179: SIAMESE DREAM | SMASHING PUMPKINS
Siamese Dream is the second studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 27, 1993 on Virgin Records. The album fused diverse influences such as shoegazing, dream pop,and heavy metal, and has been described as "closer to progressive rock than to punk or grunge."
Despite recording sessions fraught with difficulties and tensions, Siamese Dream debuted at number ten on the Billboard charts, and eventually sold over four million copies in the US, and over six million worldwide,cementing the Smashing Pumpkins as an important group in alternative rock music. Four singles were released in support of Siamese Dream: "Cherub Rock", "Today", "Disarm", and "Rocket". In addition to receiving widespread critical acclaim upon its release, Siamese Dream has widely been regarded as one of the greatest albums of the 1990s, and one of the greatest albums of all time. Rolling Stone magazine have ranked it number 362 on their 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list.
The band's debut album, Gish, was released on Caroline Records in 1991 to unexpected success and acclaim. After the release of Nirvana's Nevermind later that year, the Smashing Pumpkins were hyped as "the next Nirvana". The band was signed to Caroline Records parent Virgin Records and began recording a follow-up album. Frontman Billy Corgan felt "this great pressure to make the next album to set the world on fire". The immense pressure to succeed intensified an already problematic situation: drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was undergoing an increasingly severe addiction to heroin, guitarist James Iha and bassist D'arcy Wretzky had recently ended a romantic relationship and Corgan, aside from battles with weight gain and suicidal depression, was suffering from his worst-ever bout of writer's block.
Siamese Dream was recorded mainly between December 1992 and March 1993. The band relocated to Triclops Studios in Marietta, Georgia for the album sessions, so they could avoid local friends and distractions, and to cut Chamberlin off from his known drug connections. Butch Vig reprised his role as producer after working on their debut album Gish. Butch Vig stated "Billy [Corgan] and I raised the bar really high. We wanted to make a very ambitious sounding record. It was all done on analogue tape so it was time consuming. We were working 12 hours a day, six times a week for about three months, and for the last two months we worked seven days a week, 14 or 15 hours a day because we were behind schedule."
After he suffered a nervous breakdown, Corgan began visiting a therapist. Consequently, his lyrics became more explicit about his troubled past and his insecurities. "Today" was the first song written by Corgan for Siamese Dream. He played the self-recorded demo to Vig, and received a positive reaction. Soon afterward, executives from Virgin Records came to observe the band after hearing about their problems, but were pleased with the demo and did not soon return to the studio. The reaction from the executives only served to put more stress on Corgan. Corgan worked overtime, practically living in the studio for the recording of Siamese Dream—he and Vig would sometimes work on a 45-second section of music for two days, working 16-hour days for weeks at a time to achieve the sound Corgan wanted.
Corgan's desire for musical perfection put further strain on the already-frayed relationships between the band members. Vig later recalled, "D'arcy would lock herself in the bathroom, James wouldn't say anything, or Billy would lock himself in the control room". Corgan often overdubbed Iha's and Wretzky's parts with his own playing. Wretzky stated that Corgan only performed most of the guitar and bass parts because he could lay them down more easily in recording and with far fewer takes. Stories of the album's recording had circulated in the music press. Corgan admitted there was some truth to accusations of tyrannical behavior, though he felt the press misunderstood the situation. Read more