Inspired by your article, here's my tracklist to reduce MCIS into a single album, fitting on an 80-minute CD or a 90-minute cassette.
I made two tracklists :
The first contains only the tracks from the official album.
But since the goal is also to create my ideal album in the format of a single album, while respecting the time constraint, I created my ideal with B-sides that are essential to me, as well as a few studio outtakes! And yes this is the second tracklist!
First of all, I should mention that I discovered MCIS exactly 30 years ago, during the Easter holidays of 1996 (I was listening to Radiohead, Oasis, Babylon Zoo, and Hole at the time). A friend and I went to the library, and he borrowed this album, which I didn't know. I was surprised to see how it was categorized, as the classification indicated that it was a mix of techno rock and heavy metal. My first question was: what was this oddity?
Back at my friend's place, we split the disc: my friend wanted to keep the pink disc because it had "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" on it (which I didn't know at all, but which my friend guaranteed was incredibly intense and amazing). And I went home with the blue disc. What a life-changing discovery that was: the hypnotic riff of "Where Boys Fear to Tread," followed by the raw power of "Bodies"... HUGE! I'd never heard a song so visceral. Goodbye Nirvana and Kurt Cobain; there was something even more tortured and sincere.
Then, when I got to "1979," I realized it was the song I'd been hearing on the radio for weeks, a song I thought was incredibly original, but whose title and band I didn't know! What a joy! And another mystery: who was the singer, really? I thought there were two of them: the Asian guy with the nasal vocals and the one in the ZERO T-shirt for everything else! It wasn't until the next day that my boyfriend explained who the singer was and played me the pink CD in his room so I could discover "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." He kept that CD for a few more days while I explored "Twilight to Starlight" and its moments of grace, violence, and originality ("We Only Come Out at Night" really struck me with its burlesque feel). That's why I've always had a soft spot for the blue CD, as it was my first introduction to the band!
This explains the rules I set for myself:
A/ My tracklist had to reflect MCIS as I loved it during my teenage years, not my more mature tastes today (even though my preferences have remained almost the same), and thus have that "smells like teen spirit" feel.
B/ My tracklist had to fit on a 90-minute cassette (I recorded so many back then), or an 80-minute CD.
C/ The baroque spirit of the album had to come through (as evoked by the booklet illustrations, and especially the lyric illustrations relating to the Lenormand divination deck—which my mother played and which allowed me to immediately embrace the booklet's concept, since I knew the origin of all the drawings illustrating the lyrics).
D/ Play on contrasts between gentle and harsh (like honey versus spurts of vitriol), and maintain this balance, so as not to deliver a condensed MCIS that's either too electric or too acoustic/pop.
E/ Some songs have their parallel between day and night (Galapogos / In the Arms of Sleep)
F/ Leave room for experimentation, but distribute it more evenly (it's true that the last 5 songs on the album are quite experimental and, this is one of my few criticisms of the album, leave a feeling of filler at the end and should have been better placed elsewhere on the album).
1/ EASY CUTS (I'm going to upset some people!)
Jellybelly :
It's not that I don't like it, but it's always left me cold: I find it rather messy and the production too closed off.
Muzzle :
And yes, everyone loves this one, well, not me, ha!
It's to MCIS what "Rocket" was to Siamese Dream: a filler track, unoriginal, and Billy's voice has always annoyed me.
Take Me Down :
Nice to close the first chapter, but irrelevant since it's not a Billy song.
Thirty-Three :
What?! I'm getting rid of one of the singles?! Yes, good song, I like it, but it's not essential to the MCIS "sound."
Stumbleine :
It's a demo, and there are other songs that are just as delicate and touching.
X.Y.U. :
The only exception in my list of easy cuts, because I listened to it a lot as a teenager, to the point of knowing every breath and sigh of Corgan amidst his screams.
But equally, I listened to "Tales of a Scorched Earth" (and my boyfriend and I would blast it on his parents' stereo because the sound was monstrous), and the latter seems less capricious to me than X.Y.U., and its violence is better controlled and impactful, whereas it gets a little lost on X.Y.U. And there's also the time constraint!
Lily :
Nice, nothing more.
2/ DIFFICULT CUTS
An Ode to No One :
What rage, what a sound! Still as infernal as ever! But it doesn't have that baroque feel as much as other equally furious tracks. A shame.
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans :
I've always preferred its nighttime counterpart, "Thru the Eyes of Ruby." But these plays on light and dark atmospheres really work well. And there's the time constraint. And having already kept two songs, each with its counterpart of the night and the day ("in the arms of sleep" / "Galapogos")...
Beautiful :
A beautiful experimental pop song where you can hear D'Arcy... But I struggled so much to include it that I finally gave up. Besides, there are other equally experimental songs on my tracklist ;-)
Farewell and Goodnight :
Since I had a preconceived idea for how to end the album, "Farewell" became redundant!
3/ MY CHOICES AND THE SEQUENCES I INTENDED
Infinite Sadness / Methusela :
And yes, what audacity to start the album with two outtakes! A deliberate choice, considering these two tracks were recorded at the very beginning of the MCIS sessions and that "Infinite Sadness" dates back to the Siamese Dream era! In my opinion, they reflect Corgan's state of mind at the start of the sessions ;-)
"Infinite Sadness" also has a pompous quality, like "Tonight, Tonight," and "Methuselah," with its dreamy melancholy, provides a counterpoint to the gentleness of the "MCIS" intro followed by the grandeur of "Tonight, Tonight."
And "Methusela" evokes morning so much for me!
Zero / Love :
Two "cyber metal" tracks, in different octaves but equally venomous (like the thorny rose in the liner notes). Both equally experimental.
