Quiet – as drummer Jimmy Chamberlain (insert handful of Weiland-esque junkie jokes here) put it “I like think of my drums as a huge drill boring through your skull”. Enough said
Today – the breakthrough hit. Today is the greatest day…. Bla blab la. As is rock lore by now, this whole song is a suicide piece. Billy has pretty much always been miserable, and the band had a whole Fleetwood Mac romance drama going on too (but this one comes with death!). Man, what an amazing video that was, just so cool and expressive and strange. For the longest time I thought James Iha (the Asian guy in the dress) was a chick. Also important to note, this was the first song I figured out on guitar. You know how guys talk about playing guitar to get laid? I was the retard too busy learning guitar to try and go out and get laid.
Hummer – another catchy tune about how fucked up Billy is. To be specific, the song verse ‘Life’s a bummer, when you’re a hummer’ is about his struggles with writers block, which damn near drove him to suicide (see track 3 for details on that one).
Rocket – a solid piece of melodic rock. As for the lyrics… you guessed it – regret. But musically it is a great piece, and one I still perform on acoustic. Keep in mind I was alone in college and hadn’t gotten laid in three years (fucking goddamn braces)… so every word of alienation was seriously valid to me. Though I am happily married now, I will never forget how shitty and alone and weird I felt all those years. Billy became a musical messiah to me (reference lyrics from I am one from Gish here). The song is also well put together, in layers. For the record, my wife tells me the first time we met we were discussing Siamese Dream at a party. Go figure, the most depressing album since everything the Velvet Undergound has done finally got me laid!
Disarm – standard ballad about … you called it… how much things suck. Keep in mind, Billy Corgan had the whole fucked up childhood story that makes Eddie Vedder envious. Billy was raised by his grandparents and thought they were his real parents. His real parents only lived blocks away, and when he was a teenager he found out the whole story. Plus, all this time he was raising his developmentally challenged brother Jesse (skip to Spaceboy). This was also a cool video. I think it was done by Dayton/Ferris, who did all their best ones (Tonight Tonight, 1979… etc)
Article comments
1 - Harald
I saw the Smashing Pumpkins in '92, on our local Metropolis festival. They all wore dresses. Only when James Iha said something did we realise he was a guy :)
2 - visualsimplicity
Am I taking crazy pills here or are those lyrics you linked for "Disarm" not the lyrics for "Disarm?"
3 - Tom Johnson
He is the best drummer of his era without peer, except the amazing Danny Carey from Tool. Everyone else is a pussy.
I would REALLY love to see people stop using aggrandizations like this. It's just stupid and fanboyish. Jimmy Chamberlain, as well as Danny Carey, is a killer drummer, but there's a TON of other equally skilled drummers (and better - look to jazz for the best drummers.) Here's a hint: there is no one "best" anything in the world. Anyone claiming one particular person is the best is suffering from hero-worship, unless he is somehow the only person in the entire world to engage in that behavior. All critics, and everyone in general, would do themselves a favor if we stopped saying and believing crap like this.
Anyways, yes, Siamese Dream is a great album.
4 - Mark Saleski
yea, 'best' is a pretty meaningless description. because everybody's looking for something different.
heck, i saw Pat Metheny play with Roy Haynes once...Haynes did a 'drum' solo using nothing but sticks and his hi-hat...and it was friggin' amazing.
but: i'm certain that others would have found it boring, 'lame', whatever.
5 - Lono
Though you may be taking crazy pills, those are absolutey NOT the lyrics to Disarm. Caught me doing a rush job. What is interesting is those lyrics look hauntingly familiar (and hauntingly bad).
6 - Eric Olsen
Chamberlain really IS one of the great rock drummers, though a total unreliable flake in the real world: Keith Moon anyone?
7 - particleman
Siamese Dream has been getting heavy rotation on my stereo as well. It's great at work too. I put on the headphones and go to town.
8 - visualsimplicity
Don't rush into what you're saying this time around either Lono. The so-called "Disarm" lyrics may not be lyrics of the song "Disarm," but are indeed Smashing Pumpkins' lyrics. They belong to "Daphne Descends" off of the Adore album.
9 - Bob A. Booey
I remember being a freshman in high school in Chicago and seeing the Pumpkins play Today on Saturday Night Live. That was when alternative rock was still edgy and dangerous and cool.
I mean, you know they had to be a great band if they seemed edgy on Saturday Night Live, of all places. They rocked the show and it reminds me of those early Nirvana appearances on MTV playing live in dresses with every other word bleeped.
"Today" was just the right mix of the grunge, hard guitars and the uplifting lyrics and it made Chicago seem like the coolest place in the world at the time. Everyone talked about it being the "next Seattle," although that never really happened. Everyone had a story about their older brother or sister growing up and meeting Billy, whom I've met a couple of times since. But it was different then: they were on their way to becoming the biggest band in America for a short while and represented the indie smart kids' triumph over commercial radio. That kind of vibe continued through Melancholy and the Infinite Sadness, which was kind of the other bookend for my high school years, along with the Cobain suicide maybe a year or two earlier. I'm not really sure how the Pumpkins dropped off the cultural radar after that. Someone smarter than I should write that story.
10 - Lono
as an end note, I did finally get to meet Billy. I shook his hand and said thank you for Siamese Dream, it changed my life.
So, I'm all better now.
11 - Matt
D'arcy used a pick.