So I pathetically caved in and picked up the new Smashing Pumpkns album yesterday. Shockingly it’s not that bad, but it still pales in comparison to great Pumpkins classics like ‘Siamese Dream’ and of course ‘Melon Chollie’. It does sound like Smashing Pumpkins though, which isn’t to surprising since the band was pretty much a Billy Corgan solo project from the get go. Supposedly Corgan is one of the great control freak assholes of rock music. Spin magazine described him best when they compared him to John Fogerty, saying that he was a real rarity in pop music, a control freak that knew what the fuck he was doing. This post is dedicated to two of the biggest self-centered pricks in music, Corgan and the granddaddy of asshole bass players Roger Waters. And before anyone asks, the only reason there isn’t a CCR track here is because I don’t have any.
Smashing Pumpkins
Zeitgeist
Death From Above
Terrapin
I have previously voiced my disdain for Billy Corgan “reuniting” the Smashing Pumpkins without half of the original line-up and I’ve also frequently posted on how much store exclusive tracks piss me off. So when it was announced that The Smashing Pumpkins’ newest album would have not one, not two, but three different bonus tracks depending on where you bought it, I was a little miffed. Moves like this completely confuse me. Do record labels really think that their customers are going to shell out the money to buy the same album two or three times? It’s not like the exclusive tracks aren’t going to end up on Limewire. Especially when one is an iTunes version that sounds shitty and is crapped-out with DRM? This trend also pisses me off because it serves as a complete “fuck you” to independent record stores, who almost always get screwed out of deals like this. It’s like they’re daring us to to play fair and buy the album legally. Here are two of the three bonus tracks from various versions of the Pumpkins’ latest, as well as a live cover of the Syd Barrett track ‘Terrapin’ thrown in because I couldn’t find the iTunes exclusive track.
Pink Floyd
Pigs On The Wing (8-Track Version)
The Hero’s Return (Parts 1 & 2)
Roger Waters’ reputation of being a complete and total prick to all those around him is well documented so I’m not going to go into it. These two tracks come from latter-day Waters-era Pink Floyd, when the band was much less a band and more of a way for Waters to release his solo material. The first track is a version of ‘Pigs On The Wing’ that combines both parts 1 and 2 into one track. Supposedly this is because the technical limitations of 8-track players wouldn’t allow for them to be separate. The two tracks are bridged together with an awesome solo by Snowy White, the ridiculously-named guitar player from Thin Lizzy who toured with Pink Floyd during the late 70s. The extended version of ‘The Hero’s Return’ is from the single for that song. The song itself is off of The Final Cut, a Pink Floyd album in name only, as Roger Waters had complete control by then. It was the last album with Waters and if you ask me its for good reason, to date its the only Pink Floyd album I’ve sold back to the record store (and I own the fucking soundtrack to More).
I like “The Final Cut”, probably because, unlike the rest of Floyd’s catalogue, it hasn’t been played to death on radio.
I’d rather hear something like Southampton Dock than Comfortably Numb any day.
Thanks for telling it like it is, assholes are assholes (as Depeche Mode should’ve said). If you ever go further afield, add Mr. Mellencamp and Dennis DeYoung of Styx (who is legendary in the music business).
Thanks again…
You’re an asshole too, you know. I’m an asshole as well. And More is great shit. Cheers!
That’s “Mellon Collie”
there is no “h”, and it’s not a fruit.