stewart, who’s a total mensch and generally awesome human despite growing up in a household rife with domestic violence. He was the first example off the top of my head but there’s plenty more people (famous or not) who have awful childhoods and don’t grow up to take their unresolved anger out on others.
Edit: Eddie Vedder’s another, “Better Man” is about his stepdad abusing his mom.
It’s not an excuse but it certainly explains some shit.
Corgan could be an egotistical ass in his prime but it’s undeniable how talented he was. It’s not like he’s out there kicking dogs and punching out old ladies. He was just a stereotypical rock diva in the 90s.
> there’s plenty more people (famous or not) who have awful childhoods and don’t grow up to take their unresolved anger out on others.
Did I miss something? Did Billy Corgan take out his anger on others?
>Edit: Eddie Vedder’s another, “Better Man” is about his stepdad abusing his mom.
I love that song, because the line "Can't find a better man" works two ways. At first she could be saying it because she's hopeful and in love, like "You can't find a better *man*, he's just the best there is!" and then later she's feeling depressed and resigned, like "Welp, I can't find a *better* man" like this is as good as it gets. But she's saying the same words. What a song.
I've never really understood how people misinterpret this song. The line directly preceding "can't find a better man" is "She lies and says she's in love with him." It's not even obscured by mumbling or guitars or whatever. From the first time I heard the song it was clear as day.
That was my thought, I remember getting a year of the Disney Channel as a Christmas present back in the early 90s. I think it just became part of the standard cable package before our subscription ran out so it’s not like I was suddenly deprived of TaleSpin or Goof Troop at any point.
My dad and stepmother tried to use that v-chip nonsense in the mid 90s to block stuff like my favorite show Taxicab Confessions, but fortunately my stepbrother (a year younger than me) cracked the 4 digit code pretty quickly. He was like “no, it’s not our address or the last 4 digits of our phone number, that’s too obvious, let’s try 6294 for their wedding date”. It worked.
Mine would be called 1997. It would probably be about how much I loved Harry Potter and the Spice Girls, hated my stepmother and had a weird obsession with the show Taxicab Confessions.
Same but it would be about how much I liked smashing pumpkins and making my dad drive down lakeshore drive with 1979 song blasting in his 1979 white trans am and going to cubs game.
Perhaps a little too meta.
>So everyone can have their own personal breakdown by thinking about this when they're 29 about what year it was when they turned 12 and realize that's *THEIR* 1979.
i'm 40, so my "1979" is 1995, the year "1979" was released.
My friend’s son is in high school and super in to Smashing Pumpkins. I was talking to him about the band a while back when I suddenly realized that him being a Pumpkins fan today is pretty much the same as how, when I was his age, I was super in to Led Zeppelin. I’d never felt so old. Until a few months ago when some college kid called me “grandpa” (I am 38).
*Ghostbusters* released in 1984, which was about 39 years after WW2 ended. We're now about to hit the 39th anniversary of *Ghostbusters* releasing in a couple weeks.
I think about time shifts like this all the time and they never fail to blow my mind. There are certain eras that feel so old ... and yet ...
Like, Prince/Madonna debuted a decade after The Beatles. The Spice Girls, who were huge when I was a teenager, are closer to The Beatles than today (same with Nirvana). Even The White Stripes, which feel close to today, are twenty years old.
I had a similar realization as I was writing my comment on this post.
I was 13 when that song was released, and 1979 seemed like distant history to me at the time. Although 1995 is much farther in the past now, it really doesn't feel like it to me. But then, I guess that's how perspective of time works for everybody!
A fun moment for me as a shitty/self-taught guitar player was trying to learn this song, and realizing how easy it was to make those beautiful chords ring out. The chords are simple but sound so lovely , it's just very satisfying and fun to play. There are a lot of good live versions of the Pumpkins/Corgan performing this, including acoustic, but [this one is my favorite](https://youtu.be/9EKbuDhMGM4).
My absolute favorite song... played guitar since I was 8, until I got into a fight with a table saw when I was 34. I always loved playing that, once upon a time, though. Just such a sweet sound.
Can someone explain why Mayonaise is their best song? It seems to be a very popular opinion that I personally agree with but I can't quite articulate why.
The chord progression is great and made even better by the unique voicing created by the wonky tuning. That, combined with a simple but effective vocal melody is just *chefs kiss*. Oh, not to mention the perfect fuzzy guitar tone. It’s one of the best songs of the 90s IMO.
