Galapogos
"Galapogos" is a song from The Smashing Pumpkins' third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On Billy's Gravity Demos I it is titled "The Innocents".
The title is a reference to the Galápagos Islands (intentionally misspelled), made famous by Charles Darwin. Lyrically the song compares the isolation Billy Corgan felt with his marriage to that of the islands which inspired the theory of evolution.
| “ | I cannot recall what it was about Darwin’s fabled set of islands that led me to associate my crumbling marriage to them. Perhaps I was wondering if in the lure of a total and disconnected isolation we might better survive the onslaught of life’s ceaseless progress. Idealizing a failed romance can only get you so far, and once engaged I found that somewhere between my idealism and natural compassion for an identified other there lived a truth I was not yet willing to swallow about myself. Cue up my admitting here that one of us was about to be abandoned, never realizing that the desertion would flow both ways. ‘Galapogos’ stands up over time as a remnant of grace that I lost as I wrote it. | ” |
| — Billy Corgan, 2012 reissue liner notes | ||
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
ain't it funny how we pretend we're still a child
softly stolen under our blanket skies
and rescue me from me, and all that i believe
i won't deny the pain
i won't deny the change
and should i fall from grace here with you
will you leave me too?
carve out your heart for keeps in an old oak tree
and hold me for goodbyes-and-whispered lullabyes
and tell me i am still
the man i'm supposed to be
i won't deny the pain
i won't deny the change
and should i fall from grace here with you
will you leave me too?
too late to turn back now, i'm running out of sound
and i am changing, changing
and if we died right now, this fool you love somehow
is here with you
i won't deny the pain
i won't deny the change
and should i fall from grace here with you
would you leave me too?
Availability
| Title | Notes | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Chicago Tapes and Unreleased Demos | Bootleg | |
| Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | Disc one – Dawn to Dusk | Studio |
| MCIS Demos I | Bootleg | |
| The Aeroplane Flies High | 2013 Reissue CD 3: Zero | Box set |
| Billy's Gravity Demos I | Bootleg | |
| Celebrating *20* Years of Sadness | Live | |
| Thirty Days | Video | |
| MCIS Demos III |
Tour stats
- Total plays: 55 plays (53 full, 1 tease, 1 abandoned, 1 soundcheck), 21 acoustic, 2 artists
- First performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1993-08-14 at Metro, Chicago, IL, US (soundcheck)
- First full performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1995-02-20 at Double Door, Chicago, IL, US
- Last performance: Billy Corgan 2017-11-11 at Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA, US
Personnel[edit | edit source]
- Billy Corgan – guitar, vocals, production, recording, mixing
- James Iha – guitar, recording
- D'arcy Wretzky – bass
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
- Flood – production, recording, mixing
- Alan Moulder – production, recording, mixing
- Chris Shepard – recording
- Barry Goldberg – recording, mixing assistance
- Dave Kresl – recording assistance
- Claudine Pontier – recording assistance
- Howie Weinberg – mastering
External links[edit | edit source]
- "Galapogos" at SPFC