Bang Bang You're Dead... POLL In Your Head - ILM Artist Poll #87 - SMASHING PUMPKINS - Results

He's been deleted, or he's deleted himself - that's another way to think about it. This is probably the only Pumpkins song I've spent time overthinking this way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwWcO_oLLCM

i associate "atom bomb" strongly with kid a and amnesiac-era radiohead bc i was listening to both a lot at the time so i definitely understand the "lead singer erasing himself" vibe you get from it

Interesting angle - I wonder if Corgan was/is a Radiohead fan?

suspect he liked the records but hated their success. critics always putting him in the back.

Made a playlist of my ballot, which I think will be a v enjoyable way to listen to this band: https://open.spotify.com/user/1297256761/playlist/6EaySAiougJgnxwZdXSaiQ?si=UpkfjWPRT0OLWa92NJ7zDQ

think the only song i don't like in the complete results is the "dreaming" cover

Sorry, Brad.

1979
Zero
Galapogos
Thirty-Three
Muzzle
Tonight, Tonight
Once Upon a Time
Dreaming
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Cupid de Locke
Try Try Try
Here Is No Why
Jellybelly
Rocket
Clones (We're All)

it's ok i just don't think the arrangement adds anything to the song. good ballot!

Thanks!

It's a radical enough transformation that I feel that it and the original come off as different songs, which happens far less often with covers than it should.

None of us voted for

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeDiARw8q78

true enough xp

oh what's everyone's favorite sp cover. i hate most of them but wow do i love their "never let me down again"

As an aside, the other cover I voted for ("Clones") is one where I had never actually heard the original until very recently. I was surprised how faithful the Pumpkins version turned out to be. Never expected something so New Wavey from Alice Cooper!

I like "Girl Named Sandoz" but tbf I think I only know the two on PI + Corgan's version of "To Love Somebody". xp

the "dancing in the moonlight" cover was also the first thing i encountered that suggested thin lizzy had innumerable jams beyond "the boys are back in town." good choice and pretty faithful iirc

I like all of the covers on Aeroplane well enough, minus "My Blue Heaven," which is such an ill-advised mismatch of song and performer that it comes off as genuinely unpleasant, to me.

Dreaming is my favorite cover of theirs. Had I woken up earlier I would've posted a fake #1/#2 entry for Jackie Blue/You're All I've Got Tonight

the Landslide cover is classic obviously. Never Let Me Down is the best from Aeroplane. as far as live covers go the Space Oddity one they were doing a few years back was solid

I thought about doing a fake entry for United States in the top 10 but didn't have time to make an image for it

'Never Let Me Down Again' is a great version which even got the seal of approval from Depeche Mode themselves. Their cover of 'A Night Like This', on the other hand, is fucking shocking.

Should we have a separate covers poll?

Mayonaise
Stand Inside Your Love
1979
For Martha
Set the Ray to Jerry
Here Is No Why
Perfect
Soma
Behold! The Night Mare
Galapagos
Pug
Thirty-Three
Blank Page
Tonight, Tonight
Muzzle
Blew Away
Real Love
Geek USA
Hummer
Cherub Rock
Bury Me
I Of the Mourning
Go
Wound
Medelia of the Grey Skies

Siva
I Am One
Drown
1979
Silverfuck
Rhinoceros
Bury Me
Starla
Eye
Frail & Bedazzled
Perfect
Set the Ray to Jerry
Rocket
Pissant*
Quiet
Suffer
Whir
Tristessa*
Hello Kitty Kat
Snail
Window Paine*
Soma
Landslide*
Mayonaise (sic)
Obscured

Obviously I’m a “I like their earlier stuff better” dummy (probably because I got Gish when it came out and it was the torpid meandering summer after high school and I played that mysterious cassette over and over until it disintegrated) but this rollout got me listening to the whole catalog again and finding all sorts of gems I’d slept on all these years. Thanks!

