Cupid De Locke appreciation thread

[hereisnowhy]

Let's hear it for one of the most mesmerizing, gorgeous songs in the Pumpkins' catalogue.

• A catchy guitar riff reminiscent of a harp, lovable for its simplicity.
• The occasional embellishment of extra twinkling harp notes.
• A rare example of a memorable non-hard-rock Pumpkins bass line, especially notable for the dancing notes at the end of the chorus.
• Some of the most original percussion work we've heard, using various household items to create unique sounds. In a song about living through heartbreak one is even tempted to find symbolism in the use of scissors (a tool of severance) and aspirin (a tool of healing).
• Angelic vocal harmonies courtesy of D'arcy.
• A classic Corgan selection of elegant chord voicings that are oh so fun to play with.
• Rhyming lyrics used to great effect with Shakespeare-style language. The Shakespearean feel is so pronounced that many people mistakenly refer to these stanzas as a sonnnet.
• The sung lyrics and the spoken-word soliloquy that ends the song both contain some of Corgan's most memorable word choices: turpentine kisses, forsaken missives, we speak the unspeakable.
• And finally, the song's message of hope in the face of sorrow always makes me smile. The language is tricky, so a quick translation is in order:
  
  Cupid hath pulled back his sweetheart's bow
  to cast divine arrows into her soul
  to grab her attention swift and quick
  or morrow the marrow of her bones be thick
  with turpentine kisses and mistaken blows
  
  Cupid will make this woman fall in love, because if he does not do so she will continue to be tormented by past heartbreak.
  
  See the devil may do as the devil may care
  he loves none sweeter as sweeter the dare
  her mouth the mischief he doth seek
  her heart the captive of which he speaks
  so note all ye lovers in love with the sound
  your world be shattered with nary a note
  of one cupid's arrow under your coat
  
  With a classic Corgan play on words, the last few lines mean the opposite of what they would seem to mean. The only sound mentioned in the song is the devil's talking, so "note all ye lovers in love with the sound" suggests that when your heart is broken, like the woman in the song, you fall in love with the sound of the devil's voice. Which is to say that you become depressed, frustrated, and angry: this sadness becomes your world. But, that world can be shattered (a good thing!) and this sound can stop, in the instant that it takes to fall in love, to be shot with Cupid's arrow.
  
  The words play as well on the listener. We the audience are in love with the sound of this music, and our world would be shattered if the music stopped.

This song is one of many reasons why Mellon Collie deserved to be a double album.

[dudehitscar]

damn right. One of their best songs and one of the most unique songs of theirs as well.

[Fathoms (unadored)]

It's a keeper!

[Mablak]

I love the innovation of this song, easily one of my favorites. The barrage of instruments is awesome, it's totally angelic. I genuinely thought he was quoting Shakespeare or some poet the first time I heard it, I really hope Billy gives us some lyrics as good as these soon.

[medellia]

lyrics are pretentious and like his poetry, merely impressionistic, euphonic word association to distract from lack of substance. melody is cloying and a little obnoxious. not with you on this one, sorry.

[Averageprheight]

When I was first getting into the Pumpkins this was probably one of my least favorite songs on MCIS.

I've grown to love it immensely throughout the years though.

[Mayfuck]

Originally Posted by hereisnowhy

Let's hear it for one of the most mesmerizing, gorgeous songs in the Pumpkins' catalogue.

• A catchy guitar riff reminiscent of a harp, lovable for its simplicity.
• The occasional embellishment of extra twinkling harp notes.
• A rare example of a memorable non-hard-rock Pumpkins bass line, especially notable for the dancing notes at the end of the chorus.
• Some of the most original percussion work we've heard, using various household items to create unique sounds. In a song about living through heartbreak one is even tempted to find symbolism in the use of scissors (a tool of severance) and aspirin (a tool of healing).
• Angelic vocal harmonies courtesy of D'arcy.
• A classic Corgan selection of elegant chord voicings that are oh so fun to play with.
• Rhyming lyrics used to great effect with Shakespeare-style language. The Shakespearean feel is so pronounced that many people mistakenly refer to these stanzas as a sonnnet.
• The sung lyrics and the spoken-word soliloquy that ends the song both contain some of Corgan's most memorable word choices: turpentine kisses, forsaken missives, we speak the unspeakable.
• And finally, the song's message of hope in the face of sorrow always makes me smile. The language is tricky, so a quick translation is in order:
  
  Cupid hath pulled back his sweetheart's bow
  to cast divine arrows into her soul
  to grab her attention swift and quick
  or morrow the marrow of her bones be thick
  with turpentine kisses and mistaken blows
  
  Cupid will make this woman fall in love, because if he does not do so she will continue to be tormented by past heartbreak.
  
  See the devil may do as the devil may care
  he loves none sweeter as sweeter the dare
  her mouth the mischief he doth seek
  her heart the captive of which he speaks
  so note all ye lovers in love with the sound
  your world be shattered with nary a note
  of one cupid's arrow under your coat
  
  With a classic Corgan play on words, the last few lines mean the opposite of what they would seem to mean. The only sound mentioned in the song is the devil's talking, so "note all ye lovers in love with the sound" suggests that when your heart is broken, like the woman in the song, you fall in love with the sound of the devil's voice. Which is to say that you become depressed, frustrated, and angry: this sadness becomes your world. But, that world can be shattered (a good thing!) and this sound can stop, in the instant that it takes to fall in love, to be shot with Cupid's arrow.
  
  The words play as well on the listener. We the audience are in love with the sound of this music, and our world would be shattered if the music stopped.

