Adoring Adore 10 Years On....

A bitter effusion proceeded from my eyes the moment
the sony walkman with puffy earphones clicked off
after just listening through the album, "Adore" for
the first time in the early evening of June 2nd, 1998.
By this time I was a 17 year old boy who spent all
his money he earned coaching 5th and 6th graders how
to field ground balls on 25 dollar Smashing Pumpkins
bootlegs or as we called them Imports.. I had a great
collection going, I think 28 to be exact...

I had their shows from CBGBS's, all the way up to the
arenas.. I'd gotten speeding tickets listening to the
Peel sessions, crashed my car listening to a show from
Holland and recently had found the Golden ticket of
all the bootlegs, Billy's Home Demos from Mellon
Collie
Listen">Listen to Billy's Home Demos
.. in a terrible smelling store called the Mushroom in
New Orleans, but none of these bootlegs or even the
proper albums before had hit home quite like
"Adore" just had. I seriously started to cry after
hearing the line, "Take a day palnt some trees, May
they shade you from me, May your children play
beneath."

After taking some time to think why this record had
just moved me to tears in one listen I came to the
conclusion that there was an absence of life in the
record. It felt like the last piece of music that
would ever be produced by the Smashing Pumpkins, so
haunting and beautiful I felt I lived a lifetime
already with this band providing the soundtrack and
this was the swan song.

Of course as you all know it was not the final record,
the band would rock again with Jimmy, they would tour
the world, they would put out vinyl only albums, they
would break up, they would release Greatest Hits
collections, they would reform with new faces and rock
again..

But for me, none of that really mattered for I never
quite got over "Adore" for some reason I have been
stuck there since June 2nd 1998! The free concert
they did in Minneapolis that year performing these
songs, honestly blew my mind. I was in the front row
and was hit with sonic pleasure like you would not
believe.. The Adore songs came off even more shocking
and amazing live then they did on record.

It kills me to think that this is the over looked
record in the Pumpkins catalog. That it turned some
fans off and maybe even the Pumpkins themselves felt
some sort of pressure to ROCK HARD again.. Some time
later the Pumpkins were back with MACHINIA and they
were doing meet and greets all across the country, by
this time I was in college playing baseball and
writing for a college newspaper.. It just so
happened that a college newspaper conference was
happening in Minneapolis the same weekend as the
Pumpkins meet and greet, so even with no interest in
the conference I signed up to go and made plans to
ditch the conference to meet the Pumpkins. A few hours
into the conference I decided to take a bathroom break
and I hit the ground running grabbing a cab to the
other side of downtown to the Sam Goody in the Nicolet
Mall, there I stood in line with hundreds of fellow
Pumpkinheads all waiting to meet the band, after a few
hours of standing in line there he was, all shaven and
holy.. I got to tell Billy, "Thanks for writing the
soundtrack to my life," BUT MOST IMPORTANTLY I also
got the opportunity to look him in the eyes and say,
"I think Adore is one of the most beautiful records
ever made." and he told me that me saying that really
meant a lot to him. And I could see it did..

So to the reader, the listener, and the beloved if
your heart and head are searching for something that
musically feels as real 10 year on as it did when it
was released look no further! Happy 10th B-day
Adore.. You were already years ahead of your time and
you are as beautiful as ever!


thanks for the video Charmbag