Glass and the Ghost Children

"Glass and the Ghost Children"
Song by The Smashing Pumpkins
Album Lyrics Tabs Spotify
Released	2000
Studio sessions	Late 1998 – Sadlands, Chicago November 1998-September 1999 – Pumpkinland
Length	9:56
Songwriter(s)	Billy Corgan
Machina/The Machines of God The Everlasting Gaze Raindrops + Sunshowers Stand Inside Your Love I of the Mourning The Sacred and Profane Try, Try, Try Heavy Metal Machine This Time The Imploding Voice Glass and the Ghost Children Wound The Crying Tree of Mercury With Every Light Blue Skies Bring Tears Age of Innocence

"Glass and the Ghost Children" is a song from The Smashing Pumpkins' fifth studio album, Machina/The Machines of God. This middle section of the album features various clips from "Le Deux Machina" with piano by Mike Garson.

Machina served as a concept album in which "the band had become such cartoon characters at that point in the way we were portrayed in the media, the idea was that we would sort of go out and pretend we were the cartoon characters." From there, a story was conceived revolving around a rock star named Zero (based on the public persona of Billy Corgan) hearing the voice of God, renaming himself Glass, and renaming his band The Machines of God. Fans of the band were referred to as the "Ghost Children".

Background

In the Thirty-Three podcast, Corgan for the first time touched on the meaning of the song and the larger Glass and The Machines of God story. He explained that "Glass and the Ghost Children" tells the story of Glass' female love interest, who was drugged up and crashed her car and nearly died, similar to the music video and story that was created for "Try, Try, Try." The song describes when Glass went to visit her in the hospital, as she's hallucinating from the drugs. The end section of the song is meant to directly portray her hallucinations.

The final product of the song, in particular the first section, was recorded live off the performance floor with Corgan on bass and the usual James Iha on guitar and Jimmy Chamberlin on drums. Vocals were added later.

Equipment

A Gretsch Silver Jet with a Bigsby tremolo was used as Corgan's electric guitar in the studio recording, while James Iha likely used his Gibson SG.

Lyrics

to the center of the earth
or anywhere god decides
full of fever pulling forth
we hear our call as all

and to the center of the earth
as if written in
and dna is reaching out
to your frequency

i want to live
and don't want to die
i want to live
i want to try

all in prayer
prayer in all
all are scared
scared of all

black rooms are calling
to men in leather coats
white labs are cooking
up the silver ghost
the glass migrates under
her translucent skin
and all the spiders wonder
what we've got us in

all is you
you are all
all with you
you in all

i want to live
i don't want to die
i want to live
i want to try

so, it's all very obtuse
because it's all like, like, i don't know
so, like, i started thinking
that everything i operate on
is based on what i believe god was telling me to do
god could be my intuition or whatever
but i always assume
i always assume that the voice i hear is the voice of god
then i started thinking
what if i'm insane
so i'm operating on the premise
that i'm hearing the voice of god
or what i perceive to be god speaking to me
or through me
but maybe i'm completly in...
so all my...
demagoguery in my life about me thinking that my life has importance
my, my..
thinking that my life has importance
my, my, my thought of it
and the fact that i believe that i'm following my intuition
which in and of itself may be completely false
so then i started freaking out thinking...
of itself may be completely false
and again this creature that believes that he's acting upon
heavenly intuition, but meanwhile he's totally rampant
and i started thinking maybe this is the cause
of all the negativity against...
and i started thinking maybe this is the cause
of all the negativity against...
and i started thinking maybe this is the cause
of all the negativity against...

so beats the final coda
of our vinyl storm
one more cherry cola
to lift up her dead arms
a dream of soft focus sunsets
filters through the din
we are losing contact
as she dials it in
she can hear glass calling
or is it someone that looks like him
she eyes tv reflection
and nods a knowing look
she says it doesn't matter
she'd never liked her looks
i have seen a thousand fractures
i have seen everything
cause knowing is its own answer
love something in a book
there's not much left to ponder
not much left to cook
as she counted the spiders
as they crawled up inside her
as she counted the spiders
as they crawled up inside her
as she counted the spiders
as they crawled up inside her
as she counted the spiders
as they crawled up inside her
as she counted the spiders
as they crawled up inside her
as she counted the spiders, oh

Availability

Title	Notes	Type
Machina Acoustic Demos		Demo • Bootleg
Machina/The Machines of God (premaster)		Promotional
Machina/The Machines of God	Main release	Studio
Ghost Children: A Tribute To The Smashing Pumpkins		Tribute
London By Day		Live

Tour stats

• Total plays: 217 plays (216 full, 1 abandoned, 9 soundcheck), 47 acoustic, 2 artists
• First performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1999-04-10 at Saint Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI, US (soundcheck)
• First full performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1999-04-10 at Saint Andrew's Hall, Detroit, MI, US
• Last performance: Billy Corgan 2019-11-06 at Lodge Room, Los Angeles, CA, US
• Longest performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2007-11-15 at Fox Theatre (Atlanta), Atlanta, GA, US [14:21]
• Shortest performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2007-07-27 at The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA, US [7:35]

External links

• "Glass and the Ghost Children" at SPFC