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[¡HarlequinPanic!]

20 years ago today, Billy Corgan bestowed upon us a great gift and was never heard from again.

I didn't discover the greatness of the pumpkins until right before Billy reassembled the band in 2006 and eventually got Zeitgeist made, but I loved everything I heard.

For what its worth I for a long time considered Mellon Collie to be a sampler of sorts, an album that contains almost every sound the pumpkins have made, but that's really not true. What Mellon Collie simply is, is a selection of the best pieces written by a high motivated musician that was churning out dozens and dozens of songs. Enough material to create a double album, five iconic music videos, a tour that claimed the life of a touring member, and 6 singles worth of b-sides ,

Take some time out of your day today and listen to some of the great songs on this album. Maybe wait til sunset and listen to "Tonight, Tonight". If its bright where you are and you feel listless you might want to listen to "1979", hear the last times Billy really screams on a recording with "Bodies", and if you want to hear the best song Billy ever wrote, "33" is on there.

Happy birthday, you great album you.

XYU me if already posted.

 

[Ryaaan14]

1979 gives me strong feels to this day

 

[Tenebrous]

Great album. I love how "Farewell and Goodnight" leads back into the title track... "Tonight, Tonight" has a great video.

Time to dig it out, I think.

 

[Newt]

Man, Pumpkins is great.

 

[Zophar]

Aged horribly, I think. Hard for me to go back to it outside a handful of standouts. Siamese Dream is a lot more "complete" record.

 

[uncelestial]

If only he was never heard from again. The initial run of the band from Gish through Jimmy's firing in 1996 produced some of the 90s most potent rock. Nowadays, Billy is kind of a fucking embarassment.

Personally I'm more of a Siamese Dream fan. Mellon Collie is an album I keep playing the "b-side game" with (swapping out tracks from The Aeroplane Flies High to make a better version of the album than what was released). Siamese Dream is unfuckwithable. Creating a dreamy sound out of a completely-in-focus blanket of guitar fuzz was an amazing feat and Butch Vig's production mixed perfectly with Billy's music on that album.

But I respect Mellon Collie a lot; it was an amazing statement from the band that all the other second tier alternative bands -- your Soul Asylums, Four Non Blondes, your Candleboxes, your Stone Temple Pilots -- were not in their league.

And they weren't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PBeAIV-L-c

But still, even at the time, I remember making a tape of Mellon Collie that fit on one 60-minute side of a 2-hour tape and left out all of the clunkers. I was perfectly happy with it, but I also missed Butch Vig's smoothing out of Billy's super-nasal voice and the more polished sound of Siamese Dream.

Aside: I caught SP this year with Jimmy back on the drums and it was still awesome. I kinda realized that nowadays I'm more of a JC fan than a BC fan.

 

[Jarlaxle]

'Thru the Eyes of Ruby' is an underrated song.

 

[Shmuppers]

1979 gives me strong feels to this day

Same. This is actually the only song I've heard on the album. I'm a dirty millennial.

 

[dapperbandit]

It has some real gems, like 1979 and Tonight,Tonight but a lot of stuff that while interesting, isn't fantastic.

Still prefer Siamese Dream.

 

[marzlapin]

This was my #1 favorite album in high school. I still listen to it every once in a while.

 

[Viewt]

I don't really have anything against this album in particular or the folks who like it, but I can't stand Corgan to the point that I can't even enjoy the music anymore. Oh well.

 

[dave is ok]

He shouldn't have even given James Iha two songs on this album.

 

[Shig]

This was my #1 favorite album in high school. I still listen to it every once in a while.

Yep. B-sides wise, I'm a big fan of Cupid de Locke and Lily.

Saw the Pumpkins (or, well, Billy and Some Other People) in concert when they were touring earlier this year, it was pretty fantastic. They didn't really touch on much of anything post-Mellon Collie, which was ideal.

 

[Lazy vs Crazy]

Best songs from The Aeroplane:

...Said Sadly (because Nina Gordon is amazing)
Rotten Apples (so good they names their greatest hits album after it)

On the album itself, Galapagos->Muzzle is so good. I always preferred Dawn to Dusk to Twilight to Starlight. I'll probably listen to the entire thing tonight. Thanks for the reminder.

 

[uncelestial]

He shouldn't have even given James Iha two songs on this album.

He just got the one -- Take Me Down. And yes it is fucking awful. A lot of James' dissatisfaction with the band was Billy cockblocking his tunes but... Bruh....