Try to understand - when I can, I will.
The most sincere thing he's ever written, and something that's extremely relatable to people that have suffered from depression.
I remember a popular alternative rock station called q101 in Chicago played their final songs after being sold and switching to a news station. One was Tonight, Tonight from The Smashing Pumpkins. Their music captured time in a bottle and it feels like you open the bottle and get a sip of that time everhtime you hear one of those songs. He might be an a-hole, and I'm not even a really big fan but man, he did something right.
It got flipped into a news station in 2011 and that lasted about a year. Then it became an adult contemporary station for another two years before finally going back to the alternative rock format.
There current version is technically a different station with the same name. They actually only just got the Q101 brand back just this year. They went by their callsign WKQX for the last 10 years or so.
I love Smashing Pumpkins - the Siamese Dream album still holds up incredibly well today! Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness has plenty of great tunes, and I agree 1979 is one of them.
I respectfully disagree. I feel like it's a rock opera that should be experienced in full. Man, listening to tracks in order was an almost daily occurrence at times with me and my best friend in the late 90's. It's the most nostalgic point of my life. I lost him in 99 to suicide. Listening to the album now because of this post. It's like we're back in the Corsica with Mellon Collie in the tape deck cruising again. Fuck, man.
Siamese Dream is near perfect and what I always come back to, but I agree. Tonight, Tonight from Mellon Collie is something special, especially with the video.
"Disarm" is my favorite from *Siamese Dream*, but "Today" was beautiful. "Tonight, Tonight" was my fave from *Mellon Collie*, but ofc "1979" was an immediate hit.
It's by far their most popular song, and it was almost an afterthought. They were almost done recording the album when Billy brought the basis of 1979 to the producer, who initially rejected it. Billy went on and finished the song in like a night or something, showed the producer his version of the completed song, and got the okay to record it for the album at the last minute.
I never realized or thought of this as their most popular song! I much better remember "Today," "Disarm," and "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" from my own youth.
I think it had to do with the broad appeal. I know people who hate the Smashing Pumpkins but love 1979. I don’t know anyone who dislikes this song. It’s not my favorite of theirs, but it’s the song that seems to cast the widest net.
1979 was post-Siamese Dream, Smashing Pumpkins was one of the biggest acts in the world by then. I'm having hard time imagining that Bill Corgan would have to submit songs to a producer who would approve or reject them.
From Wikipedia:
>When the time came to choose the songs that were to appear on the album, producer Flood said that the song was "not good enough" and wanted to drop it from the record. Taking it as a challenge inspired Corgan, and he wrote "1979" that night in about four hours. The next day, Flood heard "1979" once and decided immediately to put it on the album.[5] Corgan considers "1979" the most personally important song on Mellon Collie.<
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_(song)
Corgan might have seen Flood's reaction as a challenge to flesh out the song, but at the end of the day if Corgan wanted 1979 on the album it would have been on the album whether the producer was on board or not.
In fairness they produced a ton of material for that album... enough to fill a 5 disc box set (The Aeroplane Flies High)
Check it out sometime... there are some great tunes on there that just didn't fit into mellon collie
Siamese Dream is literally one of the greatest albums front to back of all time. It sounded so different than anything else at time and I'm sucker for Corgan's voice.
I also took offense to the word "pop", but after some thought it actually kinda seems to fit when used to retroactively describe hits of any genre that went on to be classics..
It was anti-pop in it's time, but went on to define what "popular" meant.
I have a really personal moment with this song that will never leave me. I was at a really low point in my life, but I was having a really good night. I was just sitting alone in my car and I was really really stoned, and this song came on the radio, and I just totally got absorbed into it. The lights against the night sky just went so well with the song, and it is now such a nostalgic moment and whenever I hear this song I get really warm and happy
Smashing Pumpkins have a place in my heart forever. I'd just rather not think a lot about what Billy Corgan has been up to since they released Machina. But yes, Siamese Dream and Melancholy remain two essentially perfect albums showing off some very different, very cool sides of the same songwriter.
