Blog On The Motorway

I used to love The Smashing Pumpkins.  In fact there was a time when Idevoured everything they put out, and to this day I think Siamese Dreams remains one of the best albums ever recorded.  Which is why it is so disappointing that Billy Corgan, once one of my idols, has in the last few years become a total unhinged nutbar.

First there was the reformation of the band without any of the members other than himself. Fine, lots of bands have gone down this route, and we all knew that it was him who played most of the parts on the albums anyway. But then he released a terrible album under that name and then refused to play old songs when they toured, even though the tour was billed as a 20th anniversary tour.

Next came the wacky behaviour.  When the band were getting bad reviews he called a fan onstage at a show to ask him what he thought (in itself a bit weird) and when the fan told him the show sucked he responded “Oh yeah? Well what songs have you written? Take Your Dick Out Of My Ass And Stick It On My Mouth?” Way to engage with your audience.

Then he proclaimed there would be no more albums, because “we found with Zeitgeist that the alternative audience isn’t alternative anymore. They’re a pop audience that listens to Nickelback. So doing a 10-minute song, nobody will listen to it.” Yeah Billy, insulting your audience is always a good idea.

Then he slagged off Radiohead for giving away their ‘In Rainbows’ album, saying it put out the wrong message to young bands.  Then, just to confuse matters further he announced that the Pumpkins would be giving away a 44 track album, totally free.  There are politicians who would be staggered by this level of U-turning.

But anyway, all of this is fairly typical rock star idiocy. But now Billy has gone and thrown his hat in with the very worst and idiotic sides of spiritualist nonsense on his blog ‘Everything From There To Here.’ A quick peruse has him writing such gubbins as;

“God doesn’t get tired. God never stops. God keeps going. God has tons of patience. God never wakes, for God does not sleep.”

And:

“I went to see a channel once a few years back. We were discussing the nature of divinity here on Earth, and how I was having trouble staying connected to my body. He said to me, “What most people here don’t understand is that finding God is not about going up and meditating on the top of some mountain for 40 years. You are here IN THE BODY for a reason, to experience the limitation of that lower vibration, and therefore learn how to integrate WITH IT, and also find Holiness in the process. The way OUT of the box is to get completely IN the box, and make the most of your time HERE.””

Yeah, thanks for that Billy.  Again, fair enough, I don’t have to like it or agree with it but the man is entitled to write his childlike musings of the world. But on top of this, he has also decided that Swine Flu is a giant conspiracy cooked up by, amongst others, Barack Obama.

Come again? In his post Health and A Well-Being he states:

“I would suggest however that it is possible the virus is not a naturally occurring virus. I have read reports from people who say (as doctors) that there is evidence to suggest this virus was created by man; to call it Swine Flu is then a misnomer, as it really is Swine Flu plus some other stuff stitched together. These doctors said such genetic mutation was impossible in nature.”

And:

“Our American President Obama has declared a national emergency about this virus, which he in his own words said was, at this point, a preventative measure. So, why declare an emergency if there isn’t one?”

Perhaps, Billy, it’s got something to do with more measures being able to be more easily mobilised to combat the spread, once the emergency has been declared.  And as for this point about swine flu being some kind of man-made genetic hybrid, this is from Doctors, eh Billy? Not, perhaps, from holistic peddlers who want to see you start ranting and raving about the evils of immunisation? Because surely even you cant go as far as that, eh?

“I for one will not be taking the vaccine. I do not trust those who make the vaccines, or the apperatus behind it all to push it on us thrufear. This is not judgment; it is a personal decision based on research, intuition, conversations with my doctor and my ‘family’. If the virus comes to take me Home, that is between me and the Lord.”

Riiiiiiiiiiiiight.  There is more of this sort of gubbins on his site, and I highly recommend it if you are interested in seeing just how unravelled a mind can get.  The post about dreaming of Johnny Cash is particularly silly.

In the meantime though, I think my relationship with the Pumpkins is now officially severed.

Thanks to Joe for spotting this idiocy.