1. Hummer
2. Set the Ray to Jerry
3. Muzzle
4. In The Arms of Sleep
5. Blank Page
6. Frail and Bedazzled
7. By Starlight
8. Soothe
9. Appels + Oranjes
10. Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
11. Farewell and Goodnight
12. Suffer
13. Starla
14. Glynis
15. Here Is No Why
16. 1979
17. Drown
18. For Martha
19. Love
20. Pennies
21. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
22. Obscured
23. Whir
24. Soma
25. Annie Dog

Beautiful
Farewell And Goodnight
Shame
Tear
1979
Eye
Set The Ray To Jerry
Love
We Only Come Out At Night
The Boy
Through the Eyes of Ruby
Take Me Down
Daphne Descends
Believe
Apples & Oranjes
Blew Away
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Blank Page
Muzzle
Perfect
Galapagos
Pug
By Starlight
Bodies
Bugg Superstar

Didn't think I'd submit a ballot until the last day or so, and whether I'd submit a 2.5 song ballot or an all-James ballot, but ... eh. Always wish the Neu!-ish opening of "Cherub Rock" had breathed for a little longer ... flappy, I guess you're the person who'd know if there's a demo/live version around which does that? Glad "... Jerry" placed as high as it did!

I had:

01. (09) Starla - Gish Rarity
02. (01) Mayonaise - SD
03. (44) Glynis - SD Rarity
04. (19) Obscured - SD Rarity
05. (03) Drown - Gish Rarity
06. (04) Hummer - SD
07. (25) Whir - SD Rarity
08. (11) Set The Ray to Jerry - MCIS Rarity
09. (29) Snail - Gish
10. (05) Soma - SD
11. (24) Silverfuck - SD
12. (06) Cherub Rock - SD
13. (13) Rocket - SD
14. (59) Suffer - Gish
15. (27) Frail and Bedazzled - SD Rarity
16. (72) Tristessa - Gish
17. (18) Geek U.S.A. - SD
18. (30) Hello Kitty Kat - SD Rarity
19. (14) Today - SD
20. (102) Cherry - MCIS Rarity
21. (36) Quiet - SD
22. (67) Blew Away - SD Rarity
23. (81) Mouths of Babes - MCIS Rarity
24. (08) Rhinoceros - Gish
25. (126) Purr Snickety - SD Rarity

Was just sent this tweet from ex-ILXor (unless he's been posting under a new DN) N4te P4trin by my brother-in-law:

you either die a Cobain or you live long enough to see yourself become the Corgan

— Nate Patrin (@natepatrin) March 15, 2018

beautiful

To Sheila
1979
Thirty-Three
Tonight, Tonight
For Martha
Disarm
Stand Inside Your Love
Cherub Rocket
Geek USA
Set the Ray to Jerry
Zero
Galapogos
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Blank Page
X.Y.U.
Silverfuck
Where Boys Fear to Tread
Perfect
Soma
By Starlight
We Only Come Out at Night
Quiet
Rhinoceros
Cupid De Locke
Stumbleine

i don't know how i had had disarm at #6. i was listening to SD while walking my dog yesterday and skipped straight past it

flappy, I guess you're the person who'd know if there's a demo/live version around which does that? Glad "... Jerry" placed as high as it did!

― etc, Sunday, April 8, 2018 4:00 PM (three minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

of Cherub Rock? don't think so... there's this demo from the 'Quiet and Other Songs' tape that was sent to Virgin in the fall of 1992, I don't think Cherub Rock changed much from when it was written. Wasn't played until after the Gish tour was over. live, the band would often fake out the audience or themselves, like Jimmy would do the opening circus fills three or four times before Billy started playing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH6Hp9XirPs

my favorite cover is My Blue Heaven actually! I think it's great, but I'm more grateful that it led me to the Gene Austin original, it's one of my favorite songs ever...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2MUy2uOesw

I really like Destination Unknown too, another case of a cover leading me to the original artist. when I was 18 I was digging around the records in my parents' basement and found Missing Persons' Spring Session M, saw Destination Unknown was on there, and grabbed it and listened to it. one of my favorite records ever!!! non stop hits

Some of the #1 votes are as shocking to me as if someone had voted "Spaced" their #1, but such a great poll and thread. Here's my ballot, and yes I'm still happy with "The Chimera" as my #25...rocking song!

