There's that meme going around thats says, "at some point in your childhood you and your friends went outside to play together for the last time and nobody knew it" and that seriously hits me hard. I had a great childhood and I miss those days.
i feel envy, i grew with pretty much with no friends, and no opportunity for socializing, I was isolated, and only talked to people at school, now I'm 19 and I will never get a chance to have that reckless teenage dream.
I remember mine was 2008 a year after we all left school just before we started college and working part time jobs the sad thing is I saw all of them lots of times but was the last time we were all together in one group
In Seattle years ago there was a "gathering" of a sort with Billy at a bookstore. I asked him, "What do you say in the song '1979' in the background ?" (I always thought he said, "tweaking" or something.) He said, " 'Twelve again'. I was 12 in 1979". Everybody gasped with delight and joy. "OH !!!" ;-)
@@50ShadesOfEndo i used to listen to them a lot when i was a teen but the first time i heard Mayonnaise buy them, i couldn't tell you how hard the feeling of nostalgia hit me. I've never heard it before yet it still felt as if it had been my favorite Pumpkins song for years since before i first heard it.
Tristano amazing. Reminds me of how the movie Boyhood shadows my life perfectly. Also 1979 came out the year I was born and it feels like my birth if that makes sense.
Scott Reilly totally dude. I was just going to say Dazed and Confused also perfectly paralleled my life at that time, same director as Boyhood funnily enough...can never relive those times. ‘We were sure we’d never see an end to it all...’ So profoundly sad
Tristano i was a freshman my friend borrowed it from another friend and a 3rd friend stole it from him and claimed he didnt that he bought it. We still agrue to this over whose cd that was. I still have my copy.
Einstein didn't smile at shenanigans, he was a participant coming up with a million more ways to have fun in his head but because the world sucks he got back at everyone by being quiet and the Nazi's, too.
When 1979 came out I was 15/16, The funny thing that back in 1996 I had the same feeling of Nostalgia while listening to the track and I knew it that one day that song would bring me memories about the best days of my life.
When he was at the top of his game, Corgan mastered the combination of happy and sad in a lot of his music, but I definitely know what you mean with this track in particular.
Psycho Surfer I’m currently 19 and know one day I’ll look back at these days as the best of my life. Weird how it’s a generation later and kids will be using the same music to look back on
I read that and it reminded me of when I first discovered the pumpkins, playing music on the weekends in my basement with the wrong crowd. lol. the heat of summer, the music. I can feel it all like I'm there
I was 30 when 1979 came out and hearing it at the time made me feel like a young teenager. I hear 1979 now and im 30 and a young teenager at the same time. At times hearing 1979 makes me feel so happy, other times, quite sad. Very few records do that to me. Quite simply, one of the greateset tunes ever.
I had the same reaction, and thought it was the Pumpkins I missed. At 40 years old now, this was the music of my adolescence. Sure, I make a decent amount of money, drive far better vehicles than I did in high school, own land, and can vacation nearly wherever I want when I feel bored, but nothing beats the firsts you experience as you try to cope with life as a teenager. I even bought one of the last running 1988 Ford Escorts - my first car - in an attempt to recapture my youth. It's a great place to think, but terrible to drive. That feeling of freedom and endless possibility is gone from the old machine. I realized that it's the best version of yourself that you miss. That made this documentary resonate with me.
Megan O Same. Tho Pumpkins’s prime was a lil before my time (& I was still just a kid living on the other side of the planet lol), I do get this strange ‘I miss those days’ feeling from some of their songs. SP are def in my top 20 all-time favorite bands/artists list
I remember seeing the video for “Tonight Tonight” when I was 9 years old and crying at the sound, falling for the aesthetics of the video. Ugh love Smashing Pumpkins! The creativity and lyrics were what I fell for.
I love how Steampunk it was before Steampunk was a thing. It's also very evocative of Trip to the Moon and other Melies films from the turn of last century.
I clearly remember when Mellon Collie came out. I was 15. Me and most of my friends bought it immediately. It was a big deal, almost every music lover talked about it. The Bullet with Butterfly Wings video, massively aired on MTV, helped a lot I guess. 1979 was surely the most radio-friendly tune on the record, though. No wonder to this day is their best known song. Anyway, Mellon Collie is still one of my top 20 albums of all time.