Bodies :
Positioning it was quite difficult, but I was determined. Initially, I envisioned it right after "Tales of a Scorched Earth." But I felt there were too many tracks from "Dawn to Dusk" in a row at the beginning of my tracklist, so I wanted to balance it with songs from "Twilight to Starlight." And then, the revelation: the outro of "Love" and the intro of "Bodies" work wonderfully, and "Bodies" is propelled as much by "Love" as by "Tales" or "Where Boys Fear to Tread."
And in the end, "1979" follows "Tales" just as well (as it already does on the original vinyl tracklist).
Funny detail: changing the title from "Love" to "love is suicide" in the lyrics made sense!
In the Arms of Sleep / Cupid de Locke : One is written in verse, the other in Old English from the Baroque era. What could be more Baroque? And the dreamy, melancholic joy that emanates from their delicate arpeggios? Two celestial songs.
Rotten Apples :
Its mellotron (which can be heard in so many Pumpkins songs—and which created their signature sound in ballads—especially "Spaceboy") is simply magnificent and, for me, evokes a purely baroque moment. This song alone is a pure contrast: the purity and gentleness of the mellotron against a raging vocal performance, , it perfectly encapsulates the album's contrasts. This demo is clearly superior to "Stumbleine"...
Bullet with Butterfly Wings / We Only Come Out at Night :
A big thumbs-down to those (and there are many) who don't like "We Only Come Out at Night," but I've always loved that one!And I've always thought that the mini slide at the end of "Bullet" would be perfectly followed by the burlesque intro of "We Only Come Out at Night"! A way to create a new contrast between a heavy song and a light song (even if the lyrics aren't light!). Completely gratuitous parallel: both songs share the bat as an illustration for their lyrics ;-)
Set the Ray to Jerry :
Another celestial song—and there are so many stars depicted in the artwork and on the album, aren't there? ;-) Every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm in a starry sky alongside the planets and our friend on the cover. If I had to represent the album cover with a song, it would be this one.
Evoking the night, I found its suspended ending an interesting way to introduce "Tonight, Tonight." Which goes to show that "Tonight, Tonight" can be introduced by something other than "MCIS"!
And placing it right after "Where Boys Fear to Tread" created a contrast: two suspended songs—one abyssal and electric, the other celestial and semi-acoustic—allowing the red carpet to be rolled out for the grand finale, "Tonight, Tonight," and its Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, making it a truly magnificent ending!
And if you pay attention to the titles that follow one another, we have 3 songs that make up a phrase: We only come out at night, where boys fear to tread tonight;-)
"Medellia of the Gray Skies" / "By Starlight" : Hidden songs
My guilty pleasure: hidden tracks. "By Starlight" and its fade-in are perfect for creating a final surprise.
And on my version with B-sides and outtakes, "Medellia of the Gray Skies" is also a splendid hidden track before "By Starlight." And it was perfectly acceptable to include it, even though Medellia was actually recorded two months after the album's release ;-)
Inspired by your article, here's my tracklist to reduce MCIS into a single album, fitting on an 80-minute CD or a 90-minute cassette.
I made two tracklists :
The first contains only the tracks from the official album.
But since the goal is also to create my ideal album in the format of a single album, while respecting the time constraint, I created my ideal with B-sides that are essential to me, as well as a few studio outtakes! And yes this is the second tracklist!
First of all, I should mention that I discovered MCIS exactly 30 years ago, during the Easter holidays of 1996 (I was listening to Radiohead, Oasis, Babylon Zoo, and Hole at the time). A friend and I went to the library, and he borrowed this album, which I didn't know. I was surprised to see how it was categorized, as the classification indicated that it was a mix of techno rock and heavy metal. My first question was: what was this oddity?
Back at my friend's place, we split the disc: my friend wanted to keep the pink disc because it had "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" on it (which I didn't know at all, but which my friend guaranteed was incredibly intense and amazing). And I went home with the blue disc. What a life-changing discovery that was: the hypnotic riff of "Where Boys Fear to Tread," followed by the raw power of "Bodies"... HUGE! I'd never heard a song so visceral. Goodbye Nirvana and Kurt Cobain; there was something even more tortured and sincere.
Then, when I got to "1979," I realized it was the song I'd been hearing on the radio for weeks, a song I thought was incredibly original, but whose title and band I didn't know! What a joy! And another mystery: who was the singer, really? I thought there were two of them: the Asian guy with the nasal vocals and the one in the ZERO T-shirt for everything else! It wasn't until the next day that my boyfriend explained who the singer was and played me the pink CD in his room so I could discover "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." He kept that CD for a few more days while I explored "Twilight to Starlight" and its moments of grace, violence, and originality ("We Only Come Out at Night" really struck me with its burlesque feel). That's why I've always had a soft spot for the blue CD, as it was my first introduction to the band!
This explains the rules I set for myself:
A/ My tracklist had to reflect MCIS as I loved it during my teenage years, not my more mature tastes today (even though my preferences have remained almost the same), and thus have that "smells like teen spirit" feel.
B/ My tracklist had to fit on a 90-minute cassette (I recorded so many back then), or an 80-minute CD.
C/ The baroque spirit of the album had to come through (as evoked by the booklet illustrations, and especially the lyric illustrations relating to the Lenormand divination deck—which my mother played and which allowed me to immediately embrace the booklet's concept, since I knew the origin of all the drawings illustrating the lyrics).
D/ Play on contrasts between gentle and harsh (like honey versus spurts of vitriol), and maintain this balance, so as not to deliver a condensed MCIS that's either too electric or too acoustic/pop.
