10 Rare Smashing Pumpkins Songs You've Probably Never Heard
Have you heard Zero?
The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the premier bands of Gen-X Rock. The classic line up of front man and principle songwriter Billy Corgan, guitarist James Iha, bassist D’arcy Wretzky, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, stood out during a rock renaissance in the early ‘90s. Corgan’s distinctive vocals gave the Pumpkins much of its identity.
This occasionally caused gossip to overshadow the music, notably the much written about love triangle between Corgan, Courtney Love, and Kurt Cobain. However, art lives longer than gossip.
The band were reluctantly boxed in by the scene and packaged as Grunge. However, they managed to transcend the genre with their epic Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. In overcoming the label, the Pumpkins faced accusations of becoming mainstream.
Alternative Rock icon Steve Albani, front man of punk band Big Black and audio engineer for bands such as Pixies, Nirvana, and Manic Street Preachers, savagely compared the Pumpkins to REO Speedwagon, ‘stylistically appropriate for the current college party scene, but ultimately insignificant’.
The Pumpkins continued to experiment and proved their early detractors wrong, while still remaining commercially successful. Despite their mainstream appeal, there are still songs in the back catalogue which are often overlooked.
10. Never Let Me Down Again (BBC Session) (Depeche Mode Cover) (12 September 1993)
Featured On: Rocket – Single (B-Side), and For The Masses
(Depeche Mode Tribute Album)
A cover of one of Depeche Mode’s most enduring hits. The band swaps the synth of the original for crisp guitars and a drum pattern with subtle marching band hints. Corgan’s vocals are particularly restrained and pronounced giving the Pumpkins’ version a more lamenting mood compared to the lustful original.
When asked about the meaning of the song, Depeche Mode songwriter Martin Gore recalled a meeting with two fans. ‘One of them thought it was a gay anthem and the other one thought it was a drug anthem. They both loved the song, so that's fine by me.’
The song was recorded at the request of the Pumpkins’ bassist
D’Arcy Wretzky, who remembers being ‘intensely into Depeche Mode’ when she was
seventeen. DM vocalist Dave Gahan, in an interview with MTV, heaped praise on the
cover as it was ‘the opposite of what you’d expect the Pumpkins to do’. He stated
he preferred the cover to the original.