I was about 12 when I first got Siamese Dream, I'm 14 now and turning 15 next month, I loved the band ever since, my bass player recently bought me Mellon Collie just because he knew it was my favorite album, this is acutally my band account but I run it lol (I'm the lead singer and guitarist) but I started music because I started listening to bands like Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana
David RF That’s right! I was about 19 and bought it from the warehouse on release day. I also remember hearing it blaring out of a 50 something year old’s headphones on the bus. I still regularly listen!
I remember digging them but just could not get into “Disarm”. They played it relentlessly. I just wasn’t seeing them. I then saw them playing alive for late night television & they took it somewhere energetic & transformed it from its dour studio version into something snarling. I went out and picked up a cassette copy of ‘Siamese Dream’ the next day. A few months later, I got the double cassette album. I followed them pretty well until just after the ‘Lost Highway’ stuff. ‘Gish’ & ‘MC&IS’ are classics in their own right, but ‘Siamese Dream’ is pretty much a desert island record… ‘Pisces Iscariot’ is the next closest thing, being a B-Sides record…
Ultimately, I think the actual year is irrelevant. 1979 to me is more of a concept, an idea. That idea being the nostalgia of youthful, happier times as the video beautifully summarised. My "1979" was actually 1996; I was in my early 20s, had quit uni, was living in the town I'd originally moved to for study and hanging out with my new friends doing carefree stuff. That summer was especially memorable. Two decades later, a lot has changed and we've all moved on, changed and in some cases lost contact with each other. 1979 encapsulates all of that, its ending alluding to how the passage of time eventually puts an end to it all.
If you listen to any rnb the song November by Tyler, the Creator plays with the same idea, in the song Tyler asks. What is your November? With many people stating times, places, people and dates, that en capture their happiest times.
As a 25 year old - thank you for reminding me to live in the present and not be so obsessed with the past. You reminded me that in 20 years ill be nostalgic of today... i wont forget the happy times, only try to make new happy times for the kids i influence. Cheers from southern virginia.
inphanta my 1979 was was 2009! Johnny had the best buds for $5 a gram! My 4 door green Ford constantly hitting the pizza joint down the street. Even reunited with the girl that got away. Boy had she changed. It's a cloud that passes right thru you
I was born in 1977. My entire adolescence was in the 1990's. Maybe i'm the odd one here but i distinctly remember how much i hated life back then. I wasn't from a broken home or anything like that. It's just.....being a teenager is hard. Maybe i'm in the minority but consciously and logically I would never want to repeat those days. Yet, here's where that strange duality begins - emotionally i seem to always go back to those days, with longing. Overall, I hated that time of my life.....but i can't seem to leave it. I think it has to do with relationships that were and can never be again. Seems like the friends i had back then were the best......you just don't make friendships like that as adults. Throw in all the responsibilities of life and family.....who has time for friends at that level?
I was definitely miserable as a teenager in the early 00s and it's not a time that would be worth getting back to for me. But I find myself romanticizing it sometimes and amplifying the good things about it while almost ignoring all the shit. There's this quote I read that I think of when I catch myself doing it. I don't remember the name of the woman who wrote it or the book of poetry it was in but it goes something like "Nothing ever ends poetically. It ends and we turn it into poetry. All that blood was never once beautiful. It was just red." That really helps me to cut the bullshit. It's so perfect.
Oh same here! I never want to go back to the depressed moody teen that I was. But there are fond memories of that time for sure! And the music of that time definitely played a part! I actually feel better now. Even though I’m a broken lazy fat man who’s 2 years off 40. Life is better now than it ever was! And there’s still some good music being made, but I find I need it less and less. And you’re right, it’s much harder to maintain friendships now as everyone is so busy.
Agree. I'm more Corrigan's age, but people in-general way over-estimate the "joy" part of the teen years, especially the first half. They forget the indecision, fear of what's coming next, constant feeling of not measuring up to peers or girls, the need for freedom but the lack of knowing what to do with it. By late teens hopefully you got over most of that stuff, but especially in the early teens, life is intimidating. Oh, and in the 80s it was more boring, no Internet, computers were still stone-age. Probably why my Gen-X did more drugs than the younger generations.
