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- [00:00]
A
Sa. They're playing our Song, the podcast where we make your song our song. I'm Robert Berry Crews. I'm your host, and I'm joined again by my lovely wife, Diana. Hi, Diana.
- [00:38]
B
Hello.
- [00:38]
A
Thank you so much for coming again. So the purpose of this show is to talk about songs that are other people's songs. But given the fact that this is kind of an amateur production, sometimes we're going to talk about songs that are my song or Diana's song. So today we're going to actually dig deep into my back catalog and talk about Tonight. Tonight by the Smashing Pumpkins. Now, this song came out on their 1996 album Melancholy in the Infinite Sadness. You might remember it if you grew up in the 90s with that kind of cherub on the frond big double album. It is really notable for being, as Rolling Stones called it, the Pumpkins at their finest. If you aren't really a big grunge person, the Smashing Pumpkins were sort of one of the big trifecta of the, you know, kind of post Nirvana wave of music coming out. This song was pretty popular, both for itself and also for the music video, which we will talk about a little bit later. Now, Diana, I know this is kind of my song. So we sort of talked about how we're going to do this, so I figured we'll just kind of do our musical notes like we normally would, and then we'll sort of just. Just talk about. Kind of talk about the song. So hopefully I won't take all the conversation away. One of the reasons I love this song, sort of like we talked about last time when we talked about round here, is it really came out at a very important time in my life. I was a teenager and I was just starting to listen to music. This was not the first CD I bought. I actually didn't own the CD for a long time, but I had a friend who would always let me play it when we drive somewhere in their car and we go to play practice or debate meet or whatever it was. And I'm like, oh, why don't we listen to this? And after a while, they knew I was gonna ask for it, so I had to try to be more subtle. Like, I don't know, guys, maybe we could listen to Smashing Pumpkins. I don't think I actually owned this till I was about 18, so many years later, but I liked listening to it. And then this one is this song especially. So that's really the first time I heard this song, I think, just sort of riding around and some. Oh, listen to this. Why don't you listen to this album? And it just. It seemed very different than anything I been listening to. Was this something that you listened to back then, Diane, or something you heard later on?
- [02:54]
B
I did hear it back then. My friend Kim's brother had this album.
- [03:02]
A
End of anecdote. Okay. Now, one of the things I think is really cool about the album as a whole, but this song especially is the shifts that it takes between sort of a. Like a grungy hard rock sound and the sound of tonight. Tonight, this big orchestral sound. You know, you've got the guitar, James E. Hawn guitar. You've got sort of the light plucking. You've got the Chicago Symphony Orchestra playing in the background. If you'd been listening to the album as a whole, you heard the very first song was, you know, piano Melody. The song right after this goes right into kind of that hard rock, you know, screaming, wailing guitars and. And that kind of is the album. It's sort of all over the place. I prefer these songs myself. I'm a huge fan of anything. If you've got an orchestra in the background, I probably will enjoy your song to some extent. I don't know. Diana, have you ever been a big Billy Corgan lyrics person? I know you. You have a huge background with poetry. And I know that's usually what he seems to think he's writing. I don't know if it's always true.
- [04:03]
B
I do like some of his lyrics. I like. Oh, which song is it? Zero, I think.
- [04:09]
A
Oh, Emptiness is something that's only.
- [04:12]
B
Yeah, that one always stood out to me.
- [04:13]
A
Yeah.
- [04:14]
B
Yeah.
- [04:15]
A
You know, he put out a book of poetry at one point.
- [04:17]
B
I didn't read that. I don't need to read that. And I also didn't read Jim Morrison's book of poetry either, or Jules.
- [04:27]
A
Oh, now you miss Jules. A lot of musical people who then went into poetry, I guess he thought very highly of them. I sometimes have a hard time understanding Billy Corgan's lyrics. This song, I think I know all the words too. And I looked up the lyrics and posted them on the website before as a preview for this episode. Do any of them stand out to you? Or do any of them mean anything to you?
- [04:55]
B
I like the Crucify the Insincere Tonight.
- [04:58]
A
I think that's a nice line. Yeah. I really enjoy sort of at the end, when there's that sort of, you know, the repetition, you know, Impossible is possible tonight Believe in me as I believe in you I think it certainly adds a lot. You know, the whole song feels like it's always building. Like the entire song seems to be soon building, building, building. And it kind of pulls it back with like a quiet, quiet little plucks. And then it kind of keeps building and building. And I really love how the music and the lyrics at the very end sort of go together to build up to that. Believe in me as I believe in you and then, you know, back down, back down to quiet. It's certainly one of those. I guess it would be kind of like a. Like a pixie ish thing where you have, like, loud and then soft. I know that's one of the things that Nirvana did a lot, too. Get loud and then get soft and loud and get soft and really kind of draw you in and then, you know, kind of blow out your ears with the notes. That's probably the favorite part of my song. Do you have a favorite part of this song? I've made you listen to it a lot. Not just before this episode, but I
- [06:00]
B
know it's the end. It's probably crescendo.