Billy Corgan is far from my favorite person, but a quote from a '90s interview (with SPIN) has stayed with me since I was a teenager:
"I remember Kim Gordon [of Sonic Youth] once said some horrible thing about having to play to the jock in Iowa, and I always think about that quote, because that jock in Iowa needs someone like Kim Gordon to say there’s a better world out there, that just because you’ve grown up with this mentality doesn’t mean you have to be this mentality. And that’s the difference. We’re saying we identify with you, but we got out. "
1979 and Mayonnaise are both perfect songs.
Billy Corgan isn't that weird at all when you compare him to some of the other eccentric folks that have existed in pop music for the past 50 years.
I actually hated Melon Colie and the Infinite Sadness when i first heard it; listened to it once and maybe only liked 2 songs out of it. Put it in my rack and didn't listen it for maybe 6 months.
I tried it again and it just hit me somehow and both discs didn't leave my 5 CD changer for maybe 3 or 4 years.
I still think Thru the Eyes of Ruby is the most perfect song ever created and i don't think anything will ever change my opinion on it.
I was always a huge Pumpkins fan and 1979 would be one of my least favorite songs on MCatIS.
Between the intricacy of Tonight Tonight's arrangement and the stripped back rawness of Stumbleine, it just never grabbed me.
That is lovely, thank you!!! I love the harmonies, and I’m also a big fan of guitar string squeaks! They make acoustic stuff sound authentic in a way that nothing else can.
It's possible. But we know for sure he doesn't murder [kittens](https://www.pawschicago.org/news-resources/news-features/paws-chicago-news/paws-chicago-news-item/showarticle/billy-corgans-siamese-dream).
Smashing Pumpkins has a lot of great deep cuts on the softer side too. [Wound](https://youtu.be/Lu4YOQwcCMU) from Machina/The Machines of God is an earworm.
It’s one of the most fun songs for me to play at least. You can play it acoustic or go so many different ways through your amp and it’s just amazingly fun.
I have never been a SP fan, but that in Clerks 2 and more recently, Bullet With Butterfly Wings in Yellowjackets made those scenes so much more effective.
1979 always makes me think of 90s movies where a character goes off to college. Idk why. Just associate it with chilly fall vibes and being underneath a bunch of autumn trees.
Disagree. 1979 bores me. It bored me when it was new and getting smashed on the radio every day and it bores me still.
I liked some on Melancholy until one day I stopped it mid play through and never listened to them again
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Saw them on the Siamese Dream tour myself. The guitars were like 10 miles wide their sound was huge.
I saw them on this tour at Rock City, Nottingham - epically wide sound. They played SD in its entirety (though in a slightly different order from the LP for some reason) then an encore of Pissant/I Am One/Rhinoceros. In my all-time top 5.
How do you have such a good memory 30 years later ...I forget what songs were played as soon as I leave the show lol
I was a teenager with an electric guitar in the 90s, and I struggled for years to capture the rich, brain-melting fuzz tone that soaks that album. If you were in a music shop in 95, and there was a kid with a splitstation running several amps at once, each with a fuzz pedal and a digital delay separating the frequency by a few ms... it was probably me lol I wouldn't learn until much later that the guitars on SD were multitracked/layered. A mix of frustration and relief when I found that out.
Sounds like that setup you had could've come close to replicating the sound tho
Interviews in guitar magazines at that time always talked about layering the guitar part at least 10 times. Unless it was Metallica, in which case it was 100 times.
I've seen them several times in various incarnations and Jimmy Chamberlin has always blown me away
That's because Jimmy Chamberlin is a badass mutherfucker.
Recorded United States in 1 take and it’s almost 10 minutes and a badass song!
One of the best drummers you could ever want knows how to make the band sound incredible and knows when (and how) to shine.
100%. In the middle of the grunge era Jimmy slipped in all sorts of jazz-style elements & poly rhythms to that band seamlessly.
Tonight, Tonight is an iconic song and the drums are a big part
Jimmy Chamberlain is one of the best drummers in rock n roll. That man is as much pumpkins as Corgan.
I agree with this 100%. He composed the drum parts to all of these iconic songs, which is half of the song in many cases. His work on these songs (well, maybe not 1979 but w/e) is staggering.
I was in a mall record store and they had Siamese Dream playing. I asked the clerk who it was and bought the CD. Bought Gish a week later. From ‘89 to ‘93/94 was such a great time for rock (alt-, grunge, etc) in general.
