The Day My Life Changed

Bobby Foote Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, US

I had already been exposed to the Pumpkins via Siamese Dream, but I never had the connection until MCATIS. I was 18 or 19 and in a weird place. Living with a roommate I wasn’t getting along with, life was not fun. I remember sitting on my couch watching videos on MTV when Bullet With Butterfly Wings came on. I just sat there, enthralled, mesmerised, in awe. Who is this band that knows what I feel like? How do they know the thoughts in my head? How is this possible. I must watch this again. and again. and again. I was hooked. That song was me in that moment. I was one with it. I never felt more of a connection than I did at that moment. Later that day I had a friend come over and I was telling him about this awesome band and song that I heard and I said I’ve got to get that album. He goes, hey man, I just bought that CD do you want to borrow it? the answer of course was yes. It’s funny, because I still have his copy of the CD. I just bought him a new one because I had had such a sentimental attachment to the one I borrowed from him. To this day, The Smashing Pumpkins are my favorite band. I collect as much as I can. Long Live The Smashing Pumpkins!

Honeymoon

Rachelle Edmond, US

We got married April 13, 1996. We bought this album on our honeymoon. We are still going strong and still listening to this album. My anniversary present in 2018 was to finally see Smashing Pumpkins live!

Lilly mi imposible love

Vlad MX

A few months ago i discovered the song Lily (My One And Only), and i was really obsessed with that song, because reminds me a girl who i meet a long ago, her name was Lilly, with the pass of the time i realized that i’m the guy in the song, because she don’t wants me, and i’m just like stalking her but i know that she will never love me, Lily my one and only ❤️

Cherry Onion

Cameron Salt Lake City , US

I bought the albu,.  I lisetened to the album and it is still one of my favorite albums ever.

And I thought to myself, “man, this would make a great story to tell someone someday!”

My first CD

Nuno Porto, PT

My sister gave me the Mellon Collie for my birthday. I started listening the second CD and for 5 seconds I thought that the CD was broken haha thanks older sis

Beautiful Album

Brandon Myers Kenova, US

MCIS is truly a beautiful album and I like to think of it as the perfect album to fall in love to. There’s too many points of my life where I can relate a song on MCIS to stuff that happened or I’m going through. Thank you Billy, keep rocking!

Italian ebook tribute

Roberto Gennari Arezzo, IT

A bunch of Italian SP fans put together 28 stories inspired by the album. You can find the free ebook here https://laschiumadeiblog.wordpress.com/2018/06/07/una-punta-di-malinconia-e-tristezza-mai-infinita/ 

Bullet with Butterfly Wings

Crystal Las Vegas, NV , US

I was 10 years old when I started listening to SP, I was fascinated with everything Bullet with BFW, the lyrics, the video cinematography, Billie’s Zero Tee that I was too young to purchase myself and my parents wouldn’t get for me….and when I brought their album – my very first CD in fact – I was hooked. I can listen to every song over and over for 26 more years and never get bored. Tonight tonight is wonderfully made, how can something so sad be so beautiful… my favorite lyrics besides “Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in the cage” is from Zero: “Intoxicated with the madness, I’m in love with my sadness… I never led on that I was on a sinking ship, I never let on that I was down” 

Nostalgic beginnings

Eric Bertrand Chippewa Falls, US

It’s more of a collection of memories and places that revolved around people and places in my hometown.  Of course relationships that existed and never were but it’s the idea that came from it.  A genuine sense of wonder enveloped in magic.

A familiar place

Alondra MX

It was right before the Y2K. I had just moved to a new country with my belongings in a backpack. Mellon Collie was the first album I bought with my money after I started working. I had a room in an apartment with brown carpet and no furniture in it. I would spend hours in there listening to my album; you see, there were no cell phones or social media back then, so listening to music was my favorite pastime. Eventually I learned all the lyrics, I knew that album like the back of my hand. Those were strange times, between the move and the whole Y2K craze, people storing food supplies and stuff and I had nothing, so I hoped for the best and took refuge in my music. Mellon Collie always felt familiar, like a home; and to this day, when I hear one of the songs I can’t help but sing along 🙂

Singing on the rain

Hugo Rodrigues PT

Cascais, May 2, 1996, two hours of phenomenal rain concert.  The first and best of many live concerts in Portugal. Days after the concert, i read an announcement in the Blitz music journal of one guy that have record the concert on tape.  I buy the tape, which I still keep today. My precious.