- [06:05]
A
Yeah. Something about a crescendo. Something about a crescendo. Too quiet. I think that was kind of cool to have on your song. Now, this is a band that I know I really loved. I loved them back in the 90s. I remember the first time they broke up. It was really depressing because it's probably one of the first bands that I listened to consistently that sort of had broken up. And then they've come back and they've had some online albums with different band members. Usually Billy Corgan is there, sometimes Jimmy Chamberlain, the drummer, is there. But really, after their first couple albums, their next album was pretty good. But nothing ever really captured this sound. I think this was like Rolling Stone. Like I said at the beginning, this is the Smashing Pumpkins. You know, if you're thinking about Smashing Pumpkins, you're thinking about their previous album, Siamese Dream, which is probably a better album overall. It's a little more cohesive. Or you're thinking about Melancholy, the Infinite Sadness. Most people are thinking about that. Did you own that? Did you own that album?
- [07:06]
B
I don't think I did, no.
- [07:08]
A
You remembered, like, Zero. You remember some of the other tracks?
- [07:11]
B
No, I watched the songs.
- [07:13]
A
There's a lot. I mean, there's a lot of good songs on that album. I know 1979 is another one of my favorites.
- [07:20]
B
Rat in a Cage.
- [07:20]
A
Rat. Yeah, that's Zero. No, that's Bullet with Butterfly Wings.
- [07:25]
B
Maybe.
- [07:25]
A
I don't know. Lyrics don't always go with the song titles.
- [07:29]
B
I like the louder ones.
- [07:31]
A
I did not know that you would prefer the louder ones.
- [07:33]
B
Well, he looks like a vampire, so he does. His songs should probably be scary and loud.
- [07:38]
A
Yeah. I remember there was a period where Billy Corgan, he used to have really long hair back in their first couple albums. And then he's said something about, you know, I don't want people to judge me by my hair or, you know, think I'm Eddie Vedder, you know, kind of that. That sort of grunge hairstyle. So he started kind of cutting his hair and cutting his hair, and now, you know, he's got the shaved head. You sort of wonder if maybe he went bald or else he was making a statement. It could have been either one, I suppose. Now I know in terms of why this is why I would say this is my song. A lot of it has to do with the music and to some extent, the lyrics. The time in my life kind of we talked about last week around here. The time in my life that I heard it, that I don't hear a lot of songs that sound like this. So when I tell people, oh, I love this song, you play it to people. You're not just playing. Oh, it's just sort of, you know, pap. It's something that most people probably aren't listening to on a regular basis or in some cases have maybe never heard a song that sounds quite like this. So I guess my job, since it's my song this week, kind of to convince you of that. So it's a song. I know you've heard it before. You've heard songs like that. I know what type of music you like, but if you had never heard it before, I think that's where I'd start. I don't think you've heard anything quite like this, that kind of rock and roll symphony. I know bands have done this way before, you know, all the way back. And the Beatles had songs that kind of had similar sounds. But this one is a little bit more modern. And I don't think we can really talk about the song without. Without talking about the corresponding music video for this song. Now that I don't know if you had seen.
- [09:11]
B
That's the one where there's. Are they floating on clouds and there's like, windows that they're looking through?
- [09:18]
A
Yes, it's the.
- [09:20]
B
Are you wearing a top hat?
