Adam KennyThe vast and wide sound of The Smashing Pumpkins
Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness by the The Smashing Pumpkins is an album I visit on the daily. I don’t listen to it back to back every day, but there’s not many albums or pieces of music in general that would command 2 hours of my time as much as Mellon Collie has. It is a sonic demonstration of the human experience.
There’s songs for when you have no idea what to do with your life and Songs for when you want to smash an old CRT TV. Songs that you could listen to before going to church. Classics like 1979 that reek of nostalgia that you can’t help but sing with Billy Corgan like an old best friend. Bullet With Butterfly Wings that will give you a headache for weeks from headbanging along with it. Or deep cuts like Lily (My One and Only) which sound like Billy at the bottom of his staircase attempting to serenade someone — I presume a woman named Lily. XYU, Here Is No Why, Zero, Tales of a Scorched Earth and more and more and MORE!
There are songs sprawled across the album that have a different sound. Every time you listen to the full album back to front you’ll have a new favourite of the week. For me, and for many others, you don’t need to venture too far into Mellon Collie to find your favourite. It’s only the second track, but Tonight Tonight remains one of my favourite songs of all time. From the massive and grand strings that fill your head like a eureka moment, to the mid west emo like guitar, Tonight Tonight sound offers so much to engage with and so too does it’s lyrics.
How the Young Hope to be
Billy Corgan, The Smashing Pumpkins‘ front man and founder, has never offered much of an explanation or story behind the lyrics of Tonight, Tonight — but other songs have. Songs like 1979 offer up a nosalgic look at youth and the listlessness of it all. The regrets, trials and difficulties of growing up. The loss of inocence is prevalent in Mellon Collie. The title alone spells out how bittersweet life and it’s beauty truly is. Melancholic. In our youth it’s so hard to understand it all and it feels like it’s never going to end, sometimes it does just feel like an infinite sadness. Nostalgia breathes this and Tonight Tonight screams about it.
The more you change the less you feel
The first verse starts off almost pessimistically. When we’re young we don’t feel time. We don’t see weeks go by in a flash, it all feels so slow, especially in our small towns. People who have grown up in a small town understand that small town mindset. Some people stay there forever, some leave for years and to never come back. Then some, come and go, more drifters than locals. Leaving your hometown can be a massive moment. You’re leaving everything you know behind. Your parents, your friends, your school. You’re leaving a piece of your youth behind in order to become the person you wish to be. That’s where the hope comes from.
That life can change that you’re not stuck in vein
After each verse of Tonight, Tonight, the chorus acts as the perfect medium for letting out the doubts that builds up. The pessimism and the moments of uncertainty get washed away as the strings from the beginning come back into play reaffirm that it won’t be that bad. That regardless of what happens during the day, tonight there will be something to look forward to.
What happens during the night?
Much like any song or piece of music, it’s all up to interpretation. With Tonight, Tonight however, it’s about hope. The massive orchestra, the laid back guitar, the enriching and inspiring vocals that are honest but stern. It’s all there to get you through your day. The song might only be 4 minutes long, but the feeling it gives you keeps you going throughout the entire day. It’s a classic for a reason, and that’s because everyone can agree that there’s nothing wrong with having a little bit of hope.