This song is one of many reasons why Mellon Collie deserved to be a double album.

awesome post. you seem to be one of the few that get this song and why its so great. theres odd instrumentation in Beautiful too which makes me only wonder what Billy could do when he experiments in a acoustic sense rather than a electronic sense (which he isn't very fleshed out on, i.e. adore, tfe)

[rocksteady]

Originally Posted by Mayfuck

awesome post. you seem to be one of the few that get this song and why its so great. theres odd instrumentation in Beautiful too which makes me only wonder what Billy could do when he experiments in a acoustic sense rather than a electronic sense (which he isn't very fleshed out on, i.e. adore, tfe)

his electronic ventures are also pretty interesting.

[Mayfuck]

no not really. not in a experimental sense.

especially when you spent the latter 90s listening to a bunch of autechre, oval and aphex twin.

[truie7]

Originally Posted by rocksteady

his electronic ventures are also pretty interesting.

and pretty sucky as well.

[Mablak]

Originally Posted by medellia

lyrics are pretentious and like his poetry, merely impressionistic, euphonic word association to distract from lack of substance. melody is cloying and a little obnoxious. not with you on this one, sorry.

Billy may use some emotionally provocative words and lines, but at what point in the song does it become merely word association? He's not stringing together pretty words nonsensically, in fact you rarely see a pumpkins song that's more straightforward and organized, as it's slightly story-like.

As for lack of substance, although I'm not keen on love-themed songs, it has a beautiful theme, about the very possibility of attaining love when you have nothing. It seems to go through three stages, the first verse establishing the need for love, and raising the question of whether love is uplifting or simply supplemental to relieve us from agony. It might even suggest that that question can linger, that love will always come again before pain can consume you. Then we find a caveat, the devil seeks a perversion of love, seeking love via the mouth although the heart is ultimately responsible for the mouth, we're warned not to seek such a perversion even if it means we may never find love, because when we do find it our minds would already be tainted with false notions of it. And yeah, I would interpret the mouth as a symbol of the most superficial manifestation of love, something that can be deceitful and false, whereas the heart can't lie (to hell with that one book title). The final portion of the song is fairly ambiguous, but I feel it's a conclusion, that if love is impossible then we're able to seek and speak the impossible, and that our hopes will inevitably lead us to love.

I feel like this song has as much substance as any SP song, and as sort of a poem it would lend itself to style analysis as well, and lyrical style isn't nearly as complex in most SP songs.

[plastic ninja]

I approve of this thread.

[ravenguy2000]

the best part is when jimmy goes CLANG on the cymbal. you know the part i'm talking about.

or maybe it's more like DONG

[Altec]

Very nice song.
Very nice post.
Good job!

[paranoid]

great post.

This song is a good example of why I love MCIS so much. I'll never forget the first night I heard the record, sitting through litsening to each song and reading the lyrics that went along with it. When this song came on, I was suprised and shocked at it's sound. I couldn't believe that the rock band that played "Fuck You" two tracks earlier were capable of making a song sound like this, and this good. I had this same reaction to songs such as We only come out at night, beautiful, lily, etc.

The straightfoward strumming of the maj7 chords during the verse, along with the monotone syncopated vocal melody allow for the hypnotic vibe, kinda like being a zombie after being struck by love. Obviously a well thought out, creative song.

Short and sweet too, right in the perfect spot on the record.

[Thomas]

The spoken part deserves to be quote :

And in the land of star crossed lovers
And barren hearted wanderers
Forever lost in forsaken missives and satans pull
We seek the unseekable and we speak the unspeakable
Our hopes dead gathering dust to dust
In faith, in compassion, and in love...

nice transition to galapogos btw...

[Izzle]

one of the defining songs on mcis i feel. really one of the peaks of its classical romantic theme.

[NovaFritz]

we should come up with one of those information on/ history of books for every (or a lot) of the songs (sort of like what Pink Floyd has) and use the profits to buy more stickers for the regional fan clubs!! who's with me?

[IWishIWasBlank]

I can dig it.

Cupid, that is.

[pineapple*soul]

netphoria's best post for a very long time

[red_atm]

I like the song a lot, but where Billy just starts reciting poetry and shit at the end, I get annoyed.

[themadcaplaughs]

When the album came out the general reaction of my friends was "It's gay!" However I consider it one of the best songs on the album. It could not work for any other band or any other album.

[Izzle]

Originally Posted by red_atm

I like the song a lot, but where Billy just starts reciting poetry and shit at the end, I get annoyed.

james reads the poem.

[hereisnowhy]

Originally Posted by themadcaplaughs

It could not work for any other band or any other album.

I never thought of that but it's quite true. I remember Jimmy saying that he feels successful as a drummer when he creates a sound that people will recognize as him. I think the same is true for Mellon Collie -- because of songs like this no other album could ever be Mellon Collie.

[zsp77]

Yeah, this is a great thread. I'm glad some people are finally starting to tap into the genius that is Cupid. This song is truly special, in that the pure soul of it is something transcendental, ethereal, and other-world like.

I just can only imagine where Billy's mind must have been to write such a pure song.

[themadcaplaughs]

james reads the poem.

Are you sure? I thought I remebered reading a guitar magazine in which Billy said they recorded him singing the song, and it hardly changed from when he first wrote it, however it does sound a lot like James.

[hereisnowhy]

I've never heard of it being James. I'm pretty sure it's Billy.

[IWishIWasBlank]

Sounds like Billy to me.

Edit: Oh wait a minute, cmon. It's totally Billy. Listen all the way through.

[Azael]

It is Billy.

[redbreegull]

It doesn't even sound like James.