Cherub Rock
Mayonaise
1979
Hummer
Whir
Stand Inside Your Love
Tonight Tonight
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Rocket
Here Is No Why
Drown
Obscured
Home
Thirty-Three
Galapagos
Snail
The Boy
Today
Siva
Bury Me
Frail and Bedazzled
Hello Kitty Kat
Landslide
Glynis
The Chimera

Thanks UFO - amazing poll and great pictures!

My ballot:

Thirty-Three
Hummer
Perfect
Mayonaise
Pug
Geek U.S.A.
Galapagos
1979
Drown
For Martha
Soma
Thru the Eyes of Ruby
Tear
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
Here Is No Why
Set The Ray To Jerry
Behold! The Night Mare
Starla
Muzzle
Rocket
Love
Luna
Fuck You (An Ode To No One)
Frail & Bedazzled
Rhinoceros

So out of curiosity, I broke the final tally into "Pre-Uncle Fester" and "Post-Uncle Fester" lists, to see how things rank within what I consider to be the two distinct phases of the band. I can't really argue much with the Gish-Pisces rankings, generally--pretty solid. I'll break it down by album phase next.

Phase 1 - 1988-1994 (Pre-Uncle Fester)

https://tonedeaf.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Screen-Shot-2017-08-31-at-9.50.13-am.png

(001) 1 Mayonaise 1258 33 3
(002) 3 Drown 920 26 3
(003) 4 Hummer 888 24 5
(004) 5 Soma 844 24 4
(005) 6 Cherub Rock 830 25 1
(006) 8 Rhinoceros 602 23 0
(007) 9 Starla 564 18 1
(008) 13 Rocket 518 19 2
(009) 14 Today 502 18 0
(010) 18 Geek U.S.A. 430 17 0
(011) 19 Obscured 426 15 0
(012) 24 Silverfuck 338 13 0
(013) 25 Whir 336 11 1
(014) 27 Frail and Bedazzled 322 11 1
(015) 28 Siva 314 13 1
(016) 29 Snail 310 11 0
(017) 30 Hello Kitty Kat 294 14 1
(018) 35 I Am One 234 9 0
(019) 36 Quiet 232 9 0
(020) 40 Bury Me 214 10 0
(021) 41 Luna 208 10 0
(022) 44 Glynis 184 8 0
(023) 52 Crush 154 6 1
(024) 56 Spaceboy 142 6 0
(025) 59 Suffer 128 5 0
(025) 60 Disarm 124 6 0
(026) 67 Blew Away 102 5 0
(027) 72 Tristessa 92 4 0
(028) 75 Soothe 78 3 0
(029) 76 Pissant 74 4 0
(030) 79 Plume 72 3 0
(031) 86 Daydream 52 5 0
(032) 90 Sweet Sweet 50 3 0
(033) 96 La Dolly Vita 40 2 0
(034) 100 Landslide 34 4 0
(035) 106 Blue 28 1 0
(036) 114 Pulseczar 16 1 0
(037) 116 Window Paine 10 1 0
(038) 121 Slunk 8 1 0
(039) 126 Purr Snickety 2 1 0
(040) 128 Apathy’s Last Kiss 2 1 0
(041) 129 Bugg Superstar 2 1 0

Phase 2 - 1995-2007 (Post-Uncle Fester)

http://www.crestfallen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/billymcis_zeroshirt.jpg

