 Genius Meanings
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The Smashing Pumpkins – We Only Come Out at Night
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[Chorus] / We only come out at night / We only come out at night / The days are much too bright / We only come out at night / [Verse 1] / And once again, you'll pretend to know me
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The Smashing Pumpkins – 1979
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“1979” is an homage to youth and all the pain, angst, and happiness that goes along with it. With a fusion of alternative rock, new wave, and electronics, the Pumpkins stumbled
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonight, Tonight
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While Billy Corgan himself has revealed very little regarding the meaning behind the lyrics, the theme of “Tonight, Tonight” is one of hope. To find the courage to lose oneself in
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Bullet with Butterfly Wings
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“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” won a GRAMMY in 1997 along with a slew of other awards. It remains one of Smashing Pumpkins highest charting and most recognizable songs, being used
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Thru the Eyes of Ruby
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“Thru the Eyes of Ruby” is about Corgan’s soon to be (at the time) ex-wife Chris Fabian. Many of the songs off Mellon Collie were about Fabian and how Corgan wanted to break free
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Zero
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Zero was Corgan’s answer to the public’s perception of him as a Rock God and, simultaneously, a way to express his condition of apathy. He expresses his reluctance to assume that
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Thirty-Three
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Although “Thirty Three” was the last single released, it was the first completed song off the Mellon Collie album, recorded and mastered immediately following the Siamese Dream
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Take Me Down
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The final track of the first half of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (Dawn to Dusk), “Take Me Down” features guitarist James Iha on vocals instead of Billy Corgan.
The
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Lily (My One and Only)
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In this humorous story of voyeurism, the narrator tells of his unhealthy obsession with a woman named Lily. As the song progresses, it becomes clear that this is not your typical
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The Smashing Pumpkins – To Forgive
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[Verse 1] / Ten times removed / I forget about where it all began / Bastard son of a bastard son of / A wild-eyed child of the sun / [Pre-Chorus] / And right as rain, I'm not the
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Stumbleine
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A song full of single-sentence stories, “Stumbeline” speaks of swapping roles in a relationship in order to deal with the burdening problems that plague the world.
The characters
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Beautiful
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Every band has to have that one song that has no other meaning than pure love. “Beautiful” is as simple as its title: It’s about just love. Love, in a grungy, introspective
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The Smashing Pumpkins – By Starlight
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This is one of the several songs about Corgan’s marriage with Chris Fabian, which ended bitterly shortly after the release of Mellon Collie.
An on-again, off-again couple, they
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Farewell and Goodnight
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The final track on the whole of Mellon Collie, “Farewell and Goodnight” features all the band members on vocals, gathered together for a message of unity that plays out like a
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Love
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Buzzing with multiple and unique guitar tones and anamorphic vocal effects, “Love” plays as if the song has declared war on its subject. Corgan plows through a soundscape that
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The Smashing Pumpkins – X.Y.U.
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“X.Y.U.” stands as one of the heaviest Pumpkins tracks, a grueling beast better experienced live. A fan favorite at concerts, as of 2019 it has been played live almost 300 times
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Bodies
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Love is suicide.
Courtney Love, lead singer of Hole and rocker boy heartbreaker, having been in relationships with Kurt Cobain, Trent Reznor, and lead singer of The Smashing
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Where Boys Fear to Tread
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While Courtney Love does indeed claim “Where Boys Fear to Tread” was inspired by her, Corgan hasn’t commented on the issue. This isn’t unusual however, as Corgan rarely explains
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Muzzle
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“Muzzle” is the twelfth song on the first disc, Dawn to Dusk, of The Smashing Pumpkins' third album, and first and only double album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
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The elusive lover, Porcelina, beckons the subject to the edge of belief and beyond. His belief system changes as he gives into Porcelina and gazes past “The realm of soft
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The Smashing Pumpkins – In the Arms of Sleep
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[Verse 1] / Sleep will not come to this tired body now / Peace will not come to this lonely heart / [Chorus 1] / There are some things I'll live without / But I want you to know
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Jellybelly
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The choice to place a song like “Jellybelly” so early in the tracklist definitely makes a statement. The band seems to be communicating that, although “Tonight, Tonight” kicks it
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Liner Notes
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It was the best of times that came before the worst of times. / Considering all of the tension preceding it — and all of the tragedy and turmoil that would follow — Mellon Collie
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Tales of a Scorched Earth
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This song is about Corgan’s continuous struggle with apathy; or, in his own words, about “teenage nihilism”.
According to him:
When I recorded the song, I had mixed feelings
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
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This song began as an instrumental during the recording of Siamese Dream in Marietta, Georgia during the winter of 1992-1993. According to Butch Vig, Billy and drummer JImmy
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Here Is No Why
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The song’s title is reminiscent of Primo Levi’s Auschwitz memoir where, in response to the protagonist asking “Warum?” -“Why?”, a guard response “Hier ist kein warum” – “There is
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Galapogos
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The song’s title comes from the Galápagos Islands, made famous by Charles Darwin. Darwin’s observations on these islands led to the creation of the theory of evolution and his
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Fuck You (An Ode to No One)
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This song was referred to as “An Ode to No One” on the original packaging, but recent reissues have reverted back to the song’s original title, “Fuck You (An Ode to No One).”
When
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The Smashing Pumpkins – Tonite Reprise
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And the embers never fade / In my city by the lake / The place where I was born / As the wind-up toys wind down / Muffling the sound / Of a life hidden underground / Believe
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