In this video clip that I’ll direct you to in a moment, a really, REALLY healthy Billy Corgan, the master songwriter and founder of the delightful band “The Smashing Pumpkins” is in Brighton recording probably what is Siamese Dream or something. (Actually, that’s a wild–ass guess). It could be either of two others. Whatever.
The beautiful bass player D,arcy is occasionally seen in the foreground from the back (darn it), working through the “figuring out” of a riff he probably conjured the previous night. The riff shows up in the Siamese Dream album, hence my ‘wild-ass’ guess.
Corgan’s greatest attribute, though a brilliant pioneer guitar artist, is his voice. Check his intonation not only in song, but as he speaks. It’s as alluring of a trait as the almost-prohibited passion and sensitivity found in his tunes.
Two of these members, (always a four-piece band, and you can’t see them), are long since dead. Billy didn’t, in my opinion, get caught up in heroin; his music and control during bruising tours attest to that. Others, of course, not limited to his bandmates, find a ‘crutch’.
The clip of Billy, as well as a bunch of the Smashing Pumpins’ discograpy of video material, can be found at:
YouTube.com — go to upper right corner and type in Billy’s band in the search bar. You get there in lightning speed, the select the the topmost (and untitled) clip and see what I mean.
NOTE: Of all the American bands (these guys are from Homewood/Flossmore/Loyola U. — ie, Chicago), none, or close to none, offer more free downloads of tunes. An entire new generation can discover them as they mature and grow, and pass them on. Meanwhile, though, the band’s allegedly making a new album, but I’ll believe it when I hear it. The members first have to actually decide where to reherse, show up for rehersals, make a record deal with somebody, and that sort of stuff.
Google ‘The Smashing Pumpkins’ and cram your hard drive with their majesty. You needn’t purchase a single CD–entirely by design of Corgan.
( Note: My son Dylan turned me on to the bedazzling amount of the world’s numbing array of music media. I rate the previously mentioned site a clean and solid 10. These young people have done an excellent job of stretching to the latest tools, as well as taking risks while doing so–the exact formula for a triumphant success in this era and realm of web development.)
phil baker
