Bang Bang You're Dead... POLL In Your Head - ILM Artist Poll #87 - SMASHING PUMPKINS - Results

GS: Did you use any other guitar amps on the record?

CORGAN: On "To Forgive," I used a Fender Bassman that I bought during the recording of Siamese Dream. It's an old, fucked-up amp, one of those "silver face" models from the late Sixties or early Seventies. I paid to get it fixed, but it still doesn't work right. The amp makes this weird sound, like a storm coming. While we rehearsed the song, the sound got worse, and then started to go away,at which point we started to record. Right about the time we did the rake that's on the album,the sound started to come back. If you listen closely, you can hear a little bit of the storm sound coming again.

GS: Is it like a rumble?

CORGAN: No, it's more like KKKkkkccchhhHHH, like something's definitely wrong with the amp. I've had problems with tubes going harmonic, but this is something else altogether. I've tried kicking that head as hard as I can, and sometimes that makes the sound go away. But other times it makes it get worse, so you have to know just when and how to kick it!

GS: How do you play the first verse of "To Forgive"?

CORGAN: It's mostly based on arpeggiated 1st-position chords. At the chorus, I break into full chords combined with single-note arpegiations.

GS: The bridge of "To Forgive" has a very cool cyclical feel to it.

CORGAN: That's because it's based on a chord progression that actually cycles around.

rest of the interview is pumpkinhead heaven, lots of detailed stuff about the production of MCIS: http://www.starla.org/articles/crsh4_96.htm

https://i.imgur.com/mR3YbzD.jpg
31. Shame
274 points, 10 votes
From: Adore, 1998

last one for now

is this happening over the weekend or are you going to wait to post the next batch on Monday?

I will probably keep going over the weekend

:thumbsup:

SHAME TOO LOW

this was my gateway song into loving Adore and a lot of other music, too (eg slowcore)

My #25

god "shame" is so wonderful

starting from when I was about 16 I always took "you're gonna walk on home, you're gonna walk alone" as an invitation. it's scored a lot of walks.

my gateway song into loving Adore and a lot of other music, too (eg slowcore)

Smashing Pumpkins 'Shame' but sung by Mark Kozelek

lmao

ahahahaha bless u crut

Shame is a little too long but it's still glorious, I love when it finally opens up into "hello, goodbye, you know you made us cry"

Shame was in my top 10. A majestic abstraction

Bodies & Quiet also placed high on my ballots. Quiet in particular has some of Billy's best-ever lyrics

(Seriously the Quiet chorus is such a sharp evocation of child abuse from the vantage point of the victim)

wait, "ballots"?

Lol no thats a typo, my bad. I only got one vote

been listening to softer tracks at night while winding down with fam, and I now see that I made very caffeinated morning listening at work selections for my ballot

I've been listening to it for 25 years but I don't think I have any idea what the words to the chorus of "Quiet" are, unless they actually are "We have shown/Mess you've made my eyes/I'll never forget your sweet behind". Don't tell me the real lyrics pls. I really enjoy the vocal timbres with the guitars there.

One of my favourite Corgan solos.

be ashamed
mess you've made
my eyes
never forget
you see
behind me

OK, I looked them up. The real lyrics are definitely better.
xp

behind me the grace of falling snow
cover up everything you know
come save me from the awful sound
of nothing

that’s one of my favorite corgan verses

I like "Behind me the grace of falling snow/Cover up everything you know". His diction seems really obscured to me on that song.

"Shame" was my #7. It's maybe the only long SP track whose epic-ness doesn't sound forced. There are no extended solos, shifts in tempo, weird vocal interludes or any other cues that might imply that they're planning to go long. The groove just locks in and keeps going.

I figured it was a given that all of SD would place in the top 66 but never thought that all, or nearly all, of Adore would.

Spotify: ILM The Smashing Pumpkins

up to date and at 2:42 long (31-88) so far...

thanks for those who are keeping the Spotify up to date!

'I Am One' and especially 'Beautiful' are both far, far too low. 'To Forgive' is way too high and I'm glad to see 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings' outside the Top 25... if there was ever a classic Pumpkins song that I got bored of fast, it was that one - even 'Today' still has a lot of gas left in the tank for me.

Sh-sh-sh-sh-shame I'm missing most of the roll-out due to work, but: I adore the images, the placings, the insightful comments and the banter, the faith, compassion and love <3

Quiet and To Forgive both get a TOO LOW from me, Quiet has always been my favourite of the band's hard rock songs, especially love the shift into 3/4 during the solo. To Forgive just unfurls beautifully. Shame and To Sheila are two Adore tracks I wish I could've made room for.