@@Maialeen That's a great quote. Living as a child,things are more poetic. They're certainly more beautiful, when looked back on nostalgically. And we should all never completely grow up and out of childishness. Children do more smiling than adults.
One thing I dig about Corgan is that he knew, at the height, that the height is about to end so then decided to change. Then you get the fan split. some fans took the ride, the other fans never left that generation and still want him to go back there.
The dude You’re wrong, given he wrote all of the songs and played everything except for drums on the first two studio albums. Billy is always better with the full band together, especially with Jimmy, but he’s still the mastermind.
every time his music changed directions, it was like gambling on whether people will like it or not. he had a winning streak that ended with Machina. at that time, the reason to change the music (band breaking up) was too much to keep the magic going.
I'm no expert on these things, but the one big problem to my ear with Corgan's newer stuff is they do the sound mixing all different. The old stuff was well produced but was also rawer somehow, less polished. They also didn't push Corgan's voice so front and center, the musical backing was of equal importance to the song. It all came together better. The new stuff sounds like the solo vocal stylings of Billy Corgan with a Smashing Pumpkins tribute band noodling away in the background. Not sure if anyone else feels this way but it's my biggest gripe with the new stuff.
oh boy this song makes me nostalgic! end os 2016, just got accepted into med school, and then my friend was playing this song, the first song i heard after the moment i got the acceptance letter! everytime i hear this song, it takes me back to that same day, that same living room, that same purple couch
Almost famous - 2000 Stand by me - 1986 The world's end - 2013 Dazed and confused - 1993 Wet hot American summer - 2001 Fast times at Ridgemont High -1982 Nineteen eighty four - 1984
When I was 15 in 2002, seven years and already feeling like an eternity since the album was released, I bought Mellon Collie from a Virgin Records shop, primarily because I liked the front cover and weird title, but also because I was vaguely familiar with the bands name (probably from The Simpsons Homerpalooza episode). That summer, my mom let me paint my room (black), I got my first girlfriend and I absolutely caned that album on a loop all summer. It was the summer directly after my GCSE exams, so I had 10 weeks off from school, and it seemed to be unusually warm - nothing to worry about and nothing to do except hang out with my friends and go skating. That album always takes me right back there and although it's sometimes not an entirely pleasant experience, I'm glad I have a few albums that I can use to transport me back so vividly. Anyway, great video. I hadn't really considered how nostalgic the song actually is!
Loved reading this. I have similar experiences, riding around in my friends shitty car during a hot summer, playing this album on repeat, skating some car park, getting bored, talking about the same girls and not doing anything about it. Salad days
22 years old, my father took me and my best friend to the sun ‘n fun airshow, Orlando. first time in the US. In our three weeks journey we headed down south to Key West in a rental car. I bought the brand new album in a record store. One day, late at night, we were returning from a restaurant, windows down, since it was a warm night with silky air blowing in, the three of us were listening to 1979 for the first time. It was magical, it was everything and just hit the spot of all we were back then. Still can smell the air, able to recapture the taste in my mouth, see the lights passing by and still feel the Universal bound that we all experienced in that melancholy providence. Bittersweet memories.
The first time I heard this song I was 15 going on 16 and in a real low point. The last 2 years was a non stop ride of excitement with great friends and people who I love for sharing these memories but with the pressure of leaving school and trying to figure out what to do with my life I felt lost and sad that these times were disappearing. The song came up on my RU-vid recommendations and I sat back in my chair and felt happiness that was so rare in this time. It helped me realise that though I am not 15 forever I'll always have the memories and for that I am truly thankful.
It's that, but also the...I can't even pinpoint what it is, the echoing 'yeah' that sounds every few seconds during the verses and beginning - that's what hooked me in.
This video makes me reflect on the years that have past. I'm 20 now, I don't want to waste anymore time being anti social and nervous. When I'm 28 what memories will I have to look back on?
Trust me bud. It doesn't get any easier. Realistically those years aren't that far away for you. I'm about to turn 27 and I'm starting to forget the good stuff. My youth is really starting to feel like a lifetime ago.
McMinty MP im 27 and although my youth does feel behind me i also feel the most happy with myself. but its true the years keep coming and they dont stop coming. and every year goes by faster and faster
I’m 35 born in 83 this song is absolutely nostalgic for me it makes me smile like billy in the backseat is that car and this video gives such a great explanation of why Thank you
born in 85, and i've only ever listen to The Smashing Pumpkins when i first got to learn about them in the year 2000, I was in High School back then, and I still cant get over the band till now. I still feel the same way.
