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Old 04-23-2009, 12:40 AM   #1
Reyngel
Apocalyptic Poster
 
Location: Seattle
Posts: 3,681
Default Billy Corgan? I know you're reading. And you need to read this. Now.

Billy Corgan. Billy mother-fucking Corgan. Mr. Smashing Pumpkins.

Soak this in. Read every word.

If you're on your Blackberry right now, navigate elsewhere. Wait until you have a free moment. Wait until you're without distraction.

Because the following? The following is very important for you to know.

Ready?

Let's do this.

Billy, I'm not going to attempt to tell you things you've heard a million times before. I'm not going to tell you about how Siamese Dream changed my life, or that I actually loved Adore. I'm not going to wish you insincere blessings of grace, peace and positivity. I'm not going to tell you that I bought your book, or that I think Zeitgeist is the best work you've ever produced.

And I'm not going to tell you that I support everything you're doing right now.

Because I don't.

And many others don't, either.

Look, man. I've told you for years and years that I like you. That I like your music. That I like your artistry. I may not have had long, intimate, one-on-one conversations with you about it, but I've told you. I've let my money and my time speak volumes. Albums. Singles. Boxsets. Books. DVDs. Concert tickets. Plane tickets. Time off from work to travel. Time off from work to wait in line all night. I've bought it all. It's my way of telling you that I supported you. That I appreciated your work. And the times I've actually met you, I've used actual words to express my gratitude.

I stuck with you through the good. I stuck with you through the bad. For a long time, even in the darkest hours of The Smashing Pumpkins, I found hope through your sincerity and perseverance.

So what happened?

Why don't I support you anymore?

Why don't we support you anymore?

The fact is, Billy Corgan, you've crossed the line. You are no longer believed to be someone or something that a lot of fans desire to trust.

You're sitting there right now, nodding your head, feeling like you've heard this shit before. You're sitting there, thinking to yourself how not-in-tune with you and your career I am. You think I'm just another disgruntled, hateful "fan" who likes to be negative just for the sake of being negative. That I'm not a real fan. That you don't want me to support you. That you're in a "better" place now, and that you don't want to surround yourself with people like me.

And you'd be wrong to think all of that.

Because the fact is, I know EXACTLY why the support, the love and the appreciation has died.

The truth is, Billy Corgan, you fucked up one too many times.

Here's your track record since 2000:

-You formed Zwan. With Jimmy. Fans asked you why it was called Zwan, and not The Smashing Pumpkins. Fans asked you how it could be a different band when it had you, the singer and song-writer of The Smashing Pumpkins, and Jimmy, the band's unmistakable and irreplaceable drummer. Fans came to your shows. Fans bought the album. Fans would desire to hear Pumpkins songs, and you'd roll your eyes. Fans would claim that you and Jimmy were basically the two most important members of The Smashing Pumpkins, and that it was only natural for them to want to hear the songs that originally sparked their interest. You'd yell at them. You'd bitch. You'd alienate. Fans would be simply that: fans. And you'd forget that that comes with a natural desire to yearn for what turns them on. You'd blame them. Fans would claim that the dynamic of the "new" band was insincere. Fake. Artificial. And you'd throw it back in their faces, saying that they didn't truly understand. The end result? Zwan WAS fake. Zwan WAS insincere. The new members were doing drugs, getting high, fucking each other and spending your money without giving two shits about Honestly. You ended up loathing them like we did. But did you ever apologize to us for being hypocritical? For eventually seeing what we saw in the very beginning? Never.

-You wrote a book of poetry. You arranged for intimate meetings with you at coffee shops, bars and book stores. Fans bought your book. Fans bought tickets to your poetry readings. Fans gathered to listen. You'd have question/answer sessions. And when people would ask about The Smashing Pumpkins, you'd scoff. You'd get sarcastic. You'd roll your eyes. You'd alienate. For every person at each of those intimate meetings, you were their hero. Not because of a poetry book, but because of The Smashing Pumpkins. You knew very well that people didn't suddenly get turned on to you because of Blinking with Fists. You knew, just like any logical person, that your huge crowds were based solely off of your name from the Pumpkins. And yet you scolded people for still being fans of the past. It was the equivalent of Michael Jordan having a question and answer session regarding business management, and scolding anyone who asked anything about basketball. It'd be absolutely ludicrous. And that's exactly how your fans saw you. As an asshole.

