Leave that Smashing Pumpkin Alone, Bitches: In Defense of Billy Corgan
If you're only going to have one original member of Smashing Pumpkins left, at least we've got the right man for the job. Yes, Jimmy Chamberlin is an amazing drummer, and he strikes me as a really lovely guy too based on spending some time interviewing him in recent years. Yet let's all face the facts: more than most groups, Smashing Pumpkins is -- and always has been -- first and foremost the fantastically tense creative playground of one wildly talented singer-songwriter and musician named Billy Corgan.
Now truth be told, I was not the biggest Pumpkinshead during their initial run -- I was more of an aging Nirvana-man, frankly. But over the past decade, I've come to really admire Corgan for his talent and his strong commitment to following his own muse rather than simply taking the standard issue rocky path of least resistance. Like Pete Townshend before him, Corgan seems like a man who takes the responsibility of being a rock star profoundly and even painfully seriously, grappling intellectually with the gig rather than just cashing in at every turn. As a result, Corgan may not always make things easy on his fans -- or on himself -- but he's always interesting. In an age of premature nostalgia, Corgan clearly wants his music to matter in the present tense. Not that he's a complete purist, as demonstrated by the recent use of the Pumpkins' classic "Today" on a Visa commercial.
But I choose to embrace Corgan in all his contradictions. And despite his apparent problems working and playing well with others in a band context, I have to report that I have found him to be incredibly bright, witty and honest on a personal level. To see some of the qualities on display, tune in April 2nd when Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin make what now looks like it will be their last shared TV appearance with the current Pumpkins lineup on the Chris Isaak Hour, a new show on the Bio Channel that I really love even if I am a producer on it.
Until then, don't give into Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness just yet -- and please, leave that Smashing Pumpkin alone, bitches.
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No, he deserves to be called out.
He tours under the name Smashing Pumpkins, he wants Smashing Pumpkins fame/money, but he doesn't want to deliver the Smashing Pumpkins product.
With Jimmy Chamberlin gone, it's a joke to continue under the Smashing Pumpkins name. He bitches about people who show up to Pumpkins shows expecting to hear the big radio hits, yet he's insistent on billing these shows as Smashing Pumpkins.
If he retired the Pumpkins name and toured under as a solo act with a backing band, he would jusitifiably have the freedom to do what he has been doing since 2007.
If you haven't noticed, SP setlists consist of lots of B-sides, unreleased tracks, soundtrack songs, and cuts from Machina II (no retail release), and other EP/single cuts. Billy should realize that many people fell in love with the 90s Smashing Pumpkins band that had FM radio success. When people pay $60+ for a ticket to an SP show, they're going to expect to hear a few hits.
Billy, if you're the only original member, and you don't want to play the radio hits, maybe you should tour as a solo artist with a backing band.
Billy should follow Trent Reznor's lead, he plays for 2+ hours a night with a great mix of hits, new songs, and usually a couple deep cuts from old albums.
The songs are all Corgan's. He can call himself whatever he wants.
you're totally out of your element. You have no idea what you're talking about. It's his band. He started it. He writes all the songs.
What is up with all you haters?
Was it Corgan's dedication to creativity, and struggle to grapple "intellectually with the gig" that lead him to act like a petulant child and refuse to share a Lollapalooza stage with Pavement, all because he was insulted by the line, "Out on tour with the Smashing Pumpkins, nature kids, they don't have no function"? Nevermind that the line wasn't intended as an insult... and even if it was a barb thrown Corgan's direction, his reaction did nothing more than prove the barb to be fair. It seems more likely that Corgan's ego was threatened because Lollapalooza just might give a little exposure to a singer, songwriter, and guitar player with more talent than him.
If you want to talk about a musician that has always "followed his own muse", to the tune of sticking with the indie label that has done him well -- you should be talking about Stephen Malkmus.
I hate to make these heavy claims when I'm limited to 250 words by this form, but what rock songwriter tells a story better than Stephen Malkmus? Over the last 20 years, since Malkmus launched a career from a perfectly noisy, feedback-laced pop 7" record, the only name that springs to mind is Cobain.
For the '90's, if Kurt Cobain is John Lennon, and you say Corgan is Pete Townshend, then Stephen Malkmus is McCartney plus Dylan, only a much more creative guitar player.
hahaha ur funny
Wait. Isn't this the same Billy Corgan who "wrote" the music for Stigmata, making a bad movie just that much more unbearable? Just wondering.
"1979" gets me every time...the beat, the lyrics, the imagery. "Justine never knew the rules..." Here's to you, Mr. Corgan!
Agreed -- "1979" is one of the most mysterious and classic recordings in relatively recent memory
"...grappling intellectually with the gig rather than just cashing in at every turn"?
Excuse me, but isn't this the same Billy Corgan who testified to Congress that he thinks the Live Nation/Ticketmaster merger to form a total monopoly on ticket sales in the U.S. is an excellent idea, and whose manager Irving Azoff (coincidentally enough!) just happens to be THE CEO OF TICKETMASTER?
I can't speak for Billy, but I think he knows the old model of the music industry is dead, and is supportive of finding some new model that might actual work.
But you should ask him?
He clearly has not taken the path of least resistance, and seems to make things quite difficult for himself -- along with others.
How is making it impossible for people who want to buy concert tickets to get them from anyone but huge-fee-charging Ticketmaster a new model that might actually work? Especially when the actual "new model" that seems to be forming is for artists to deal more directly with fans, cutting out middlemen like record companies and ticket brokers? And how can Billy Corgan's using the political currency of his fame to support his manager's efforts to form a monopoly be construed as anything but capitalistic and the polar opposite of indie street cred?
As I see it, the most obvious way he's "making things quite difficult for himself" in this scenario is that he's risking losing the respect of everyone who formerly held him in any kind of regard.
A couple of drummers get into a cab. Who's the better musician?
The one who's not driving the cab?
Interesting piece. Although it sounds like the author has a vested interest/history there...Hmm. The Townshend reference too...
Thanks for "interesting" but I put my vested interest right out in the open -- the Chris Isaak Show.
Just curious, why do you find curious about the Townshend reference?
DW
But since SP was all about Billy, I'm just a bit baffled that he never managed to make anything as exciting as Smashing Pumpkins music when he was operating under a different name. Zwan was OK, but rather bland for the most part (and Chamberlin played in that outfit, too) ... is there some magic in the 'Smashing Pumpkins' name that brings out the best in his songwriting? Or is it more about the Pumpkins sound -- some kind of unique approach to production and arranging that he only uses with Pumpkins music that makes it awesome?
I actually loved Billy's solo album, but I accept that this is very much a minority view.
I do think the band name has a power -- to others and to Billy himself.
Give me Justin Townes Earle any old day of the week. Talent always outs.
Love Justin Townes Earle -- and his dad too - but that doesn't mean no one else can sing or write.
DW
You gotta admit he is an interesting personality.
I know the nostalgia thing is overdone. Still, the feeling I got watching the SP videos in the nineties was almost poetic. They were beautiful in their own weird way...and he had hair!!!!
Well said.
He had hair -- yet they were not a hair band.
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