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  • in reply to: Females on album covers #2268

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    Next year is the 15th anniversary of Siamese Dream and they missed the 10th in 2003. Maybe they want to do something for that.

    And for God’s sake, release FEOMM officially while you’re at it.

    in reply to: 33 #2297

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    I think he keeps the lyrics vague on purpose so that he doesn’t tell you what to think, even though he has a reason behind writing them.

    Lennnon, Dylan & Bono do the same.

    And Bono never talks openly about his faith to members of the press because they warp his words.

    It is better to let the people figure it out for themselves.

    in reply to: Someone help me with my worry(confusion)! #2308

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    Many bands release multiple versions of an album: Gorillaz, Bloc Partcy, etc.

    Also, do you remember that age of CD’s in the 90’s when people would pay $10 for a maxi single to get 1 B-side they needed? What’s the difference between that and paying $10 for one song you need on different versions of the album.

    I always wanted those B-sided to be on official LP’s and now they are!

    in reply to: Getting deep #2119

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    Amen toad32r and well put.

    So many people think Billy is always down or negative, and while that is a part of all of us, it is not the only part and BC shows that to a tee.

    Peaks and Valleys.

    Faith and Doubt.

    Love and Lonely.

    Life and Death.

    in reply to: 33 #2291

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    speak to me in a language i can hear (not sure about this part, but I have theories)
    humour me before i have to go (asking for people to listen to him while he is still around)
    deep in thought i forgive everyone (Jesus forgives, and in the garden of Gethsemane he prayed alone)
    as the cluttered streets greet me once again (Palm Sunday?)
    i know i can’t be late, supper’s waiting on the table (his deatj is prophesized andhe can’t change it, and refers to the last supper)
    tomorrow’s just an excuse away (he prays to God to \"take this cup from my hands\" and asks that he not be killed. All he needs as a man is to think up and excuse and not allow himself to be killed)
    so I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own (the apostles were told to leave Jesus alone the night before by Jesus himself)
    the earth laughs beneath my heavy feet (Jesus was God and man, the only such \"heavy feet\" on the planet, which did his bidding: water to wine, stopping storms, raising the dead, and laughs in joy?)
    at the blasphemy in my old jangly walk (the religious leaders considered Jesus a blasphemer, and he died at 33, 3 years after he began his ministry. Jangly just means he was awkward and not cool. Jesus was a hippy compared to the elite after all)
    steeple guide me to my heart and home (reference to church and the sacred heart and heaven)
    the sun is out and up and down again (3 days and then rises from the dead)
    i know i’ll make it, love can last forever (giving hope. Love and light in these songs and U2 refer to God, as in Every Light I found is every light that’s shining from above.)
    graceful swans of never topple to the earth (swans mate for life)
    and you can make it last, forever you (Jesus grants eternal life)
    you can make it last, forever you
    and for a moment i lose myself
    wrapped up in the pleasures of the world
    i’ve journeyed here and there and back again (here and there and back again meaning the afterlife and rising from the dead?)
    but in the same old haunts i still find my friends (after Jesus died, his apostles hid in the upper room, fearing the authorities, When they heard rumors of him coming back they became more fearful, almost as if he would be a ghost when he came to them)
    mysteries not ready to reveal (Jesus/God would know more than all of us combined, and won’t reveal more until the end/new beginning)
    sympathies i’m ready to return (Jesus preached love for all, and helps those who believe in his death/resurrection)
    i’ll make the effort, love can last forever (By his efforts alone Jesus provided salvation, grants eternal life and heals all wounds, forgives all sins.)
    graceful swans of never topple to the earth
    tomorrow’s just an excuse
    and you can make it last, forever you
    you can make it last, forever you

    Am i Stretching it? Let me know.

    Just please don’t flame me, LOL.

    in reply to: Females on album covers #2261

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    I am up in the air about both Machina and Pisces Iscariot.

    I think Pisces Iscariot is 50/50, could be Billy or James, could be D’arcy, could be Courtney Love (as the legend goes) or an anonymous female.

