Where Boys Fear to Tread

"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 and Zeitgeist tours, it was sometimes listed as "The Bomb" on setlists.

Background and recording
The song is an example of how the raw live energy of the band was captured on Mellon Collie. The recording was of the band performing the song in its entirety for the very first time. Corgan signaled to other band members when changes were to come in the song. The ending was intended to be just as it is heard on the record, however Jimmy Chamberlin continued to play after the final note, so that much was edited out afterwards.

As for equipment, Corgan used his Les Paul Junior Reissue. The high-pitched sound heard as the drum comes in at around the 45-second mark are Corgan's overdubs using his famed "I Love My Mom" Fender Stratocaster.

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.

Courtney Love, who used to be in a romantic relationship with Billy Corgan, has claimed the song was written about her, with lines like "dark prince of death" and "for a love lost, a faded picture" referring to his distaste regarding her relationship with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Corgan has never commented on the veracity of this claim, and the ambiguity of the lyrics by themselves offer little concrete evidence that Love's claims hold truth.

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.

General

 * Dafydd ab Hugh (1995) Knee-Deep in the Dead (Pocket Books, 1995), pg. 138.
 * Dafydd ab Hugh (1995) Knee-Deep in the Dead (Pocket Books, 1995), pg. 138.
 * Dafydd ab Hugh (1995) Knee-Deep in the Dead (Pocket Books, 1995), pg. 138.