How old are you? If you are under 30 then you won't get it until you are much older. When people will look at the phone you have now as a piece of shit old tech.
When I first heard 1979 it was on the radio and i taped it. I had a tape of songs that i recorded from radio and tonight tonight was also on it. I was 14-15 and and used to have a small tape deck under my pillow at night and listen to it. Even though the speaker was tiny and it was quiet I could here it very clear because of the focus and involvement of listening to the songs as well as the stillness of the night. Music was real escapism back then. I was home alone a lot at nights so it was really comforting.
I'm just a bit younger than Corgan, so I get where his memories come from. The imagery in that video, the 1970s cars and that metallic green color, the woman with the curlers in her hair, kids running wild in the days before security cameras when parents used to kick us out of the house the whole day, and as a teen in the 80s the wild house parties which were actually a thing for 16 year olds when the parents were out of town, with kegs and loud ass rock bands, and when the cops showed up they just made everyone pour out their beer cups and told us to quiet down and go home instead of arresting people. All that stuff strikes a chord with me. Another song and video that did it for me back in the day was Subdivisions by Rush, which is all about how it sucks to be a nerdy kid growing up in the suburbs in the 80s. It may have sucked at the time, but it's weird how you remember the fun parts, like blowing all your paper route money at the video arcade or tearing around with your idiot buddies on bikes to get into trouble all the time. It's important not to get carried away with nostalgia, but it's okay to tap into it a little once in a while.
This whole explanation of not only the song, but nostalgia, which is something I'm dealing with a lot in my 30s, is just great. Not only does this song hit me in the feels, but this video does too. What a great way to explain the feeling a song can give, not just this one, but any song someone hears and takes them back to a simpler time in life.
I still remember the first time I heard “Today” on the radio. Then I watch Smashing Pumpkins as a musical performance on Saturday Night Live. I’ve been a super fan since 1993 when I was 12/13 years old. Listening to SP has always been so amazing. I can enjoy the newer music but I think their is something when you are younger listening to music that speaks to who you are. A musical act can involve and change and still be great, but the feelings as youth and the time you would spend just listen to music and wanting to learn more about the artist is not the same as an adult. I used to have a friend in High school and we would talk about Smashing pumpkins and other of our favorite music artists like Tori Amos on the phone ( pre-internet) for hours! As an adult it is just not the same. I don’t have that time and have responsibilities. I music old SP music because I miss my youth and time. This was a Great video!!
I was about seven when I heard this song in 97. Back then I only digged the track without relating to the message, now the message is clear as day. That to me shows how timeless this song is, how it's able to bring different generations to that similar nostalgia.
Great video! I was born in 1979 and 16 when this album came out, which was obviously a pretty big transition in my life. One of the biggest changes was learning to drive. Although the latter is way more convenient, I have memories of how much fun is was to just...walk with my friends. Well, that and not having a regular job.
When I hear 1979 it just makes me feel low cause it reminds me of how I wasted my teenage years. I was so introverted and never really hung out with friends outside of school and I always just felt kind of shitty about life, and 5 years later I realised I was actually depressed and had just never acknowledged it. I wish I had lived at least somewhat carelessly in my youth so I could have something good to look back on.
In 79 I was 18 and High School is something that I endured and rarely look back on fondly..... I do know that when you are living through it you feel the people that are your friends mean everything to you .... A couple of years out and you hardly think of them at all and in the grand scheme of things in your life they are just a blip in time... I just hope my grandkids survive those year's without any huge mistakes..
I always respected the smashing pumpkins but never really got deep into their music and this video encouraged me to do so, can someone tell me where to start tho?
One of my favorite songs of all time, for me this song represents those moments with friends that I look back on with nostalgia, the joys and freedom of youth and the friends I made that grow up alongside me. It’s about the memories that I made with them and the happiness that came from us all just paling around and enjoying this roller coaster called middle school and more specifically high school. The fun ends once you leave high school because you know you’ll never see them again, we all got off of the roller coaster and all we got was a picture at the end, my friends parted ways with me and each other and now I’m alone with no one around, that last bit of fire extinguished, the memories will fade, now all I have are pictures.