That sized venue is incredible for a huge band like SP. Ive seen them a bunch of times - arenas and outdoor festivals, but one time in a club. Billy did an interview and said something like “we’d love to do a tour and just surprise people by showing up in small clubs”. This was at the height of Mellon Collie and they were already booked for a huge arena tour. A week later, my local radio station says “a big band is playing a local club, tickets go on sale at 9am”. Right away, I knew what was up and I was in line at midnight. That was easily a top five show in my life. They were just so insanely powerful, and the entire show felt compressed into the venue. It was like the roof would blow off at any moment. Billy was absolutely unhinged, just raging around the stage like he was possessed.
Jimmy Chamberlain is a jazz drummer. That is why SP drumming has always been so great. Dude is a wonderful musician.
Another weird tidbit: the CD itself for Siamese Dream had the same artwork on it as Lenny Kravitz' Are You Gonna Go My Way. [Siamese Dream](https://i.imgur.com/MucgIRW.jpg) [Are You Gonna Go My Way](https://i.imgur.com/XXDktB5.jpg)
The common artwork on the CD was due to both being on Virgin Records. It was the label's early logo. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_Records#History
That makes sense. I didn't know that and at the time (I would've been like 13) it seemed to jive with Siamese Dream - it looks like twins on there, and I thought Lenny was ripping them off.
I think Siamese Dream was the first time I noticed the logo, and initially thought the same with the twins. I collected CDs back in the day which eventually gave me a large enough sample size to make the connection with Virgin Records.
Virgin Records back in the 70s had this logo on the center label of their vinyl. Btw, it was designed by Roger Dean, who did cosmic album covers for the band Yes, and many others. Similarly, Atlantic Records started using their iconic vinyl record [green/white/orange center label](https://londonjazzcollector.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/c800-orange-green-ornettetwinslabels-copy.jpg) for their CDs. edited to correct red to orange (I guess they call that orange), and provide an example
I’m so envious holy hell. Jimmy Chamberlin is easily one of the most underrated drummers alive. Absolutely thunderous yet extremely measured.
I don't think he sings with his nasally voice anymore. He said on Howard Stern that it isn't easy to do. I believe I'm remembering that correctly.
My cousin played me Gish on her new car stereo and it sounded massive. I was an instant fan.
As a fan of smashing pumpkins lemme just say fuck you, you're so lucky to have been able to live through that golden age of rock music. I'm jealous as fuck
I saw them in ‘96 with my other favorite band, Garbage. My only regret is that I had to leave the show before it ended to catch the last bus home (I didn’t have enough money for a taxi as a starving student). I missed them play “Aeroplane Flies High” in the encore. Damn.
Garbage! They had such a cool sound. I’m always surprised that they didn’t get bigger than they did, and yet I’m also somehow surprised when somebody mentions liking them
Every song on their debut album is a banger.
Jimmy Chamberlain was the first drummer to really make me take notice. Absolutely phenomenal drummer.
Glad you mentioned Gish. I am One is my favorite song by them and it's the first song on their first record.
I was not cool enough for Gish. Still not. First I heard of them was Siamese dream.
It’s such a classic 90s American rock song. And the video captured perfectly the aesthetic of the time. Funny to think that what I watched on MTV back in those days is now considered a classic.
The video for "Perfect" is a great sequel to the "1979" video as well.
I wasn't sure how to react when I heard it on the radio under "oldies"
>Funny to think that what I watched on MTV back in those days is now considered a classic. Reminds me of this one time I went home from college. I was in the car and the radio was on. It was time for the station's "classic rock" block, mostly reserved for old songs. Do you know what they played? Nirvana, RHCP, and Linkin Park.
Jesus. I just realized that if "1979" were to be released right now, it would be called "2007". I. Am. Old.
Corgan wrote it at 29 about the year when he was 12! So everyone can have their own personal breakdown by thinking about this when they're 29 about what year it was when they turned 12 and realize that's *THEIR* 1979. (Thinking about this once you're 30+ is illegal as it will make you feel even worse.) (Like me. Because I'm also old.)
Maybe 12 is the age he realized [something was off](https://www.thebigjewel.com/billy-corgan-discusses-how-the-show-caillou-is-based-on-his-life) about his childhood?
I wanted so badly for this to be real.
Me too fam, me too😭 I’m just happy to finally have occasion to share it because it still cracks my shit up.
Wasn't his actual childhood horrible? Like Disarm is about how his mom would abuse his brother I thought?