-You released an online autobiography. Fans came to know more and more intimate details of your life. Nothing wrong with that, don't get me wrong.

-...but then you released your solo album. It was truly unique and distinct. The problem? You soured it by simultaneously announcing the reformation of the The Smashing Pumpkins on the eve of TheFutureEmbrace's release. Fans saw it as a cheap publicity stunt. And yet there they were, at your shows. Supporting you like always. And if a fan would yell out for a Pumpkins song in the middle of your set? Eye-rolling. Alienating. Scolding. It became a trend, actually. Fans would wonder, "Is Billy going to scold us tonight for still being active fans of The Smashing Pumpkins?" You'd yell about how fans didn't care to support your desire to do something different. And yet, all along, your full-page newspaper ad in the Tribune talked long and hard about how exciting it was for the future of the Pumpkins. How what you really wanted was your old band back. Your old songs back. But if a fan should actually agree with you, supporting what you wrote in the Tribune? You'd yell about how they weren't true fans, but rather living in the past. Borderline insane.

-The Smashing Pumpkins return. Resurrected. While most fans are excited, a few fans become upset about how cheap it was to watch the Pumpkins be announced as a revival not but five years after the final show at the Metro. Fans wonder about the band's credibility and integrity. Regardless, anticipation stirs. Fans buy the album. Fans buy tickets to shows. Multiple shows. Some fans even travel from other countries, just to show their support. Fans also have questions. Fans want to know what became of James and D'arcy. Fans are met with ambiguity and turned backs. And when you refuse to explain, in honest detail, why it's just you and Jimmy, fans become frustrated. Any logical person would be able to understand that it's only natural for a fan to hear of a band's comeback and desire to have just that: a comeback. A revival of music, a revival of image, a revival of what once was. You stated you wanted your old band back. And yet, when fans made it known that they wanted the old band back just like you did, you rolled your eyes. Alienated them. Scolded them. Yelled at them about how they were stuck in the past, and that the future was you and Jimmy. That "The Smashing Pumpkins" all along was really just you and Jimmy anyway, despite you scolding fans a few years prior for assuming that "Billy + Jimmy = Pumpkins" when you were messing around with Zwan.

-You decide to have multiple releases of Zeitgeist. Each one's at a different store, with one exclusive song on each copy. If a fan wants to be a fan, if a fan wants to own those extra songs, that fan would have to buy seven or eight copies of the same album. Yellow. Red. Green. Blue. It was a bullshit rainbow marketing ploy used by shallow pop artists for years... and now you, Billy Corgan, were doing it. Bleeding the wallets of fans. Fans go ahead and buy the multiple copies. They continue to support you. And then, after everyone wasted their money on your redundant product, you released the "limited edition" Zeigeist, which included all of the bonus songs they already bought, on one disc. Fans went ahead and purchased that, too. In the end, many fans paid upwards of $100 for Zeigeist, when all they really should have paid was $15 for the special edition that was strategically released late for profit's sake. Fans feel cheated. Scammed.

-You embark on a tour. You play a mix of old classics and current catalog titles. Nothing wrong with that. Fans, for the most part, enjoy it.