Masterpiece of a video man! That song is pure nostalgia. I just want to say at 1:36 when the kid in Stand By Me tells his friend, ya his dad gets weird when he writes (the dad's friends said he was weird when he was young, as did my friends), hits me so hard because I feel that transition of being called weird but now embrace it at almost 40 and in that scene my whole life I always identified as the boy and now I identify as the man.
*pauses video* "I wonder how old Billy Corgan was in 1979. They're probably about to tell me, but let me just check." *checks* *resumes video, the very next second* "Billy Corgan was about 12 years old in the year 1979." Ha :) Incidentally, I was 13 when this song was released, so it became a song I associate with about that same point in life.
Patrick Curry interesting fact for you: you know that echo in between the verses of that song?, it’s actually Billy Corgan saying “12 again”, he was 12 in 1979.
I was 11 when this album came out. 1979 was frequently being played on a couple of English language radio stations ( I live in Malaysia), and I fell in love with the song. But I never actually paid attention to the band. Lately I have been listening to a lot of Smashing Pumpkins, and every song of their every album from the 90's are amazingly nostalgic. I'm almost 35 now, and listening to this song makes all of my childhood and teenage memories come alive again :')
One of the greatest songs, for exactly the reason you made this video. 1979 and Perfect are two of their best songs; all of their music is fantastic, but those two are classics.
Aw, their sound brings it all back. Proof it never ever leaves us. Good times, best memories ever. Ppl I adore were still alive then. Amazing how something so happy has me feeling so sad at the same time?! Nostalgic feels asf. I wish I could go back to the best decade of my life. 😔🙏🏽💌
Damn, when I hear 1979 I get choked up hearing it because of the nostalgia of those times. I was 15 in 1979 and that video captures the fun I had as a kid and the antics me and a few friends would get into. It brings me back to a time when life was simple, you didn't have the technology of today and at that age you are just starting to discover yourself, life, love and imagination. Man if I can go back just once and relive it then life will be complete for me.
The Musical themes of 1979 are as integral in invoking nostalgia as the lyrical ones. The main riff leans heavily on a major 7th (D# octave over an E major harmony) - providing a constant pull in the direction of 'home'. The next chord, A, resolves back to E in a plagal rather than perfect cadence, softening the eventual return home. While there are B chords (which cadence back to E to break up the sections of the song with some finality), the main progression throughout gives the song a floating, wistful quality which matches Corgan's lyrics and imho is just as important if not more so in the success of the song - whether you gauge success as a function of commercial accolade or the less tangible but I think more fitting measure of how effective the song is to the (average?) listener.
I agree that the use of Major 7ths was critical to the emotional punch of the song, but I don't think it has anything to do with a pull toward home, or anything like that. (It's in E flat, by the way; I may be mistaken, by I think I tested it once and found that everything on that album is tuned a half-step down.) I don't know why a plagal cadence is any softer than a regular 5-1. Arguably, going to the V-chord anticipates the return, although imho that's not so very critical. Maybe the Major 7th chord sounds more wistful than a plain Major triad because it contains a minor triad within it. Also, if your theory were correct, wouldn't it follow that the 7th of the IV chord (here, the note is G) which is also in play, would provide a constant pull to itself? I think to Western ears, the pull toward the Tonic is so ingrained it doesn't need the help of a 7th, even if it is the leading tone. If anything, it seems like extensions pull us away from the chord we're listening to. What I think is more likely is that Billy was subconsciously thinking of the '70s as a bygone era (of course it was before his own adolescence, but people feel nostalgia for eras not their own all the time) and a very prominent feature of '70s pop music was the Major 7th.
This was absolutely spot on. The Pumpkins were my favourite band as a teen and 1979 was my favourite of their songs. Beautifully written, mate - well done.
THIS IS THE EXACT VIDEO I WAS LOOKING FOR! Listening to this song reminds me of sunsets over beach holidays and cold nights camping out, driving in a car with the windows down. I can't get over it
I never even heard this song until recently, I wasn't born to experience 1979 or 1995, but the song is genius. It evokes a nostalgic feeling even if you never heard or relate to the song. The instruments, Billy Corgan's voice, the tempo and the music video were made to create literally what Nostalgia sounds like.