 

[DemiMatt]

I remember I traded this for a copy of Pokemon Blue.

Worth it!

 

[Spaced33]

My introduction to the Smashing Pumpkins, and probably my favorite record of all time. My 14 year old self was not prepared. Here was a record with vision, that was filled with emotions that really resonated with me. From the lyrics, to the artwork; From the songs filled with rage, to the contemplative, to the sweet songs. I wore these 2 cds OUT. People often give this album crap for having a lot of "filler" but I couldn't disagree more. Every song here sets a mood, and I'm a firm believer that the whole is better than the sum of it's parts. This was Billy's most inspired era. One only has to look at The Aeroplane Flies High to see that he was on absolute fire.

 

[Flavius]

If only he was never heard from again. The initial run of the band from Gish through Jimmy's firing in 1996 produced some of the 90s most potent rock. Nowadays, Billy is kind of a fucking embarassment.

Personally I'm more of a Siamese Dream fan. Mellon Collie is an album I keep playing the "b-side game" with (swapping out tracks from The Aeroplane Flies High to make a better version of the album than what was released). Siamese Dream is unfuckwithable. Creating a dreamy sound out of a completely-in-focus blanket of guitar fuzz was an amazing feat and Butch Vig's production mixed perfectly with Billy's music on that album.

But I respect Mellon Collie a lot; it was an amazing statement from the band that all the other second tier alternative bands -- your Soul Asylums, Four Non Blondes, your Candleboxes, your Stone Temple Pilots -- were not in their league.

And they weren't.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PBeAIV-L-c

But still, even at the time, I remember making a tape of Mellon Collie that fit on one 60-minute side of a 2-hour tape and left out all of the clunkers. I was perfectly happy with it, but I also missed Butch Vig's smoothing out of Billy's super-nasal voice and the more polished sound of Siamese Dream.

Aside: I caught SP this year with Jimmy back on the drums and it was still awesome. I kinda realized that nowadays I'm more of a JC fan than a BC fan.

I would agree with you, but for the fact that he's still capable of putting out one or two absolute gems every few albums. Might not be enough to justify having him stick around, but when I find the one that "clicks" I get giddy and add it to my rotation. As for the social media stuff, though? Yeah, he's from the day when we didn't need to know every ridiculous aspect of a performer's life, and I am so thankful for that. I can only stand so much "Curmudgeonly Corgan".

 

[Zach]

"Thirty-Three" is great, but "1979" is one of my favorite songs ever. The Smashing Pumpkins aren't even a favorite of mine. I have the albums, but I don't love them for their complete albums. They're very much a singles band for me. But still: "1979" is one of my favorite songs ever.

 

[dave is ok]

He just got the one -- Take Me Down. And yes it is fucking awful. A lot of James' dissatisfaction with the band was Billy cockblocking his tunes but... Bruh....

I think Farewell and Goodnight is credited to him too, but it definitely sounds more like Billy.

 

[ced]

You know I never listened to this as much as Siamese Dream, Adore and Machina.

I need to give it a spin.

 

[superdeluxe]

20 years ago today, Billy Corgan bestowed upon us a great gift and was never heard from again.

I didn't discover the greatness of the pumpkins until right before Billy reassembled the band in 2006 and eventually got Zeitgeist made, but I loved everything I heard.

For what its worth I for a long time considered Mellon Collie to be a sampler of sorts, an album that contains almost every sound the pumpkins have made, but that's really not true. What Mellon Collie simply is, is a selection of the best pieces written by a high motivated musician that was churning out dozens and dozens of songs. Enough material to create a double album, five iconic music videos, a tour that claimed the life of a touring member, and 6 singles worth of b-sides ,

Take some time out of your day today and listen to some of the great songs on this album. Maybe wait til sunset and listen to "Tonight, Tonight". If its bright where you are and you feel listless you might want to listen to "1979", hear the last times Billy really screams on a recording with "Bodies", and if you want to hear the best song Billy ever wrote, "33" is on there.

Happy birthday, you great album you.

XYU me if already posted.

One of the best, most ambitious albums of all time. And the Aeroplate flies high boxset with additional B-sides is another master piece.

 

[The Albatross]

Excellent album and a hallmark of adolescence for me with Siamese Dream.

1979 gives me strong feels to this day

Same.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

wow. i picked this up when it first released. awesome album. disarm is my anthem

 

[Lazy vs Crazy]

Gotta say, Bullet With Butterfly Wings has not aged well at all.

 

[internetwolf]

I still can't stand Corrigans voice

 

[¡HarlequinPanic!]

