Today Disarm Mayonaise Zero The Smashing Pumpkins

Today Album: Siamese Dream (1993)
Disarm Album: Siamese Dream (1993)
Mayonaise Album: Siamese Dream (1993)
Zero Album: Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995)
The Smashing Pumpkins

Best line of movie IMHO... "Lithium is no longer available on credit..." Mental Hospital PA System
Runner Up... "Where ever you go, there you are..." Buckaroo Bonzai

"Today" reflects the mood of lead singer Billy Corgan, who was very depressed when he wrote it. Corgan was in therapy, suffering from writer's block, and struggling with expectations that Smashing Pumpkins would be the next Nirvana.

With the lyric, "today is the greatest day," some listeners misinterpreted this as a hopeful song, when it was just the opposite. Billy Corgan said: "I was really suicidal. I just thought it was funny to write a song that said today is the greatest day of your life because it can't get any worse."

Corgan played almost all the instruments on Today, partly because he was a control freak and partly because drummer Jimmy Chamberlain was unreliable due to drug problems.

The record company put a lot of pressure on the band to complete the Siamese Dream album, which put Corgan in a tough spot because he was having trouble writing songs. "Today" came to him pretty quickly and his demo appeased the record company because they thought it would be a hit.

Corgan never thought much of Today. He considered it a light pop song, even though many listeners thought it was quite meaningful.

In America, Today wasn't released as a single, since Virgin Records wanted fans to buy the album, not just the one song. It was issued to radio stations as a promotional single, where it got significant airplay alongside heavy rotation on MTV. Smashing Pumpkins were still considered a "college radio" band at the time, but this song reached a wider audience and set the stage for their breakout album Mellon Collie and the
Infinite Sadness, released in 1995.

Billboard's rules (amended in 1996) stated that any song not for sale as a single was not eligible for the Hot 100, so Today never appeared on that chart. It did show up at #69 on the Airplay chart, however, a reflection of the band becoming radio-friendly for the first time. Their singles "Disarm" (#48) and "Landslide" (#30) also made that chart.

The video for Today was directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, a French photographer who directed some very vibrant videos for Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Give It Away"), Garbage ("Queer") and U2 ("Mysterious Ways").

In the "Today" video, Billy Corgan plays the role of a guy who takes an ice cream van into the desert (on his uniform, his name is spelled "Billie"). Part of it was shot at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley, California in a homage to the 1970 film Zabriskie Point.

Corgan says he remembers a time when he was younger and the local ice cream man decided that today would be the day that he quit, so he drove around the neighborhood giving free ice cream to all the kids. At the start of the video this is echoed when Billy's character gives smiling children free treats, then drives off on his wild ride.

The album Siamese Dream was produced by Butch Vig, who worked with Nirvana and was one of the first to use Pro Tools software to record and mix directly into a computer. He is also the drummer for Garbage.

Smashing Pumpkins performed Today on Saturday Night Live on October 30, 1993.

"Today" soundtracks the trailer for the 2023 Netflix series Beef. The song was originally slated for the first episode.

Another Pumpkins song, "Mayonaise," appears in the last episode of season 1... but that ain't next...

Disarm's author Billy Corgan was quoted in an interview about "Disarm" as saying, "I never really had the guts to kill my parents, so I wrote a song about it instead." When he wrote this song, he was at a point where he was really angry at his parents for always making him feel lower than he really was.

The album climbed to #10 on the Billboard charts based on radio friendly songs like this, "Today," and "Cherub Rock."
This single did well on Modern Rock charts, but Smashing Pumpkins didn't really hit the mainstream until their album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, released in 1995.

The video for Disarm was shot in crisp black and white, and was a very serious and artistic video. This was in sharp contrast to the video for "Today" which featured a lot of color and a group of kids just having fun.

Corgan has described Disarm as being "about my childhood and how I turned into an a--hole." Can relate.

Disarm was the third single off Siamese Dream after "Cherub Rock" and "Today." It was one of the most played songs on the radio in 1994.

One interpretation for the lyrics of Disarm is that they are about abortion. With that interpretation, the singer and his girlfriend are making the decision to kill their unborn child.

The band played a heavy electric version of Disarm at the MTV Music Video Awards in 1994.

Disarm was covered by the alternative folk band, The Civil Wars, for their eponymous second album. The Civil Wars comprise Joy Williams and John Paul White and it was Williams' husband, Nate Yetto, who suggested they record a version. The duo worked it out the same day that they wrote "Oh Henry" in the mountains of Salt Lake City during the Sundance Festival.

Billy Corgan got the title for Mayonaise after looking in his refrigerator. Corgan had many interesting names for songs. He said this about coming up with titles: "Say you write a song about a chandelier, and the chandelier gives off light. And the light is the color red and red reminds you of the color your not supposed to wear around a bull. So you name the song 'Cow.'"

The title is not the correct way to spell "Mayonnaise." Corgan also used alternate spellings with the song "Galapogos" (Galapagos) and the album Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (Melancholy)... can relate...

According to Billy Corgan, when he wrote the lyrics to Mayonaise he just "threw together a bunch of weird one liners." He says that while the song doesn't have any continuity, it later made some sense to him, as he could see that it reflected what he was going through at the time.

In 1756 a sauce made from olive oil and egg yolks was invented by the French chef of Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu. While the Duke was defeating the British at the successful siege of the English-held St. Philip's Castle, his chef was creating a victory feast that included a sauce made of cream and eggs. When the chef realized that there was no cream in the kitchen, he improvised, substituting olive oil for the cream. Located in Mahón, port city and the capital of Minorca, the successful siege had resulted in the French's gain of the entire island. The chef named the new sauce "Mahonnaise," (or mayonnaise) in honor of the Duke's victory. (From the book Food for Thought: Extraordinary Little Chronicles of the World by Ed Pearce)

The distinctive guitar sound for Mayonaise came about in a very lo-tech fashion. Corgan explained: "The origin of the squealing high note was, I bought this guitar for $65, and it was such a cheap guitar that every time I'd stop playing it would make that whistle. So when we wrote the song, we wrote in these parts that would stop so the whistle became part of the song because every time I would stop it would whistle."

"Mayonaise" plays at the end of the last episode in the first season of the 2023 Netflix series Beef, "Figures Of Light." It's one of several tracks from the '90s and '00s that got a big bump in streaming from the show as viewers quickly Shazamed the songs. Other tracks on the first-season soundtrack include "Lonely Day" by System Of A Down and "Self Esteem" by The Offspring. A different Smashing Pumpkins song, "Today," plays in the trailer.

Zero relates to Billy Corgan's condition of apathy. The lyrics, "Intoxicated with the madness, I'm in love with my sadness," demonstrate how he does not have the feelings or emotions he desired, and is in love with something that he can't have.

A theme of Zero is heaven's unresponsiveness to prayers. It says to save your prayers for when you're really going to need them.

The band played a portion of Zero when they made their cameo on The Simpsons.

Billy Corgan often wore a black shirt with the word "ZERO" printed across the front. The shirt was usually accompanied by silver pants, and was worn in the "Bullet With Butterfly Wings video.