(001) 2 1979 1152 31 3
(002) 7 Thirty-Three 720 27 1
(003) 10 Thru The Eyes of Ruby 558 17 2
(004) 11 Set the Ray to Jerry 520 18 0
(005) 13 Galapogos 518 18 0
(006) 15 Porcelina of the Vast Oceans 460 19 0
(007) 16 Here Is No Why 432 15 1
(008) 18 Stand Inside Your Love 430 16 1
(009) 20 Perfect 402 17 0
(010) 21 For Martha 380 15 1
(011) 22 Muzzle 358 14 0
(012) 23 Tonight, Tonight 348 14 0
(013) 26 Zero 328 13 0
(014) 32 To Forgive 266 9 0
(015) 33 Appels + Oranjes 250 9 0
(016) 31 Shame 274 10 0
(017) 35 Beautiful 234 9 1
(018) 37 Bullet With Butterfly Wings 228 9 0
(019) 38 Bodies 226 8 0
(020) 39 Love 216 11 0
(021) 42 To Sheila 196 10 1
(022) 43 Behold! The Night Mare 188 8 0
(023) 45 Blank Page 180 9 0
(024) 46 Eye 172 9 0
(025) 47 Where Boys Fear To Tread 170 7 0
(026) 48 By Starlight 162 9 0
(027) 49 Cupid de Locke 156 9 0
(028) 52 Age of Innocence 154 5 0
(029) 52 I of the Mourning 154 5 1
(030) 53 Pug 150 6 0
(031) 56 Ava Adore 142 6 0
(032) 56 Wound 142 7 0
(033) 58 Tear 134 4 0
(034) 58 Real Love 134 7 0
(035) 61 X.Y.U. 122 5 1
(036) 62 Farewell and Goodnight 120 4 0
(037) 63 Glass and the Ghost Children 118 4 0
(038) 64 The Boy 116 4 0
(039) 65 Stumbleine 112 6 0
(040) 66 Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness 110 3 1
(041) 68 Once Upon A Time 100 4 0
(042) 69 Pennies 98 3 1
(043) 70 We Only Come Out At Night 96 4 0
(044) 71 Jellybelly 96 5 0
(045) 73 This Time 90 4 0
(046) 74 Annie-Dog 82 3 0
(047) 77 Daphne Descends 74 3 0
(048) 78 Crestfallen 72 3 0
(049) 80 Home 62 3 0
(050) 81 Mouths of Babes 62 3 0
(051) 82 The Imploding Voice 60 3 0
(052) 83 Let Me Give the World To You 58 5 0
(053) 84 Fuck You (An Ode To No One) 58 3 0
(054) 85 In the Arms of Sleep 58 2 0
(055) 87 The Sacred and Profane 52 2 0
(056) 88 Try, Try, Try 52 3 0
(057) 89 Here's to the Atom Bomb 50 1 1
(058) 91 Medellia of the Gray Skies 48 5 0
(059) 92 The End is the Beginning Is The End 48 1 0
(060) 93 Cash Car Star 46 1 0
(061) 94 Rotten Apples 46 2 0
(062) 95 Meladori Magpie 42 1 0
(063) 97 Jupiter's Lament 38 1 0
(064) 98 Raindrops + Sunshowers 36 1 0
(065) 99 Dreaming 36 1 0
(066) 101 With Every Light 34 1 0
(067) 102 Cherry 32 3 0
(068) 103 White Spyder 30 1 0
(069) 104 Tales Of A Scorched Earth 30 2 0
(070) 105 Ugly 30 3 0
(071) 107 Take Me Down 28 1 0
(072) 108 Lily (my One And Only) 24 1 0
(073) 109 Believe 24 1 0
(074) 110 Once in a While 22 1 0
(075) 111 The Beginning Is The End Is The Beginning 20 1 0
(076) 112 Clones (We're All) 20 1 0
(077) 113 Tarantula 16 1 0
(078) 115 Vanity 12 1 0
(079) 117 If There is a God 10 1 0
(080) 118 Pastichio Medley 8 2 0
(081) 119 ...said sadly 8 1 0
(082) 120 The Everlasting Gaze 8 1 0
(083) 122 Dross 6 1 0
(084) 123 Satur9 6 1 0
(085) 124 Go 6 1 0
(086) 125 Marquis in Spades 6 2 0
(087) 127 The Chimera 2 1 0

Always wish the Neu!-ish opening of "Cherub Rock" had breathed for a little longer ...

this is a great remix idea tbh.

"My Blue Heaven" - I know the song through Fats Domino; always assumed he was covering some standard - but then for whatever reason I always assumed the Pumpkins knew it through Fats. Maybe I just like the idea of Billy growing up listening to Fats Domino before becoming all moody and nerdy at puberty. Though it seems just as likely with covers that anybody else in the band could have potentially brought them to the table.

weirdly the Gene Austin version of "My Blue Heaven" is the only one I've heard & I didn't know the Pumpkins did a cover of it!

