William Patrick Corgan On First Time Hearing 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' | Billboard

William Patrick Corgan talks about the first time Butch Vig played him Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit."

[rosst]

What if I told you that you can like Nirvana and The Smashing Pumpkins while seeing similarities in both Smells Like Teen Spirit and More Than a Feeling? It's amazing. You all should try it.

[JenniferOcious]

So many comments where they say Billy never respected or acknowledged the greatness of Kurt/Nirvana. I guess these people didn't watch/hear the comments he made on three separate occasions in interviews where he discusses aspects of his respect and opinion on Kurt/Nirvana's talent. I can't recall his exact words, but I'll sum them up. I saw/heard 3 interviews with Corgan discussing the subject. One from around '94, he was talking about the fact that Gish, he felt, was overshadowed by Nevermind, and said, you know, it was such a groundbreaking album and a sound that was unlike us and it has its place in rock history because it was quality stuff, "No denying it". Next interview I heard on the radio he was talking about Kurt's song writing skills saying he was a genius for tapping into the zeitgeist of the time. The third that I recall was when he was saying how he was so depressed over the way Nirvana just managed to sell records so fast and people took to them so much, and here he was wishing he could write like that, making him nervous about the upcoming album which would be Siamese Dream. Why do I say all this? Because you can have an opinion as much as you want, I don't want to take that away from someone. But to claim your opinion is exactly how things are when there's the possibility you haven't heard him say otherwise, isn't how I operate and I venture to say how anyone ought to operate. One person does NOT know EVERYTHING. So keep an open mind, both sides, Billy's a jealous Dick people or Billy's a respectful guy people.

[dAvrilthebear]

That performance of More than a Feeling/Teen Spirit by Nirvana is up on YT, btw.

[jokerswildio]

Legend has it that Cobain was trying to play Bostons song just as a jam to warm up to...he ended up playing different chords to a more punchy rhythm--the rest is history

[nitemirror]

the story is they listened to the whole album and billy was like’ let’s hear it again.

[sparkleygrapes]

Whats up with all the Nirvana fans pissed off because Billy Corgan told a story?

[sadiesleepwalker]

By the way have you seen the interview /video (it was a tribute to the late frontman of Stone Temple pilots) where he called Kurt, Layne and Weiland the (that) generation's voices? (meanwhile, not adding himself to that like, not like in Corgan's manner :)?) I was pleasantly surprised he was a huge fan of AIC, Jerry playing. I luv them

[loganboyd]

Kurt played Boston's More than a Feeling riffs right before jumping into their song Smells like Teen Spirit at the 92 Reading Festival just to be funny...Kurt did that on more than 1 occasion so he was well aware of it. The Smashing Pumpkin's "Cherub Rock" melody comes from Cheap Tricks "Ohh Laaa" song So there you go!!! ... but Billy even never shied away from saying that Cherub Rock melody is from that Cheap Trick song. This story Billy is talking about is on a YouTube documentary called "Nevermind the Garbage" Billy was at Butch Vigs house - a producer on some albums of Smashing Pumpkin's. Butch was the producer for Gish, Siamese Dream and Nirvana's Nevermind. That July 4th in Wisconsin Butch played Nevermind for the first time and he said everyone at the party got real quite and then after the whole album was done playing someone at the party said play it again. Billy Corgan does say really nice things about Kurt and Nirvana in some interviews. Like when Billy Corgan was on the Joe Rogan show he was really nice about Nirvana.

[mainsmain]

I guess that crowd





Knows not what it means

[carpoman]

SLTS and MTAF are two of the most classic rock songs ever written.

[AliciaGuitar]

Now I have heard it, I can't unheard it 😂

[raffin]

should upload the whole interview. it was a good one

[godchidvonsteuben]

Every chord progression to every Smashing Pumpkins song has been used in history at some point or another in a different pre-existing song. Billy knows this, so trust me everyone, that's why he wasn't putting down Nirvana when he said that, he was just recalling that he thought that at that particular moment...

[kevindaley]

Nirvana and Tupac greatest of the 90s. All in the videos all on the records dancing come to deathrow!

[liquidsnake]

The chord progression was similar, but the groove was what really made it work

[SuicideSeason]

Everyone in here basing billy corgan and Kurt over trivial shit. Corgan literally praises Kurt every single time he gets brought up. While corgan was obviously jealous of nirvana's success, as was pretty much every other non grunge bad out there at the time, y'all seriously can't ignore the fact billy respected the man

[foto]

Honestly, I'm a musician and I know both songs exceedingly well, love both songs, and do not think they are all that similar. Sorry on that one.

[SuttonSantiniPaulo]

I wish that sense of humor was enough to pull kurt out of his pain.

[pmfnr]

Check out the Peel Session and Reel Time Demos from the Gish Deluxe Edition if you want to hear what it would sound like if Steve Albini produced the album instead of Butch Vig (the Pixies demos for Doolitte provide a similar experience).

I was always surprised that Cobain and Corgan didn't have more to do with each other at the time, but after seeing interviews you can tell that they had very different temperaments. And despite somewhat similar sounds at the time and sharing a producer, it seems Kurt came from a more punk ethos and Billy came more from a more classic rock ethos.

[gavingreenhill]

Aneurysm by Nirvana uses the same cords as Know Your Enemy by RATM