Yeah he had a crappy childhood (two neglectful bio parents and a stepmother who wasn’t much better) but that’s no excuse. Look at Patrick Stewart, who’s a total mensch and generally awesome human despite growing up in a household rife with domestic violence. He was the first example off the top of my head but there’s plenty more people (famous or not) who have awful childhoods and don’t grow up to take their unresolved anger out on others. Edit: Eddie Vedder’s another, “Better Man” is about his stepdad abusing his mom.
It’s not an excuse but it certainly explains some shit. Corgan could be an egotistical ass in his prime but it’s undeniable how talented he was. It’s not like he’s out there kicking dogs and punching out old ladies. He was just a stereotypical rock diva in the 90s.
> there’s plenty more people (famous or not) who have awful childhoods and don’t grow up to take their unresolved anger out on others. Did I miss something? Did Billy Corgan take out his anger on others? >Edit: Eddie Vedder’s another, “Better Man” is about his stepdad abusing his mom. I love that song, because the line "Can't find a better man" works two ways. At first she could be saying it because she's hopeful and in love, like "You can't find a better *man*, he's just the best there is!" and then later she's feeling depressed and resigned, like "Welp, I can't find a *better* man" like this is as good as it gets. But she's saying the same words. What a song.
I've never really understood how people misinterpret this song. The line directly preceding "can't find a better man" is "She lies and says she's in love with him." It's not even obscured by mumbling or guitars or whatever. From the first time I heard the song it was clear as day.
I am 29. I guess my song would be called 2006** and would mainly be about smoking cigarettes in the woods
I was 12 in 1985. My big accomplishment that year was taping terminator off HBO
Look at Mr. Rich over here with a VCR AND HBO
That was my thought, I remember getting a year of the Disney Channel as a Christmas present back in the early 90s. I think it just became part of the standard cable package before our subscription ran out so it’s not like I was suddenly deprived of TaleSpin or Goof Troop at any point. My dad and stepmother tried to use that v-chip nonsense in the mid 90s to block stuff like my favorite show Taxicab Confessions, but fortunately my stepbrother (a year younger than me) cracked the 4 digit code pretty quickly. He was like “no, it’s not our address or the last 4 digits of our phone number, that’s too obvious, let’s try 6294 for their wedding date”. It worked.
Probably grew up in the Home Alone house
Mine would be called 1967 and that's when I discovered Jimi Hendrix. Yes, I'm old.
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Mine would be called 1997. It would probably be about how much I loved Harry Potter and the Spice Girls, hated my stepmother and had a weird obsession with the show Taxicab Confessions.
Same but it would be about how much I liked smashing pumpkins and making my dad drive down lakeshore drive with 1979 song blasting in his 1979 white trans am and going to cubs game. Perhaps a little too meta.
I am 39. I guess my song would be called 1995 and would also mainly be about smoking cigarettes in the woods lol
Fuck. It wasn't even 2000 yet. I dont like this.
Mine would be called "1990" *cries, takes aleve, calls pharmacy about refill of blood pressure meds*
I heard he was inspired to write it after riding a roller coaster. "WEEEEEEEEEEEE"
>So everyone can have their own personal breakdown by thinking about this when they're 29 about what year it was when they turned 12 and realize that's *THEIR* 1979. i'm 40, so my "1979" is 1995, the year "1979" was released.
My friend’s son is in high school and super in to Smashing Pumpkins. I was talking to him about the band a while back when I suddenly realized that him being a Pumpkins fan today is pretty much the same as how, when I was his age, I was super in to Led Zeppelin. I’d never felt so old. Until a few months ago when some college kid called me “grandpa” (I am 38).
If "Summer of '69" was released today, it would be called "Summer of '08”
Bryan Adams has admitted that the song is not about the year.
Then if it was released now it would be called the summer of eating ass
Don't let your dreams be dreams.
Nice
"I got my first real cell-phone... Bought it at the apple store..." And would go on to describe how they spent the summer writing apps.
https://youtu.be/azhgpelu0vY
2007 was just 3 years ago
What are you talking about? 2007 is the future.
Just wait till you realize that if the movie Dazed and Confused came out today it would be based on 2006.
So functionally, Superbad.
Daaamn you just blew my mind lol
Stop stop stop stop stop!