Bullet With Butterfly Wings isn't a great song but it's an iconic one that might have been their most important song in terms of bringing them to a new level of superstardom. I have a lot of good memories associated with it for that reason but without that context it doesn't really stand out for me on the album twenty years later.

who voted Beautiful as their #1? thank you.

― flappy bird, Saturday, 7 April 2018 01:34 (nine hours ago)

hi! alternated between this & "Farewell & Goodnight" as my #1; semi-wished I'd gone for the latter to mirror your #1 for the title track! had a semi-haphazard ballot as I haven't really listened to the SPs since the 90s but I sort've agree with

OK here's a challop: the heavy songs on MCIS sound forced, and if SP weren't buzzbinned and earmarked as the next Nirvana (and of course complied with that) then the album would have been Beautiful, Thirty-Three, Tonight Tonight, Galapogos, Porcelina, Lily, 1979 et al.
SD sounds like Billy had some jams to kick out, and with Vig achieved the zenith of the guitar rock assault record, but on MCIS the rawk is a facsimile, and the beautiful melodic songs are where their hearts were. Adore was a relief for that reason.

― startled macropod (MatthewK), Saturday, 7 April 2018 01:15 (nine hours ago)

& personally I can't really get near guitar-heavy SPs without sensations of nausea (& geez that first couplet in "Ava Adore") - probably should have revisited the Thirty-Three b-sides more when putting together my ballot.

For me BWBW is too self consciously the loud-quiet-loud template and a can't-believe-it's-not-Nirvana bid to assume the mantle of alt-rock sovereignty - previously the Pumpkins' huge songs were lengthy buildups and revelled in their excess, whereas this is off-on-off-on. But that early performance above has an intro talking about Virgin Records and "if you don't like it we won't be able to do the next album" - tongue in cheek but with a grain of truth I'll bet.
I wonder if Billy was driven by a sense of competition with Kurt, even. If he was still hung up on Courtney.

starting #30 to #21 now

https://i.imgur.com/GriIYk6.jpg
30. Hello Kitty Kat
294 points, 14 votes
From: Today single, 1993 and Pisces Iscariot, 1994

oh and 1 #1 vote there too

My #4. It moves so well. I think I compared the outro to 70s Aerosmith before.

I wonder if Billy was driven by a sense of competition with Kurt, even. If he was still hung up on Courtney.

― startled macropod (MatthewK), Saturday, April 7, 2018 11:08 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Corgan was driven by a sense of competition with everybody - he really did want the Pumpkins to be massive in a U2 sense and had no interest in being a cult act. I remember one article in Q Magazine circa 1995 or 1996 about the old TV show The White Room, where The Cardigans were asked "how does it feel to be on the same show as The Smashing Pumpkins?" to which they replied "you should ask them how they feel to be on the same show as The Cardigans" ... so, the journalist did! Corgan hit the roof, pretty much, at the idea that anyone could possibly be more successful. His response was pretty much "What the fuck? Have we missed the boat, or what?" - The Cardigans, of course, weren't even anywhere near on the same level of popularity as the Pumpkins, but for a moment Corgan shat himself at the thought that his popularity was being eclipsed.

I'm sure that Corgan felt a bit of a rivalry with Kurt due to the Courtney thing, but while I could imagine Corgan being envious of the success of Nevermind or In Utero, I couldn't see Kurt being much into the Punpkins, just based of what everyone knows about his music taste and his feelings towards huge bands. The Pumpkins seemed to be everything Kurt didn't want Nirvana to be.

https://i.imgur.com/556aPBC.jpg
29. Snail
310 points, 11 votes
From: Gish, 1991

Maybe the best song I didn't vote for

YES! Love this song - really glad to see this in the Top 30.

Two solid tracks right here.

My #2! It's majestic.

Snail is one of my favourites on Gish, a clear predecessor to the epics from SD and MCIS

https://i.imgur.com/nA6OPAi.jpg
28. Siva
314 points, 13 votes, 1 #1 vote
From: Gish, 1991

Another Gish classic - this was my favourite track on the LP for a long time.

https://i.imgur.com/Rui58bF.jpg
27. Frail and Bedazzled
322 points, 11 votes, 1 #1 vote
From: Pisces Iscariot, 1994

two of the best tracks on gish bookended by two of the best tracks on pisces

this poll is awesome