Quote from residencies doc: the mundane vs. the special
November 16th, 2008 by jjbtags: if all goes wrong, interview
Here is a partial transcript from the “Psalm 131″ chapter of the new Smashing Pumpkins movie If All Goes Wrong:
Billy Corgan: You know, I’m not that picky…I’m okay with everything not always being great and perfect, and even this experience of being at the residencies, it doesn’t have to be this continual high point. You know, sometimes the mundane is just as important as the special. But there’s this immense pressure that everything’s just got to be great all the time, it’s like one big ABBA concert all the time.
fan: I heard a couple of the [newly written] songs, they’re cool, they’re good. You can kind of tell they were written the same day — they don’t sound developed at all, I mean…it usually takes a while for a song to get developed, I mean, months, maybe a year, maybe two.
Corgan: We live in a very results-oriented society. This culture, particularly the American culture of the 2000s, is only obsessed with the absolute cream-of-the-crop, peak-experience moment. It’s like we’re all just stuck on orgasm.
David Wild: We live in a time where even our supposed alternative rockers, whatever the hell that means or whatever it ever meant, are basically very professional careerists who deliver the hits in concert. Delivering the hits is not enough for him.
Corgan: It’s really weird to me that people really don’t, generally speaking, don’t want to hear the work around the great work. I understand the obsession and the attraction to the peak work, because I feel the same thing. But when I find the peak work, no matter who it is, whether it’s Matisse or Bach or whatever, I want to find out the work around it, I want to hear the process and the journey to the peak work. But this culture seems to be only obsessed with the peak work and everything else is discardable…which is why people are still touring on one song.
November 16th, 2008 at 6:00 am
“It’s like we’re all just stuck on orgasm.”
god, I wanna hear and see him saying it.. (I still haven’t received the DVD, fuck it)
And personnaly I’m more interested in failures than success…so I agree with him
November 16th, 2008 at 7:25 am
an interesting analogy. It seems that Corgan does a lot of ‘fumbling around in the dark’ in order to bring us with the sweet release that his developed songs provide.
November 16th, 2008 at 10:09 am
I’m not sure this is something peculiar to American 20th & 21st century culture.
I also think there is always going to be a small group of people who are very interested in the process around a great work, but the general public is just going to want the polished perfect finished product.
November 16th, 2008 at 11:02 am
He thinks way to much thats from all the drugs he did!
November 16th, 2008 at 2:32 pm
I completely agree with Billy. Not everything has to be the best of the best. Well, not for me. But this indeed seems how things are evolving.
Another aspect of this culture is the fact that less and less people are interested in albums. Instead they’ll only listen to hits on their iPods. If it’s not a hit, it’s not worth your time.
November 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
you are just repeating what billy has been saying on those you tube videos
i think thats BS if your a fan of a band your going to listen to the whole album i find that is just for people who just go to shows just to go
November 16th, 2008 at 4:38 pm
ps…… i dont go to any concert unless i know full albums of bands other wise whats the point to hear 2 singles at a show!
November 17th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
ok i get what he is trying to say but there are still people out there who appreciate music as art and personally i attended one of the shows at the fillmore and really fell in love with the new songs. i think that the unpolished and raw feel of the songs makes them special. as for concerts, you are always going to get idiots that want to hear the hits and behave like fools because thats why they came and they are not there to see art. this stuff happens at almost every concert that i have ever been to. billy is right to say that everyone wants perfection all the time, i think that just hearing the honesty and heart that is put in to all songs whether new, old, or recreated makes being a fan of the smashing pumpkins absolutely worth it
November 18th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
[…] a few lines from “The Rose March”, which I personally would pick as the best song (or “peak experience”?) to emerge from the residencies — the film implies this is Billy’s opinion as well, but […]