E/ Some songs have their parallel between day and night (Galapogos / In the Arms of Sleep)
F/ Leave room for experimentation, but distribute it more evenly (it's true that the last 5 songs on the album are quite experimental and, this is one of my few criticisms of the album, leave a feeling of filler at the end and should have been better placed elsewhere on the album).
1/ EASY CUTS (I'm going to upset some people!)
Jellybelly :
It's not that I don't like it, but it's always left me cold: I find it rather messy and the production too closed off.
Muzzle :
And yes, everyone loves this one, well, not me, ha!
It's to MCIS what "Rocket" was to Siamese Dream: a filler track, unoriginal, and Billy's voice has always annoyed me.
Take Me Down :
Nice to close the first chapter, but irrelevant since it's not a Billy song.
Thirty-Three :
What?! I'm getting rid of one of the singles?! Yes, good song, I like it, but it's not essential to the MCIS "sound."
Stumbleine :
It's a demo, and there are other songs that are just as delicate and touching.
X.Y.U. :
The only exception in my list of easy cuts, because I listened to it a lot as a teenager, to the point of knowing every breath and sigh of Corgan amidst his screams.
But equally, I listened to "Tales of a Scorched Earth" (and my boyfriend and I would blast it on his parents' stereo because the sound was monstrous), and the latter seems less capricious to me than X.Y.U., and its violence is better controlled and impactful, whereas it gets a little lost on X.Y.U. And there's also the time constraint!
Lily :
Nice, nothing more.
2/ DIFFICULT CUTS
An Ode to No One :
What rage, what a sound! Still as infernal as ever! But it doesn't have that baroque feel as much as other equally furious tracks. A shame.
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans :
I've always preferred its nighttime counterpart, "Thru the Eyes of Ruby." But these plays on light and dark atmospheres really work well. And there's the time constraint. And having already kept two songs, each with its counterpart of the night and the day ("in the arms of sleep" / "Galapogos")...
Beautiful :
A beautiful experimental pop song where you can hear D'Arcy... But I struggled so much to include it that I finally gave up. Besides, there are other equally experimental songs on my tracklist ;-)
Farewell and Goodnight :
Since I had a preconceived idea for how to end the album, "Farewell" became redundant!
3/ MY CHOICES AND THE SEQUENCES I INTENDED
Infinite Sadness / Methusela :
And yes, what audacity to start the album with two outtakes! A deliberate choice, considering these two tracks were recorded at the very beginning of the MCIS sessions and that "Infinite Sadness" dates back to the Siamese Dream era! In my opinion, they reflect Corgan's state of mind at the start of the sessions ;-)
"Infinite Sadness" also has a pompous quality, like "Tonight, Tonight," and "Methuselah," with its dreamy melancholy, provides a counterpoint to the gentleness of the "MCIS" intro followed by the grandeur of "Tonight, Tonight."
And "Methusela" evokes morning so much for me!
Zero / Love :
Two "cyber metal" tracks, in different octaves but equally venomous (like the thorny rose in the liner notes). Both equally experimental.
Bodies :
Positioning it was quite difficult, but I was determined. Initially, I envisioned it right after "Tales of a Scorched Earth." But I felt there were too many tracks from "Dawn to Dusk" in a row at the beginning of my tracklist, so I wanted to balance it with songs from "Twilight to Starlight." And then, the revelation: the outro of "Love" and the intro of "Bodies" work wonderfully, and "Bodies" is propelled as much by "Love" as by "Tales" or "Where Boys Fear to Tread."
And in the end, "1979" follows "Tales" just as well (as it already does on the original vinyl tracklist).
Funny detail: changing the title from "Love" to "love is suicide" in the lyrics made sense!
In the Arms of Sleep / Cupid de Locke : One is written in verse, the other in Old English from the Baroque era. What could be more Baroque? And the dreamy, melancholic joy that emanates from their delicate arpeggios? Two celestial songs.
Rotten Apples :
Its mellotron (which can be heard in so many Pumpkins songs—and which created their signature sound in ballads—especially "Spaceboy") is simply magnificent and, for me, evokes a purely baroque moment. This song alone is a pure contrast: the purity and gentleness of the mellotron against a raging vocal performance, , it perfectly encapsulates the album's contrasts. This demo is clearly superior to "Stumbleine"...
Bullet with Butterfly Wings / We Only Come Out at Night :
A big thumbs-down to those (and there are many) who don't like "We Only Come Out at Night," but I've always loved that one!And I've always thought that the mini slide at the end of "Bullet" would be perfectly followed by the burlesque intro of "We Only Come Out at Night"! A way to create a new contrast between a heavy song and a light song (even if the lyrics aren't light!). Completely gratuitous parallel: both songs share the bat as an illustration for their lyrics ;-)
Set the Ray to Jerry :
Another celestial song—and there are so many stars depicted in the artwork and on the album, aren't there? ;-) Every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm in a starry sky alongside the planets and our friend on the cover. If I had to represent the album cover with a song, it would be this one.
Evoking the night, I found its suspended ending an interesting way to introduce "Tonight, Tonight." Which goes to show that "Tonight, Tonight" can be introduced by something other than "MCIS"!
And placing it right after "Where Boys Fear to Tread" created a contrast: two suspended songs—one abyssal and electric, the other celestial and semi-acoustic—allowing the red carpet to be rolled out for the grand finale, "Tonight, Tonight," and its Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, making it a truly magnificent ending!
And if you pay attention to the titles that follow one another, we have 3 songs that make up a phrase: We only come out at night, where boys fear to tread tonight;-)
"Medellia of the Gray Skies" / "By Starlight" : Hidden songs
My guilty pleasure: hidden tracks. "By Starlight" and its fade-in are perfect for creating a final surprise.