"I've wanted to cover this song for five years, but found it impossible to learn, as I can't seem to learn anyone else's song. Written in 1927, this song is a well-known standard. I thought about doing this more futuristically, but in the end opted to let it be beautiful in its simplicity." -BC (Guitar World 1/97)

MCIS was technically recorded pre-Fester

anyway here's my ballot

Whir
Obscured
Mayonaise
Drown
Plume
Rhinoceros
Soma
Hello Kitty Kat
Pissant
Frail & Bedazzled
Siva
Starla
Rocket
Crush
I Am One
Geek U.S.A.
Hummer
Daydream
Cherub Rock
Zero
Bury Me
Here Is No Why
Bullet With Butterfly Wings
Silverfuck
Where Boys Fear to Tread

my teenage self would have voted for Soma every time though

MCIS was technically recorded pre-Fester

― had (crüt), Sunday, April 8, 2018 9:02 PM

But Fester was festering inside him at the time ; )

weirdly the Gene Austin version of "My Blue Heaven" is the only one I've heard & I didn't know the Pumpkins did a cover of it!

This has to be one of the least weird things someone could post on ilx, surely.:)

Anyway, yeah, listening to the playlist was cementing how much I like the pre-Fester period, even more than my ballot already suggests. Will definitely buy a copy of Gish soon. (I know I have owned one but idk where it is. Shamefully, I'm unsure where my PI is, too; will def replace that.)

i took guitar lessons when i was ~15 with this dude who pretty much only liked Yngwie/Satriani style shredders & had clearly expended much effort over the previous 10 years trying to convince kids that Kurt Cobain sucked. I brought in my Siamese Dream CD one day to see if he could teach me how to play Soma. he thought the guitar solo was terrible b/c it's mostly pentatonic scales with a few bent notes thrown in but iirc he did think the little melodic part right after "so let the sadness come again" was kinda cool

Satriani loved SP and considered Corgan an heir to the shredder tradition, if my memory of 90s guitar mags is correct.

xxp I heard that version because my college radio station had a decades-old vinyl copy of this that I got curious about: http://www.newworldrecords.org/album.cgi?rm=view&album_id=80279

since the uncle fester comparison was brought up, and there are lots of people itt who were around when the band was relatively young, how did you react to Billy shaving his head? he was clearly losing his hair for about 3 years before he shaved it, and I always thought it was really canny & impeccable timing & media spin when he shaved it and said "I did it as a statement / it's a character / I was sick of having to think about my appearance".... and people bought it! I still run into people who think he shaves his head by choice. Did everyone know in 1995 that he was going bald or did his spin actually work?

at the time i assumed he did it bc he was going bald. "1979" video was a bit of a shock initially

that's cool about Satriani! I think Corgan is an incredible guitar player obv. I think my guitar teacher thought that shredding on pentatonic scales made you a poser but shredding on diatonic scales — or even better, ~harmonic minor scales~ – made you a super cool Paganini-god surfing with the alien

he's also the one who taught me that rap isn't really music it's just talking over some drums #musicwisdom

I don't think it ever occurred to me that the shaved head was a choice unrelated to male pattern baldness.

crüt: Oh, nice re: TPA LP. I've been using Gene Austin's song as an example of TPA-era crooner recordings in pop history classes for about 10 years now, esp since it's the example included with Starr's/Waterman's American Popular Music.

I'm pretty sure it was in the Nov 1993 issue of Guitar World ("Shred Is Dead... NOT!") where Satriani made the comment about SP/Corgan I'm thinking of but I can't find a free digital version now.

Billy should grow his hair long and go for the Croz look imo

I don't remember it being clear that he was losing his hair before he shaved it off. Maybe I didn't really see enough photos of him? I dunno, in those pre-internet days you only really saw these people occasionally on MTV News or in magazines. He never really had cool rock star hair anyway, so when he unveiled The Dome it was like, eh, whatever.