Twenty-five freakin’ years? Has it really been that long?

So, its the 25th anniversary of the Smashing Pumpkins ‘Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness’, the first album I ever owned. There are many stories I have with this album, it was the album that opened my mind up to so many variety of music and art, this album will forever mean a great deal to me.

This album has stood the test of time. Throughout the years this album has been a constant in my life, a soundtrack to many highs and lows and everything in between, I have moved around a lot in my life, and have gained and lost many friends throughout the years, been through hell and back many many countless times, much like the themes of this album which are cycles of day and night, its not all bad, there have been many great memories I’ve shared with these songs too, I have made life long friendships within the SP community, and some enemies too, haha, online drama never really ends does it? Especially when you are an outsider observing the never ending war between over zealous self flagellating Sad Machines and group therapy Netphoria. Its interesting to see the vast dynamics of opinions that range in the SP community, having used to dive heavily into the online battles myself once upon a time.

Its been a few years since I’ve really partaken in any online community, but I’ve remained close to many friends who still do and its cool to see the online community still thriving even though I’ve since distanced myself, mainly just for mental health reasons, just can’t see myself getting caught up in the arguments and debates anymore, it gets exhausting (and I was once an admin on the largest Facebook group, and lemme tell you- you get caught up in a lot of needless drama between casual and over zealous fans, and it just gets in the way of the music). But in the end that’s all find and dandy I guess, the music is what I came here for. And looking back it just doesn’t feel like its been 25 years since this album was released. It was the very first album I ever owned, I got it as a belated birthday present as my 11th b-day just went by a few weeks earlier. I still remember the feeling I got when I put on this album for the first time, putting my headphones on and listening tot his album on my Walkman back in the day, I still get the same feeling now as I did when I was a kid when I listen to these songs. This album opened my mind to a lot of different things, different music genres and different styles of art in general, it was an eye opener for sure. I can go on about this album and what its meant to me throughout the years but I guess I’ll leave this at that.

I will talk about one more thing, a rather personal thing, as what I’ve said earlier about forming life long friendships, one thing this album reminds me heavily of is of my two friends Dean and Chad, both whom I met through the SP community back in 2006 & 2007, they both passed away in September & November 2018, this album reminds me so much of both them. Upon hearing it was the 25th anniversary the other day I put the album on and listened to it on repeat for awhile thinking about both of my brothers who are no longer here, Thirty-Three & 1979 are their songs. And I will always play them loud for them, for their memory. These aren’t just songs for some of us, for some of us these are beacons of light who help us out of our own personal hells, sometimes all we have is our music. And looking at the other memories that are shared on here there are many, many stories to tell, there is always a story to tell.

Thank you, WPC, James, D’arcy & Jimmy for Mellon Collie. Some of us wouldn’t be here without the music.

Thanks again.

– Dandy Jon