And on my version with B-sides and outtakes, "Medellia of the Gray Skies" is also a splendid hidden track before "By Starlight." And it was perfectly acceptable to include it, even though Medellia was actually recorded two months after the album's release ;-)
I'm delighted to have discovered this fantastic article and this stylistic exercise in reinterpreting MCIS.
I feel less alone now, as I had created an "MCIS extended" by adding a few B-sides that I thought were good enough and fit the album's vibe. But I was thinking, "Dude, you're such a geek, your passion for this album really takes you to extremes." So, thanks for this article!
So, I'll be sharing the track listing for my "extended" version here very soon, along with my reasons. But I'm waiting until I've finalized my shortened MCIS (in two versions: one with B-sides that fits on a 90-minute cassette, and another without B-sides that fits on an 80-minute CD). I should post that next week, along with my explanations. The criteria I've already considered are: my personal, "teenage" taste for the songs I listened to most 30 years ago that have aged well, the day/night and gentle/violent contrast, but also songs that have day and night counterparts (Galapogoe and ITAOS, for example). A little patience, folks, because I'm really working on it in the evenings after work and doing it well. Let's develop my ideas...and you'll have some surprises. Teaser: there will be "ITAOS" and "Love" ;-)
I totally admire the concept of this project, and I think you made really thoughtful decisions and backed them up with simple and logical explanations. If Billy had you guys as producers, this would have been a stronger album. I absolutely adore this album, but it is definitely bloated. But the bloat doesn't bother me; in fact, it's sort of part of the concept. It's a dreamy, bipolar record that perfectly captures the madness and self-indulgence of the teenage mind.
This version is more palatable and more along the lines of a "perfect" album, like Siamese Dream, or even Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" or "Animals". Well done!!
After listening, and reading your article again, I have to chime in with my personal opinion once more.
I think your choice of Stumbleine (and Billy's for that matter) is the only glaring error in this track list. While I think it's a very strong song, perhaps one of the best on Mellon Collie, I would not have included it for a few reasons. Mainly, I think the quality of the recording removes it from contention. It's a Sadlands demo, and it should never have been included in my opinion. It should have at least been re-recorded with the same arrangement. The tape dropouts (listen on headphones to the guitar shifting around the stereo field) are a dead giveaway of a low quality 4-track demo. Some artists get demo-itis, falling in love with their performance or production elements from their demo. If I had to guess, Billy probably felt he couldn't do better with his vocal performance, emotionally. Secondly, it's simply not strong enough to start the second side. WBFTT is an absolutely legendary disc/side opening track. It's perfectly slotted in as the first song of the second disc of the original.
Next point, I agree with most of your cuts, with the biggest exception being "In The Arms Of Sleep". This is not only an absolutely perfectly written song (the form is masterful), but it's arranged/produced with such a soft and haunting mood, that really enhances the song. The lyrics, the chords, the understated drums, the ebow guitars, and the bass line are so well-crafted and executed. I'm especially intrigued by the bass in this song. I recently used AI stem separation to analyze it, and there's here's really interesting factoid. In the main section (when the drums and bass kick in), the pitch of the third note of the bass line was digitally altered from G (root of the first chord), to A. This is out of key for the song, and is used as a passing tone to the F chord, the second chord of the main progression. But in the key of Eb, the second degree chord (F) is a minor chord, it's third would be Ab. Or if you consider it the second degree of the Gmin chord, it's been raised to a sharp 2. It's a very dissonant sound. Theoretically it should sound very unpleasant and out of place. The whole song is in Eb, all the chord choices indicate this (Gmin is the iii chord, Fmin is the ii chord, for example).
I just found it to be a cool tidbit, almost certainly done by Billy in post-production. He just couldn't resist putting his fingerprints on Darcy's bass part. Maybe he had a good reason for it(like it sounds cool and adds to the instability and eeriness of the song). If I ever meet him and have the opportunity to ask I'd love to know the answer. Ok, end theory rant.
I think I might have put ITAOS in place of Stumbleine. In the spirit of "b-sides are ok", Stumbleine belongs as a raw demo that never was really executed properly.
One more point. You mention an 80 minute CD. The Red Book standard (the official standard for CDs that all CD players must support) is 73 minutes and 33 seconds. I think I would not have worried about that. I would have used the "45 minute album" concept. 22-ish minutes per side of two LPs. It would have to be two CDs, but that would allow the CD and LP versions to align more closely (one CD per album).
OK, I'm done. Cheers and thank you for inspiring this conversation I'm having with myself :)
What a strange article. Sadly, this is what they had to do for machina. The actual machina album was supposed to be very different and longer with a different order of tracks
Not sure that the current reissue vinyl tracklist is a different order, but the original vinyl is different at least in that it has one extra song (I've owned this on cassette, compact disc, and the reissue vinyl). If feels criminal to cut "Love". I get cutting "In the Arms Of Sleep," but it was the first song I ever performed at open mic.
Hi eveybody from France!
Inspired by your article, here's my tracklist to reduce MCIS into a single album, fitting on an 80-minute CD or a 90-minute cassette.
I made two tracklists :
The first contains only the tracks from the official album.
But since the goal is also to create my ideal album in the format of a single album, while respecting the time constraint, I created my ideal with B-sides that are essential to me, as well as a few studio outtakes! And yes this is the second tracklist!
First of all, I should mention that I discovered MCIS exactly 30 years ago, during the Easter holidays of 1996 (I was listening to Radiohead, Oasis, Babylon Zoo, and Hole at the time). A friend and I went to the library, and he borrowed this album, which I didn't know. I was surprised to see how it was categorized, as the classification indicated that it was a mix of techno rock and heavy metal. My first question was: what was this oddity?