Being 16 in 1995, having been born in 1979, and have that beautiful song by my favourite band was very special, with the crowning achievement of getting to see them in April 1996. We were a bunch of kids driving up to the show, some 4 hours away from our town. It was fantastic. And of course, this song makes me very nostalgic now.
I remember when this song was new, it got quite a bit of airplay in Australia on the commercial radio stations. I know this because at the time I received an alarm clock that could play radio and CDs. And for a time I was waking up to the radio and can remember this song playing quite a bit. And it has become strongly linked with memories of 1996 and waking up early for school and just wanting to sleep in a little bit. A bittersweet memory for a bittersweet sounding song that is about the bittersweet nature of nostalgia
Being born in 84 I remember relating to this song as a 12 year old and then later in life with the same retrospect as the song writer. Total nostalgia.
I remember back when this came out, I would have been 8 or 9, spending almost a whole day recording my local alt-rock station so I could get this on tape. About a month later I finally had saved up enough lawn mowing money to buy Mellon Collie.
Could not agree with you more. Very well put. And even beyond pure nostalgia I sometimes get a feeling of nostalgia for a time I didn’t even live in. For example, the 1979 song and video make me feel as though I was a young teen in the late 70s. But I was born in 1981. I think that’s great music and lyrics writing. Taking someone who wasn’t even there and making them long for it as though they were. Because they still appreciate the theme of aging and the bliss of carefree youth.
Yes!!! I didn't discover the song from when Weird Al took over MuchMusic, but I think of his commentary pver it, constantly! And no one else ever seems to remember, so, cheers to you. *video starts* "Hey look, it's the guy from Powder!" Classic.
I don't think this is right. I always thought the song had an extremely sad, wistful quality about it. I think Billy Corgan was possibly re-creating the adolescence he couldn't have. It's almost certain, to listen to the rest of that record, that his teenage years sucked. Also, I think of lines like "We don't know just where our bones will rest, to dust I guess, forgotten and absorbed to the earth below..." and that is what he was reflecting as teenage thought: not carelessness and abandon, but a sense of futility. The rest is irony. It's not the lost sense of freedom that he tried to capture with the song, but the romance of believing that your rightly-placed sense of melancholy and doom mattered. It's an ode to self-love, I think. A self-love that's lost in adulthood and whose loss leaves a terrible emptiness. Anyway, that's what I think the song is about.
The Pumkins are 1of the reasons that i came to love punk rock grunge rock when i was a teenager at 14years old when you are learning of what the world has to offer and when you are still finding things out for yourself, this video summed everything down to a Tee. This Band will always hold a place in my Heart forever, they were truly amazing. Billy Corgan you are one of the godfathers to this amazing sound you guys played.
Just as Corgan rests on the edge of a new phase in life, cusping onto the very last strings of attachment and emotion to the point of his life that the song evokes a longing feeling for, so does a year ending in 9. We start a decade with 0 and end it well, with 9. The year that caps off the decade; summarizing what that time will have meant to us collectively and personally as we look back. All the memories and times we enjoyed, and things we did that will not be done the same way again. It sits just before the horizon of what's next, what new changes will come and the new social collective consciousnesses it will bring with it, but not knowing what those nexts will be. That's the reason the title "1979" itself works so well. It's because the song itself is written knowing that he has one last chance to enjoy that raw feeling of nostalgia in it's purest form of "enjoy it right here, right now", remembering it vividly enough to relate to it still, before it's ends,before it's too late, before everything is suddenly different looking back. He knows he can't go back and its his last visit before saying goodbye. Being 28, coming close to a personal closing decade of age Corgan at the time of writing, knows that it's the end of another era again. The song is a cap to what once was, bottling it up in that rose tinted bottle, ready to be enjoyed like a memory revisited years later. That's why "1979" is a perfect title for a song about the feeling of nostalgia for any generation because the emotion never changes, just as time never stops, and there's always that end to something.