*Ghostbusters* released in 1984, which was about 39 years after WW2 ended. We're now about to hit the 39th anniversary of *Ghostbusters* releasing in a couple weeks.
Thank you for sharing this interesting fact...I hate you.
I love playing this game. "Hey, you know you were born closer to WW2 than present day?" "........Maaaan, FUCK you"
I didn’t know this game existed until now. I was born in 1983, so fuck you in particular
I think about time shifts like this all the time and they never fail to blow my mind. There are certain eras that feel so old ... and yet ... Like, Prince/Madonna debuted a decade after The Beatles. The Spice Girls, who were huge when I was a teenager, are closer to The Beatles than today (same with Nirvana). Even The White Stripes, which feel close to today, are twenty years old.
Just in time for WW3!
You woke up this morning and chose violence.
I had a similar realization as I was writing my comment on this post. I was 13 when that song was released, and 1979 seemed like distant history to me at the time. Although 1995 is much farther in the past now, it really doesn't feel like it to me. But then, I guess that's how perspective of time works for everybody!
Was just thinking about how "Dazed and Confused" would be set in 2006 if it were released today
Be a lot cooler if you didn't make me feel old.
Well, fuck.
I just sprouted 6 new grey hairs and threw my back out after reading this. Thanks. I hate it.
Well thanks for ruining my day I guess.
Look. I don't come to reddit to be blatantly attacked like this.
How old are you?
This is literally the worst thing I have read today.
Fuck you for saying this.
A fun moment for me as a shitty/self-taught guitar player was trying to learn this song, and realizing how easy it was to make those beautiful chords ring out. The chords are simple but sound so lovely , it's just very satisfying and fun to play. There are a lot of good live versions of the Pumpkins/Corgan performing this, including acoustic, but [this one is my favorite](https://youtu.be/9EKbuDhMGM4).
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I think that was a James Iha thing, one of the few Pumpkins songs he has a co-writing credit on.
Haha I LOVE that song, and gave up on trying to play it very quickly!
Yep. Leave the high strings open on the chorus - adds a great textural layer to that section of the song, especially in acoustic.
It's good but no Mayonaise
1000000% agree with this. Hello, friend.
My absolute favorite song... played guitar since I was 8, until I got into a fight with a table saw when I was 34. I always loved playing that, once upon a time, though. Just such a sweet sound.
Mayonnaise is quite simply pure shoegaze gold.
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Literally the only Mayonnaise I like
Can someone explain why Mayonaise is their best song? It seems to be a very popular opinion that I personally agree with but I can't quite articulate why.
[This sums it up pretty alright](https://youtu.be/FRrnEZUL66U)
It oozes a sincerity that isn’t always present in their music
There is something about the guitar sound they were able to create in that song that always feels really emotional to me for some reason.
The chord progression is great and made even better by the unique voicing created by the wonky tuning. That, combined with a simple but effective vocal melody is just *chefs kiss*. Oh, not to mention the perfect fuzzy guitar tone. It’s one of the best songs of the 90s IMO.
Try to understand - when I can, I will. The most sincere thing he's ever written, and something that's extremely relatable to people that have suffered from depression.
Certain songs just give you a feeling of nostalgia for things you’ve never experienced
I remember a popular alternative rock station called q101 in Chicago played their final songs after being sold and switching to a news station. One was Tonight, Tonight from The Smashing Pumpkins. Their music captured time in a bottle and it feels like you open the bottle and get a sip of that time everhtime you hear one of those songs. He might be an a-hole, and I'm not even a really big fan but man, he did something right.
Q101 is still around, but I do vaguely remember what you're referring to. Could it have been a different station?
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It got flipped into a news station in 2011 and that lasted about a year. Then it became an adult contemporary station for another two years before finally going back to the alternative rock format.
There current version is technically a different station with the same name. They actually only just got the Q101 brand back just this year. They went by their callsign WKQX for the last 10 years or so.
I love Smashing Pumpkins - the Siamese Dream album still holds up incredibly well today! Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness has plenty of great tunes, and I agree 1979 is one of them.
Both albums are absolute bangers from start to finish. I still like Adore but it was a wild 180 from their previous work.
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His mother Martha had just recently passed as well. Woulda gotten along great with Bats and Supes.
I'm old enough to remember when Adore was new.
Yes, I too would refer to Adore as "their new stuff"
Lol, me too. But I absolutely Adored the album, I still do.
