Bullet with Butterfly Wings
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| "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" | ||
|---|---|---|
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| Single by The Smashing Pumpkins | ||
| from the album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness | ||
| Released | 1995 | |
| Format | CD and Cassette | |
| Recorded | 1995 | |
| Genre | Alternative rock | |
| Length | 4:16 | |
| Label | Virgin Records | |
| Writer(s) | Billy Corgan | |
| Producer(s) | Flood, Alan Moulder and Billy Corgan | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| The Smashing Pumpkins singles chronology | ||
| "Rocket" (1994) |
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (1995) |
"1979" (1996) |
| Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness track listing | ||
| Here Is No Why (5) |
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (6) |
"To Forgive" (7) |
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" is arguably the most popular and well known song by The Smashing Pumpkins. It originally appeared on their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, from which it was a single. The single would later be part of the box set The Aeroplane Flies High, and the song would appear on the greatest hits album Rotten Apples. The song won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.
Contents |
[edit] Song
Like the subsequent Mellon Collie single "Zero", "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was one of the Smashing Pumpkins' darker songs and one of the first signs of change in the band's style, although it certainly does not represent the aural or thematic scopes of the album.
Critics of the song have sometimes claimed that the lyrics are supposed to refer to the suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. This is usually assumed because of the lines "but can you fake it/ for just one more show", which may refer to Cobain's attempt to disband the group before he died. However, Corgan later said that the line refers to the band's headlining slot on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, where they supposedly became disillusioned with the idea of "alternative" rock. This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the first fully played incarnations of the song occurred at a few Lollapalooza shows, as well as on demos recorded early that year. A very embryonic version was apparently recorded during the recording of Siamese Dream; according to Corgan, "somewhere, I have a tape of us from 1993 endlessly playing the 'world is a vampire' part over and over." In fact, these lines quoted do not appear in the song until a demo from late 1994, although Corgan was more likely referring to that section of the song rather than the lyrics themselves. It was not until 1995 that Corgan finshed writing the "rat in a cage" part of the song[1].
The music video for the song, in which lead singer Billy Corgan wears a black shirt emblazoned with the word "ZERO", is the last one filmed before Corgan famously shaved his head.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks, "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was one of the songs put on Clear Channel's list of possibly inappropriate songs. It was also featured in the Cold Case episode entitled "Rampage".
[edit] Live performance
"Bullet..." like "Disarm", "Stand Inside Your Love" and "Today" metamorphized dramatically during and after every tour. "Bullet..." in particular, verified by Corgan himself, comes in five different versions.
During the tour in support for "Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness", the band performed the song with an audio clip intro (based on the sound clip from 1968 science fiction movie "Planet of the Apes", used for the Siamese Dream tour intro to Cherub Rock) which stuttered the line, "The world, world, world, world, world..." - at which Corgan would shout the opening line, initiating a quick tempo version of the song. Later, the band would drop the intro, starting off the song with a drum beat, a style reminiscent of the variation adopted for the "Sacred & Profane" tour. A third and fourth version showed drastic variations of the song, both of which were adopted for the Adore tour. The former was an extended and extremely distorted electric version, including several other instruments outside of the ones used for the studio track, such as a 7-string Ibanez electric guitar and a bunch of percussion drums - this version would crash and burn with Corgan screaming at the top of his lungs, "Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage". The latter was a nine minute or longer jazz version of the song. During the "Sacred & Profane" tour, the fifth variation of "Bullet" started off with an extended bassline and drumbeat build-up into the main song. Also to be noted is that later renditions of "Bullet" used the dropped-C tuning of "The Everlasting Gaze" and "Heavy Metal Machine", making the song sound heavier. As an effect the chorus was so low in Billy's register it sounded almost spoken. They then preceded non-stop with a cover of "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads.
[edit] Track listing
[edit] Single track listing
The following tracks appeared on the original single:
- "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (Billy Corgan) - 4:16
- "...Said Sadly" (James Iha) - 3:09
[edit] The Aeroplane Flies High track listing
- "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (Corgan) - 4:16
- "...Said Sadly" (Iha) - 3:09
- "You're All I've Got Tonight" (Ric Ocasek) - 3:10
- "Clones (We're All)" (David Carron) - 2:43
- "A Night Like This" (Robert Smith) - 3:36
- "Destination Unknown" (Dale Bozzio/Terry Bozzio/Warren Cuccurullo) - 4:14
- "Dreaming" (Debbie Harry/Chris Stein) - 5:11
"...Said Sadly" features Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt on vocals. "You're All I've Got Tonight" is a cover of a song by The Cars; "Clones (We're All)" is an Alice Cooper cover; "A Night Like This" is a Cure cover; "Destination Unknown" is a Missing Persons cover; and "Dreaming" is a Blondie cover.
[edit] Samples
- "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
- Problems playing the files? See media help.
[edit] External Links
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Corgan, Billy. "King B's", Guitar World, January 1997.