I wanted to add this but felt what I wrote would be tainted by adding more and taking away from my point and flow. Take a song like "Closing Time" by Semisonic. Written and released in 1998, we can see a parallel point between that song and year it was written, and the points before about capping an era and how people feel about that time. It's such a nostalgic song. Read anywhere in the comment section for the video for it and there are people remembering fondly about that song and the time in which they heard it in, even more so, many of the comments are stories about hearing it in that year on the radio and having a POSITIVE memory surround it. (Nostalgia is generally regarded as a positive warm feeling). But the bigger point is that they recognize it as and end to something, to a feeling or time in their life or even on a grander scale, America's timeline, three years before 9/11. Literally one year before Y2K, an event that was gonna be seen as apoloclyptic in general, (the actual thoughts of people at the time I wouldnt know or have felt) and its not just because the damn song is literally called "Closing Time" lol. Lyrically it's more targeted towards the end of something in one's personal life (actually written about the lead singer's, Dan Wilson, son being born) and it looks more forward instead of retrospectively like "1979" does, but it evokes a similar feeling. Another point is that many people have said thats the song that closed out the 90's. Not only because it was written closer to the end of the decade, but because it encapsulated a feeling many people relate to the 90s with. The song is warm, it's alternative rock, it's style of the music video and the lyrics are happy and pre 9\11 anger and miserable and melancholic like many 2000 -2007 mainstream rock songs were. Linkin park, green day, etc. (You know the ones) Because humans label, measure, categorize, and put emotion to everything . There's a correlation to be made about emotion and the measurement thats usually labeled as the end, like 8 or 9. The numbers that are literally the end before a reset in ANY numerical function. "1979" and it's strong nostalgia, nostalgia being the feeling for something that has ended. "Closing Time", a song written in 1998, which lyrically is about marking the end of something but the sense of progression and the steps taken to move onto the next thing in an almost positive manner, yet is looked back upon as a nostalgic song with a nostalgic feeling, and not just because it's the product of a time since passed, but because of the song itself. The numbers 8 and 9 have a stronger association to nostalgia of the general sense. I'm sure more examples exist, but I'm just writing this because I'm personally always thinking about nostalgia and the many possible benefits to it for society.
I hope anyone decides to read these this fucking dissertations lol I hope even more so Trash Theory reads this, I JUST came across this channel but this video alone made me a subscriber and gonna be a long time viewer.
Brilliant video. Captured a lot of things I could never articulate about that song and many more I hadn’t considered about how the song sits in the wider pumpkins universe. Thank you!
Thank you so much for this video. It captures the Pumpkins at their best and most pure while also expressing that indescribable emotion that everyone feels after watching that music video and hearing that song.
To be honest, I like their new album. It’s exactly what I want in an album these days during the age of electronic pop. It takes me back to their old albums. I’m glad they didn’t change, at all.
48 here and only really got to grips with the song around a year ago. In the early 90's indie rock wasn't my bag, I was listening to Hip Hop mostly. It still takes me back to the 90's because it was there in the background played by freinds. I'm just thankful I got to appreciate its greatness at somepoint.
That’s what I was hoping this video was going to deconstruct-it didn’t. All he talked about was the lyrics and not the music which is where all the nostalgia comes from.
I really enjoy Solara, and the rest of the songs on the new album are almost as good, but I must face the fact that they'll never come out with another "Soma"
You articulated things that I’ve always felt about this track, but never bothered to put into words. I always revisit this track for a bit in late spring - May/June or so - and end up getting wistful about half remembered memories from my youth, or about things I could have done, but never did. Something about that time of year, the school year coming to an end, more freedom to fuck around with friends, more of a chance to explore who I am in those formative years, makes me want to just listen to the track and rewind time, if only for a moment. Thanks for the video.
At least we have good memories to miss .. this generation will look back and miss their Instagram.. “god I miss the good old days staring at my phone”.
as a gen z person, i think no one will miss it . the current generation has already accepted nihilism for the honest part... there is a common disdain for our reality, a lot of "i feel nostalgia for something i haven't experienced". a lot of numb in a void.
This was beautifully done when I hear 1979 it makes me sad in the best way remembering all those good times amongst all the hard times. thumbs up for the vid!!!
XTC is the most underrated band mentioned in this video even though they are not underrated by music producers such as Butch Vig. Like Billy Corgan I also love My Bloody Valentine and Joy Division.
Damn, awesome breakdown. Was pleasantly surprised when I saw this in my recommended, didn’t know other people shared the same emotional connection to this song as I do.
