Children help Corgan sing “Widow Wake My Mind” on Leno 8:14 pm // Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Posted by jjb in live, television.trackback
(Photo of “the lonely spot” by Kristin Burns)
Billy Corgan won’t be the only Smashing Pumpkins singer on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” according to an HU correspondent who witnessed this evening’s taping:
Very pregnant Linda [Strawberry] on keyboards. Children’s choir on backup vocals.
The NBC program airs at 11:35pm ET.
That’s very interesting I find.
I think I might be the biggest “Widow wake my mind” fan around here. Seriously I can’t help it but it really makes me happy. With A Stitch in time, it’s my favorite one so far.
Getting anxious for 0:30.
I don’t know, I guess this shouldn’t surprise me, since the song is a crowd-involvement song, and since Billy can’t get that, he got the next best thing, a choir. But it’s sort of weird though. Sort of like, Smashing Pumpkins is becoming like Polyphonic Spree or something, with the large choirs up there singing and dancing.
It fits for that particular song. And I’m sure it’ll sound good. The spirit of the band is that they’ll dare to do anything for the benefit of the song. I like that Billy and SP aren’t stuck in any “crenel” or some other words I don’t know, haha!
We’ll see, of course. But I like the idea.
@gyang333 – I think the white robes from the reformation tour in 2007 was an early sign they were headed to being like the Polyphonic Spree ;) … in all seriousness though it isn’t that different to the extended live set up during Adore.
Anyhoo looking forward to seeing this performance, band etc … still interesting that music that is being released in such an unconventional way is still using conventional methods like TV appearances to promote it.
WWMM and AP are my “new” favorites.
kids onstage again…nice. saw that once years ago in Chi.
@sunky
I’m surprised he hasn’t got some sort of costume lined up. Actually I think it might be the end of the arena/festival version of the Smashing Pumpkins. Those costumes to me symbolized the Rock God, or the Guitar Hero. Now that he’s dong small, “intimate” gigs, he longer personifies the Rock God. He’s going with more of a oh I don’t know, say poet look or something.
Not a fan of the song at all, but I can see this as a way of potentially making WWMM into something different, hopefully more interesting. Cool idea, I guess…just have to see.
Hip/Street-Clothes Billy is way better than Costume Billy.
Did this correspondent actually say kids were singing?? Cuz Lindas twitter doesnt say it. Man i hope there are no kids singing along. Here it comes, Smashing Pumpkins playing on Nickelodeon alongside Miley Cirus. F@ck.
@gyang333 One show no more makes a trend than does one song. For example, Billy played in ‘hip/street clothes’ for the Bridge School Benefit on Oct. 26, 2008, one day after he had played in ‘costume’ (the white spider shirt) at the Best Buy Guitar Hero launch party. And it should be needless to say he has gone back and forth on myriad other occasions.
Since when does Lindas family consist of children besides the one in her belly?
When they played the 2 appearances on Letterman in one week, Tarantula on Monday he was wearing his white/black stripe outfit, thats the way on Friday he was wearing normal street clothes. The best outfit was the white spider one..
@BitterT look closer
My whole family is here from utah singing :)
about 9 hours ago via web
@BitterT
my bad, i should have just posted all of this together, but I got trigger happy with the post button.
Billy wore essentially the same outfit on both performances. for that’s the way, he was wearing a blue stripped shirt with the same outfit as he did for tarantula.
gyang, does she have a younger family consisting of children? i guess i was under the impression she has a smaller family with like one brother for some reason..
i guess i didnt notice the rest of the outfit for thats the way. i remember the striped shirt, but assumed it was a normal shirt not the outfit.. him and his stripey phase lol..
My favorite Billy “uniform” was the elephant shirt he wore for the 2003 Zwan promo photos and tour. Something just really cool about that look.
@BitterT
Honestly, I didn’t know there were more of them in kiddy versions. They’re probably like cousins or nephews or neices or something. I wonder how she convinced Billy to make the SMashing Pumpkins into the Strawberry/Rowberry hour.
too much to read right now…but how adorable to have a kid choir ♥ he is a sweetie
guess im just wondering how my family is singing backup turned into an all kid choir. that would be…interesting to see..
I think that’s a wonderful idea. If you’re going to have a special, one-off performance of a song, then make it special.
whoa, looks like Billy rummaged through his wardrobe from 1993.
ugh…this show is awful.