    With Machina I lean towards that headless figure being a female, as the bowl with the baby in it seems to represent a womb and it looks like religious iconography (ie Mary who he referenced with Zwan’s album title, the lyrcis to Death From Above, and thanks on Zeitgeist after Jesus Christ.)

    in reply to: Getting deep #2117

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    You’re right Cupid definitely has that bittersweet undertone, but then so does real love.
    Hallmark has us all fooled that it’s all sunshine and roses.

    in reply to: Lucky 7 #2272

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    It is commonly thought of as lucky in superstitious and has religious implications as well.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_7

    It is sort of the opposite of 666, which Billy wore on a shirt in Vieuphoira.

    I’m not trying to get to too wacky with this, it’s just obvious that he keeps using the number intentionally and I know there are other connotations for it out in the wide world.

    in reply to: Getting deep #2115

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    1) I meant emo in a very loose way and only relating to the current crop of emo bands who relate to the Pumpkins. The only one of those I truly like is My Chemical Romance because they don’t care about the so called emo rules and boundaries.

    Emo is as untrue a label as Punk and Alernative were, but that’s for a different thread.

    2) Re: people latching on to one emotion I saw people on smashing pumpkins.com (where I get beat to a pulp on the message boards daily, btw) complaining that the second song on Letterman (Friday) will be That’s the Way (My Love is) instead of Doomsday Clock.

    A) That’s the Way is the next single
    B) BC wants to show another side of his writing after playing Tarantula Monday.

    Look at MCIS as an album and the emotions are all over the place, song to song.

    Love is cynical and Cupid de Locke is romantic.
    An Ode to No one seems an angry lament to God while Muzzle seems a celebration of a blessed life.

    And look at the singles. No band since The Beatles has had as much variety in their releases.

    Bullet, Zero, 33, Tonight Tonight and 1979.

    No other band in the 90’s could have released 2 heavy songs, 1 poppy ballad, 1 lonely ballad and 1 orchestral extravaganza.

    Look at The Beatles with Revolution and Hey Jude as double A-sides or the way John would be dark one second (Yer Blues, etc.) and gleeful the next (Dear Prudence, etc.).

    They say Kurt Cobain was the Lennon of the 90’s and indeed he lit the fire of rock like only The Beatles and Ramones before him, but it was Billy who was the innovator (The Beatles) and the conscience (Dylan) of the 1990’s. History will prove this once the rest of the music world catches up to him.

    Did everyone understand Mozart in his time? Doubt it. And I know for a fact they had no clue what Edgar Allen Poe was achieving. Some people are too far ahead of the curve for the herd mentality.

    in reply to: Getting deep #2110

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    Billy has a very healthy, very powerful range of emotions.
    Every has the ability to feel these. but most people don’t, preferring something to take the edge off or numb them, such as drugs, etc.

    Anger, Doubt, Fear, Regret, Love, Joy, Sadness, Sympathy, Loneliness, Need & Wonder are all in the songs in bucket fulls, in different songs in different ways.

    Some fans have focused on only one or two of these emotions and want all of the songs to be about that instead of accepting the full range.

    This is why when fans say they hate Adore or especially Machina they disagree on which songs make the album bad.

    SP are the first emo band (in a good way I should hope) and they follow in the footsteps of John Lennon and Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash who discussed dark things, wore their heart on their sleeves, didn’t just write to make hit songs, and also declared optimism despite their experiences that should have drummed that out of them.

    in reply to: Everyones favourite under-rated song? #2149

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    Pennies, Speed Kills & Dross

    in reply to: Anyone know exactly why Iha didn’t come back? #2018

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    When Billy said he wanted his Pumpkins back and his songs back, he meant it.

    This is for keeps.

    As he says (to Jimmy?) in Tarantula, \"Don’t Break This Oath\"

    This is for keeps, and is the rebirth. In the deluxe album (not sure of the standard) there is a picture of the funeral of the old Pumpkins.

    Long live the new.

    Under the new Pumpkins no one will be able to break it up unless Jimmy quits or falls off the wagon or whatever. If Ginger or Jeff quit, Billy will find new band mates. And so on.

    in reply to: Anyone know exactly why Iha didn’t come back? #2015

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    I didn’t mean to insinuate that Billy should be absolved of blame for the break up.
    To the contrary, being a megalamaniac doesn’t help relations with band mates and friends.

    It does, however, make for real good music when you have the talent to back it up.