-...but then you announce a 20th Anniversary Tour. You hype it up, explaining that it was a celebration of the last 20 years of The Smashing Pumpkins. You claim that it would be a special, unique experience, divided into two nights, each specifically titled, as well as a very special one-night show with a "completely different setlist." You claim that it would be something entirely different from what was previously on tour. You claim that you planned to dig deep, very deep, into the Pumpkins' back catalog for the creation of the setlists. Fans drop everything. They save up. They empty their wallets. Concert tickets. Plane tickets. Everyone's on board. And then you play the first show. It's filled with the same exact songs and the same arrangements from the previous Fall tour, accompanied with very obscure jams and cover songs. Fans are confused. Fans are upset. The classics... the songs that would be almost unforgivable not to play at a 20-year anniversary show... are absent. Then you play the first two-night show. All of the "special, unique" songs are actually duplicated from the one-off show, just in a rearranged order. Fans are upset about being misled. Everyone expected a traditional anniversary experience, with nostalgia and memories of the songs that made the Pumpkins great, PLUS the excitement of new material. But that was only mostly true of the latter. And when fans complained, you rolled your eyes. You alienated them. Scolded them. Told them that they should fuck off. You actually went as far as to say that if fans wanted to hear old songs, you didn't want them as fans anymore. You said all of this... during an anniversary tour! Of all times to bitch about fans wanting to be nostalgic and appreciating the past, you do it during a tour that's billed as a "celebration of the last 20 years." Any logical person would have understood a "20th anniversary tour" to incorporate classic songs of the last 20 years. But you actually BLAME the fans for thinking this way, without any evidence to support why we shouldn't have expected what you apparently despised. The fans. You blame the fans. You actually blame them for being fans. You blame them for loving your past work. You assume, blindly, that the fans have no desire to support the present or the future, when that has NEVER been the case. You never once explained to fans that the "20th anniversary tour" would be something that amazingly and ridiculously against opposed to the past 20 years. You billed it completely different than what was presented. And fans paid for it. Monetarily, and emotionally. Fans paid. Big time. Because after all the tickets were sold, after all the VIP packages were paid for, it's only THEN that you release a statement to everyone explaining that the tour was entirely different than what everyone expected it would be. You actually had the audacity to release a statement, AFTER people had spent all of their hundreds if not thousands of dollars on tickets, that "clarified" the exact opposite of how the tour was originally billed, and how the tour was expected to be. Why would you feel the need to release such a statement if you didn't think you fucked up in telling everyone what the tour was about? The answer is that everyone did, in fact, perceive it incorrectly. Everyone. It wasn't a fucking coincidence. There wasn't a single person on the planet who expected what you ended up providing. Everyone, from state to state, message board to message board, saw the 20th anniversary tour to mean that it would be a nostalgic celebration of the past. Not because of assumption, but because YOU said so yourself! And when they came for that, you scolded them. Repeatedly. You scolded fans at almost every show on the tour. And because of that, fans rightfully became enraged.

Logically, negativity soon spread. You generated a virtual, verbal fight. You not only killed their excitement, but you took their money doing it. If you didn't want fans to expect nostalgia, you shouldn't have billed it that way originally. You shouldn't have had to "clarify" things after tickets were sold. You should have made all of that known beforehand. And, at the very least, after you fucked up with this, you should have apologized to fans for misleading them. Every fan, every news source, every EVERYTHING saw you as misleading. But you? You, in your twisted mind, were in the right. And we? The other 99% of the equation? We were somehow wrong. You then disowned most of your fanbase. You told fans that if they actually wanted to hear the "hits," then we should fuck off. You didn't want us as fans anymore. You only wanted fans who only cared to hear music of your future projections for the Pumpkins. You threatened to never play an old song in concert again. You INCORRECTLY assumed that fans only wanted the singles, and you tried to scold us, yelling about how the setlists had all the radio singles, and that we were just hopelessly displeased, unsatisfied and ungrateful with everything. That we were perpetually negative, perpetually ignorant. But the truth is, it's YOU who are perpetually ignorant. Fans were never, EVER complaining that you didn't play Today, or Bullet, or any of the other radio singles that you shamelessly whored out and played at every show for the last 20 years. Fans were upset that you didn't play the songs that fans actually CARED about over the last 20 years. Songs that were special. You tried to justify this by saying that every fan has their own, different list of favorite songs they want to hear. But that's such a cop-out, and everyone knows it, including you. You know very well which songs are the fan-favorites. Songs like Thru the Eyes of Ruby, Geek USA, Porcelina, Silverfuck, etc... songs that you've had absolutely NO problem identifying as fan favorites in the past. All of a sudden you have setlist-amnesia? All of a sudden you think the fan-favorites are Bullet with Butterfly Wings and Zero? Those might have been the songs that made you the most amount of money due to them being singles, but they're certainly not the lyrical, definitively-sonic examples of what has led fans to fall in love with you and The Smashing Pumpkins. You can't conveniently claim that just because you threw in the radio singles, everyone should stop bitching about the shows not being a true, clear representation of an anniversary tour, especially when the songs that most fans really don't care about are flanked by long, very long cover songs and drawn-out kazoo medleys. It was a huge slap in the face to fans. Even the people who sincerely liked the shows claimed that it was ridiculous for it to be called a "20th anniversary tour." And yet you were relentless about blaming us, the fans, for misunderstanding.