I always wonder what ex-band members think when they might be flipping through channels and see SP appearances like this. It has to be weird. It’s a little larger scale than, say, seeing someone you don’t like at the grocery store.
@Chein
I actually wonder about that too.
Totally. An odd situation.
Yeah, not really enjoying this…
Wish I were.
SP have sold 30 million worlwide? A couple of years ago it was around 20 million. That’s quite the jump.
So far, the performance is awkward to me. The choir looks uncomfortable too. Why is Mark Tulin dressed as the mad hatter?
Oh my God! Heidi Klum and Billy Corgan are dating now!?
I don’t think the Rowberry family added a whole lot to this performance, but it is what it is.
Haha yes exactly purple!! :-p
I thought it was fine. Different. That kind of song and performance mixed with the darker, louder stuff will be very interesting.
That was….weird.
I kinda started liking it a bit the farther into the song they got, but they probably should have ditched that choir. They just looked awkward and really seemed to have no idea what they were even doing there.
It’s all methods to fill the back vocals before he finds girls to play bass and keys and sing.
One of the girls in the middle of the top row didn’t look like she was moving her mouth half the time.
So the performance just seemed awkward?
Yeah, choir was definitely a bad idea. Wonder what they told the mormon kids. Hey kiddies, we’re going to Farmville!
Astral would have been AWESOME with a dark setting! Oh well. Nothing special but I enjoyed it. Could have done w/o the choir imo
@Chein
No.
RE: the choir–I thought the little kids were adorable. The guys were fine. But the women looked a little shellshocked or something.
However, Billy sounded great. I’m glad they did that song. But, like my husband (not a fan) said, “He’s the only one left, huh?”
1. Billy always chooses the weakest, most “pop friendly” track to perform on these shows. Gets old.
2. Linda Strawberry is the downfall of Billy since 2000. Shit performer, hot topic reject, and I really have no interest in watching her LDS family sing out of tune behind this poorly written/played dungfest.
This is what happens when you’ve burned all your bridges, kids. There’s a reason everyone whose ever worked with Billy has skipped town. As a 20 year fan, this shit is depressing.
I thought the performance was a bit awkward…and mostly because of the “choir”. The guy with a mustaches vox seemed a little over powering…I think it would have been better with out them there and Linda singing backup.
And yes…Billy sounded great but the choir…very much out of tune.
I thought that too. The confused look of whose vaguely familiar with the band going, this isn’t the smashing pumpkins? Am I really still this high from the holiday?
@Chris
SP played Cash Car Star, Tarantula and Everlasting gaze on “these shows”. Not so “pop friendly” if you ask me.
Billy is having fun and doing what he loves.
I think it’s respectable. He leads the band and makes decisions for it.
To clarify, I think Linda should have been singing backup.
Sounds weird. Will be interesting to watch.
@Joe I agree with you on that one.
All in all that was just cute and fun.
Tarantula is easy to swallow IMO…the others were a decade ago, when the band had its original energy and there was some kind of drive behind things. Even solo electronic Billy had more soul than this.
I liked it.
@Bigpumpkins
I thought the point of this was to draw attention to the project? I don’t know if having people who look scared to be on stage is going to accomplish that.
those* but i kid i kid. It was fun to watch. I dig Mark’s style.
It wasn’t a horrible performance, but I doubt it will gain them any new fans.
That performence was actually less boring than I expected from a song as repetitive as WWMM. I hope they have that performence for download on the site or something, cuz in terms of sound I liked this version better than the studio one. You could actually hear Mike’s drums, and Billy sounded great. The childrens choir was threw it off a bit, but they were ok backup. In terms of appearence Maek could have done without the tophat and they could have gotten a less awkward choir, but I was pleasently surprised by this. Plus, it’s good publicity. You see how the crowd reacted when Jay introduced them?
I think it’s good to see SP on tv getting some exposure…BUT I think they should really use it to make an impact. And I have to agree with Chris, WWMM was the “safe” song to play, but in my opinion, the weakest on the EP. And with the awkwardness of this….I guess it would have been more interesting to see Billy & Jeff dueling it out on Astral Planes.
I’m really getting the impression that this is a new kind of Pumpkins. Not just because of all the new members, but the fact that rock songs seem to be absent. I’m hoping that they show up soon because it looks like Billy is interested in pursuing a new kind of sound for the band
I think the camera filmed the choir too much. Take that away and it was very fine. They did the necessary back vocals.
If Ginger and Lisa had still been there, there would have been no choir.
