You’ll have spotted that S-WC has switched days this week, with yesterday not only marking his contribution to T(n)VV but also his 39th birthday and the official launch of his own blog, When You Can’t Remember Anything.
He’s opened up proceedings with a cracking piece of writing about the frustrations of not quite being 18 years old and thus being denied entry into any decent local pubs and the music he’s associated with that tale comes from Smashing Pumpkins and in particular their 1992 LP Siamese Dream.
It’s an LP I’ve a lot of time for…indeed the band are one of my guilty secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed them at their creative and critical peak in the 90s and in fact going to see them in Glasgow on the Mellon Collie tour marks the last time I ever threw myself with gay abandon into a mosh pit – I came out a bit battered, bruised and hard of hearing with an acceptance that having long passed into my 30s I had no chance of surviving with the young pups down the front anymore.
I’ve pulled out one of the singles from Siamese Dream for your enjoyment today.
Disarm was the third 45 lifted from the LP and rather unusually, it outsold the two earlier singles, and in reaching #11 in the UK charts was at that point in time their highest chart position for a single.
The other thing worth noting is that the single did well despite a lack of airplay on BBC Radio and an outright ban on a Top of the Pops appearance as there was unease about the lyric ‘cut that little child’.
It was, like many others of that era, released in multi-formats including 7″ vinyl and 2 x CDs. I’ve one of the CDs in the collection which, in addition to the single also has two cover versions from giants of the 70s rock industry – Fleetwood Mac and Thin Lizzy:-
mp3 : Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm
mp3 : Smashing Pumpkins – Landslide
mp3 : Smashing Pumpkins – Dancing In The Moonlight
The latter is a particularly effective and lovely cover, taking a soft rock/pop song and turning into a poignant and heartfelt ballad for a lonely teenager.
Enjoy
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 