Best songs from The Aeroplane:

...Said Sadly (because Nina Gordon is amazing)
Rotten Apples (so good they names their greatest hits album after it)

On the album itself, Galapagos->Muzzle is so good. I always preferred Dawn to Dusk to Twilight to Starlight. I'll probably listen to the entire thing tonight. Thanks for the reminder.

aw man, there's a ton of great songs on Aeroplane.

God
Marquis In Spades
Meladori Magpie
The Last Song

never cared for Rotten Apples, actually. but its not their fault, there's an alice in chains song with the same name that sets the bar pretty high.

 

[dave is ok]

wow. i picked this up when it first released. awesome album. disarm is my anthem

Disarm isn't on this album

 

[Diablos]

Happy 20th anniversary, MCIS. Great album, but SP is the kind of band where (outside of maybe Simaese Dream) it's very hard to confine them to one album. The sum of its whole is greater than its parts, in a sense, because their discography is so prolific. It's not that they don't have defining moments, but if you want to get a sense for the band song by song you have to listen to pretty much everything (save Zeitgeist and what came after; you could do without that). That's the best way to "approach" the band if you're new to them.

Everything Billy did with the band from the late 80's to 2000 ranged from great to flawless, and even some of the Zeitgeist stuff (particularly live) was great too, even if it doesn't really jive was well with the earlier stuff. Everything after that is... questionable like I said before, but there are still some good songs. The band had one hell of a run, and there will never be another Smashing Pumpkins again. They're impossible to rip off without sounding like a complete fraud.

As for what Billy's doing in the present day... as much as I hate the saying, it is what it is. He, again, has a prolific discography behind him and was in one of the most successful 90's bands, so if he wants to keep tinkering around, so be it.

Required listening: Band only version of Tonight, Tonight. No strings. I seem to prefer this version now. Speaking of which, if you love MCIS be sure to check out the reissue from 2012, it's quite a treat (five discs plus a DVD):

Dawn To Dusk (CD1)
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness
Tonight, Tonight
Jellybelly
Zero
Here Is No Why
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
To Forgive
An Ode To No One
Love
Cupid De Locke
Galapogos
Muzzle
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans
Take Me Down

Twilight To Starlight (CD2)
Where Boys Fear To Tread
Bodies
Thirty-Three
In The Arms Of Sleep
1979
Tales Of A Scorched Earth
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby
Stumbleine
X.Y.U.
We Only Come Out At Night
Beautiful
Lily (My One And Only)
By Starlight
Farewell And Goodnight

Morning Tea (CD3)
Tonight, Tonight (Strings Alone mix)
Methusela (Sadlands demo)
X.Y.U. (Take 11)
Zero (Synth mix)
Feelium (Sadlands demo)
Autumn Nocturne (Sadlands demo)
Beautiful (Loop version)
Ugly (Sadlands demo)
Ascending Guitars (Sadlands demo)
By Starlight (Flood rough)
Medellia Of The Gray Skies (Take 1)
Lover (Arrangement 1 demo)
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (Take 7)
In The Arms Of Sleep (Early Live demo)
Lily (My One And Only) (Sadlands demo)
1979 (Sadlands demo)
Glamey Glamey (Sadlands demo)
Meladori Magpie
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Home Piano version)
Galapagos (Instrumental/Sadlands demo)
To Forgive (Sadlands demo)

High Tea (CD4)
Bullet With Butterfly Wings (Sadlands demo)
Set The Ray To Jerry (Vocal Rough)
Thirty-Three (Sadlands demo)
Cupid De Locke (BT 2012 mix)
Porcelina Of The Vast Oceans (Live Studio rough)
Jellybelly (Instrumental/Pit mix 3)
The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)
Jupiter’s Lament (Barbershop version)
Bagpipes Drone (Sadlands demo)
Tonight, Tonight (Band Version Only, No Strings)
Knuckles (Studio outtake)
Pennies
Here Is No Why (Pumpkinland demo)
Blast (Fuzz version)
Towers Of Rabble (Live)
Rotten Apples
Fun Time (Sadlands demo)
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (Acoustic version)
Chinoise (Sadlands demo)
Speed

