Try, Try, Try

"Try, Try, Try"
Single by The Smashing Pumpkins
Album Lyrics Tabs Video Spotify
B-side	"Here's to the Atom Bomb"
Released	September 11, 2000
Format	CD
Studio sessions	November 1998-September 1999 – Pumpkinland
Genre	Alternative rock, dream pop
Length	5:09
Label	Virgin
Songwriter(s)	Billy Corgan
Producer(s)	Flood, Billy Corgan
The Smashing Pumpkins singles chronology
"I of the Mourning" (2000) "Try, Try, Try" (2000) "Untitled" (2001)
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

"Try, Try, Try" is the third and final single from The Smashing Pumpkins' fifth studio album, Machina/The Machines of God, and was released on September 11, 2000. It was written by Billy Corgan, as was the B-side "Here's to the Atom Bomb."

Song info

An alternate version of "Try, Try, Try" appears on the third EP of the album Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music and the "Untitled" single. The alternate version is a more sparse version of the song, orchestrated on acoustic guitar with a repeating keyboard part, as opposed to the piano, synth, and electric guitar-heavy Machina version.

"Try, Try, Try" replaced "Landslide" on the international release of the band's greatest hits album Rotten Apples.

The single cover was designed by Vasily Kafanov and features alchemic symbols such as the 18th century Figuarum Aegyptiorum Secretarum and references to Christianity and Hermes Trismegistus.

Music video

The music video for "Try, Try, Try" was a very different approach for a Pumpkins video, featuring only Corgan seated in a chair, despite instrumentation in the song from the other band members. The video was directed by Jonas Åkerlund and was adapted from a short film he made entitled Try, which followed the story of two homeless drug addicts named Linda and Max in Sweden. The video juxtaposes the somewhat upbeat music with graphic footage of a drug overdose, prostitution, and larceny. In contrast, there is also a very vibrantly happy dream sequence past the middle of the video, featuring a "perfect family" that suddenly takes an extreme turn for the worse. The video ends with Linda in hospital, now recovering from a heroin overdose and suffered a miscarriage with Max holding her hand and hugging her. The fifteen-minute short film version, Try, expands the footage of the music video greatly; Linda is also heard in a voiceover waxing philosophically about her situation during the entire film. Sparse ambient sections of the song are used in this version of the video and Billy Corgan is nowhere to be seen. The long version also features an alternate ending, where Linda dies of the overdose and when Max goes to her hospital room (which is mirrored from the music video edit), it's empty, making him realize that it's too late. Linda's funeral takes place after this and she gets cremated in the end, where the coffin goes into the incinerator and the incinerator is sealed shut, ending the video. Both the music video and the short film are available on the DVD version of the Pumpkins' Greatest Hits Video Collection.

The extended version of the video never saw much airtime, however, as its extremely graphic content caused it to be banned from MTV very early on. However, the music video edit had a limited rotation on the channel as it was only allowed during nighttime.

Lyrics

pop tart
what's our mission
do we know
but never listen
for too long
they held me under
but i hear
it's almost over
in detroit
on a memphis train
like you said

it's down in the heat and the summer rain of
the automatic gauze of your memories
down in the sleep at the airplane races

try to hold on
to this heart
a little bit longer
try to hold on
to this love
aloud
try to hold on
for this heart's
a little bit colder
try to hold on
to this love

paperback scrawl your hidden poem
written around the dried out flowers
here we are still trading places
to try to hold on

pop tart
can you envision
a free world
of clear division
for too long
they held us under
but i know
we're getting over
in detroit
with the nashville tears
like you said

it's down in the heat with the broken numbers
down in the gaze of solemnity
down in the way you held together

to try to hold on
to this heart
a little bit closer
try to hold on
to this love
aloud
try to hold on
for this heart's
a little bit older
try to hold on
to this love
aloud

and we are still alive
try to hold on
and we have survived
try to hold on
and no one should deny
we try to hold on
to the pulse of a feedback current
into the flow of the cryptic movement
slapback kills the ancient remnants
that try to hold on

try to hold on
to this heart
alive
try to hold on
to this love
aloud
try to hold on
and we are still alive
try to hold on
and we have survived
try to hold on
pop tart
you never listen
skinned knees
try to hold on
stop start
what's our mission
skinned knees
try to hold on

Critical reception

Pitchfork called it one of the album's strongest tracks, opining that it sounds like "New Order in a crystal convertible flossed out with chrome."

Track listing

All tracks are written by Billy Corgan.

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Try, Try, Try"	5:09
2.	"Here's to the Atom Bomb"	4:26

Release history

Released	Label	Catalog ID	Format	Country	External sites
September 11, 2000	Virgin • Hut Recordings	7243 8 97067 2 7 • HUTCD140	CD	UK	Discogs	MusicBrainz	[1]

More releases: Discogs • MusicBrainz

Charts

Chart (2000)	Peak position
Italy (FIMI)	36
UK Singles (OCC)	73

Availability

Title	Notes	Type
Machina/The Machines of God (premaster)		Promotional
Machina/The Machines of God	Main release	Studio
Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music	EP three (CR-03)	Studio
Try, Try, Try		Single
Untitled	Virgin single	Single
Rotten Apples	International version	Compilation
Greatest Hits Video Collection (1991–2000)		Video

Tour stats

• Total plays: 120 plays (120 full, 1 soundcheck), 21 acoustic, 6 piano, 2 artists
• First performance: Billy Corgan 2000-02-19 at Cat's Cradle, Carrboro, NC, US
• Last performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2018-10-18 at Unipol Arena, Casalecchio di Reno, IT

External links

• "Try, Try, Try" at SPFC