Yo, this be Reuben. Forget I was ever here? I don’t blame you. As per, all apologies for my frequent absence from this site. Maybe once school finishes for the summer I’ll write some more. Anyway, I thought I’d get the ball rolling a bit with a quick li’l RRR, which is exactly the same as Milo’s MMM series, but BETTER.
Whether that statement is true or not, this single by The Smashing Pumpkins is a fantastic song. Before hearing 1979, I knew little about the band other than the fact Billy Corgan’s a bit of a twonk with a naisly voice (mainly from The Simpsons, but yunno). I assumed it was all mopey rubbish, but I assumed wrong. Although I still don’t have a huge appreciation for the band’s overall work or their discography as of yet and I haven’t found many songs that have similar pulling power to this one, this single shows at least a sprinkling of why they’re considered in such great light and makes me want to try some more. Here’s the video:
From 1995’s Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, 1979 is just so damn chill. It’s one of those grungey songs that has a brilliant calming quality, with a steady mid-paced hi-hat driven beat running through the whole thing and dreamy guitars and vocal effects giving it a really unique and sleepy feel. The vocal melodies from Billy Corgan are catchy as hell and soothing, as in this instance at least his strange voice works as it weaves in and out of the threading guitars and soundscapes. There’s an interesting contrast in the song, too, between the general melancholy feel Corgan brings to the music and the care-free, youthful lyrics and blissful melodies. Moreover, the track’s got a comforting sense of familiarity to it, as it’s kinda cyclicle and has a repetitive nature, but it always does enough different to stay fresh.
At the end of the day, there’s little bells or whistles here, it’s just simple, free flowing music, and it encapsulates the time period in the song title perfectly. It took me a while to properly get into it, but this song could go up in my estimation more as one of the best songs of its decade.
Bringing redundant opinions to scrollers everywhere,
Reuben.
Stuff and That. 
Excellent tune, great shout. For me the Pumpkins was Gish and Siamese so by the time that 2CD set rolled out I was primed and ready and it was ambitious and good. The next ones too (I liked Adore). Actually, they don’t really have a bad record, they’re just different (and the same ya know?) so you won’t go too far wrong trying them out at any point in their discography. It doesn’t all sound like 1979 though!
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’ve tried a fair amount of their other songs, singles at least, and I really like Cherub Rock and Tonight, Tonight in particular. Planning to get my hands on Mellon Collie or maybe Siamese Dream, whichever is cheaper. Probably Mellon Collie because it has 1979 on it, haha.
LikeLike
You should be able to find cheap copies of both of those easily. They sold about a billion of them back in the day, lots of cast-off copies out there… Heck, I see them at my work now and again, for $1.50 (CAD)! Er, £0.85.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Damn! I shouldn’t be surprised haha, I guess they’re old classic albums and there’d be a hell of a lot of them in circulation. Maybe I’ll pick up both!
LikeLike
Maybe? Can’t go wrong. I’d say you need Gish, SD, MatIS and Adore for sure. The rest is up to taste.
LikeLiked by 1 person