Back at my friend's place, we split the disc: my friend wanted to keep the pink disc because it had "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" on it (which I didn't know at all, but which my friend guaranteed was incredibly intense and amazing). And I went home with the blue disc. What a life-changing discovery that was: the hypnotic riff of "Where Boys Fear to Tread," followed by the raw power of "Bodies"... HUGE! I'd never heard a song so visceral. Goodbye Nirvana and Kurt Cobain; there was something even more tortured and sincere.
Then, when I got to "1979," I realized it was the song I'd been hearing on the radio for weeks, a song I thought was incredibly original, but whose title and band I didn't know! What a joy! And another mystery: who was the singer, really? I thought there were two of them: the Asian guy with the nasal vocals and the one in the ZERO T-shirt for everything else! It wasn't until the next day that my boyfriend explained who the singer was and played me the pink CD in his room so I could discover "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." He kept that CD for a few more days while I explored "Twilight to Starlight" and its moments of grace, violence, and originality ("We Only Come Out at Night" really struck me with its burlesque feel). That's why I've always had a soft spot for the blue CD, as it was my first introduction to the band!
This explains the rules I set for myself:
A/ My tracklist had to reflect MCIS as I loved it during my teenage years, not my more mature tastes today (even though my preferences have remained almost the same), and thus have that "smells like teen spirit" feel.
B/ My tracklist had to fit on a 90-minute cassette (I recorded so many back then), or an 80-minute CD.
C/ The baroque spirit of the album had to come through (as evoked by the booklet illustrations, and especially the lyric illustrations relating to the Lenormand divination deck—which my mother played and which allowed me to immediately embrace the booklet's concept, since I knew the origin of all the drawings illustrating the lyrics).
D/ Play on contrasts between gentle and harsh (like honey versus spurts of vitriol), and maintain this balance, so as not to deliver a condensed MCIS that's either too electric or too acoustic/pop.
E/ Some songs have their parallel between day and night (Galapogos / In the Arms of Sleep)
F/ Leave room for experimentation, but distribute it more evenly (it's true that the last 5 songs on the album are quite experimental and, this is one of my few criticisms of the album, leave a feeling of filler at the end and should have been better placed elsewhere on the album).
1/ EASY CUTS (I'm going to upset some people!)
Jellybelly :
It's not that I don't like it, but it's always left me cold: I find it rather messy and the production too closed off.
Muzzle :
And yes, everyone loves this one, well, not me, ha!
It's to MCIS what "Rocket" was to Siamese Dream: a filler track, unoriginal, and Billy's voice has always annoyed me.
Take Me Down :
Nice to close the first chapter, but irrelevant since it's not a Billy song.
Thirty-Three :
What?! I'm getting rid of one of the singles?! Yes, good song, I like it, but it's not essential to the MCIS "sound."
Stumbleine :
It's a demo, and there are other songs that are just as delicate and touching.
X.Y.U. :
The only exception in my list of easy cuts, because I listened to it a lot as a teenager, to the point of knowing every breath and sigh of Corgan amidst his screams.
But equally, I listened to "Tales of a Scorched Earth" (and my boyfriend and I would blast it on his parents' stereo because the sound was monstrous), and the latter seems less capricious to me than X.Y.U., and its violence is better controlled and impactful, whereas it gets a little lost on X.Y.U. And there's also the time constraint!
Lily :
Nice, nothing more.
2/ DIFFICULT CUTS
An Ode to No One :
What rage, what a sound! Still as infernal as ever! But it doesn't have that baroque feel as much as other equally furious tracks. A shame.
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans :
I've always preferred its nighttime counterpart, "Thru the Eyes of Ruby." But these plays on light and dark atmospheres really work well. And there's the time constraint. And having already kept two songs, each with its counterpart of the night and the day ("in the arms of sleep" / "Galapogos")...
Beautiful :
A beautiful experimental pop song where you can hear D'Arcy... But I struggled so much to include it that I finally gave up. Besides, there are other equally experimental songs on my tracklist ;-)
Farewell and Goodnight :
Since I had a preconceived idea for how to end the album, "Farewell" became redundant!
3/ MY CHOICES AND THE SEQUENCES I INTENDED
Infinite Sadness / Methusela :
And yes, what audacity to start the album with two outtakes! A deliberate choice, considering these two tracks were recorded at the very beginning of the MCIS sessions and that "Infinite Sadness" dates back to the Siamese Dream era! In my opinion, they reflect Corgan's state of mind at the start of the sessions ;-)
"Infinite Sadness" also has a pompous quality, like "Tonight, Tonight," and "Methuselah," with its dreamy melancholy, provides a counterpoint to the gentleness of the "MCIS" intro followed by the grandeur of "Tonight, Tonight."
And "Methusela" evokes morning so much for me!
Zero / Love :
Two "cyber metal" tracks, in different octaves but equally venomous (like the thorny rose in the liner notes). Both equally experimental.
Bodies :
Positioning it was quite difficult, but I was determined. Initially, I envisioned it right after "Tales of a Scorched Earth." But I felt there were too many tracks from "Dawn to Dusk" in a row at the beginning of my tracklist, so I wanted to balance it with songs from "Twilight to Starlight." And then, the revelation: the outro of "Love" and the intro of "Bodies" work wonderfully, and "Bodies" is propelled as much by "Love" as by "Tales" or "Where Boys Fear to Tread."
And in the end, "1979" follows "Tales" just as well (as it already does on the original vinyl tracklist).
Funny detail: changing the title from "Love" to "love is suicide" in the lyrics made sense!
