Where Boys Fear to Tread

"Where Boys Fear to Tread"
Song by The Smashing Pumpkins
Album Lyrics Tabs Spotify
Released	1995
Studio sessions	March-August 1995 – Pumpkinland and Chicago Recording Company March 2-3, 1995 – Pumpkinland August 1995 – The Village Recorder
Length	4:22
Songwriter(s)	Billy Corgan
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Tonight, Tonight Jellybelly Zero Here Is No Why Bullet with Butterfly Wings To Forgive Fuck You Love Cupid de Locke Galapogos Muzzle Porcelina of the Vast Oceans Take Me Down Where Boys Fear to Tread Bodies Thirty-Three In the Arms of Sleep 1979 Tales of a Scorched Earth Thru the Eyes of Ruby Stumbleine X.Y.U. We Only Come Out at Night Beautiful Lily (My One and Only) By Starlight Farewell and Goodnight

"Where Boys Fear to Tread" is a song from The Smashing Pumpkins' third studio album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. During the Infinite Sadness tour it was sometimes listed as "The Bomb" on setlists.

The song samples an explosion sound from the computer video game, Doom. This can be heard at the 1:20, 1:55, 2:29, 3:01 and 3:44 marks in the recording. This points to the relationship between Doom and The Smashing Pumpkins in the SPISPOPD joke.

Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris

Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris (or SPISPOPD) is part of a joke relating to the computer game Doom. It dates back to a Usenet post in early December 1993, where it was proposed to id Software (the company behind the game) that their next game be called Smashing Pumpkins Into Small Piles Of Putrid Debris. This initial quip was carried on, and a parody of the Doom FAQ was written called the SPISPOPD FAQ. The FAQ described a 3D game that ran on a computer with minimal specifications.

id Software gave a nod to the joke by planting it as a cheat code in the game. Typing "idspispopd" activates "no clipping" mode, which allows the player to walk through walls.

A second reference apparently sponsored by id Software appeared in the 1995 novelization of the video game series. The first book "Knee-Deep In The Dead" contains a passage in which one of the two major characters says "Smashing pumpkins into small pieces of putrid debris."

The Smashing Pumpkins perpetuated the gag by sampling the rocket launcher sound effect from Doom in "Where Boys Fear to Tread".

Two computer games were created based on the joke. Smashing Pumpkins into Small Piles of Putrid Debris is a 2D action game from Jamul Software (which later became Hamumu Software) where you collect candles and smash pumpkins with a red hammer. It was reportedly developed in 48 hours to capitalize on the joke. Hamumu Software later created a similar game called Amazin' SPISPOPD.

In Master of Magic, there is an item named "The Idspispopd", based on the Doom cheat code.

Lyrics

candy cane walks down
to build a bonfire, to break my fall
my baby, my sweet thing
just maybe we could lose ourselves this time
king of the horseflies, dark prince of death
his tragic forces are heaven sent
in sweet things, in a lovers breath
in knowing this was meant to be the last
a go-go-kids, a go-go-style
a suck suck kiss, a suck suck smile
as always, in young need
a veiled promise to never die
on dead highways, her black beauties roam
for june angels, so far from home
for a love lost, a faded picture
to tread lightning, to ink the lavender skies
so get on the bomb

Equipment

Billy Corgan

• Les Paul Junior Reissue

References

• Mike Hommel (1993). "Smashing Pumpkins into Small Piles of Putrid Debris". Hamumu Software. Retrieved February 6, 2006.
• Mike Hommel (1999). "The History Of Hamumu Software". Hamumu Software. Retrieved February 6, 2006.
• Dafydd ab Hugh (1995) Knee-Deep in the Dead (Pocket Books, 1995), pg. 138.

External links

• "Where Boys Fear to Tread" at SPFC