Article written by Jill of Smashingpumpkins.com

As Sunky discussed in his article about the "Rocket" single earlier this week, we are nearing the 15th anniversary of the release of the Smashing Pumpkins' classic album Siamese Dream. As a fan who vividly remembers how edgy and enchanting the album was in the mid-'90s, the recent surfacing of stories from the band and those close to them has been fascinating; they certainly add a new spectrum of color to the album.

One of the most notable trips down memory lane was a March 2008 podcast from Chicago rock critics Greg Kot and Jim DeRogatis in their "Sound Opinions" series, which featured a guest appearance from Siamese Dream producer, Butch Vig (full transcript here and here). Most famous for his work with the Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana, Vig was widely credited with the construction of the Siamese Dream sound -- walls of overdubbed guitars and soaring pop sensibility.

Sitting down with Kot and DeRogatis in the podcast, Vig expressed deep pride in the work he did with the Pumpkins; he alluded to their timelessness and ongoing power, despite the current changed nature of the music business. Furthermore, he admitted how difficult the whole process was for him:

It was by far the hardest record I've made. We went straight through for five months in Atlanta, sometimes seven days a week, 14 or 15 hours a day. And then we came out to L.A. and mixed, I think for 36 straight days, with Billy and Alan Moulder and I. And I remember, I think I lost like 10 or 15 pounds. For like two weeks when the record was done, I just lay on the couch and vegged out. I couldn't even...I was catatonic.

But in the stories that Vig (pictured at right) told during the podcast, there was also a certain magic about the band that compelled him to work with them time and time again, through the quarrels and tribulations. He fondly remembered: "We wanted to make something really glorious and ambitious... We lost our minds a little bit, but I think that the songwriting and just sonically how the album turned out I think it was worth the effort." The notoriously difficult (and sanity-threatening) process the band and its production crew shouldered was so tough at times the entire project was in jeopardy -- often along with the lives of the band members, as Vig discussed.

Though Siamese Dream yielded some of the most-loved tracks the Pumpkins ever released, it featured much dark lyrical content. Songs such as "Today" and "Disarm" combined confusing thoughts of suicide and abuse with primed-for-radio riffs. Though pop radio did not recognize the overtones of the Pumpkins' super smash hit singles at the time, there was a resonating authenticity in the lyrics that propelled the success of the album.

Billy Corgan later spoke more generally about this authenticity in an engaging interview with Pitchfork Media more than a decade after the release of Siamese Dream (only slightly ironic, considering Pitchfork's pithy trademark style). Corgan discussed how obscured his meaning was in early albums and how problematic that became for his emotional well-being:

"... the problem is that some people seize on that [obscurity] as in authenticity, which is understandable. So that's painful because it's not that you're being inauthentic...there's a difference between being a poseur and being someone who's so emotionally challenged they're kind of just doing their best to show you what they've got."

Corgan's remark embodies the very essence of why Siamese Dream appealed to the adolescent hordes: they were just trying to do their best. Much of the appeal Siamese Dream held for me, a young, naive Midwestern teenager from Missouri, was that the songs were dangerous and edgy; they were so different from what my friends were getting via the Spin Doctors. I didn't fully understand the emotions behind Corgan's words, but they helped me uncover my own concepts of self-identity and self-loathing. Though I wouldn't have been able to express in any sophisticated way why the music meant so much to me, it just did.

While the stories that continue to surface help tell the story of Siamese Dream the historically-inclined, the most important reflections on the album are the personal ones. The album has meant so many different things for the more than six million worldwide that have bought its thirteen tracks. Critics laud its sonic depth, but for my money the emotional impact for those who have listened remains its greatest achievement.