In the Arms of Sleep / Cupid de Locke : One is written in verse, the other in Old English from the Baroque era. What could be more Baroque? And the dreamy, melancholic joy that emanates from their delicate arpeggios? Two celestial songs.
Rotten Apples :
Its mellotron (which can be heard in so many Pumpkins songs—and which created their signature sound in ballads—especially "Spaceboy") is simply magnificent and, for me, evokes a purely baroque moment. This song alone is a pure contrast: the purity and gentleness of the mellotron against a raging vocal performance, , it perfectly encapsulates the album's contrasts. This demo is clearly superior to "Stumbleine"...
Bullet with Butterfly Wings / We Only Come Out at Night :
A big thumbs-down to those (and there are many) who don't like "We Only Come Out at Night," but I've always loved that one!And I've always thought that the mini slide at the end of "Bullet" would be perfectly followed by the burlesque intro of "We Only Come Out at Night"! A way to create a new contrast between a heavy song and a light song (even if the lyrics aren't light!). Completely gratuitous parallel: both songs share the bat as an illustration for their lyrics ;-)
Set the Ray to Jerry :
Another celestial song—and there are so many stars depicted in the artwork and on the album, aren't there? ;-) Every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm in a starry sky alongside the planets and our friend on the cover. If I had to represent the album cover with a song, it would be this one.
Evoking the night, I found its suspended ending an interesting way to introduce "Tonight, Tonight." Which goes to show that "Tonight, Tonight" can be introduced by something other than "MCIS"!
And placing it right after "Where Boys Fear to Tread" created a contrast: two suspended songs—one abyssal and electric, the other celestial and semi-acoustic—allowing the red carpet to be rolled out for the grand finale, "Tonight, Tonight," and its Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, making it a truly magnificent ending!
And if you pay attention to the titles that follow one another, we have 3 songs that make up a phrase: We only come out at night, where boys fear to tread tonight;-)
"Medellia of the Gray Skies" / "By Starlight" : Hidden songs
My guilty pleasure: hidden tracks. "By Starlight" and its fade-in are perfect for creating a final surprise.
And on my version with B-sides and outtakes, "Medellia of the Gray Skies" is also a splendid hidden track before "By Starlight." And it was perfectly acceptable to include it, even though Medellia was actually recorded two months after the album's release ;-)
MY MELLON COLLIE WITHOUT THE INFINITE BOREDOM
Side A
1. Mellon collie and the infinite sadness
2. Zero
3. Love
4. Bodies
5. In the arms of sleep
6. Cupid de Locke
7. Here is no why
8. Galapogos
Side B
9. Tales of a scorched earth
10. 1979
11. To forgive
12. Thru the eyes of Ruby
13. Bullet with butterfly wings
14. We only come out at night
15. Where boys fear to tread
16. Tonight,tonight
Hidden song: By starlight
MY MELLON COLLIE WITHOUT THE INFINITE BOREDOM - but with B-sides and outtakes!
Side A
1. Infinite sadness
2. Methusela
3. Zero
4. Love
5. Bodies
6. In the arms of sleep
7. Cupid de Locke
8. Rotten apples
9. Here is no why
10.Galapogos
Side B
11. Tales of a scorched earth
12. 1979
13. To forgive
14. Thru the eyes of Ruby
15. Bullet with butterfly wings
16. We only come out at night
17. Where boys fear to tread
18. Set the Ray to Jerry
19. Tonight,tonight
Hidden songs:
Medellia of the gray skies
By starlight
Hi eveybody from France!
Inspired by your article, here's my tracklist to reduce MCIS into a single album, fitting on an 80-minute CD or a 90-minute cassette.
I made two tracklists :
The first contains only the tracks from the official album.
But since the goal is also to create my ideal album in the format of a single album, while respecting the time constraint, I created my ideal with B-sides that are essential to me, as well as a few studio outtakes! And yes this is the second tracklist!
First of all, I should mention that I discovered MCIS exactly 30 years ago, during the Easter holidays of 1996 (I was listening to Radiohead, Oasis, Babylon Zoo, and Hole at the time). A friend and I went to the library, and he borrowed this album, which I didn't know. I was surprised to see how it was categorized, as the classification indicated that it was a mix of techno rock and heavy metal. My first question was: what was this oddity?
Back at my friend's place, we split the disc: my friend wanted to keep the pink disc because it had "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" on it (which I didn't know at all, but which my friend guaranteed was incredibly intense and amazing). And I went home with the blue disc. What a life-changing discovery that was: the hypnotic riff of "Where Boys Fear to Tread," followed by the raw power of "Bodies"... HUGE! I'd never heard a song so visceral. Goodbye Nirvana and Kurt Cobain; there was something even more tortured and sincere.
Then, when I got to "1979," I realized it was the song I'd been hearing on the radio for weeks, a song I thought was incredibly original, but whose title and band I didn't know! What a joy! And another mystery: who was the singer, really? I thought there were two of them: the Asian guy with the nasal vocals and the one in the ZERO T-shirt for everything else! It wasn't until the next day that my boyfriend explained who the singer was and played me the pink CD in his room so I could discover "Bullet with Butterfly Wings." He kept that CD for a few more days while I explored "Twilight to Starlight" and its moments of grace, violence, and originality ("We Only Come Out at Night" really struck me with its burlesque feel). That's why I've always had a soft spot for the blue CD, as it was my first introduction to the band!
This explains the rules I set for myself:
A/ My tracklist had to reflect MCIS as I loved it during my teenage years, not my more mature tastes today (even though my preferences have remained almost the same), and thus have that "smells like teen spirit" feel.
