“So why did you have to get a 64Gb MP3 player then?” people ask me, disbelievingly. “Because I like to have loads of old stuff on there I haven’t listened to for years, so when the song pops back into my head, I can listen to it straight away”, I reply.
They look at me funnily. Usually whilst walking backward, slowly.
But today it came into its own. Lying in bed feeling more than a little poorly, I had the sudden urge to listen to Smashing Pumpkin’s ludicrous “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”. For “Mellon Collie oh for Pete’s sake, stop whining” is utterly ludicrous. Possibly the best ever example of a great album that went out and ate too many pies, could be cut to half its running length and be a much better record. In fact, it’d easily have been their best record if someone had just said to them that songs like “Thru the Eyes of Ruby” and “To Forgive” would make great Super Deluxe Re-Release Multipak Special Edition fodder ten years hence. This truly is an album that should be re-released without all the extra pap; a “Special Limited Cut-Down Edition”, if you like.
One day, when I get to “1979” on the Pitchfork list, I’ll talk at greater length about this record, and the band. But to leave you with this thought from my slightly feverish mind – this album is great, and I’m damn glad I listened to it again. Praise the Lord for the Track Forward function on your music player of choice.
And let us not forget that for all their po-faced whining, they did contribute to one of the finest gags ever in The Simpsons:
Corgan: Hey cannonball, I like your statement: when life takes a cheap shot at you, you stand your ground. Billy Corgan, Smashing Pumpkins.
Homer: Homer Simpson, smiling politely.
Loft And Lost 
Neil Cake
/ September 21, 2010Are you suggesting that “Thru the Eyes of Ruby” is one of the weaker tracks? Cos I think it’s one of the best. You could easily dispense with all the thrashy screamy songs, though. And a few of the more ambient ones.
loftandlost
/ September 21, 2010Hi Neil,
Definitely not one of my favourites, but I can see why some people (like yourself!) like it, hence the thought about it being good material for an extended edition. POssibly shows that you can’t please all the people all the time!
I definitely agree with you about most of the thrashy screamy ones though; aside from “Zero” they are by and large quite poor. To me, Smashing Pumpkins were at their best with those big, grandiose songs like “Tonight, Tonight” and the unexpectedly gentle ones like “1979”. I can do without the overly noisy ones and the slow, miserable-as-sin ones…