    Also, Billy could have decided to continue SP with just he and Billy 7 years ago and had another 3 albums under his belt, so techincally he did break them up. I do respect him wanting only the original 4, though, and I think it was a tribute to that ideal that led him to have only he and Jimmy on Zeitgeist.

    Moving forward, though, it would be mean to keep Ginger & Jeff off future albums if they stick around. They are more like employees right now, but maybe they will become friends.

    I felt worse for Melissa than James or D’arcy because it wasn’t her choice to be left out. James and D’arcy would have said no if they had been asked (imho) and I’m not sure he didn’t put the feelers out to them. But, it’s almost like he didn’t want Melissa because that would have made here one of 5 permanent members. Even Matt Walker was never considered a full member and he saved their butts on tour in more ways than one.

    Jimmy on Shame and Pug rock the socks though live.

    Adore would have been a much different album with Jimmy on board and if you add his version of Pug (I think Shame is about Jimmy so it may not have even been written), Eye, and Let Me Give the World to You included with a more organic, less compressed production style. There would have been no perceived drop off after MCIS. That’s why I respect Billy as an artist. Instead of \"(faking) it for just one more (album)\" and making big hits, he wrote what he felt on Adore and Machina about Jimmy’s foibles, his mother’s death and the break up of the band mixed with his new found faith.

    in reply to: Anyone know exactly why Iha didn’t come back? #2012

    CaptJack
    Spectator

    Apparently the story goes like this.

    Jimmy comes back to the Pumpkins. Billy is happy as they had not been the same on album or live without him. So he gets it in his head to conquer the world again.
    They stage the Arising tour as a pseudo come-back.

    Then D’arcy quits (she broke it to some of us after the Pittsburgh show, months before the accouncement.)
    Billy is disappointed because the original lineup just got back together. But he decides to trudge on, replacing her on bass on some parts of Machina and all of the song Untitled. His thoughts are that Melissa Auf Der Maur is a great touring bassist but he only wants the original Pumpkins on the records after Adore and the drumming by committee.

    Next, James decides that being in SP ruins his identity as an indie-rock, pop song/country ditty songwriter because people confuse SP as a metal band. Billy decides that the end of SP is here even though he was excited about getting it going again. He decides to make Machina the last album, and it has lyrics about the break up, especially This Time and Age of Innocence. He is disappointed but doesn’t want to bring new people into the band. (So he had this argument with himself that the fans are having with each other 7 years ago.). I believe that Tarantula is about getting SP going again and also about how people will not regard them as the real Pumpkins.

    So James quit, after D’arcy quit and Billy was sad but didn’t want to sully the name with a revolving door of people. Thus Zwan is born and is what the Pumpkins would have been, especially with BC becoming Christian, just listen the the lyrics on Zeitgeist, not much different to Zwan, just a little darker in the political songs.

    So if James quit in 2000 or so, I’m guessing he still wanted out in 2007, and it’s not like BC just left him behind. He just wanted to reclaiim his songs. \"we are the real cos someone gave us up\" Tarntula says.

    BC also played all non drums music on Zeitgeist, so his desire to have the original 4 on the albums besides Adore (Which should have been a BC solo album in hindsight) is intact.

    However, expect Ginger & Jeff on album by 2009 if he likes them. He learned from Zwan to \"Look before you leap, watch the company you keep, never fall asleep.\"

    More proof that Machina was slated to be the big comeback to glory after Adore and to recapture the momentum of Mellon Collie that was lost when Jimmy was kicked out mid-tour:

    It was supposed to be a double album and the studio wouldn’t allow it because of Adore’s low sales.
    He expected to be able to release the second album later, but they nixed that, too.

    So Machina was never meant to stand alone, the tracks were shifted to discuss the break up, and majesty of Mellon Collie was not repeated thanks to James & D’arcy.

    And thanks to Jimmy for stopping their momentum dead in its tracks with his drug expulsion.

    So, really, is BC the jerk they make him out to be? No.

    He does have a lot of integrity and I think that confuses people.

    The reason the Pumpkins are back is becuase his bandmates in Zwan (minus Jimmy) were horrible people, or else Zwan would continue in SP’s stead. And the reason James & D’arcy are not there is because they quit at the time when he got his band back and derailed his plans.

    Long live Smashing Pumpkins.
    He always played 75% of the parts any ways.

Viewing 14 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)