B/ My tracklist had to fit on a 90-minute cassette (I recorded so many back then), or an 80-minute CD.
C/ The baroque spirit of the album had to come through (as evoked by the booklet illustrations, and especially the lyric illustrations relating to the Lenormand divination deck—which my mother played and which allowed me to immediately embrace the booklet's concept, since I knew the origin of all the drawings illustrating the lyrics).
D/ Play on contrasts between gentle and harsh (like honey versus spurts of vitriol), and maintain this balance, so as not to deliver a condensed MCIS that's either too electric or too acoustic/pop.
E/ Some songs have their parallel between day and night (Galapogos / In the Arms of Sleep)
F/ Leave room for experimentation, but distribute it more evenly (it's true that the last 5 songs on the album are quite experimental and, this is one of my few criticisms of the album, leave a feeling of filler at the end and should have been better placed elsewhere on the album).
1/ EASY CUTS (I'm going to upset some people!)
Jellybelly :
It's not that I don't like it, but it's always left me cold: I find it rather messy and the production too closed off.
Muzzle :
And yes, everyone loves this one, well, not me, ha!
It's to MCIS what "Rocket" was to Siamese Dream: a filler track, unoriginal, and Billy's voice has always annoyed me.
Take Me Down :
Nice to close the first chapter, but irrelevant since it's not a Billy song.
Thirty-Three :
What?! I'm getting rid of one of the singles?! Yes, good song, I like it, but it's not essential to the MCIS "sound."
Stumbleine :
It's a demo, and there are other songs that are just as delicate and touching.
X.Y.U. :
The only exception in my list of easy cuts, because I listened to it a lot as a teenager, to the point of knowing every breath and sigh of Corgan amidst his screams.
But equally, I listened to "Tales of a Scorched Earth" (and my boyfriend and I would blast it on his parents' stereo because the sound was monstrous), and the latter seems less capricious to me than X.Y.U., and its violence is better controlled and impactful, whereas it gets a little lost on X.Y.U. And there's also the time constraint!
Lily :
Nice, nothing more.
2/ DIFFICULT CUTS
An Ode to No One :
What rage, what a sound! Still as infernal as ever! But it doesn't have that baroque feel as much as other equally furious tracks. A shame.
Porcelina of the Vast Oceans :
I've always preferred its nighttime counterpart, "Thru the Eyes of Ruby." But these plays on light and dark atmospheres really work well. And there's the time constraint. And having already kept two songs, each with its counterpart of the night and the day ("in the arms of sleep" / "Galapogos")...
Beautiful :
A beautiful experimental pop song where you can hear D'Arcy... But I struggled so much to include it that I finally gave up. Besides, there are other equally experimental songs on my tracklist ;-)
Farewell and Goodnight :
Since I had a preconceived idea for how to end the album, "Farewell" became redundant!
3/ MY CHOICES AND THE SEQUENCES I INTENDED
Infinite Sadness / Methusela :
And yes, what audacity to start the album with two outtakes! A deliberate choice, considering these two tracks were recorded at the very beginning of the MCIS sessions and that "Infinite Sadness" dates back to the Siamese Dream era! In my opinion, they reflect Corgan's state of mind at the start of the sessions ;-)
"Infinite Sadness" also has a pompous quality, like "Tonight, Tonight," and "Methuselah," with its dreamy melancholy, provides a counterpoint to the gentleness of the "MCIS" intro followed by the grandeur of "Tonight, Tonight."
And "Methusela" evokes morning so much for me!
Zero / Love :
Two "cyber metal" tracks, in different octaves but equally venomous (like the thorny rose in the liner notes). Both equally experimental.
Bodies :
Positioning it was quite difficult, but I was determined. Initially, I envisioned it right after "Tales of a Scorched Earth." But I felt there were too many tracks from "Dawn to Dusk" in a row at the beginning of my tracklist, so I wanted to balance it with songs from "Twilight to Starlight." And then, the revelation: the outro of "Love" and the intro of "Bodies" work wonderfully, and "Bodies" is propelled as much by "Love" as by "Tales" or "Where Boys Fear to Tread."
And in the end, "1979" follows "Tales" just as well (as it already does on the original vinyl tracklist).
Funny detail: changing the title from "Love" to "love is suicide" in the lyrics made sense!
In the Arms of Sleep / Cupid de Locke : One is written in verse, the other in Old English from the Baroque era. What could be more Baroque? And the dreamy, melancholic joy that emanates from their delicate arpeggios? Two celestial songs.
Rotten Apples :
Its mellotron (which can be heard in so many Pumpkins songs—and which created their signature sound in ballads—especially "Spaceboy") is simply magnificent and, for me, evokes a purely baroque moment. This song alone is a pure contrast: the purity and gentleness of the mellotron against a raging vocal performance, , it perfectly encapsulates the album's contrasts. This demo is clearly superior to "Stumbleine"...
Bullet with Butterfly Wings / We Only Come Out at Night :
A big thumbs-down to those (and there are many) who don't like "We Only Come Out at Night," but I've always loved that one!And I've always thought that the mini slide at the end of "Bullet" would be perfectly followed by the burlesque intro of "We Only Come Out at Night"! A way to create a new contrast between a heavy song and a light song (even if the lyrics aren't light!). Completely gratuitous parallel: both songs share the bat as an illustration for their lyrics ;-)
Set the Ray to Jerry :
Another celestial song—and there are so many stars depicted in the artwork and on the album, aren't there? ;-) Every time I listen to it, I feel like I'm in a starry sky alongside the planets and our friend on the cover. If I had to represent the album cover with a song, it would be this one.
Evoking the night, I found its suspended ending an interesting way to introduce "Tonight, Tonight." Which goes to show that "Tonight, Tonight" can be introduced by something other than "MCIS"!
