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Here’s a story for the bored to read. I have some spare time today, so decided to let loose while waiting for my friend to rent a DVD: It’s a choice between Donnie Darko and American Beauty, both are fine by me.
The first time I ever saw them was on MTV, they were playing Bullet With Butterfly Wings and I remember thinking: That video was a bit different, wonder who they are.
A few weeks later, I saw the video for 1979 and that was just it for me. What a ‘perfect’ way to grow up and kill time. You even have Iha to ‘bugg’ while he was working at that shop/store…
Later still, I’d bought a CD and really didn’t like more than one track. At the time you could replace it with something else (yeah I’m old) and I tried remembering which band played this 1979 song. By absolute chance, there was a display nearby with Mellon Collie. The name Smashing Pumpkins seemed familiar and I saw 1979 on the track list. I had to pay a bit extra for this double-CD, so just took my chances and thought well hey, what’s £2 now?
Months passed by and I decided that I’d play some tracks one afternoon. Cupid De Locke gave me such a buzz that I played it on Repeat for the whole evening.
I suppose this was the point that Pumpkin Magic had worked its way into my blood. Every few days I’d snatch a listen where possible. It was a rough time in my mid-20s and somehow, no matter what was happening, I could disappear for a while with Mellon Collie. Somewhere in my mind where nothing and nobody could ruin it.
Years after this and into the late 90s, I decided I’d buy all the SP’s stuff from my local shop. I paid far more than I should have, yet it was worth every single penny.
To feel really ancient, I finally subscribed to this thing called the \"Internet\" and after a while someone mentioned eBay. Uh-oh.
I don’t deal with people web-based so much now, moreso between friends and contacts around the world. One day a great friend of mine, Dave, offered me his collection list that was being sold (nooo, not the actual list). Well, it’s to him I owe a large part of my current set now. Every two weeks he’d send me a package and squeeze in some of my favourite Oreos, they’d surprise me every single time.
To this very day; we’re still friends and I’ve just had my last package sent over from him. In future we hope to meet and to this I’ll always be anxious for shaking the guy’s hand and saying thank you for \"starting it all off.\"
I’m privileged to know the people I currently do and it was great to be invited here, also.
My collection is Ours, I don’t see it as Mine. One of my best thoughts of the SP Fanbase and Followers is how we seem to have our own ‘vibe.’ As my German friend often says: Money can’t buy that.
‘Once in a while’ I just sit and think to myself: What if I hadn’t seen that BWBW video? 1979’s video? Taken that chance to pay extra for a CD I might have hated here-on-in…
So, this is Dazey’s ‘lil story of how I came to be a fan/follower for the rest of my life, of what I believe to be one of the finest bands in history. Every single play of an album takes me to another world, always. Maybe one day I’ll just fall out of love and turn numb, but I very much doubt it.
I’m just grateful for finding them at all – to think I might not have now; makes me squirm in all the wrong ways.
Well, my friend’s car just pulled up and I think American Beauty’s in-hand. Yeah, can just make it out through the door’s glass.
Rawk awn and live the dreams.
– D.
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Yeah… it’s amazing how things work out for the absolute best in the end
Shall this turn into a thread about how we became hardcore fans? I think it will.
Mines somewhat similar. In about 2005/06, kerrang! TV did a 100 best videos thing. Tonight Tonight was on there… and really interested me. Aaages later (like… 2007) kerrang! TV would do weekly, 30 minute slots where they’d play videos by one band. And i saw SP’s one (by this time had developed an interest in the band purely through Tonight Tonight) and yeah, the vids interested me.
When i finally got the internet, youtube was my port of call. I watched loads of SP vids, and developed favourites. I remebered that kerrang! magazine had done a \"Where to start with Smashing Pumpkins\" article ages back, so i dug it up and read it. Shortly after, i ordered Siamese Dream and MCIS off of Amazon.com. And that’s where it kicked off proper…
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wow, i really feel like an oldie next to you two (but not by too much)…..way back in 1996 i heard bwbw for the first time, and i was like wow, this is what music is suposed to sound like, beautiful, angry, that voice, i was in heaven. so i went out and bought mcis, and then gish, and sd, and pi, and then vinyl when i could, my room became wall to wall sp. i recorded bwbw, and 1979 vids off of the tv and watched them alot, (no youtube back in the stone age), and then i had to buy veiwphoria and watch it all the time, and make my friends watch it, even against thier will, cause at the time, they were very tired of hearing all about the pumpkins. at 16 was when it all started, and even though i am older now thier music may take on a diffrent meaning for me, but i still feel all the power that comes through the speakers, and i can escape for a while, and have the most beautiful soundtrack to my life.
sp changed my life for the better, and i would not like to know what my life would be like without them. i compare all other music to them, they are the standard. and i am proud to say that i have brought others over to the orange side.
so that is the condensed version of my story………………………..
