Bullet with Butterfly Wings

"Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
Song

“Bullet with Butterfly Wings” is a song by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It was the lead single from the band’s 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. The song won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance. This song was the band’s first Top 40 US hit, peaking at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was named the 91^st best hard rock song of all time by VH1. The song is a playable track in the video game Guitar Hero 5.

Song

Billy Corgan, lead singer of the group, has stated that the line "but can you fake it / for just one more show" refers to the band's headlining slot on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, where they supposedly became disillusioned with the idea of "alternative" rock. This interpretation is also supported by the fact that the first fully played incarnations of the song occurred at a few Lollapalooza shows, as well as on demos recorded early that year. A very embryonic version was apparently recorded during the recording of Siamese Dream; according to Corgan, "somewhere, I have a tape of us from 1993 endlessly playing the 'world is a vampire' part over and over." In fact, these lines quoted do not appear in the song until a demo from late 1994, although Corgan was more likely referring to that section of the song rather than the lyrics themselves. It was not until 1995 that Corgan finished writing the "rat in a cage" chorus section of the song.

Live performance

"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" like "Disarm", "Stand Inside Your Love" and "Today" metamorphosed dramatically during and after every tour. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" in particular, verified by Corgan himself, comes in five different versions.

During the tour in support of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, the band often performed the song with an audio clip intro welcoming concertgoers to "the only circus of its kind in the world," after which Corgan would shout the opening line, initiating a straightforward version of the song. Later, the band would drop the intro, starting off the song with a drum beat, a style reminiscent of the variation adopted for the "Sacred & Profane" tour. A third and fourth version showed dramatic variations of the song, both of which were adopted for the Adore tour. The former was an extended and extremely distorted electric version, including several other instruments outside of the ones used for the studio track, such as a 7-string Ibanez electric guitar and a bunch of percussion drums - this version would crash and burn with Corgan screaming at the top of his lungs, "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage". The latter was a nine minute or longer version of the song. During the "Sacred & Profane" tour, the fifth variation of "Bullet" started off with an extended bassline and drumbeat build-up into the main song. This version is similar to the newest versions the band has been using on its 2007 tour.

Also to be noted is that later renditions of "Bullet" used the C tuning of "The Everlasting Gaze" and "Heavy Metal Machine", making the song sound heavier. As a result, the chorus was so low in Billy's register it sounded almost spoken. They then preceded non-stop with a cover of "Once in a Lifetime" by Talking Heads. Post-reformation renditions restore the original tuning.

Video

The music video for the song, directed by Samuel Bayer, is a performance video with heavy conceptual elements. The visual look of the video was inspired by documentaries about diamond mining, while, in contrast, the band used the video to debut their new glam rock wardrobes - notably, Billy Corgan's black shirt with the word "Zero" written in silver, and silver pants. The video also marks the last filmed appearance of Billy Corgan prior to his decision to shave his head.

The song was used slightly edited as the title song for the Animal Planet reality television series Whale Wars, which follows the crew of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's boat Steve Irwin as they chase Japanese whalers from the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

Covers

Melodic Hardcore band Four Year Strong covered this song on their 2009 album "Explains It All" which is a cover album tributing songs that were made famous by groups in the 1990's.

Track listing

The following tracks appeared on the original single:

1. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (Billy Corgan) - 4:16
2. "...Said Sadly" (James Iha) - 3:09

"...Said Sadly" features Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt on vocals.

External links

• Allmusic review