# The Strange Magic of: The Smashing Pumpkins



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Billy Corgan is an interesting and important figure in Alternative rock. He shares with Bob Dylan in having a strange voice seemingly quite unsuited to rock or pop, or to any sort of vocal music for that matter, yet, using this seemingly ill-formed instrument, he and his very subordinate fellow Pumpkins have fashioned a quite substantial legacy. Starting with the great Gish, the Pumpkins have issued album after album of absorbing rock--some of them "concept" efforts often of surprising interest (Machina-The Machines of God being a favorite of mine), and often anchored with one great and compelling song--"Stand Inside Your Love" from Machina, and, here, the amazing _Tonight Tonight_ from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.


----------



## Cosmos (Jun 28, 2013)

This band got me through high school! :lol: 

Mellon Collie's still one of my favorite albums. Thirty-Three, Zero, Tonight Tonight, and Bullet with Butterfly Wings are my personal top favorites by them. I'm considering ordering the deluxe reissue because it also has a few "demo" versions of some of the songs.


----------



## Morimur (Jan 23, 2014)

Meh.

Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Morimur said:


> Meh.
> 
> Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh.


From Morimur, that's effusive praise!


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Live _Stand Inside Your Love_, from Machina-the Machines of God. Like almost all concert rock and pop, best played Loud. Pumpkin pie.


----------



## Iean (Nov 17, 2015)

Smashing Pumpkins is one of those bands that will make me go to a record store and buy their new CD on its first day of release even if I dont have an idea what type of music is in that album - that's how I love this band. For me, their best album is "Adore". :angel:


----------



## ericdxx (Jul 7, 2013)

Billy Corgan has started to appear on a wrestling tv-show. Very disappointing

My top 3:
1. Perfect
2. Today
3. Everlasting Gaze


----------



## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Not a band I listen to very often anymore, but I think _Siamese Dream_ was an important album for the guitar tone on it and _Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness_ is pretty much a rock masterpiece.


----------



## Stavrogin (Apr 20, 2014)

The Smashing Pumpkins were an awesome band, and if MCATIS was a little less long-winded (say, one 15-track album rather than a double) it would be in my Top 5 albums of the last 30 years in the rock realm.

However, there's one thing I've always wondered about Corgan & Co.
For all the critical praise they (deservedly) got, their influence on following bands seems to be incredibly thin.
I actually struggle to think of any relevant band writing in their vein.

The only plausible reason I can think of, is that they did not belong to a big "scene" (Chicago didn't host any other remarkable artist at that time - Wilco was coming up but in a totally different genre. I can't think of others).


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

@Stavrogin: You raise a good point about influences--I am almost incompetent to judge of such things, as I get absorbed with the music of this or that artist or group, but it is interesting to read critics' discussions of who influenced whom, etc.; it's almost always news to me, except for what I take to be obvious connections--the influence of Patti Smith on early PJ Harvey (_(Dry)_, then the later tint of U2's _Joshua Tree_ on Harvey's _To Bring You My Love_. One hardly knows whether to believe the artists' own accounts of who their models were; the results are often so different. My own tastes are such a hodge-podge of genres and styles that I hardly know myself who has influenced me the most.


----------



## Dawood (Oct 11, 2015)

Bit of a shout out for 'Gish'. This was an important record for me, back in the day. Couldn't sing you any of the tunes now though.


----------



## TwoFlutesOneTrumpet (Aug 31, 2011)

Morimur said:


> Meh.
> 
> Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh. Meh.


I concur. Very forgettable.


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Another favorite bit of pumpkin, from Machina:The Machines of God--_The Sacred and Profane_. Very trancy and hypnotic......


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

................


----------



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

............this is a test of the system


----------



## chill782002 (Jan 12, 2017)

I saw them live in London in 1993. Strange show, I remember Billy came out for the encore dressed in a clown suit. "Gish" and "Siamese Dream" were great, "Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness" had some very good moments but was a little patchy. I lost interest in them after that really. I still dig out the aforementioned albums once in a while though.


----------

