William Patrick Corgan On First Time Hearing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" | Billboard 

What if I told you that you can like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins while seeing similarities in both Smells Like Teen Spirit and More Than a Feeling? It's amazing. You all should try it.

So many comments where they say Billy never respected or acknowledged the greatness of Kurt/Nirvana. I guess these people didn't watch/hear the comments he made on three separate occasions in interviews where he discusses aspects of his respect and opinion on Kurt/Nirvana's talent. I can't recall his exact words, but I'll sum them up. I saw/heard 3 interviews with Corgan discussing the subject. One from around '94, he was talking about the fact that Gish, he felt, was overshadowed by Nevermind, and said, you know, it was such a groundbreaking album and a sound that was unlike us and it has its place in rock history because it was quality stuff, "No denying it". Next interview I heard on the radio he was talking about Kurt's song writing skills saying he was a genius for tapping into the zeitgeist of the time. The third that I recall was when he was saying how he was so depressed over the way Nirvana just managed to sell records so fast and people took to them so much, and here he was wishing he could write like that, making him nervous about the upcoming album which would be Siamese Dream. Why do I say all this? Because you can have an opinion as much as you want, I don't want to take that away from someone. But to claim your opinion is exactly how things are when there's the possibility you haven't heard him say otherwise, isn't how I operate and I venture to say how anyone ought to operate. One person does NOT know EVERYTHING. So keep an open mind, both sides, Billy's a jealous Dick people or Billy's a respectful guy people.

the story is they listened to the whole album and billy was like’ let’s hear it again.

That performance of More than a Feeling/Teen Spirit by Nirvana is up on YT, btw.

Legend has it that Cobain was trying to play Bostons song just as a jam to warm up to...he ended up playing different chords to a more punchy rhythm--the rest is history

should upload the whole interview. it was a good one

So damn cool. Both are great bands.

Now I have heard it, I can't unheard it 😂

Whats up with all the Nirvana fans pissed off because Billy Corgan told a story?

Everyone in here basing billy corgan and Kurt over trivial shit. Corgan literally praises Kurt every single time he gets brought up. While corgan was obviously jealous of nirvana's success, as was pretty much every other non grunge bad out there at the time, y'all seriously can't ignore the fact billy respected the man

By the way have you seen the interview /video (it was a tribute to the late frontman of Stone Temple pilots) where he called Kurt, Layne and Weiland the (that) generation's voices? (meanwhile, not adding himself to that like , not like in Corgan's manner :)?) I was pleasantly surprised he was a huge fan of AIC, Jerry playing. I luv them

Kurt played Boston's More than a Feeling riffs right before jumping into their song Smells like Teen Spirit at the 92 Reading Festival just to be funny...Kurt did that on more than 1 occasion so he was well aware of it. The Smashing Pumpkin's "Cherub Rock" melody comes from Cheap Tricks "Ohh Laaa" song So there you go!!! ... but Billy even never shied away from saying that Cherub Rock melody is from that Cheap Trick song. This story Billy is talking about is on a RU-vid documentary called "Nevermind the Garbage" Billy was at Butch Vigs house - a producer on some albums of Smashing Pumpkin's. Butch was the producer for Gish, Siamese Dream and Nirvana's Nevermind. That July 4th in Wisconsin Butch played Nevermind for the first time and he said everyone at the party got real quite and then after the whole album was done playing someone at the party said play it again. Billy Corgan does say really nice things about Kurt and Nirvana in some interviews. Like when Billy Corgan was on the Joe Rogan show he was really nice about Nirvana.

I had thought that precisely when I first herd it !!!

I guess that crowd Knows not what it means

SLTS and MTAF are two of the most classic rock songs ever written.

oddly enough, I had the exact same thought the first time I heard that song...

Nirvana and Tupac greatest of the 90s. All in the videos all on the records dancing come to deathrow!

the first thing he thought was “this is our version of godzilla” 100 percent.

The chord progression was similar, but the groove was what really made it work

Every chord progression to every Smashing Pumpkins song has been used in history at some point or another in a different pre-existing song. Billy knows this, so trust me everyone, that's why he wasn't putting down Nirvana when he said that, he was just recalling that he thought that at that particular moment...

I wish that sense of humor was enough to pull kurt out of his pain.

That's crazy lol. Nice.