- [09:21]
A
Yes. It's sort of a take on the very, very old, early 1900s old trip to the Moon. Where they fly up and there's a creepy moon face and they shoot themselves out of a bullet rocket. Very kind of Jules Verne esque. Yes. And I know we watch. I have this on dvd. I have old Smashing Pumpkins music video dvd. Ask parents about those kids. That used to be a thing. And I remember we, you know, I was like, we gotta watch all these. And this is definitely one of those, oh, come on, let's watch this. I think I made our son Owen watch it once. I don't know if he was impressed. But it's just one of those that if I think about it, whoever's near me, I'm going to say, have you seen that video? And if they say no, oh, well, you gotta watch it. If they say yes, oh, well, we should watch it again. I know that the song goes so well with it. You know, that kind of aesthetic. And you've got all the Smashing Pumpkins band members and they're wearing kind of old tiny clothes to match the rest of the video. Now, I have some fun facts. They're very fun. You're gonna like these. The first fact was when they made this video, which won a ton of music video awards back when that was a thing, when they were making this video, they needed old timey period pieces. And the video was made around 96, 97, which was also when Titanic was being filmed. So they had a very hard time finding period piece costumes for this because James Cameron had taken all the costumes from that time period to make Titanic. The directors of the video, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Farris, they made a bunch of other Smashing Pumpkins videos. They made some other music videos. But they actually are somewhat well known for their movie Little Miss Sunshine, which I think if you've seen that movie and then watched a lot of their other videos, especially it was 1979, I think they did 1979. You sort of get a sense of their style as directors. Is that the ice cream truck video that's today? And finally, I did not know this at all. It made sense when I saw it. But did you know who played the part of the man and the woman who go up on the rocket ship and have kind of the magical adventures during the song? No, it was Tom Kenny and Jill Talley. So husband and wife team. They were on Mr. Show with Bob and David back then. But you probably know Tom Kenny as a voice actor. He's the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants. So before he was SpongeBob SquarePants, he was in music videos. So that's why I like this song. It's a special song. If you haven't checked out the music video, I posted it on the website. Please, please, please do if you run into me. Because so far, the only people who listen to the show are people I know. I am gonna make you watch it again, so you probably should watch it first so you can tell me all about it. I don't have to make you watch it again. Just. Absolutely fabulous song. I did also look up what the song was supposed to mean because I never knew what it was. Yeah, it apparently was about Billy Corgan writing about his childhood and how he got out of some bad situations. I think he put. I think he said, like, abusive. Referred to abusive situations and sort of moved on with his life. Which, when you. When you look at the lyrics, you know, believe in Me as I Believe in youn does have that kind of an optimistic bent to it. I really just thought it was words, you know, describing a place. But I think really was a more personal song than I ever. I ever thought about it.
- [12:41]
B
That's cool.
- [12:42]
A
So lots of fun facts in this me talking at you episode of this so tonight. Tonight, if you have not purchased it or listened to it or watched the video or you don't know this song, please, please get to know it. It is my song. I really, really hope now it is your song as well. So that's it for the show. So I think we'll be back. We have a couple guests lined up. So we'll be back with some other songs and then get to hear a little bit more about some of Diana's favorite songs as you continue into our oeuvre. I was told we need some more inside jokes or recurrent running gags. I don't have any because we've only had two episodes. That's what I told. We did get a fan letter, or maybe not a fan letter. We did get a nice letter from someone talking about that he appreciated that we were putting a show together about this. So thank you, Charles. If you are listening to this, thank you very much for your letter. It is really nice to hear somebody from outside the group of people I know who have listened to this. We appreciate it. Yeah. If you like our podcast, Big news. Since our last episode, we are on itunes. I sort of thought they might kick us off or ban us, but we are there. So if you'd like to subscribe to us on itunes, you can go to itunes and search for they're playing our song. It will pop right up. You'll see a great picture and and you can click there and subscribe to our podcast. Please do. You can certainly go visit our webpage at www.playingrsong.net where we have links to purchase the song, usually the music video, the lyrics, and then I'll usually try to put up an article or two after the fact. Like I said in our last post, the point of this podcast is not for me to do a ton of research. I like to get a couple facts. But the point's not for us to have tons of research to tell you what other people said. This is new media, folks. So we want to know how people feel about things, not what they know about things. You can check out our Facebook page and like us on facebook@facebook.com playingoursong.net you can follow us on Twitter playingoursong. If you'd really like to be on the show or you'd like to send us a note about anything, please don't hesitate. Send an email to robayingoursong.net if you don't want to be in the show but you want us to talk about a song that you really like, we certainly could do that too. We're not averse to pretty much anything at this. We've only had two episodes, so our format is still somewhat in flux. Well, Diana, again, thank you so much for being here. Do you have anything you want to plug this week?
- [15:04]
B
Nope.
- [15:04]
A
No? Still nothing?
- [15:05]
B
Nope.
- [15:06]
A
Okay, well, thank you. I would plug. Diana made some cookies. They smell really good. I don't think they are for me. I believe they are for work, but
- [15:13]
B
I bought enough to make two batches. But I've only made one for today.
- [15:18]
A
Well, thank you for taking time out of your baking to do this silly thing with me. I really appreciate it. Alright everyone, well, thanks so much for listening and until next time, remember it's your song. So play it long and play it loud. Take care everyone. Bye. Tonight, tonight, tonight,
- [15:55]
B
tonight.