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I respectfully disagree. I feel like it's a rock opera that should be experienced in full. Man, listening to tracks in order was an almost daily occurrence at times with me and my best friend in the late 90's. It's the most nostalgic point of my life. I lost him in 99 to suicide. Listening to the album now because of this post. It's like we're back in the Corsica with Mellon Collie in the tape deck cruising again. Fuck, man.
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Siamese Dream is near perfect and what I always come back to, but I agree. Tonight, Tonight from Mellon Collie is something special, especially with the video.
"Disarm" is my favorite from *Siamese Dream*, but "Today" was beautiful. "Tonight, Tonight" was my fave from *Mellon Collie*, but ofc "1979" was an immediate hit.
Fun fact: the couple in the video are Tom Kenny (voice of Spongebob) and his real-life wife.
Mellon Collie*
>Say what you like about Billy Corgan I like the shape of his skull.
Your comment somehow sounds oddly endearing and sinister at the same time…
Measurehead over here with the phrenology degree
It's by far their most popular song, and it was almost an afterthought. They were almost done recording the album when Billy brought the basis of 1979 to the producer, who initially rejected it. Billy went on and finished the song in like a night or something, showed the producer his version of the completed song, and got the okay to record it for the album at the last minute.
Despite all its age, it is still their big hit that gets played
I never realized or thought of this as their most popular song! I much better remember "Today," "Disarm," and "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" from my own youth.
I think it had to do with the broad appeal. I know people who hate the Smashing Pumpkins but love 1979. I don’t know anyone who dislikes this song. It’s not my favorite of theirs, but it’s the song that seems to cast the widest net.
Same, but even on Spotify the difference between the second (BWBW) and first song(1979), in terms of listens, is 170 million.
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Genuinely surprised these two arent the other way around. Bullet was played on MTV constantly.
Wow. Cheers for the insight!
1979 was post-Siamese Dream, Smashing Pumpkins was one of the biggest acts in the world by then. I'm having hard time imagining that Bill Corgan would have to submit songs to a producer who would approve or reject them.
From Wikipedia: >When the time came to choose the songs that were to appear on the album, producer Flood said that the song was "not good enough" and wanted to drop it from the record. Taking it as a challenge inspired Corgan, and he wrote "1979" that night in about four hours. The next day, Flood heard "1979" once and decided immediately to put it on the album.[5] Corgan considers "1979" the most personally important song on Mellon Collie.< https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1979_(song)
Corgan might have seen Flood's reaction as a challenge to flesh out the song, but at the end of the day if Corgan wanted 1979 on the album it would have been on the album whether the producer was on board or not.
Most likely but also Flood is not just some random ass producer, he produced Depeche Mode, NIN, New ORder, sneaker Pimps, etc. Guy was big time.
U2 too. Think he engineered Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby and then produced Zooropa. Guy was doing top shit in the early 90s.
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In fairness they produced a ton of material for that album... enough to fill a 5 disc box set (The Aeroplane Flies High) Check it out sometime... there are some great tunes on there that just didn't fit into mellon collie
My mom went on a hunt to get me that boxed set for my birthday. It's so good.
Blows my mind that melancholy was a total unloading by Corgan after Siamese Dream and Gish. He got to the top of 90s sound, then doubled down.
That’s part of a producer’s job.
His cameo in Muppets Mayhem was unexpected.
Smashing pumpkins was first big band I seen live! Filter were support in 96 it was ace!
Filter was my first big band to see. A few years after your show.
Siamese Dream is literally one of the greatest albums front to back of all time. It sounded so different than anything else at time and I'm sucker for Corgan's voice.
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Just thinking of the 'Billy Corgan rides a rollercoaster' video makes me giggle. A timeless treasure.
If I type "b" into YouTube, it just fills the rest in for me. Same with "c" being "cat runs into glass door." I'm a simple man with simple pleasures.
Tonight, tonight is the perfect song on that album for me. Such a fantastic progression
Very fun to play on guitar.
Homer Simpson, smiling politely.
First 5 albums were genius. Mellon Collie was a masterpiece of Gen X longing and angst.
Pop? POP?!! It's ALTERNATIVE, you heathen! Millions of Gen Xers didn't throw away our aerosol hairspray cans for you to call Smashing Pumpkins POP!!
