Snail
| "Snail" | |
|---|---|
| Song by The Smashing Pumpkins | |
| Released | May 28, 1991 |
| Studio sessions | |
| Length | 5:11 |
| Songwriter(s) | Billy Corgan |
"Snail" is a song from The Smashing Pumpkins's debut studio album, Gish. The song was featured in the 2014 film Bad Words.
| “ | 7 dreams. 7 and 7 is? 7. A girl I've named 'Flower.' She puts the sun on her tongue, tastes the stars like snowflakes. The height of who we would have been if we didn't always need to have more, and more, and then some more. The last of the innocents here. The drums are cut in one take, in a flurry of savant madness. His nose is broken, busted open in chivalry of cause. A siren calls to a snail who moves far too slow. But no one can catch him, so he moves fast enough I suppose. An electric guitar is held in front of the amp on fire until the glue shakes loose from the wood, and the tubes light up into phosphorescent blue. Hearts explode into diamonds, spades, clubs, and hollow rings. | ” |
| — Billy Corgan, Gish 2011 re-issue liner notes | ||
Composition and recording[edit | edit source]
Lyrically, "Snail" was largely inspired by the psychedelic culture of the 1960s.[1] Corgan had fittingly begun experimenting with LSD around this time period; he once remarked that it was "amazing how many of these songs have to do with LSD" whilst playing through a medley of Gish tracks. Corgan has singled out "Snail" in particular as having "bullshit lyrics", with no real thought being put into them. Nonetheless, he considers "Snail" to be the most powerful track on Gish[2] and one of his favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs overall,[3] attributing his infatuation with the song to it effectively capturing the band's purported innocence at this point in their career.
The drums were recorded in a single take.[1][3]
Videos[edit | edit source]
Lyrics[edit | edit source]
all your seven dreams
are closer than you believe
as your things come undone
see you are the only one
flower, seize the hour the day away
waiting, waiting for your way away
when you wake up your own way
throwing your life away
softly siren coming home
siren snail
it's what you wait for
flower, the pain will wash away, away
when the sun shines
and climbs through your window
into your bed
when you wake up your own way
throwing your life away
softly siren coming home
siren snail
yeah, that's my home
flower, save the hours
flower, away
it's what you wait for
flower, chase the sunshine
flower, chase the sunshine
flower
Availability
| Title | Notes | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Gish | Main release | Studio |
| Mashed Potatoes | Bootleg | |
| Vieuphoria | Lost '94 Tapes | Video |
| Thirty Days | Video | |
| Live at Kawasaki 2.24.92 | Live | |
| Smashing Pumpkins 4/12/94 | Live | |
| Live in Europe 1992 | Volume 1 | Live |
Tour stats
- Total plays: 118 plays (109 full, 6 tease, 3 abandoned, 4 soundcheck), 8 acoustic, 1 piano, 2 artists
- First performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 1990-01-20 at Metro, Chicago, IL, US
- Last performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2022-09-22 at Irving Plaza, New York, NY, US
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Corgan, Billy. Excerpt from interview with Matt Pinfield. Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ↑ Corgan, Billy. "Web chat with Billy Corgan and James Iha on July 14th, 1999". Retrieved January 22, 2025.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Corgan, Billy. Gish Deep Dive. Retrieved January 22, 2025.