And placing it right after "Where Boys Fear to Tread" created a contrast: two suspended songs—one abyssal and electric, the other celestial and semi-acoustic—allowing the red carpet to be rolled out for the grand finale, "Tonight, Tonight," and its Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra, making it a truly magnificent ending!
And if you pay attention to the titles that follow one another, we have 3 songs that make up a phrase: We only come out at night, where boys fear to tread tonight;-)
"Medellia of the Gray Skies" / "By Starlight" : Hidden songs
My guilty pleasure: hidden tracks. "By Starlight" and its fade-in are perfect for creating a final surprise.
And on my version with B-sides and outtakes, "Medellia of the Gray Skies" is also a splendid hidden track before "By Starlight." And it was perfectly acceptable to include it, even though Medellia was actually recorded two months after the album's release ;-)
Greetings from France!
I'm delighted to have discovered this fantastic article and this stylistic exercise in reinterpreting MCIS.
I feel less alone now, as I had created an "MCIS extended" by adding a few B-sides that I thought were good enough and fit the album's vibe. But I was thinking, "Dude, you're such a geek, your passion for this album really takes you to extremes." So, thanks for this article!
So, I'll be sharing the track listing for my "extended" version here very soon, along with my reasons. But I'm waiting until I've finalized my shortened MCIS (in two versions: one with B-sides that fits on a 90-minute cassette, and another without B-sides that fits on an 80-minute CD). I should post that next week, along with my explanations. The criteria I've already considered are: my personal, "teenage" taste for the songs I listened to most 30 years ago that have aged well, the day/night and gentle/violent contrast, but also songs that have day and night counterparts (Galapogoe and ITAOS, for example). A little patience, folks, because I'm really working on it in the evenings after work and doing it well. Let's develop my ideas...and you'll have some surprises. Teaser: there will be "ITAOS" and "Love" ;-)
I totally admire the concept of this project, and I think you made really thoughtful decisions and backed them up with simple and logical explanations. If Billy had you guys as producers, this would have been a stronger album. I absolutely adore this album, but it is definitely bloated. But the bloat doesn't bother me; in fact, it's sort of part of the concept. It's a dreamy, bipolar record that perfectly captures the madness and self-indulgence of the teenage mind.
This version is more palatable and more along the lines of a "perfect" album, like Siamese Dream, or even Pink Floyd's "Dark Side Of The Moon" or "Animals". Well done!!
After listening, and reading your article again, I have to chime in with my personal opinion once more.
I think your choice of Stumbleine (and Billy's for that matter) is the only glaring error in this track list. While I think it's a very strong song, perhaps one of the best on Mellon Collie, I would not have included it for a few reasons. Mainly, I think the quality of the recording removes it from contention. It's a Sadlands demo, and it should never have been included in my opinion. It should have at least been re-recorded with the same arrangement. The tape dropouts (listen on headphones to the guitar shifting around the stereo field) are a dead giveaway of a low quality 4-track demo. Some artists get demo-itis, falling in love with their performance or production elements from their demo. If I had to guess, Billy probably felt he couldn't do better with his vocal performance, emotionally. Secondly, it's simply not strong enough to start the second side. WBFTT is an absolutely legendary disc/side opening track. It's perfectly slotted in as the first song of the second disc of the original.
Next point, I agree with most of your cuts, with the biggest exception being "In The Arms Of Sleep". This is not only an absolutely perfectly written song (the form is masterful), but it's arranged/produced with such a soft and haunting mood, that really enhances the song. The lyrics, the chords, the understated drums, the ebow guitars, and the bass line are so well-crafted and executed. I'm especially intrigued by the bass in this song. I recently used AI stem separation to analyze it, and there's here's really interesting factoid. In the main section (when the drums and bass kick in), the pitch of the third note of the bass line was digitally altered from G (root of the first chord), to A. This is out of key for the song, and is used as a passing tone to the F chord, the second chord of the main progression. But in the key of Eb, the second degree chord (F) is a minor chord, it's third would be Ab. Or if you consider it the second degree of the Gmin chord, it's been raised to a sharp 2. It's a very dissonant sound. Theoretically it should sound very unpleasant and out of place. The whole song is in Eb, all the chord choices indicate this (Gmin is the iii chord, Fmin is the ii chord, for example).
I just found it to be a cool tidbit, almost certainly done by Billy in post-production. He just couldn't resist putting his fingerprints on Darcy's bass part. Maybe he had a good reason for it(like it sounds cool and adds to the instability and eeriness of the song). If I ever meet him and have the opportunity to ask I'd love to know the answer. Ok, end theory rant.
I think I might have put ITAOS in place of Stumbleine. In the spirit of "b-sides are ok", Stumbleine belongs as a raw demo that never was really executed properly.
One more point. You mention an 80 minute CD. The Red Book standard (the official standard for CDs that all CD players must support) is 73 minutes and 33 seconds. I think I would not have worried about that. I would have used the "45 minute album" concept. 22-ish minutes per side of two LPs. It would have to be two CDs, but that would allow the CD and LP versions to align more closely (one CD per album).
OK, I'm done. Cheers and thank you for inspiring this conversation I'm having with myself :)
What a strange article. Sadly, this is what they had to do for machina. The actual machina album was supposed to be very different and longer with a different order of tracks
Not sure that the current reissue vinyl tracklist is a different order, but the original vinyl is different at least in that it has one extra song (I've owned this on cassette, compact disc, and the reissue vinyl). If feels criminal to cut "Love". I get cutting "In the Arms Of Sleep," but it was the first song I ever performed at open mic.