-You sell Today to be used in a Visa commercial. You sell the one song that embodies, as you've admitted, the most brittle, most fragile point of your entire life, to a credit card company. You spend many years claiming that you would never sell-out your music to commercials because you respected the integrity of your song writing, and you didn't want the masses interpreting your life's most emotional moments as commercial punchlines. And then you take a song about your desire to not kill yourself and have it be the new soundtrack for international commercialism. I, and most others, were absolutely floored by this. For many, this was the final straw on a back already burdened with much weight. We gritted our teeth with Guitar Hero. We winced at hearing Doomsday Clock in Transformers. But Today, in a Visa commercial? Today was a song that many people had previously shared your original emotion with. People who had suicidal thoughts once upon a time found Siamese Dream, and it got them through it. You've acknowledged and respected this many times in the past. And now? It's now just a shallow piece of shit that sells credit cards. Just terrible.

-And now. Now, Billy Corgan, you're continuing to destroy your good name, and whatever's left of "The Smashing Pumpkins." You propose a business model. A very expensive business model. You propose it because you want to see what people think before you commence with the whole thing. And when you get feedback that's not overwhelming supportive, you throw an actual fit. You revert to the mentality of a kid in Kindergarten who wants to take the ball home and not let anyone else play. You claim that even though you are planning to record the studio sessions anyway, you're not going to let us see them because we all hate the idea you had, and that it hurt your feelings. What are you actually planning on doing with that filmed studio footage, Billy? You come off like a prick, like you're just telling us about the footage to make us feel bad. Incredibly immature, Billy. Look. You wanted to know our opinion of your business model. You LITERALLY asked us for it. So we told you. And when you didn't like it, you took all of it away like an abusive parent, taunting a misbehaving kid with dessert. Here's the thing, man... you just don't get it. Time and time again, you just don't get it. We're not unhappy because we think you're greedy(although the Visa commercial surely adds fuel to that fire). We're unhappy with the model because it's asking us to, over the course of many years, pay for features that most artists, many of whom are your peers, provide their fans for free. Not only that, but you're asking us to pay for things that DON'T EVEN EXIST YET. You're asking us to pay for ambiguous things that you "promise" will surface. That request might have been an honorable one had you had even the slightest bit of positive consistency and credibility regarding your track record of making promises. But you've failed at delivering on things countless, countless times. It's very, very hard to trust you when you say something will happen, Billy. And now you're asking fans to trust you, again. But this time, you're asking fans to use their wallets, in addition to their sincere interest. You have no right to scold us for being skeptical, cynical and bitter in a situation like that, especially in the economic climate we're currently in. And you also have no right to have the audacity to claim that $40, or $20, is an affordable amount. How dare you presume what is and isn't affordable to people who aren't even close to your tax bracket? Besides after all, it's NOT just "$40, or $20." You're asking for those amounts in REPEATED subscription increments. So if we want the finished product(and who the fuck would want an incomplete product?), we have to pay $300-400 when it's all said and done! All that... for something we don't know will ever even exist, save for your word. Your word... something that you've betrayed over and over again over the years. And then you, once again, roll your eyes at us. Scold us. Alienate us. Trust is something you earn, Billy Corgan. It's not something you're given blindly.

