Essential Songs of the Smashing Pumpkins
The Smashing Pumpkins were my first rock band that I could call my own and the "1979" cassette single was my introduction. In fact, I still have the cassette in it's banged up cardboard sleeve. I always wondered what was going on with this picture, if the long-haired Asian person was a woman in a v-neck shirt like resembled the kind Spock would wear on Star Trek, and if that lady in the background was actually a mannequin on roller skates. At the age of 10 or 11, it was baffling to me. As for the band's music, I have so many songs that I love, so I decided to cheat and remove the B-Sides from the Top Ten and give them their own separate list.
Bonus! Essential B-Sides/Rarities
5. "Once In Awhile" (Ava Adore B-Side)
I didn't own the Adore album until well into my college years, but I did purchase the Ava Adore single in 1998. I remember buying it while in the Mall of America in 1998, and I think I stuffed the CD into my pocket rather than carry the sack, which was so uncool at 14. Well, it nearly cost me my life! I was there with family, and my younger cousin wanted ride a Snoopy rollercoaster which was located in the middle of the mall. As I sat down next to him, the bar across my lap didn't lock. I think it's because I was sitting awkwardly with a CD case in my pocket. The coaster zipped around and even went sideways, so I held onto that bar for dear life! Finally in the home stretch when the coaster slowed down and the track leveled out, that's when the bar finally locked into place. ...and I believe this is the first time I've ever shared that story.
4. "...Said Sadly" (Bullet With Butterfly Wings B-Side)
I feel like James Iha is underrated when it comes to the Pumpkins and Billy continues to downplay his role as a songwriter. Too bad he was relegated to the B-sides, but damn, some are just too good to ignore. I feel like that's another reason why I like this band so much is because more often than not, these songs are just as strong as those that made the albums, much like The Cure.
3. "The End Is The Beginning Is The End" (Batman And Robin soundtrack)
First was 1979, then came the actual Mellon Collie album, and in 1998 while I was in 8th grade was the Batman & Robin soundtrack. This song was killer then, and still is today. I'm not as fond of the slower version titled "The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning", but I thought it was an interesting surprise when I noticed it in the trailer for The Watchmen movie a decade later.
2. "Believe" (1979 B-Side)
I remember playing this 4-song cassette on repeat during one trip to my grandparents in the summer. The tape would play the two songs, rewind itself, then play the other two on the reverse side, and repeat itself. That must have went on for much of the car ride from Peoria, IL to Lafayette, IN, and I'm sorry for any family members that were annoyed in the process, but also thank you for being a good sport. This was so difficult to cut from the Top Ten, so I said screw it, and made a list of B-Sides just to get it's due.
This is another song I was having a hard time trying to fit into the top ten but just couldn't bear to bounce anything. If I had to list a song of the Pumpkins that I connect with the most, it would be this one; and that's exactly what I'm doing right here. I also like the effect during the song that sounds like fingers are snapping along to the beat.
10. "Bullet With Butterfly Wings" (Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness)
While this was the first single released from Mellon Collie, Billy actually wanted "Jellybelly" instead. Interesting. I feel like most would probably rank this song at number 1 and not number 10, but I feel like that just proves how strong the song-writing was while the Pumpkins were on top of the world.
9. "Mayonaise" (Siamese Dream)
While it wasn't a single and was probably too long to be on rock radio in 1993 anyway, this is my absolute favorite from Siamese Dream. I've always read and heard that Billy Corgan would obsess over every song in the studio and add multiple layered guitar parts, and I'm sure this one took up much of their time in the studio to achieve that kind of perfection. Not really sure why it's named after a sandwich condiment, but the song is still amazing regardless.
8. "Stand Inside Your Love" (Machina)
I honestly checked out after the Adore album, probably because the Pumpkins were a spring-board for harder rock like Metallica and Rage Against the Machine, whose albums and singles I would buy next. Also at this time, I had entered high school and discovered more bands through my classmates, so I didn't even realize this album existed until the Greatest Hits album was released. My memory of this song is having it on repeat while playing Duke Nukem on Playstation, likely during my senior year. Good times.
7. "Here Is No Why" (Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness)
Out of all the angst-ridden teenage rock songs of the Pumpkins during the early 90's, I think this one has the lyrics which sum that up the best, with lines like, "And if you're giving in, then you're giving up." I've also noticed that this song seems to lack a traditional chorus, other than the repeating of the line, "in your sad machines you'll forever stay."
6. "Tear" (Adore)
I just can't get into the Adore album. It's never done anything for me and seems like it was Billy being too artistic for his own good, which ended up derailing the band's success. Yet the landscape of rock was about to shift once again, with grunge being overtaken by "nu metal" like Korn and Limp Bizkit, so possibly he saw the changing tides and wanted to try something else. Either way, it's impossible for me to listen to this album in one sitting, though "Tear" is among the few highlights. In fact, this stripped down version improves on the original and is just an amazing recording by the band. It actually transforms the song from spooky to beautiful.
Mellon Collie may seem a little long than it needs to be, yet I feel like album flows incredibly well, especially the first 6 songs on each disc. I was talking to a friend while compiling this list and we both agreed that those 12 songs could've been combined into a single, killer album. I feel like Billy could've even rode out the wave of popularity a little longer, and done something like Metallica did with Load and then later ReLoad. However I'm happy with one big ambitious album, which combined the traditional alternative rock Pumpkins songs, with the harder edge found in "Zero" and "Bullet With Butterfly Wings", along with the artistic songs such as this one, "Galapogos."
I bought the CD single of this song back at a time before I had a job, so it was easier and cheaper to use what little money I had to buy the song I wanted than wait and save money for the actual albums that were closer to $20 a pop at Sam Goody. The video was more frightening and jarring compared to the colorful appearance of the band on the 1979 single but it also instantly stood out in my mind. I can still recall Billy Corgan creeping around like Nosferatu.
This song was originally found on the band-bootlegged album, Machina II, while I only recently discovered an earlier, and much better, version of the song as part of the Adore reissue. The earlier version was recorded during that album's sessions with producer Rick Rubin and it's the best pure pop song that Billy ever recorded with the band. It's a shame this wasn't part of an official album because it could've been a smash hit.
This served as my introduction to the Pumpkins in 1995, along with several songs included as the B-Sides. I later received Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness as a Christmas gift and fell asleep so many times while listening to it on my Walkman portable disc player. I think I went through a few of those as I'd fall asleep with it playing, then knock it onto the floor, breaking the CD player. Whoops.
1. "Tonight, Tonight" (Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness)
The first half of the first disc of Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness might be the most important musical moment in my entire life; mostly because that's about as far as I'd get before I fell asleep while listening to it. It's also because I never listened to music the same again, as I went from just casually listening to whatever was on the radio, to actually finding out which bands I was listening to and buying their music. With this album, I love how it started almost dream-like with the piano introduction, before transitioning into the orchestral rock "Tonight, Tonight", and then the next few songs would rock your socks off before returning to dream-like rock again. While Billy Corgan wrote it and arranged it with the producers Flood and Alan Moulder, I've come to realize that Jimmy Chamberlain is the MVP of this song for his intense drumming.
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