Although I have been continuing my Alphabetical Ipod Experiment of listening to all of the songs on my Ipod in alphabetical song order, I haven’t had the time or energy to post recently about the experience. But I figured now would be the best time as of any to get back on track with it. And the plan today is to do the unthinkable. I will write and post this one blog all within the timeframe of one song playing.
To be fair, technically, it is many songs cut and pasted into one. Back in the late nineties, I found what may very well be an authorized bootleg of the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Disk Three” of MelonCollie and the Infinite Sadness. The disc had incorrect spelling of the first two disc’s titles, and was largely forgettable, with the one exception of this track. It’s 24 minutes of splices of outtakes of the Mellon Collie Sessions. At one point in this track, it has Billy Corgan laughing about doing the Rubberman, and bending notes wildly. It also has very heavy riffage juxtaposed with one another. There’s harmonic solos, a few mellow cuts stuck in between, and it seems like pieces of outtakes or practicing for the guitar tones that would come to define 1996’s double album masterpiece.
Still, this track is the ultimate example of Billy Corgan’s bloated grunge rock esthetic. One could also add that 24 minutes of random riffage of stuff that was mostly left out of the eventual double disc release does not really constitute merit for the listener’s exposure. This one track is essentially the Smashing Pumpkin’s Beatles Anthology of Mellon Collie distilled into one momentous riffing track, ending up in a repetitive riff jam about half way through. Should it ever have been listened to?
There was a time and a place for many Smashing Pumpkins fans once where it should have, and for some, it still may hold merit, but this is the exact type of track which most people would hear once, and then skip every time it came up on shuffle. I know that I have probably listened to the entire track about three times of the full way through in my life since obtaining this track roughly ten years ago, because I’ve since moved on past my mid to late nineties focus on Stone Temple Pilots and Smashing Pumpkins, largely once I had discovered Elliott Smith and other mellower nuaced artists a few years before the turn of the millenium.
But many will hold a place in their hearts for a medley of B sides, and a conglomerate for riffs and castaways, so in the end, I’ll still try to make it all the way through, as I am just about past the 24 minute mark. The drums have kicked in on the ten minute outro riff to the medley, and I’m calling it a blog.
Currently song: 4848 Pastachio Medley by the Pumpkins