It’s a work in progress. It’s all very light and lovely of course but that’s what the song is.
@gyang333 I don’t know that it necessarily won’t draw any attention. It’s a start.
I’m actually at work at an NBC-affiliate in WI at the moment and I taped the performance…I’ll try to upload it in a little bit.
Did Jay make any references or jokes about the “reunion” exchange from the previous SP appearance a decade ago?
Surprised Jay didn’t plug that the tracks can be downloaded for free. You’d be surprised tho how many people may check em out after seeing this performance. I wonder if Billy will do an interview on the Regis and Kelly show? Now there’s some potential fans! ;-)
@matt
Astral Planes AND the choice of songs on the recent show comfort me in terms of rock. It’s a lot more of a rock era for SP than say Adore was.
ugh… i bet linda convinced billy to let her family sing since they sound so gosh darn good in church… damnit this isnt SP. the performances a few days ago was SP, but not this. it wasnt very cute to me, they looked scared like they had no idea they were doing this. if it were just the two young girls and linda i maybe could see it. man any other song choice would have been better. but he looked cool i guess
No, Jay just fumbled the CD case a bit but had nice things to say about the packaging and the “neat little toy”.
I’d have to disagree, personally b/c I think Astral Planes is the weakest link so far, but I can see your point, Joe. I think the best thing would be for them to somehow score a good song on a moviesoundtrack…I remember like a year and a half ago sales on iTunes for “the beginning is the end is the beginning” blew up when people heard it on watchmen…
@Bigpumpkins
well I think Adore was intended to be a “rock-less” record and they obviously wanted to try something new with that particular record plus Jimmy was gone so it was the perfect opportunity. The recent show was great in terms of the setlist and I hope they stick to something like that on tour, but as far as Teargarden is concerned I’m hoping the next EP features more stuff like “As Rome Burns” because that will really show people that he is still capable of keeping the spirit of SP alive since it was songs like “Cherub Rock” and “Bullet” that attracted so many people to them in the 90′s
After rewatching this the performance of the core band was solid, just the choir brought it down BIG TIME! I don’t think Astral Planes is the best track (that goes to A Stitch In Time & Song For A Son), but it is a rocker.
i dont know how to explain this one to my friends and family
@stace
That’s the same reaction that I got from the people who watched it with me. They were caught up in how creepy the choir was and how weird it was that Billy was the only member left.
@Matt
Well out of 44 songs, I’m feeling really confident that we’ll get our large share of rock. Many kinds of SP rock actually.
What I meant when I compared it to Adore was exactly that it was intended to be more mellow. This time all we know is that Billy wants to make a Smashing Pumpkins 44 song album. Period. There will be rock. Hard, heavy rock along the way.
Say it with me, “There will be rock.” Hahahahaha!
the choir was a mistake, the song was a mistake, he should have done this, he should have done that, blah blah blah. why don’t you people go sell some albums since you know how it should be done. everything thing he’s done at every stage of his career was viewed as a “mistake” at the time, yet somehow he’s sold 30 million albums. why is that?
29 million of those albums were sold between 1991 and 2000.
btw.. nice to hear from you again, darcy! how have you been? you > ginger.. by miles!!
@darcy
First off, you can’t be the real D’Arcy, cus well i don’t think she knows how to operate a computer-tron-machine-thing.
Anyway, jokes aside, you can’t possibly suggest the man is perfect? I mean, yeah his moves have been mostly correct, since I mean, he’s famous and we’re not, so he has done most thing correct. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t make mistakes, and that choir was a complete mistake, in my opinion. It wasn’t some clever marketing/publicity ploy or move. There was nothing to be gained. It seemed like pure manipulation on Linda’s part. I highly doubt Billy asked her out of the blue if she would have her Mormon family come to California to compliment his band on national television.
1998 adore- commercial failure. 2000 machina- commercial failure
the band has been a commercial failure since 1997, so dont blame the current incarnation of the band for “poor” record sales. just a different era of music nowadays.
i don’t think Adore was a commercial failure. I don’t have any official numbers but I seem to remember it selling well over a million copies which might make it gold or something like that. I’m not sure how that works. Commercial failure or not I wouldn’t hold sales against an album that good.
Oh my god, having that weird choir was just awful. There was just such a cheesy sound to the whole thing. Just, unnecessary…bad idea.
Ignoring that (which is next to impossible), the song sounds much less sterile, live, than on the album. I’d even say Mikey gave a more solid performance here live, although all those rolls got repetitive real fast.