1979 Life.

Amor Valdovinos Las Vegas, NV , US

I always tell everyone 1979 is my favorite song ever. One of my friends recreated the whole entire music video for me, even paid a store clerk to let us “steal” slushees from them. We cranked the album and drove in the dark to a party by the lake, as I screamed the lyrics from the open sunroof.  Considerably one of the best days of my life. 

That sweet Music

Chris Tunbridge Gloucester , GB

The first time I listened to this Master Piece I was transformed to a magical place of sonnets and Billy Corgans beautiful voice it felt like the Smashing Pumpkins had created a different memory and feeling for every song on the album.i first was introduced to this great band on Top of The Pops watching Butterfly with the Broken Wings music video and a later date a live performance of Tonight Tonight.

Mellon Collie transforms me to a place I love and cherish everytime I revist listening to it.

It is a classic that will never age and is in my top 5 albums of all time.

Speak to me in a language I can hear

Chad Calahan Jacksonville, NC, US

Thirty-three still resonates with me. This song and others got me through tough times living with divorced parents. I drew this in High School Design class circa 1995-96. Billy vocals are amazing and is what truly makes the Smashing Pumpkins 

it was like heard an eden

VIOLETA Córdoba, Córdoba, AR

I was 14 y-o and I was feeling deeply lost, didn’t know what to do, where to go, who i was. I listened to one song and i loved it, so i decided to close the door and put this album. It was like hear an Eden. 

Since that day, when I feel lost, i find myself on Mellon Collie. (so sorry for my bad english haha)

Chip Off The Old Block

Craig Bird Texas, US

I’m only 16, but The Pumpkins are one of my all time favorite bands, thanks to my dad who was obsessed with the pumpkins when he was my age. Mellon Collie got me through tough times, just as Siamese Dream and Pieces Iscariot did. My all time favorite pumpkins track, Here is no Why, is on there. 

The F Word

Brad Los angeles, CA, US

When I was 10 in 1996 i asked my mom to buy me the album. She finally agreed, being under the impression that SP was a “clean” band. I got the last copy of the cassette version in the store. I open it in the car and look at the artwork. Then I see the song title “Fuck You” and i thought if my mom sees this she’ll think i was hiding it from her and i’ll get in trouble, so i act all surprised and disgusted when i point it out to her. She gets mad but says i can keep the album as long as i dont listen to “that terrible, ugly song. I thought they were better than that!”

Tonight, Tonight

Sylvia Chastity Ingram McAllen, Texas, US

I have so many wonderful memories from MCIS era. The one that
will always stand out to me is the very first one. I was 10 years old and in
5th grade. One day, a boy I had a crush on was wearing a Pumpkins shirt and
singing “Tonight, Tonight” in class. I asked him what he was singing
and he told me it was The Smashing Pumpkins. Shortly after, I saw the video on
MTV. I was definitely intrigued by the music video but I originally tried to
get into it to impress the boy. I ended up developing the greatest love for SP
after this song. I was so in love with the strings that I joined Orchestra the
following year when I got to Middle School. I listened to Tonight, Tonight over
and over again until I learned to play along with the recording on my Viola. I
had my dad buy me the cassette tapes and listened to them over and over until
they eventually wore out. I had posters on my wall, a Pumpkins shirt for every
day of the week, and would write songs and lyrics all over my school notebooks.
I had my mom buy me some vinyl pants and I would wear them with my long sleeve
zero shirt to school. About 1 year later, my parents got divorced. I got
severely depressed and nothing comforted me quite like MCIS from start to
finish did. I would listen in my room in the dark, every night until I fell
asleep. To this day, I will run into old classmates and the one thing that they
remember about me was my love for The Smashing Pumpkins. The attached picture
is of my 6th grade Orchestra teacher and me. 

three.thirty-one.two thousand six

Chris Blevins Webbville, KY, US

I was in charge of music for my wedding. I’ve always been a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins and I selected the title track from Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness as the song for my wife to walk down the aisle to.  Probably ironic since I’m sure it’s supposed to be a sad song.  However, it will remain, now and forever, a reminder of one of the happiest moments of my life.  Every time I put that album on and that first track begins to play, I am always overcome with emotion.  Thank you for that. 

