Jim’s prompt this week is "Alternative," and while I’m not a great fan of Alternative, I do just happen to know of a band that’s apropos of the prompt.
The Smashing Pumpkins are an alternative band from Chicago who had some ties to Loyola University, where I went to school, and spent some time right here in Marietta, Georgia not too long ago. Practically tailor-made for me. Anyway, "1979" was written by the band’s frontman Billy Corgan and was the second single released from the band’s third album, 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Here’s everywhere that it reached the Top Ten in 1996:
Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time
On a live wire right up off the street
You and I should meet
June bug skipping like a stone
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
We were sure we’d never see an end to it all
And I don’t even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don’t know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
Double cross the vacant and the bored
They’re not sure just what we have in the store
Morphine city slippin’ dues, down to see that
We don’t even care, as restless as we are
We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts
And poured cement, lamented and assured
To the lights and towns below
Faster than the speed of sound
Faster than we thought we’d go, beneath the sound of hope
Justine never knew the rules
Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls
No apologies ever need be made
I know you better than you fake it, to see
And I don’t even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don’t know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
The street heats the urgency of sound
As you can see there’s no one around
Source: Lyrics.com
And that’s Song Lyric Sunday (and Song of the Day) for April 2. 2023.
The Sound of One Hand Typing 
Listening to this brings so many good memories. Smashing Pumpkins is such a Chicago band. A friend of mine used to hang out with James Iha, the band’s guitarist, in high school, which I found rather odd since he was at least a decade (or more) older than her.
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I liked this a lot John. 80s music was refreshing ☺️
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It certainly was, wasnt it?
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I really like this song. I wish I would have had time to do this…I would have picked a Replacement song.
During the eighties it was the music I liked because I didn’t like Madonna and many of the others dominating the charts.
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I actually liked the music of the ’80’s, maybe because I remember the time so well. By the ’90’s, I was listening to more blues and jazz.
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I turned 13 in 1980 and I should have liked them but I was stuck on the Beatles, Who, Stones, and Kinks and I wanted music like that…the only place to find it was the Alternate bands.
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What’s with all the talent from Chicago, that’s some hometown you have!
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I’m surprised by it myself. You have all the old bluesmen (most were born in the south, but they’re known in Chicago), jazzmen like Ramsey Lewis and Herbie Hancock, the late, great Lou Rawls, the Chi-Lites, The Buckinghams, the Cryan’ Shames, The New Colony Six, The Ides of March (who are from Berwyn in the western suburbs, where Jim Peterik is from), Chicago (naturally), Chase, and a whole bunch more…
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Yes! I like this song and some of their other ones. They just have some certain undefinable sound that I like a lot. :)
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Glad you liked it!
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The name of this group always amused me. Great selection.
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Glad you liked it!
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It is nice when you can feel a connection with a band, nice choice, John.
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Thanks!
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Yeah, your getting around that “dicey” musical era of my life were I must admit things are a bit hazy. 😂
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That whole period baffles me, too. I knew of the band from having seen a feature in a magazine from Chicago, but knew nothing about their music, so the song pick was a shot in the dark…
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Good choice, John. I always liked this one. The charts you show are mostly the airplay ones, and I think it worth adding that this made the top twenty on sales in both the US and the UK, and the album was absolutely massive!
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The Billboard charts take airplay, sales, and streams into consideration, so they’re probably pretty close. Happy to hear they’re doing well…
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I can only go by what Wikipedia says! They have been pretty popular here, with a number of hit albums and singles.
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A definite alternative sound John, Smashing Pumpkins certainly tick the Alternative boxes! Good choice 💜
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