Neither rain, nor sleet, nor snow can stop Friday Night Jukebox. Publishing on time, however, is a completely different matter.
The Smashing Pumpkins (segues are for amateurs) formed in 1988 in Chicago and flourished during the alternative boom of the 1990's. Led by lead singer and guitarist Billy Corgan and his tortured young man persona, the band had a string of hits and were favorites both on tour and on MTV back when MTV kind of sort of still mattered as a vehicle for presenting music. The Smashing Pumpkins won two Grammys and two MTV Video Music Awards before drugs and declining sales (it's always something!) caused the band to break up in 2000. They reformed in 2006 taking on a number of different incarnations but by 2018 three of the original four members were still performing together. For their career, Smashing Pumpkins released eleven studio albums (with six reaching the top ten), as well as 54 singles (with nary a one hitting the top ten). The band released its latest LP in 2020.
Fun Fact: The Smashing Pumpkins are one of the few bands to come out of the alternative movement who do not credit punk rock for having an influence on their music, saying they were much more inspired by heavy metal. Which may go a long way toward explaining why I never much cared for the band (other than this week's tune)--well that and by the time I was in my mid-thirties I'd realized the whole tortured young man schtick was a colossal waste of time that could better be spent enjoying life....
"1979" was released in 1996 from the band's seminal work and somewhat cleverly titled album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The single was the highest charting of their career, peaking at #12 (with a bullet!) on the Billboard 200. The album debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200 and would be the only number one album of their career.
Billy Corgan has said that "1979" is a nod to the year he turned twelve and his introduction to adolescence, but to be honest, his vocals on the song are so understated that I had no idea what he was singing, other than the chorus which is awfully short and not catchy in a noteworthy way. Back in the day, I read a critic (it might have been Dave Marsh, but I wouldn't swear to it) who said that rock lyrics were stupid and what drove us to listen was the music. I never quite bought his idea ("Born to Run" might make for a nice instrumental, but singing "Tramps like us, baby we were born to run" takes it into another musical stratosphere), but for "1979" he may be right--the guitar acts as the bass, the drums, and puts the pop into what makes it a pop song. I'm 362 songs into this experiment, and I'm not sure there's another on the list that's quite like this one, but that's one of the things about loving music--it never ceases to surprise you, and when it does it makes it all the more worthwhile.
Lyric Sheet: "Faster than the speed of sound/Faster than we thought we'd go/Beneath the sound of hope...
Enjoy:
Republican = Racist
Peace,
emaycee
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