Tag Archives: The Smashing Pumpkins

Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame…

Each year is like the movie Groundhog Day, at least with regard to the nominees for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame.

You get a bunch of artists nominated and the inevitable backlash begins.  Why was X nominated and not Y?  How could they keep ignoring band/artist Z?

This year is proves to be no exception.  For those interested, from Rolling Stone,

The 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominees

Among the artists to be nominated you have Yes, Journey, The Cars, and Pearl Jam.

The later group was arguable one part of the three most important, IMHO, rock artists of the 1990’s.  The other two are Nirvana, which has already made it to the Hall of Fame, and an artist that author Kevin Craft for Salon.com offers a fascinating defense of and wonders why it is as time goes by the cultural imprint of this band seems to progressively fade.  I’m referring, of course, to The Smashing Pumpkins, who are now eligible to the R&R Hall of Fame yet were not even nominated…

The World Is Still A Vampire: The Smashing Pumpkins Can’t Get The Respect They Deserve

I discovered The Smashing Pumpkins sometime around 1995-96 and shortly after the release of what might be the band’s crowning achievement, the incredibly ambitious Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.  Perhaps two of the biggest hits from that album include the song that is quoted in the above article…

…and this one, which even those who can’t handle Billy Corgan’s voice (I’m a HUGE Smashing Pumpkins fan yet I can understand those who find it difficult to take) like…

Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, to my mind, is one of the absolute best albums to come out of the 1990’s yet it followed The Smashing Pumpkin’s Gish (1991) and Siamese Dream (1993) two incredible albums which others may consider even better than I consider Mellon Collie.

After those three albums and a bunch of extra-song releases, including a mind-boggling amount of outtake material from Mellon Collie collected along with the singles released from that album and called The Aeroplane Flies High.

It was during these two years, 1995-96, that The Smashing Pumpkins arguably reached the heights of their popularity.  Sadly, things went downhill, at least from a popularity standpoint, from there.

Their next album, Adore, was released in 1998 and audiences were divided by it.  I personally loved the album but could understand how fans of the band to that point might have found the material a little too different from what came before.

Just as Adore divided fans, the follow up to that album, Machina/The Machines of God further divided them.  The album failed to chart and it appeared the band was on the rocks.  Me?  I loved the album…

The group broke up soon after the release of this album and its internet released sequel, Machina II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music.

After forming and releasing an album with his new group Zwan, Billy Corgan would release a solo album before re-forming The Smashing Pumpkins with 2007’s Zeitgeist.  The album was…ok…in my opinion.  Not as good as the previous SP albums and, sadly, not as good as the Zwan album.  Curiously, my favorite song from that album wound up being one that was presented as a bonus track and not on the album itself…

Since that point, The Smashing Pumpkins have gone through lineup changes (at one point, Billy Corgan was the only original member of the band).  There is supposedly an effort underway to reform the band as it originally was but, as with all things, we’ll see.

Anyway, I went through all this to say the following: The Smashing Pumpkins was, to me, one of the absolute best rock bands of the 1990’s.  They released, up to their original breakup, one great album after another yet I agree with Mr. Craft’s article linked to above.  There appears to be a fading away of The Smashing Pumpkin’s influence and success from the public mind.

Why?

There are those who gleefully point out this is deserved, that singer/songwriter/band leader Billy Corgan is a jerk and the problems that befell his band are a karmic comeuppance.

Personally, I believe The Smashing Pumpkins, like many other bands and artists, suffered from their early success.  You can climb a mountain only so high before inevitably going downhill.  Or, to put it another way, not every work is going to be a home run.  The first three albums released by The Smashing Pumpkins were arguably one great work after the other.  While the next two albums -and internet released album- weren’t as big hits, I felt they were also damn good.

For that alone the band deserves consideration for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Even if it won’t happen this time around, I can’t help but think their time will eventually come.