That's exactly what I thought when I first listened to Smashing Pumpkins' Godzilla so... And Kurt was totally aware of the "more than a feeling" thing. He talked about it before and that's why they made that joke before playing S.L.T.S (I think you can hear it in one of the Outcesticide records)

Honestly, I'm a musician and I know both songs exceedingly well, love both songs, and do not think they are all that similar. Sorry on that one.

It takes so much musical intelligence to hear that.

Reading 1992 When Kurt did that. lol

Fun video.

Yeah yeah yeah heard it before every GCD song is the same right? OK they have common elements. Kurt probably even was fooling around with that song when he figured it out teen Spirit. But the end song sounds nothing alike. More than a feeling is g5 a5 e5 d5 where as teen spirt is f5 bflat5 aflat5 dflat5 Literally not a single chord is in the same place. The only similarity is that it’s a 4 chord repeating powerchord rhythm. It’s not even close to a rip off and Kurt probably just was making fun of it that people thought it was.

Aneurysm by Nirvana uses the same cords as Know Your Enemy by RATM

That may be butch vigs influence. Alice in Chains may also have used some of that more than a feeling.

He’s talking about reading 1992 where they famously played it before smells like teen spirit ?

It doesmt sound like more than a feeling but it does sound similar the chords from godzilla by blue oyster cult. Alot of songs have similar chords i think kurt probably messed up the chords at some point in practice then and was just having fun .the chords for the chorus in more than a feeling are g c e minor d . If it was reversed as e minor d g c it would almost be the progression in that key. But to really be the progression in that key of smells like teen spirit it would be e minor a g c. The original smells like teen spirit was f b flat a flat d flat. So different key different chords different order. Kurt probably accidentally played smelled like teen spirit backwards and the melody of it sort of works even though its off by a chord abd different key.. but godzilla by blue oyster cult is closer if it were in the same key slowed down the equivalent chords would be f b flat a flat e flat with slides. Still not quite it either but closer than more than a feeling because its the same forward order and off by that last chord.

Doesn't he mean Peace of Mind not More Than A Feeling?

Did he not want to be called by his stage name or something...?

nah, they played it as a joke after hearing your snide comment

GUESS WHO I AM? MR. WILLIAM PATRICK CORGAN HUH! LOL!

Kurt even admitted that he jammed on More than A Feeling and one other Boston song. So there you go...but well Billy, Bullet With Butterfly Wings has the chords as Bleed The Freak, so what?

He played more than a feeling because it was floating in the press.. Which is probably where Billy got the idea..

Billy’s jealous...lol

come as you are

Come on..... More than a feeling and Teen Spirit are two Way different songs..

Nirvana played in tokeyo 1992 sun plaza and they did not do a Boston more than a feeling in intro at this show not sure what billy is referring to but def the wrong show they didn’t do it in Tokyo

The verse are godzilla by böc

Butch vig is the fifth Beatle

........people searching for "More than a feeling" by Boston..........

After hearing alot of interviews with Billy about Nirvana its obv he is jealous of Kurt and his place in music. I like both bands but its not even close who the superior band and frontman is.

Yes but still diff song

He always comes off bitter towards Nirvana, pumpkins was massive in thier own right I don't know why he's always having little digs

Sounds nothing like more than a feeling .

Yeah Billy, because none of your riffs and idea's are stole from Pink Floyd.

Smells like teen spirit and more than a feeling sound nothing alike. A chord progression is not copying a song. It’s simply a rhythm. If you learned from playing classic songs of course that type of rhythm would come up somewhere.

I love Billy Corgan but he is such a damaged guy. He's not exactly talking shit here, but there's just something about his tone, it's classic annoying Corgan. Teen Spirit and More Than a Feeling only have 2 chords in common, but a similar stumming pattern. I suppose finding similarities between the two probably helped him to deal with the fact that what he was listening to was so obviously superior to Gish. Still it's petty. Today uses the same chords as Thought I'd died and Gone To Heaven by Bryan Adams but you didn't hear Kurt going on about it all the time.

You know he hates the idea that nirvana is an iconic band and not him

Billy really reminds me of Dave Mustaine sometimes

Any chance he could, Kurt would avoid playing Teen Spirit lol

Silly Borgan

I thought my english was good but I cannot get what he says about Smells like teen spirit at 0:29. Somebody can help ? :) Thx

Sour boy

Oh, Billy. You wear your bitterness and envy on your sleeve. And you needn’t do so. Yes, Cobain was the greatest of your generation. You’ve even admitted as much. But you are also one of the best song writers we’ve ever heard. Let that be enough.