My 2nd Music Obsession

Bryan Oshkosh, US

It was the summer of 1997, I was about 11 or 12 years old. I was already a Rush fan thanks to my parents, but other than Rush I wasn’t a fan of any other band, until one day sitting in the backseat of my parents car on our way home from up north, a song played on the radio and it immediately captured me in a way that I made my mom turn it up, it was Tonight, Tonight. I had no clue who the band was but something about that song triggered me to wanna hear it again, after the station announced that the song was by Smashing Pumpkins I knew I had to hear more. A few days later my parents brought me to the mall and we stopped into a music store where I could pick up headphones and listen to sample tracks of popular albums, luckily Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness was one of them, after listening to 1979 and Zero, I begged my parents to buy me the CD, they did. I got home and played the shit out of that CD for WEEKS! From there on, I was a SP fan. 

Fast forward 20 something years, I watched a Rush documentary film that had Billy in it, professing his appreciation of Rush. I had no idea! I laughed and said, yep…thats why I connected with SP.

Thank you, Smashing Pumpkins.

Haunts

JERICO Obando, Bulacan, PH

Love, Sex, Drugs, Sadness, Regrets. mmuah…. 

Play Smahsing with my son Ernesto

Oscar Lima, PE

My son became a fan just like me, since he was little he already played the guitar and tried to get his songs out ... it is a pleasure to be able to pay a humble tribute to our most beloved band ... thanks to you I have fulfilled my dream of being able play with my son. It is a small extract, because due to the size of the video I could not send it ... in the complete video we played cherub, 1979 and Galopogos in a single version.  
Infinite thanks... 

MCIS – The Gateway to a Lifelong Obsession

Michele Pittsburgh, PA, US

Siamese Dream was where I first heard the Pumpkins, but MCIS is where I fully fell in love with them. I bought the double CD and played it so much I wore it out and had to buy a second copy. My best friend at the time was also a fan, and she actually got to go see the band on their tour and I recall being completely jealous that she got to go. I bought every magazine that had even a tiny photo of the band, and would cut the photos put and paste them to my wall in my bedroom. My favorite songs on the album were “In The Arms of Sleep”, “Thru The Eyes of Ruby”, “Bodies” and “Porcellina of the Vast Oceans”.  The Pumpkins really helped me through a dark time when that came out and I credit them for literally saving my life. 

Youth and first travel alone

Nayeli Ramos Mexico City, Mexico City, MX

It was my first time traveling out of Mexico, I was alone, I was 15 and I was in Canada. I went to the local record store wearing just a sweater in the middle of April’s snow . I bought MCIS and arrived home. The first time I played the record was extraordinary, I finally felt accompanied and at ease with myself even though I was in a strange place. This record made me embrace myself in a time full of doubts, oh! It was youth and rock and roll. 

Jake and Billy: A Conversation

Jake Moskowitz Port Washington, New York, US

When I was 14, my Dad bought me VIP tix to see SP in Brooklyn. I asked Billy a question (see video)…this album and day saved my life! 

I Used To Be a Little Boy

Brooke H. Yorktown, IN, US

I was around seven years old when this album came out.  SP was the first rock band I started to like multiple songs from.  I remember I used all allowance I saved up to buy MCIS (around $25 at the time) and it was the first CD I purchased myself.  As far as I remember, it was also the first purchase I had made that was solely my decision and no one influenced it at all.  It was and still is a great album.  I was obsessed with “Thirty Three” which is still my favorite number and I even covered it in the last band I was in.  Thank you SP for the years of continued music! ❤️