Special Tea (CD 5)
Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Nighttime version 1)
Galapagos (Sadlands demo)
Cherry (BT 2012 mix)
Love (Flood rough)
New Waver (Sadlands demo)
Fuck You (an ode to no one) (Production Master rough)
Isolation (BT 2012 mix)
Transformer (Early mix)
Dizzle (Sadlands demo)
Goodnight (Basic Vocal rough)
Eye (Soundworks demo)
Blank (Sadlands demo)
Beautiful (Instrumental-Middle 8)
My Blue Heaven (BT 2012 mix)
One And Two
Zoom (7 ips)
Pastichio Medley (Reversed extras)
Marquis In Spades (BT 2012 mix)
Tales Of A Scorched Earth (Guitar Overdub mix)
Tonite Reprise (Version 1)
Wishing You Were Real (Home demo)
Thru The Eyes Of Ruby (Pit mix 3)
Phang (Sadlands demo)

DVD
Live at Brixton academy, London, 5/15/96
1. Tonight, Tonight
2. 1979
3. Zero
4. Here Is No Why
5. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
6. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
7. Jellybelly
8. Silverfuck
9. Disarm
10. Bullet with Butterfly Wings

Live at Rockpalast, 4/7/96
11. Fuck You (An Ode To No One)
12. Muzzle
13. Cherub Rock
14. X.Y.U.

Aside: I caught SP this year with Jimmy back on the drums and it was still awesome. I kinda realized that nowadays I'm more of a JC fan than a BC fan.

I don't like either one of them as much as I do when they're on stage and in the studio together. They're like Page and Plant... the heart of the band. You can do without James, Darcy, and all the other people who went through the revolving door but the formula just isn't as workable without both Billy and Jimmy. Adore was perhaps the one exception because it was basically crafted as a 'departure' album which allowed Billy to get away with it.

 

[HylianTom]

I can name about 10 songs that played on the radio regularly in the month that I met my husband, and "Tonight, Tonight" was one of them.. so this news triggers some pretty hardcore nostalgia.

Amazing music video, too. Love that art style.

 

[Deleted member 125677]

This album hit me right in the spine as a 15 year old moody 90s kid.

Can't really listen too much to Pumpkins these days though

 

[HORRORSHØW]

Disarm isn't on this album

my bad. it's on siamese dreams i think

 

[uncelestial]

Here is the perfect version of Mellon Collie to me (with swap-outs from the original in bold)

Disc 1:
1. MCIS
2. Tonight
3. Jellybelly
4. Zero
5. Here is No Why
6. Bullet with Butterfly Wings
7. To Forgive
8. Fuck You
9. Mouths of Babes
10. Cupid De Locke
11. Galapogos
12. Muzzle
13. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
14. Medellia of the Grey Skies

Disc 2:
1. Where Boys Fear to Tread
2. Bodies
3. Thirty-Three
4. In the Arms of Sleep
5. 1979
6. Transformer
7. Ruby
8. Stumbleine
9. XYU
10. We Only Come Out at Night
11. Pennies
12. Meladori Magpie
13. Set the Ray to Jerry
14. Farewell and Goodnight

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

This is embarrassing to admit but this is my 4th most-listened-to SP album.

1. Machina
2. Adore
3. Siamese Dream
4. MCTS

 

[pancakesandsex]

I love this album so much. Muzzle is a particular highlight from the non-radio singles.

 

[muteki]

Strong feelings about this album. Hit me just at the right time and MTV was still big.

 

[ced]

This is embarrassing to admit but this is my 4th most-listened-to SP album.

1. Machina
2. Adore
3. Siamese Dream
4. MCTS

I'm there with you, but I still give Siamese Dream the #1 spot.

This thread actually has me listening to it again.

I still remember cruising around in high school blasting this.

 

[Flavius]

This is embarrassing to admit but this is my 4th most-listened-to SP album.

1. Machina
2. Adore
3. Siamese Dream
4. MCTS

Was Machina your first exposure to the band? I liked a couple of songs off Machina and Adore, but a lot of it lost me. I won't say because it felt pretentious, but there were more than a few songs where I felt like Corgan just went wild with it and no one was there to reel him in and say "no, no, no Billy...noooooooooo."

 

[¡HarlequinPanic!]

This is embarrassing to admit but this is my 4th most-listened-to SP album.

1. Machina
2. Adore
3. Siamese Dream
4. MCTS

Heh, all my metalhead friends SWEAR by machina being far and away the best album. I like a lot of the tracks (I of the mourning, age of innocence), but just can't hear it, I must have different ears.

Adore is legit as hell, though.

 

[Diablos]

Heh, all my metalhead friends SWEAR by machina being far and away the best album. I like a lot of the tracks (I of the mourning, age of innocence), but just can't hear it, I must have different ears.

Adore is legit as hell, though.