Check out the Peel Session and Reel Time Demos from the Gish Deluxe Edition if you want to hear what it would sound like if Steve Albini produced the album instead of Butch Vig (the Pixies demos for Doolitte provide a similar experience). I was always surprised that Cobain and Corgan didn't have more to do with each other at the time, but after seeing interviews you can tell that they had very different temperaments. And despite somewhat similar sounds at the time and sharing a producer, it seems Kurt came from a more punk ethos and Billy came more from a more classic rock ethos.

He also took music from killing joke

Be skeptical of all bald guys

you are kinda crazy, but we like it ;)

He ain't Kurt, he's Hurt

kurt was making fun of more than a feeling

HATER. WHERE DOES HE GET HES MELODIES FROM??

Sorry Billy... while there is a similarity of rhythm, 2 of the four chords are different. MTAF is in G Major (at that point in the song, it starts with a DMaj tonal center.) The chords are G, C, Em, D. Functionally this is I, IV, vi, V. While SLTS is in F (while the chords play power chords, the actual song is in MINOR btw...), I'll put it in G to illustrate the differences. So in G it is G, C, Bb, Eb. (or i, vi, III, VI if the melody is used to fill out the chords). A child can see those are different. In fact, the third chord is a tritone different and the 4th a half step. Both dissonant intervals.... soooo, quite different. Great ear there, man...

This comment section is so insane. How come that so many kids are talking shit down here in this kinda milieu???????????????????

It's really not that similar... like I get that the first 2 chords are kind of the same... but that's about it really.

Jealus

It’s people like this interviewer that makes billy corgan arrogant. Sorry man

He always sounds like he's humblebragging with jealously when talking about Nirvana. Like half baked compliments that are actually slights about why the Pumpkins were better, etc.

jealous? lol

😂

Fat Joe got skinny

Except it's not. Similar rhythm and first two bar patterns but third and 4th are different. Also its a whole step higher. But close enough I guess at first listen. There are tons of songs that sound similar. At least Boston weren't douchebags about it and threaten to sue like KD Lang did to The Rolling Stones with Anybody Seen My Baby. 🤣

"More Than Teen Spirit, More Than Teen Spirit, More Than Teen Spirit, More Than Teen Spirit, More Than Teen Spirit"

Both songs sound very different

Oooh, this interview needs less salt and lemon. Cause someone has a hurt butt.

He wanted to be what kurt Cobain was so bad. But he went bald and didn't have the talent or the voice of a generation. So every interview he slights him and his music

As if.. He hated Kurt and Nirvana..ya there are similarities between the riffs. I doubt very much that is what he thought when he first heard the song.

Your audio editor sucks. It’s called a compressor: it makes the quiet and loud sounds the same volume. This is unwatchable

can you imagine being as creative and good as billy yet somehow right when you come out one of the greatest legends of music of all time kurt cobain is out of nowhere just kicking your butt on every level...its gotta be tough to live with that.

I like Smashing P. but Billy could never wirite a song like teen spirit.

William Patrick Corgan? I've been out of touch I guess.

The two don't sound anything alike to me

I like Corgan but he hasn’t yet written a single song that sold 30 million albums. Envious much, Billy?

I get the sense that ego head Corgan wishes he had written the huge hit Teen Spirit.

Story doesn’t add up. They played more than a feeling live at reading. You don’t hear this happen when you go to listen to the live bootlegs of the only Tokyo show nirvana ever played.

who the fuck calls him William Patrick Corgan?

100 years from now the Pumpkins will be lost to time, but Nirvana will be remembered in the same way we remember Mozart. Dude is jelly.

Smashing pumpkins forever living in the shadow of Nirvana and Corgan cannot fathom how jealous he is of that

Fat Joe lost a few pounds and that Puerto Rican accent?

Its crazy how jealous he is of Nirvana and Kurt. Not only from music but because of Courtney as well.

I think Billy Corgan kind of copy that song with Bullet Butterfly Wings

Every time this guy speaks it's an opportunity for him to shade someone. Such a turn-off.

What a jealous individual

The more he talks the less I can stand the music.

0:26 Lies i bet.. his hatred is so obvious here. I bet what he really thought when he first heard teen spirit would've been 'damnit! Why didn't I think of this!!'

Don't see the connection between the two songs. AT ALL.