Billy Corgan 2019-06-25: Difference between revisions

Billy Corgan 2019-06-25 (edit)

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 '''Shame'''
 '''1979'''
-BC: [[Category:Songs_written_by_Billy_Corgan|I’ve written many songs]], probably somewhere in the range of 400 songs.  And to me, they’re all important, but then you go through a life where people tell you, well, only these 10 are important or only these 20 or only these 50.  And so, in the beginning, when I wrote songs, as a young person about 17 or 18 years old, I’d play a song for somebody that would go like this, you know.  ''(plays 7 slow chords on the piano)''  Play it for a friend and they go, “Sounds like [[w:Pink Floyd|Pink Floyd]].”  And so that became the joke in the band, that everything sounded like Pink Floyd.  And then we had a rule for years, you cannot mention eight bands when we’re writing songs.  You cannot say it sounds like...[[w:Led Zeppelin|Led Zeppelin]] or [[w:Metallica|Metallica]] or [[w:The Cure|the Cure]] or whatever, you just can’t say it.  It was a rule and we held it.  So over here you have the optimism of a writer - me - in a band that believes in me as a writer and over here, you have somebody saying it sounds like Pink Floyd.  And um, eventually, you break through and somebody says, “Ah, it sounds like Smashing Pumpkins.”  And then, if you’re lucky enough - and I am lucky because people like you have supported my music and I really appreciate that.  ''(pauses for applause, but none comes)''  Thank you, you should congratulate yourself.  ''(crowd cheers)''  But if you live long enough and you rock long enough, eventually you’ll play something for somebody and they say, “It doesn’t sound like Smashing Pumpkins.”
+BC: I’ve written many songs, probably somewhere in the range of 400 songs.  And to me, they’re all important, but then you go through a life where people tell you, well, only these 10 are important or only these 20 or only these 50.  And so, in the beginning, when I wrote songs, as a young person about 17 or 18 years old, I’d play a song for somebody that would go like this, you know.  ''(plays 7 slow chords on the piano)''  Play it for a friend and they go, “Sounds like [[w:Pink Floyd|Pink Floyd]].”  And so that became the joke in the band, that everything sounded like Pink Floyd.  And then we had a rule for years, you cannot mention eight bands when we’re writing songs.  You cannot say it sounds like...[[w:Led Zeppelin|Led Zeppelin]] or [[w:Metallica|Metallica]] or [[w:The Cure|the Cure]] or whatever, you just can’t say it.  It was a rule and we held it.  So over here you have the optimism of a writer - me - in a band that believes in me as a writer and over here, you have somebody saying it sounds like Pink Floyd.  And um, eventually, you break through and somebody says, “Ah, it sounds like Smashing Pumpkins.”  And then, if you’re lucky enough - and I am lucky because people like you have supported my music and I really appreciate that.  ''(pauses for applause, but none comes)''  Thank you, you should congratulate yourself.  ''(crowd cheers)''  But if you live long enough and you rock long enough, eventually you’ll play something for somebody and they say, “It doesn’t sound like Smashing Pumpkins.”
 Guy in crowd: [1-3 unintelligible words]!
 BC: Yeah.  One of my favorite things is when a fan and I’m using that term ''(gestures that he is referring to the entire audience)'' liberally, heh - uh, I just did like a [[w:Donald Trump|Trump]] thing, like a...''(gestures as if talking with his hands, then gestures again while doing a quiet vocal impression)''...liberally.  ''(normal voice)'' Um, heh, sorry, I couldn’t help it.  When a fan - unknowingly, I would like to assume - compares you to ''you'', as if you are not you and the other version of you wrote something and the new version of you, in some sort of alien transfer, is responsible for not upholding what the other guy used to do.  ''(one guy in the crowd laughs hysterically)''  Yes.  And ''then'', if you’re really lucky, you make new music and people get very excited.  And you say “What do you think?” and they go, ''(whispers)'' “It sounds like the Pumpkins.  They’re back, the Pumpkins are back.”  ''(pauses for applause, makes a surprised face and gestures when none comes; only then do people clap)  (normal voice)'' Yeah.  But the fact of the matter is I really don’t give a fuck what anybody thinks.  And what’s beautiful about that is that goddamn stubbornness that runs in my family, particularly on the Irish side.  You can blame the Irish.  Is that refusal to bend to expectation, to somebody’s idea of your past or your present or your future.  And so when I write a song like this, which by the way I wrote coming down with a vicious flu and I felt awful and this song started coming through.  And when I have that happen, it’s like “you have 20 minutes to write the song,” it’s gonna, it’s like a - you’re chasing this beautiful thing that suddenly appears out of nowhere.  And some of the songs that you would know, that’s how they were written, they come to me and then it’s 20 minutes, boom.  So I’m dying, I’m ready to throw up and this song shows up.  And I actually stopped trying to write the song and whoever talks to me in my head was like, “No, you’re gonna write this song.”  So I literally wrote the song laying ''(pretends to lie down and play air guitar)'' like this and jotting down lyrics.  And so, the only problem with this song...is it sounds like Pink Floyd.