From SPCodex, The Smashing Pumpkins wiki
"Pale Horse" is a song by The Smashing Pumpkins off of their 2012 studio album, Oceania. Billy Corgan has said the song was written for his mother,[1] in particular the pain both she and he endured after she was committed to an insane asylum when was four years old. Corgan later admitted his mother never shared stories about this period of her life, so the song is more of an interpretation of what Corgan imagined she went through, rather than literal meaning.[2]
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A lot of times when you have [this] kind of riff, you don't want to get too tricky. It creates a hypnotic effect. You don't want to change keys too much, so I leaned back on some of those artists who used space well. In old Pumpkins ideology, if you started with that riff, the song would get bigger and louder. In this ideology, it actually gets smaller, and that's how you get the dynamic back up.
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| — Billy Corgan, MusicRadar interview, June 13, 2012[3]
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If I was to listen I'd turn back
Give up on my reasons
Forgive up the past
You think I'd swallow that?
Bearing weight in ceilings
Just to stop and ask of Thora Zine
Thora Zine, Thora Zine, Thora Zine
They give you this
They take away that
Thora Zine
There'll be no others
There'll be no long lost friends
Empty on the insides
Empty of a last pretense
To stand by on feeling of the end
So many lives
A runaway life
So many lies
When they locked you up they shut me out
Gave me the key so I could show you round
Yet we were not allowed
Omens of the daydream
But caught as you're bound in Thora Zine
Thora Zine, Thora Zine, Thora Zine
They give you this
They take away that
Thora Zine
There'll be no rallies
There'll be no long lost friends
Caught on a spotlight running out of present tense
To fix by a feeling of an end
So many lives
A runaway life
Please come back
Please come back
Please come back Pale Horse
Please come back
Please come back
Please come back Pale Horse
Please come back
Please come back
Please come back Pale Horse
Please come back
Please come back
Please come back Pale Horse
Availability
Tour stats
- Total plays: 131 plays (131 full, 1 soundcheck), 3 acoustic, 7 piano, 2 artists
- First performance: The Smashing Pumpkins 2011-10-07 at Fox Theatre, Oakland, CA, US
- Last performance: Billy Corgan 2017-11-09 at Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Los Angeles, CA, US