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This is probably a good place to copy my essay for that SP media job application a little while back.
\"To you, the Smashing Pumpkins fans.
Who are you, tormented souls? What are you, rockinâ crybabies? Where are you, Pumpkins fans? Tell me, and I will tell you my story in the meantime.
1994-1995. To be honest, I donât remember the first contact with the Smashing Pumpkins anymore. But Iâm pretty sure it was via this local Radio Station called VPRO that I first heard about them. Later on, the 1995-12-12 Melkweg Amsterdam gig was broadcast live on radio. Wow. I taped it, and I still play that tape sometimes. Sure, I was kinda late discovering this American band, but what can you expect, good things sometimes arrive a bit late in Europe. OK, they played Europe since the early Nineties, but somehow I missed that completely. Shame on me! But I bought the first CD albums in 1995, which turned out to be my all time favourites. Mellon Collie and Siamese Dream. There is no album like Siamese Dream, not any band has ever created such a masterpiece that is so much in my blood. Soma will be played on my funeral, and Mayonaise is giving me the shivers on my spine every time I hear it.
1996. Yeah. The year of the Pumpkin. Well, my personal year of the Pumpkin anyway. Many more amazing Pumpkins singles and albums found their way to my house and to my CD player. Pisces Iscariot, Zero, Gish⦠And at the end of the year I was so hooked I even called some friends when the Thirty-Three single came out, to let them listen to The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right) track. It blew me away! And no doubt I went to Ahoy Rotterdam to see them. Of course I had heard that some concerts were absolutely amazing, and some were spoiled because of the mood swings of this singer Billy Corgan. Drugs. Death. Troubles with band members. Still touring. Who is this crazy guy with his band anyway? I want to be there.
1997. More singles, more rarities, more friends and even my lover at that time, all into the Pumpkins. What connects us? Music of course. But what is it in this music? Rock, grunge, eclectic, epic and electronic sounds, almost from a different planet? That journey into the deepest holes of onesâ heart and onesâ mind? What connects us to a certain band? Billy Corgan is no god, he is no teacher, he is no ruler of the world. Still he is writing and performing in a way that makes me know he knows it also. He knows the suffering, the long search for love and a caring family and the insecure moments of a tormented soul. He knows the struggle, the wisdom and the painful moments. And he knows how to find a way to express life in its many forms and shapes. What a great escape, what a great way to spend my listening hours!
1998. Adore. Ava Adore. Tear. Pug. Shock. Beautiful, but different. I love that album, but the band moved onwards to areas I had harder times to follow. I know, Iâm a rock guy most of the times. But the album grew on me quickly. Pinkpop Festival, weird performance, but cool anyway. And my collection of Pumpkins music was still rapidly growing. Japanese singles and albums with rare bonus tracks, occasionally a South American release, mostly found in shops or on record fairs I attended. Being a collector sweetly sucks, and is costly sometimes. I miss Jimmy Chamberlin.
1999. A rather quiet year, after Jimmyâs return to the band. Not much more pops up to tell you about. Sorry for that.
2000. Of course I was the first to buy Machina. The promise of the return to the rocking roots of the Smashing Pumpkins was tempting enough to buy the album. However, the listening experience turned out to be a disappointment. Urgh! Why is Siamese Dream always the album to compare? Why are Slunk and Marquis In Spades the ultimate b-sides? I have no idea, but it wasnât that shocking after all to hear about the bandâs break up. No, I didnât go to the farewell concerts in Chicago. I know I should have gone though⦠But in my parallel universe it was enough to keep on collecting the whole Pumpkins music history. So I did. Machina II, what a great way to say goodbye. Respect to you, Billy.
2001-2008. Too much to tell, too little space to do it. Next time, promise!
So, since 1994 this deep love for the Smashing Pumpkins and their music never left me. Did I really mention love here? But is it really love, or is it admiration, or feeling like being soul mates of the band members? Is Billy Corgan writing and singing what I wanted to say, if I was able to put it to words like him? Yeah, here is a big clue I guess. What is your clue, Smashing Pumpkins fan out there? What is your world, what is your mystery, and what is your Pumpkins story? Tell me please, Iâm very curious.\"
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