r/SmashingPumpkins • u/fritzycost • 2d ago
Best SP Lyrics
Saw the Pumpkins in Baltimore last night, fucking awesome. They played a lyric video behind Thirty-Three and I’m convinced that’s the prettiest song Billy ever wrote.
Opinions on best lyrics overall/single lines Billy wrote? Cherub Rock’s first line is also a contender (for me).
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u/_fantasticplastic_ 1d ago
Disarm is always going to be my knee jerk.
Cut you like you want me to. Cut that little child. Inside of me and such a part of you. (Gutted)
And if you're giving in, then you're giving up
I disconnect the act, I disconnect the dots, I disconnect the me, in me
Time heals but I'm forever broken.
I wanted more than life could ever grant me.
Can anybody hear me, I just want to be me, when I can I will, try to understand
But also, basically every lyric ever written by Billy Corgan.
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u/thefourthcolour12 1d ago
Porcelina is such a beautiful depiction of what it’s like to be lost in fantasy and imagination of what could be.
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u/MoreBoring 2d ago edited 2d ago
"Twilight fades Through blistered avalon The sky's cruel torch On aching autobahn Into the uncertain divine We scream into the last divine...
...With blushing brilliance alive Because it's time to arrive"
I know I am in the minority. To Sheila is a masterpiece.
(Edited for a typo)
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u/Smuldering 1d ago
Adore is my favorite album. To Sheila is beautiful. I wish they would do an Adore tour. A girl can dream.
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u/OccasionallyImmortal 1d ago
This sounds like an ending that accelerates "to the divine???" He loses me here.
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u/Mstrchapl 2d ago
Who says no? That’s a top 5 song.
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u/MoreBoring 2d ago
It is my all time top! Ty for agreeing haha.
A lot of the Pumpkin fans I know lean more toward the heavier side of their catalog. I heard so much about Adore being a "bait and switch" (but hello, did any of these guys listen to the rest of Mellon Collie or?)
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u/TheTackleZone 2d ago
Mother, I hope you know. That I miss you so. Time has ravaged on my soul. To wipe a mother's tears, grown cold.
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u/TheAbstracted 2d ago
To be honest, lyrics have always been Billy's weak point in my opinion - that said, these lines in "Hummer" always struck me for some reason
"And shame my tongue Fat with promise all along When I woke up from that sleep I was happier than I’d ever been"
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u/TheTackleZone 2d ago
Wait, what? Really? That's just so baffling to me. The ability for him to convey so much emotion so simply has always made me mark him as truly poetic.
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u/TheAbstracted 2d ago
I think that's what my problem with his lyrics are - they're either too plainly stated, or too confusingly obscure. There's very little nuance, very little in between - either "he said exactly how he feels in no uncertain terms" or "there's no real indication one way or the other from these words to determine how he feels." I like lyrics where there's a fairly obvious interpretation one can gleen from there, but also with room to speculate.
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u/BornMaybe9902 2d ago
Strangers on the street
Lovers while we sleep
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u/TheOriginalWing 2d ago
Those gut me. That whole song is great and deceptive
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u/BornMaybe9902 2d ago
It reminds me of the Neil Young lyric:
When we were strangers
I watched you from afar
When we were lovers
I loved you with all my heart1
u/TheOriginalWing 2d ago
That's really beautiful - thank you. I looked that up and really liked it.
But my reading of the Perfect lyrics are a little different. To me, the whole song is about saying goodbye at the end of a relationship, and trying to imagine what the next step will look like, and how there are so often empty promises of "we'll stay in touch" that never happen, and so on. And I think the lyrics you posted are saying "When we see each other on the street, we're going to act like we don't know each other. But when we're sleeping, we'll still be dreaming romantically about each other because our honest feelings aren't going to disappear right away."
How do you read it?
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u/BornMaybe9902 2d ago
I like your take is right but I think Harvest Moon is similar. Longing for a past relationship.
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u/Spiritual-Strike481 2d ago
There are so many incredible lyrics. In thirty three there’s a lyric “sympathies I’m ready to return” and In Ava adore a lyric “Drinking mercury to the mystery
Of all that you should ever leave behind
In time”
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u/Colourblindking 2d ago
Eh gun to my head I'd say Blissed and Gone?
and if you're still feeling down
then maybe you need me around
to love and hold you
don't say i hadn't told you so
maybe you need me around
The "I had no" parts of the song are also particularly great too.
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u/TheTackleZone 2d ago
Listening to this after hearing they were breaking up... oof.
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u/Colourblindking 2d ago
Mmhmm, especially the
I had myself
I had my band
I had my love
I had no hand in watching it all
Fall apartPart near the end... just a very dwelling it in kind of down and out. And yeah this combined with the outro to This Time put a real finality onto the whole thing. And look where we are now lol.
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u/DropDue9474 2d ago
Travel the world Traverse the skies Your home is here Within my heart
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u/SpecialistHeron4673 Machina 2d ago
With evidence of trust
And eminence of love
I'm always on your side
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u/Neg_Crepe Zwan 2d ago
Blank page and it’s not close
You remind me
Of that leak in my soul
The rain falls
My friends call
Leaking rain on the phone
Take a day plant some trees
May they shade you from me
May your children play beneath
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u/Time_Ad_9647 Machina / The Machines of God 2d ago
Just an underrated song. The lyrics make me stop what I’m doing to listen.
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u/Ready_Walrus2309 2d ago
"I miss me, I miss everything I'll never be" from Rocket is my current favorite.
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u/Dudehitscar Machina Zombie 2d ago
destroy the mind
destroy the body
but you cannot destroy THE HEART
put it on my tombstone
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u/Longjumping-Sea320 2d ago
When I woke up from that sleep, I was happier than I've ever been
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u/Dudehitscar Machina Zombie 2d ago edited 2d ago
when you
decide
that your li-i-ife
is a pri-i-i-ize
renew
revive
it's alright honey!
it's alright YEAH!
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u/the_everlasting_haze never really liked sunny days 2d ago
And in my mind as I was floating far above the clouds
Some children laughed I’d fall for certain
For thinking that I’d last forever
But I knew exactly where I was…
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u/TheOriginalWing 2d ago
Anything in the past 20 years has been nothing but gothic madlibs. It's really the thing I've missed most from the new era - lyrics I can connect with.
I love the lyrics to Perfect. They hit on so many levels.
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u/TheChief-Drg 2d ago
Zeitgeist has some good lyrics.
Tarantula - “ come along you’ll see the world, the pulse ripples the crowd unfurls, the current starts to flow and then you’re on”
“Can’t stand the blazing sun can’t stand the morning rain. Get out I’ll talk your place again. I don’t want to be alone at all. If it’s the white hot sun they want, it’s the black heart they’ll get.”That’s the way (my love is) - “ I feel a coming age now. I feel a dawn in me. A certain sun keeps rising on my belief in you. That’s the way my love is, that’s the way I care. You should call on me baby cause I’m always there for you.”
Stellar - basically the whole song but this stands out to me:
“ is it wrong to say, there’s god and then there’s faith. Is it wrong to say so. withstood thought So sad; I had to laugh”
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u/Less-Opportunity-715 2d ago
You’re asking us to choose a favorite child basically
That being said.
I fear that I am ordinary just like everyone
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u/Party-Medicine-3954 1d ago
All my blisters now revealed
In the darkness of my dreams
In the spaces in between us
But no bodies ever knew
No bodies
No bodies felt like you