Look. Your career, music and accomplishments have meant a lot to me over the years. I mean that. And it's all meant a lot to everyone else, too. Which is why the way you're handling the people who have supported you for two decades is just shameful lately. I mean, honestly? How dare you? How dare you blame the people who have supported your artistry over the years for your failures? You were more than willing to accept our praise you received for your success over the years. You were more than willing to proclaim that the public, your fans, were in tune with your artistry when everything was going well commercially. But now that you've fallen, it's suddenly our fault? We're to blame? OUR judgment is the judgment that's flawed? If that's the case, then you've never really had fans, have you? No one's ever truly embraced or loved your work. If our perception of what's "good" is flawed, then logically it should be universally flawed, and everything we've EVER thought about your career, past, present and future, be it praise or disgust, is totally irrelevant, right? And if that's the case, you should really just shut the fuck up and stop complaining about something that doesn't even matter. But you don't. You bitch incessantly about us. You tell us we're right when we praise you, but you tell us we're wrong when we criticize you. What the fuck?

Here's a crazy idea for you:

Maybe our opinions do matter. A lot. And maybe you should stop bitching whenever we disagree with you and your "models." Maybe you should go back to trying to make good music. If you fail, you fail. We can respect that. But don't blame US for it.

Don't be a coward about it.

If you don't want to have the relationship of artist to fans anymore, then peace out. Stop being in the public eye. Stop making albums, or films, or books, or websites, or any other kind of product that requires an involvement with fans. Make music for yourself, your family and your friends. Otherwise, shut the fuck up already with the blame-game and the eye-rolling and get back to what matters most: the music.

That's it.






EDIT: And don't forget to add the following to Billy's laundry list of bullshit since my original post:

-Billy publicly stating that James was the sole reason the Pumpkins broke up, and that James was someone who could never be trusted or depended on. This, coming years after Billy publicly stated that the Pumpkins didn't break up because of anyone in the band, and that James was the only stable person he could depend on throughout the years.

-Billy releases another song, F.O.L., written SPECIFICALLY for a Hyundai commercial.

-Billy releases another song, GLOW, written specifically for Guitar Hero. Nothing wrong with that... except for when Billy tried to get away with claiming that it had nothing to do with money, and that it was purely because he appreciated the video game provoking more people to get into music. Give me a fucking break.

-Billy fires Jimmy. He actually fires Jimmy. He fires the guy he said was the constant person he could depend on and trust in the band(which was also a complete contradiction of his earlier praise for James...). He not only fires Jimmy, but he conducts a public interview about what happened, claiming that Jimmy was fired because he wasn't "healthy," and that he had a bad track record of making good choices in the past. ...a past that was 14 years prior. Prior to Jimmy successfully going to rehab, strengthening his marriage and fatherhood, and abandoning all drugs and substances. Jimmy was fired on the "assumption" that because he made poor choices in the distant past, he might make them again, despite his positive recovery. In addition to all of that, Billy continues on with the Pumpkins name, not long after claiming to fans that it was okay to use the name simply because Jimmy was still there.

-Billy hires a 16 year old kid to replace Jimmy. After giving interview after interview about how his band failures in the past were primarily rooted to not having the right chemistry in the band(a complete contradiction to his profiling of the band members in the mid-late 90's), including the bullshit of Zwan, he hires a kid who will never, ever have a clear connection or understanding of him or his adult(and I use this word lightly) motives. Mike Byrne hasn't even gone to prom yet, and Billy is already entrusting his legacy in his arms. Billy has bitched for so long about needing to be on the same "musical, emotional and intellectual" level with his band mates, and now he hires a kid to replace the guy he said he had all of that with. AND, after claiming that it was okay to call his band The Smashing Pumpkins because it was Jimmy was still in it, he continues on with the Pumpkins name without the piece he said was most critical to the definition of the band outside of himself.

-Billy is literally fucking porn stars and media whores, including Jessica Simpson. And he goes on to pronounce that Jessica Simpson is a deep, special individual, and that we're all stupid for disagreeing with him. Nothing more need be said.

-Billy ended up giving up on the whole subscription idea. Many of us knew he would, so it wasn't so much a surprise. But he bitched at us for telling him we didn't think he'd actually see it through, it was infuriating to see him officially drop the ball once again.

-And the jury's still out on whether or not Billy Smashing-Pumpkins-Corgan will make good on his 3-4 year commitment of releasing a new song every single month for Teargarden. All we know now is that we have Widow Wake My Mind. And doesn't that really say it all?

Last edited by Reyngel : 05-06-2010 at 12:44 AM.

 
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