@@TheOneCalledNoName bullet with butterfly wings is about the system that enslaves us and how its packaged in a pretty package with toys, marketing, tv, but its really a bullet in disguise designed to kill your sense of identity and force you to participate and blend in.
When I was a teen, I was dumber than shit. At the time I was emotionally unstable being that I couldn't seem to grasp the workings of my environment. And then, booze, pills, cigarettes, weed... From 15 to 24 is a blur, sort of like its missing. Now I no-longer live like a rockstar. The way this video frames that the teenage years feel like the peak of life doesn't make sense to me. I feel like that time is now at 25. All in all, Smashing Pumpkins rocks. I wish that they could make more songs that invoke nostalgia. This song brings me back to when I could first read just about any book and understand it all. I used to love books. That is until the school told me I was to dumb to read; and then, promptly riped the book from my hand and placed it on the shelf. Yes, this song brings me back to the day where I stopped enjoying learning. So in the Greek sense home would be that time that I can not go back to, nostalgia in its most literal of forms.
My nostalgia is rooted in the 90s... What an amazing decade! Yes, the 80s were great for childhood, but late teens-early 20s (& having such a reverence for fantastic music!) made the early-mid 90s so magical. On the precipice of technology taking over the world, & music, it's holds a large piece of my heart & soul. Very bittersweet. I'd go back in a second! ETA~ great video! Thanks!
Christopher Michaud I’m happy someone understands & agrees! Not a cellphone in sight, I think we were VERY fortunate! We lived in the moment & made the most of those moments... all while having the magnificent musical background of an explosion of amazing bands. Absolutely the best possible time to be 20-ish years old! My opinion, anyway 🤷🏻♀️😉
Speak for yourself. Oceania is arguably my favourite Pumpkins album and Bleeding The Orchid rivals any Pumpkins song. Billy is a very flawed individual... And selfishly I’m happy because he continues to bring me my favourite music.
For me it's the Nintendo Entertainment system and the culture behind it. Commercials, toys, cartoons and the system itself all encompass the time of life I miss the most. 1987-1992 my dad later died in 1995 and this is when I remembered him the most.
@Elise same, my dude, same. When I look at this video it makes me really sad, not only because I wish I was a young person in the 70s, but because it makes me realise how my life sucks a lot.
Elise i feel like for me they both suck but I miss the few good moments I had in middle school and high school. I’m just done with school and I want to live life.
I had a great time in high school. Majority of the time of when I was in college was the time that kicked my ass because I went through some stuff, plus the overwhelming feeling of being in a new city hy myself, sky rocketed my anxiety and caused me to over think everything, which then I became a recluse to myself and books. But after seeking help and getting support from family and a couple of friends, I never realised on how much I was missing out on and had a good time in my final year.
I found that song at the age of 9. Not understanding it, it has become my nostalgia, my worm hole to once was, and my friend. Always has been my favorite song and always will be
I find the first 80% of the video present an interesting view on the music; but I believe your own nostalgia got in the way of enjoying the new Smashing Pumpkins. WPC is not "a shadow" - he's an ever-changing person - and the new SP rocks just as hard as it did in the 90s.
I was 14 when this came out and it’s in my top 5 favorite albums, sometimes it’s number one. I had just left my parents and moved in with my very Christian aunt. What followed was a very horrific experience at a Baptist Christian school. At one point she read through the lyrics in my CD jackets and the book that came with this box set. I came home to her burning all of my music and having her church friends performing a ritualistic blessing of her home (basically an exorcism of the demons I invited into her home). I still stayed with her because I wanted to graduate and going back “home” would’ve killed me. Eventually I was expelled from the Christian school and had to return home anyway. I still managed to finish my senior year and graduate. I almost didn’t survive, but this album and a few other artists gave me what I needed to overcome my circumstances. So yeah, it’ll always hold a special meaning for me.
What a great work. I opened this video because I was born in 2000 in a non english speaking country from a father born in 79, listened to this song for the first time at abour 17 and still resonated and felt this same said nostalgia and melancholy from days I've never seen, just as in the first time I heard Black, favourite song of my father's at my age and now mine having we both (not comunicated anything about this ever but) resonated with those lyrics in our time in our love lives as well. I feel closer to when he was my age, as this 17 years we didn't really talk so he became an image. Thank's for the great disection of this amazing piece
