What?: The second single from third album "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness".
Why?: I loved The Smashing Pumpkins. I really did think they were perfect. That's the fault of growing up on 90s music and not being remotely aware of the 70s. TSP were my Zeppelin, my Yes, my Foreigner. This being the 90s, when singles were still a thing, a thing that included non-album b-sides, I bought all the singles I could get my hands on. Later I bought the "The Aeroplane Flies High" box-set which included all of the singles with all of their b-sides. Last year I bought the re-issue edition of TAFH but I'll review that as a whole later. This review is of this 90s AFH boxset version of the 1979 single.
Tell me more!:
I remember being surprised they released "1979" as a single. I was still into the rock side of Pumpkins and this weirdo experimental drum-machine crap didn't sit well with me. It grew on me, but I'm still not sure I "like" it. It's familiar and glamorised by my fanaticism. Corgan can certainly write a melody, and the song manages to stay interesting dispite lacking a real guitar riff and a monotonous, unchanging drum machine drum-line.
The b-sides are a treat though. The palm-muted, lightly distorted, thick-stringed riff on "Ugly" was hugely influential to my own song-writing at the time, as was the very minimal backing track. I can hear The Cure in it now, and Billy's whiny vocals grate, but I still love the riff and the minimalist drums that could have been completed on a Casio keyboard. Love it.
The clean simple repetitive riffing style on "Cherry" was a huge influence as well. Not surprising as I would sit and play this riff over and over on my acoustic. I could probably find a tape of it. Over and over. Again the background is minimal, with some lovely effected guitar acting as a keyboard, but the chorus is bigger than Ugly.
Both "Cherry" and "Ugly" are similar songs, and both have lyrical themes that I don't much like these days, but I find ignoring lyrics pretty easy, and Corgan has a way of being obscure enough that it doesn't bother too much.
Two b-sides with James singing ("The Boy" and "Believe") is a surprise. Iha sings only on the last tracks of MCIS and both times as a fan at the time it was jarring. James' voice is thin and he struggles to sing high but does anyway. He later released a solo album, which I must remember to track down. Today I like his songs, they remind me a bit of a simpler, less grunge, Imperial Teen. They're poppy and fun, and short. At the time I used to collect bootlegs, and one of my favourite Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs was an acoustic performance they did in France, including James singing David Bowie's "Kooks". It's a perfect example of his kind of music. "The Boy" is a little too cute really, but "Believe" is great and very Smashing Pumpkins.
I always loved the way "Set The Ray To Jerry" started, with bass, accompanied slowly by the perfect flowing guitar riff, but the song is a little too long, and Billy's voice really does go over the top a bit.
The band do some lovely live versions of "Set The Ray To Jerry" and "Ugly", as well as many other b-sides, in their 1995 Double Door shows, some of which is included on TAFH 2013 re-issue.
The fan-bias and nostalgia is very strong in this review. The riffs on the b-sides are great, and my new found appreciation for James Iha is a nice surprise, but 1996 era Billy's vocals jar badly these days, and "1979" itself, while poppy, isn't amazing. Just wait until I review MCIS.
6/10
