By the time Smashing Pumpkins arrived at their third album, Billy Corgan had already dropped one classic detailing some of his thoughts about the music industry (he wasn’t really a fan) in the avalanching Siamese Dream cut Cherub Rock. But little did the frontman know that his next entry on the subject would catapult the Pumpkins into a whole new realm.
That song was Bullet With Butterfly Wings, a landmark Smashing Pumpkins release and not just because it was their final single where Corgan had hair. In many ways, the track, which turns 30 next week, is a close counterpart to Cherub Rock. Both were the first singles from their respective albums and both gave you a pretty decent idea of what to expect from the full-length records – in terms of a trailer for the heavier songs that featured on the shapeshifting sonics of its parent album, Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness, Bullet… is a perfect specimen.
