A friend of mine from Chitown (yo, John, Happy New Year!) keeps asking me when I'm gonna blog about his favorite band, Smashing Pumpkins. Every time he does, I am also reminded of the fact that the Pumpkins opened for me back in '89 and that John was one of the guys working sound at that particular club that night.
After the show, I bump into a girl I'd gone to school with back in Michigan. She, of course, is there because she's friends with Smashing Pumpkins and proceeds to introduce me to Billy and Jimmy. Billy shakes me hand about as limply as James Iha strums a guitar and I find myself conversing at length with Jimmy, who tells me that the Pumpkins will be opening for The Cure in a few days.
Considering that we're playing a total dive bar that night to about 150 people or so, I immediately think this guy's bull-shitting me and add him to my mental list of people to avoid from this point on.
A couple days later, I hear a radio commercial advertising the Cure concert. Near the end of the spot, I her the announcer say "with special guests Smashing Pumpkins" and almost drive my car into the path of oncoming traffic.
What I didn't know is that the band had just aligned themselves with Joe Shanahan, who booked the Cabaret Metro and had considerable clout - enough to ensure the Pumpkins opened for The Cure and a number of heavyweights performing at the Metro.
In a matter of months, the band would transform from a gothy Mission UK/Sisters Of Mercy hybrid into a tight, alterna-rock act garnering the attention of several major labels.
By 1991, they would be all over MTV and I would be...watching MTV.
Coincidentally enough (for this blog anyway), earlier today, I was killing time with a dude I work with by compiling lists of the ten best songs by our favorite bands. There are the obligatory Beatles, Rolling Stones, and U2 lists and resulting arguments. About an hour into this exercise, my co-worker throws out the name "Smasphing Pumpkins" and begins scribbling fiercely on a nearby scratch pad. He's obviously a bit of a fan.
I, on the other hand, attack my list with a little less intensity, but do eventually finish it.
Here it is:
Today
Today
Today
Cherub Rock
1979
1979
1979
Today
Cherub Rock
1979
and, as a bonus track, yet another version of Today
Now, before you send me a grumpy comment, allow me to explain.
I will admit to not exactly digging the Pumpkins. The entirety of "Gish" is a complete sonic snoozefest to my ears and, thus, I initially wrote the band off. However, by the time Pumpkin-mania swept across the US (and around the world), even I had to admit that "Today" was a mother of a song.
"Cherub Rock" also didn't sound half-bad blasting out of a nearby radio.
When "1979" was released, I again begrudgingly found myself digging another Pumpkins song; this one for showing an amazing amount of restraint.
Do I only like three Pumpkins songs? No, but these three songs stand head-and-shoulder above the rest of their output, in my most humble opinion.
Of the ten, er, eleven songs gathered here, I really must say that the live cuts from '93 are my favorite. They are of a band going from "up-and-coming" to "superstars" in a matter of weeks, but a couple years shy of becoming a caricature of themselves.
Even today, as Billy Corgan wrestles with his own relevance - unable to garner any sizable interest as a solo artist and begrudgingly resurrecting Smashing Pumpkins out of a very real necessity to put more asses in the seats - it's impossible to deny that he has written at least a few songs that will no doubt stand the test of time.
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