Woke up at 3 AM with the words and music of Billy Corgan's "1979" playing in my head. Not sure what the venue is, but there's a YouTube clip of a Smashing Pumpkins performance back in the mid '90s with all the original members on stage--before the drugs and drama tore them apart--and the audience rockin' like a shadowy wave between them and the camera which is somewhere in the back of the auditorium.
It opens with an unheard, apparently humorous exchange between Billy Corgan at the mic and Jimmy Chamberlain behind the drum set. Then Chamberlain sets the tempo with an opening riff on cymbals, bass drum, and snare and they're off. D'Arcy is perched on a tall stool, stage right, with her bass, and James Iha is to the left of the group with his guitar.
The clip I used to watch was sub-standard visually but had an acceptable sound track and, like I said, you had several shots of the audience rockin' out as the music and emotional intensity of the lyrics sort of rose and fell, carrying the house along on Corgan's journey through his early years in that legendary city (Chicago) on the lake.
I was reminded of it recently by a comment posted by my friend E who had just returned from a live concert, somewhere in the mid-West I think, and her mentioning that she'd actually gotten up and danced.
So in honor of her youthful spirit, and our mutual defiance of that relentless dancing-by of the years, I'll try to post a somewhat better clip of the piece--along with the as-performed lyrics--like I used to do in that other place where we first met.
Then, we can both maybe hold our breath and see how long they let it stay up in this new place where, like Justine, we still don't know the rules...
1979
Shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time
On a live wire right up off the street
You and I should meet
June bug skipping like a stone
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
We were sure we'd never see an end to it all
And I don't even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don't know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below
Double cross the vacant and the bored
They're not sure just what we have in store
Morphine city slippin' dues, down to see that
We don't even care, as restless as we are
We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts
And poured cement, lamented and assured
To the lights and towns below
Faster than the speed of sound
Faster than we thought we'd go, beneath the sound of hope
Justine never knew the rules
Hung down with the freaks and ghouls
No apologies ever need be made
I know you better than you fake it, to see
That we don't even care to shake these zipper blues
And we don't know just where our bones will rest
To dust I guess
Forgotten and absorbed to the earth below
The street heats the urgency of now
As you see there's no one around
Songwriters: William Patrick Corgan
1979 lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
[lyrics as performed in concert]
LPK
@Dreamwidth
8.7.2017
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