SD 4 millon, mellon collie 9.8 million, adore 1.1 million, machina 583,000, zeitgeist 500,000. these are just U.S. totals. every album since mellon collie has been considered a commercial failure despite how great the music has been. so to say the band sold most of their albums between 91-00 is stupid. more like 91-97.
That was awesome. Moving the “oh, oh, oh” hook further into the song gives the whole piece much more mileage. I also loved the textural switch-up of the now-guitar-heavy bridge.
Note: I haven’t yet read the comments above me, so I have no idea whether others are whining about or appreciating the performance.
@Gv: I agree with what you’re saying about the textures. The coolest bit of the whole performance for me was Billy on his lonesome during the bridge (his guitar always sounds great).
The Mormon Choir was an *interesting* touch, but the two Shining girls at the front freaked me out….
Oh, and Billy looked real boss (Tulin too)
I liked the performace. sp is an alternative band. Sometimes alternative bands try “wierd” things. like use a choir with the girls from the Shining. Maybe they pulled it off, maybe they didn’t. Billy didn’t get this far by playing it safe all the time so give him a f’n break.
Wow that rocked! Thanks to whoever uploaded that (Joe? Rapapapa?).
I agree with C by thinking this is a lot less sterile than the recorded version. I thought the band did a great job, really solid. Glad they had the organ in there.
gyang
in your opinion the choir sucked. some people liked the performance tonight, some didn’t. it’s one thing to have an opinion, but some people here are constantly second-guessing billy. they always know what he should have done, what song he should have played etc…
if these “critics” are so wise and talented, why don’t they go make something better.
I stopped buying newspapers recently, when I realised the comments at HU were far more entertaining!
Let’s sum up a little bit: Billy Corgan’s an amazing Artist, plus rich and famous.
Most of us, are not.
Discussion, critisism and the like is great… Maybe though you need to ask yourself: “Do I own the band?” It sure as hell seems many people think they do.
Remember the old saying: Smart people talk. People talk about people.
Lighten up a little.
Just sayin’.
@lollers
thank you!:)
What’s with the BIG LOVE family with the band?
best version of the song i’ve heard yet, and it doesnt have those awkward drum fills. mikey is a killer drummer. some mean chops.
choir is awesome, added a weird freaky dimension.
ohhhhh its Linda’s family. Respect…
My family would be too drunk to get on stage.
I agree with others that this performance of the song sounds better than the studio recording. I’m pretty sure Jay Leno said “Window Wake My Mind.” I think that’s why the choir looked confused.
I thought the song sounded very good. It would have been a great performance if SP hadn’t had the choir. The biggest problem with the choir, IMO, was that it looked stupid and made the band look ridiculous.
Last night i thought the performance was a bit awkward, but after watching it again just now it was not that bad at all.
you all said that choir is a bad choices. for you its bad, for others – good. but dont repeat the same thing 100 times.
If I have any opion at all, it’s I’m glad he has Linda recording to- he seems a lot more relaxed with Jeff playing too, so I hope he gets Jeff writing/putting down some parts
@rapapapa
If 100 different people have the opinion that the choir was bad, they’re not repeating anything. Only if the same person said 100 times that the choir was bad would there be any repeating going on.
the choir was a little strange to me overall..
sometimes they sounded good, sometimes the dude in the glasses was too loud, sometimes half of them sang, but 90% of them looked like deer in headlights. For a moment I thought the little girl on the right started crying.
band performance was good though.
weird that the age range on stage was likely 6 to 62…
At this time I’d like to repeat that the choir was awful.
weird weird bad bad.. those words won’t change anything. Corgan doesn’t care, no matter how many times you’ll write it. I overall dont like that he played specifically WWMM, but well, that’s what happened. now Im only interested in second EP. I wonder if the first song of the EP#2 will be out till June.
@rapapapa
No one here is saying that Corgan cares what we think. But it’s an SP site where people can post their thoughts on all things SP, which, of course, includes last night’s performance. Chill out.
I cannot decide if choir was a good or bad choice. But the performance was great. And I love Mikey’s farm boy look.. gangsta!
Second listen comforted me in my opinion. This is awesome. Looking at the choir is a bit awkward but certainly not hearing them. I think it’s a good idea while there is no one singing back vocals.
Someone said he thought that was manipulation from Linda. I think this is utterly ridiculous. Don’t you know Billy yet!? He knew Linda’s family was in a choir and I’m sure HE decided and asked that they join them on stage.