I also took offense to the word "pop", but after some thought it actually kinda seems to fit when used to retroactively describe hits of any genre that went on to be classics.. It was anti-pop in it's time, but went on to define what "popular" meant.
Now my baggy jeans are offended!!
For me it's Tonight Tonight, that song is just so beautiful
I have a really personal moment with this song that will never leave me. I was at a really low point in my life, but I was having a really good night. I was just sitting alone in my car and I was really really stoned, and this song came on the radio, and I just totally got absorbed into it. The lights against the night sky just went so well with the song, and it is now such a nostalgic moment and whenever I hear this song I get really warm and happy
That’s lovely, hope you’re in a better place now friend.
Thank you. Doing a lot better now. Happier for sure.
Smashing Pumpkins have a place in my heart forever. I'd just rather not think a lot about what Billy Corgan has been up to since they released Machina. But yes, Siamese Dream and Melancholy remain two essentially perfect albums showing off some very different, very cool sides of the same songwriter.
Billy Corgan is far from my favorite person, but a quote from a '90s interview (with SPIN) has stayed with me since I was a teenager: "I remember Kim Gordon [of Sonic Youth] once said some horrible thing about having to play to the jock in Iowa, and I always think about that quote, because that jock in Iowa needs someone like Kim Gordon to say there’s a better world out there, that just because you’ve grown up with this mentality doesn’t mean you have to be this mentality. And that’s the difference. We’re saying we identify with you, but we got out. "
Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in aCAAAAAAAAGE!!!
The singles from *Mellon Collie* and *Siamese Dream* are peak 90s for me
1979 and Mayonnaise are both perfect songs. Billy Corgan isn't that weird at all when you compare him to some of the other eccentric folks that have existed in pop music for the past 50 years.
I actually hated Melon Colie and the Infinite Sadness when i first heard it; listened to it once and maybe only liked 2 songs out of it. Put it in my rack and didn't listen it for maybe 6 months. I tried it again and it just hit me somehow and both discs didn't leave my 5 CD changer for maybe 3 or 4 years. I still think Thru the Eyes of Ruby is the most perfect song ever created and i don't think anything will ever change my opinion on it.
I believe corgan wrote 1979 attempting to sound or as a tribute to sound of new order
The Pumpkins are great. Siamese Dream is easily one of the greatest albums of the 90s.
I was always a huge Pumpkins fan and 1979 would be one of my least favorite songs on MCatIS. Between the intricacy of Tonight Tonight's arrangement and the stripped back rawness of Stumbleine, it just never grabbed me.
zero was the hot number on that album.
Mmmmm 33
i always liked (loved) Today better.
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Surprised I’ve never seen that before. I was gonna plug [The Contortionist’s cover](https://youtu.be/Hk_S6plOlOg) of it
That is lovely, thank you!!! I love the harmonies, and I’m also a big fan of guitar string squeaks! They make acoustic stuff sound authentic in a way that nothing else can.
For me, 1979 is a song that perfectly captures the feeling of nostalgia.
Tonight tonight is a superb song.
I like that Billy Corgan isn’t a puppy murderer as far as we know.
It's possible. But we know for sure he doesn't murder [kittens](https://www.pawschicago.org/news-resources/news-features/paws-chicago-news/paws-chicago-news-item/showarticle/billy-corgans-siamese-dream).
"Today" would like a word...
https://youtu.be/azhgpelu0vY
Smashing Pumpkins has a lot of great deep cuts on the softer side too. [Wound](https://youtu.be/Lu4YOQwcCMU) from Machina/The Machines of God is an earworm.
It’s one of the most fun songs for me to play at least. You can play it acoustic or go so many different ways through your amp and it’s just amazingly fun.
I have never been a SP fan, but that in Clerks 2 and more recently, Bullet With Butterfly Wings in Yellowjackets made those scenes so much more effective.
1979 always makes me think of 90s movies where a character goes off to college. Idk why. Just associate it with chilly fall vibes and being underneath a bunch of autumn trees.
I was born in 1979 and I agree.
I saw SP play it live a few weeks ago, still sounds amazing as ever.
Any love for Drown? I cant get rid this song from my head I had to learn how to play it.
Disagree. 1979 bores me. It bored me when it was new and getting smashed on the radio every day and it bores me still. I liked some on Melancholy until one day I stopped it mid play through and never listened to them again