Have you listened to Machina 2?

It's just as good if not better than Mellon Collie. They might be referring to that. Machina is strong, but the production hurts the songs -- this was a good marker of when Billy got way too OCD about overproducing his albums. Machina 2, on the other hand, is basically a representation of a close-to-final mix of the album before Billy got all OCD about it... which is a good thing. It's sourced from vinyl too, so it sounds all warm and fuzzy.

 

[Jeff-DSA]

If you play Zero on an acoustic guitar, you feel awesome.

 

[JohnsonUT]

1979 to Tales of a Scored Earth was a terrible decision.

So many good songs, but the latter half of each disc fell off for the most part.

My mom would never buy me a Zero shirt.

 

[Gouty]

My buddy and I were 14 when this came out. We stole the keys to his mother's purple Miata, drove 30 miles without a liscense (or even a firm command of a clutch) to the nearest record shop, paid our $32 and drove home blasting....well a more curious album than we anticipated.

 

[uncelestial]

SP Album ranking with my p4k scores lol

1. Siamese Dream - 10.0
2. Mellon Collie - 9.0
3. Gish - 8.5
4. Pisces Iscariot - 8.0
5. The Aeroplane Flies High - 7.7
6. Machina (I + II) - 7.4
7. Adore - 7
8. Oceania - 5.8
9. Monuments to an Elegy - 5.0
10. Zeitgeist - 2.0 (USA and Tarantula are the only listenable tracks)

 

[Eggbok]

1979 gives me strong feels to this day

This song will forever remind me of GTA IV. I would drive around Liberty City waiting for this song to come on, good times.

 

[Helmholtz]

I liked Smashing Pumpkins back in high school somewhat, but the only song I really return to these days would be 1979. That song is just special.

 

[¡HarlequinPanic!]

Have you listened to Machina 2?

It's just as good if not better than Mellon Collie. They might be referring to that. Machina is strong, but the production hurts the songs -- this was a good marker of when Billy got way too OCD about overproducing his albums. Machina 2, on the other hand, is basically a representation of a close-to-final mix of the album before Billy got all OCD about it... which is a good thing. It's sourced from vinyl too, so it sounds all warm and fuzzy.

Have fond memories of Machina 2 but haven't listened to it in a long time.

Kind of consider Judas 0 to be a better Machina 2 even though its a compliation :X

 

[Diablos]

1979 to Tales of a Scored Earth was a terrible decision.

So many good songs, but the latter half of each disc fell off for the most part.

My mom would never buy me a Zero shirt.

Indeed, the raw angst in some of the songs and how he just kind of put them out there was just... crazy, especially looking back as an adult. It's such a bi-polar album -- which is a common characteristic of their music, but the effect was so strong on MCIS in particular, you can't help but realize how troubled Billy is to have been content with selecting and arranging the tracks like that.

Blame Flood for Set the Ray to Jerry not being on the album, by the way. He said it didn't fit.

I never wanted a Zero shirt.

 

[ced]

Never mind I forgot about Machina 2.

 

[PepsimanVsJoe]

Was Machina your first exposure to the band? I liked a couple of songs off Machina and Adore, but a lot of it lost me. I won't say because it felt pretentious, but there were more than a few songs where I felt like Corgan just went wild with it and no one was there to reel him in and say "no, no, no Billy...noooooooooo."

I've known of SP since at least Siamese Dream. Didn't really start getting an appreciation for the band until I picked up this DVD that had all of their music videos. It was a pretty cool set, featured commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes footage, etc.

Anyway, I think I've listened to A & M the most because...hmm. It's hard to explain. I do a lot of my music listening in the car. Pizza driving is my job, but Mellon Collie is the kind of album I really have to sit down, let it take over, and focus intently on it. A & M are easier listens when I have to focus on other things like finding addresses or just keep from getting killed by Florida drivers.

Hell, I might as well say this as well. Half the time I can't even understand what Corgan is singing.

*snaps fingers* Another reason I haven't listened to MCIS very much is because a lot of my music was stolen out of my car one night. It was 90% back-ups so not a huge loss, except MCIS was the original discs.

Heh, all my metalhead friends SWEAR by machina being far and away the best album. I like a lot of the tracks (I of the mourning, age of innocence), but just can't hear it, I must have different ears.

Adore is legit as hell, though.

Closest I ever got to being a "metalhead" was owning two albums, both by Metallica (Master of Puppets, And Justice for All). These days I don't even listen to metal. Still like Machina though *shrug*.