I think it was daring, and sounded very good. I love the song, excellent, original single. Especially in 2010, nothing sounds like that.
I agree with u Bigpumpkins. The whole performance just sounded and looked very warm and homely to me..which is a good thing. But I must admit that choir was a little weird. Billy vocals were outstanding though and Mikey was the real star of the song I thought. Man I love his roll’s! Just slightly off topic…I couldn’t help but notice there is a slight resemblance with Jay Leno and Jeff the Shredder…strange. Pause it at 4.35. Although I know some will disagree! :-)
The choir definitely doesn’t kill the song and the performance, saying that would be exageration. I understand some don’t like it though.
I want Billy to try things, to dare.
on second watch, it’s not AS awkward as the first time. Though pretty sure one of the little girls just stood there the entire time. Anyway, still weird, but it’s passable I guess. And how come the background wasn’t centered? Was it even a Smashing Pumpkins backdrop? Or was that like the standard Leno set backdrop, I don’t watch the Tonight Show usually so I have no idea.
Good question gyang. I think this is indeed a SP backdrop though. Can anyone answer that? I thought it looked cool.
Yep it was daring and I thought it paid off…just like the fool in the tarot…U gotta just go for it sometimes. Yeah I think he does need to take risks because 44 songs is a lot of songs on this album and he could run into trouble if he over analyze things. Just like for all of us in life we just need to follow our instincts and decide from the heart. And if you are happy with the end result but others are not then you can feel free to say to yourself..”I just don’t give a fuck what some people think cos I’m happy”!
I’m sure all those choir singers are really nice people too. But anyone who doesn’t follow SP might be a little shocked with this video but who really cares cos I’m a fan and nobody can stop me from digging them right now. I’m still buzzing from the Hollywood gig the other day too. And Jay Leno is the man!
This particular performance will soon be forgotten by all anyway. It’s not an album version, it won’t stick to the band. So if you find a way to make it a little more memorable, I think it’s a good thing. As long as the song doesn’t suffer from it.
I think this is what they did.
I think it’s just a standard back drop as by looking at the duck tape in the kick drum saying “SP” that almost looks like “SD”… I don’t think there was too much preparation cos it looks like a last minute job….which is fine with me cos some artist go overboard with lighting and effects and backgrounds. Good quality music from quality musicians is more important to me than explosions on stage!!
That was my first time hearing a live version of the song and I thought it was actually pretty good. Didn’t seem anywhere near as repetitive as the album version. The choir was an odd choice but it was pretty inoffensive. Damned if they weren’t a motley crew though. Billy in his revolutionary-war chic garb, the rest of them in street clothes. SP (which looked like “SD”) hastily masking taped on the drums.
@matt (64.) “it was songs like “Cherub Rock” and “Bullet” that attracted so many people to them in the 90’s”
That’s hardly true. It was songs like those that drew *some* people to them in the 90′s. Songs like Disarm, 1979 and Tonight Tonight (which, incidentally were the ones that won a lot more awards) drew others.
I agree though, I’d love to see some heavier stuff in EP2. EP1 was pretty diverse in terms of style but I wouldn’t be surprised to see at least a couple of the future EP’s focus on acoustic songs or heavy songs. With the tracklisting of the EP different than the release order they’ve already demonstrated that they’re willing to play with the “structure”. I’d wager that the final release at the end will probably be a 4 disc album which will have a massively restructured running order as well.
I am hoping that the gap between song releases is less than a month at a time though. I think there is a little too much time to wait…especially when it’s another whole month before the EP is released after the 4th song is available to download too.
[...] our tipster hinted yesterday, there were indeed children performing with the Smashing Pumpkins on the The Tonight Show [...]
To think that one of the last Pumpkins performances on Leno was CCS,this performance was horrendous. WWMM is not a great song but I expected a little more creativity from Corgan on a live performance. The show Saturday was excellent. I’m not getting the more simple-minded, almost pop-rock, songs.
The EP being released late really was a goof with production or something. They clearly wanted to have the Leno performance, 4th song release and the EP release to all occur simultaneously. Yesterday was the original release date for the EP after all. Future EP’s will probably be released at the same time as the 4th songs from each.
I don’t know how often that the gap between songs will be less than a month though. Probably occasionally they’ll do 2 songs in a month or 2 songs together but I think in general a month is going to be the minimum gap.
its better to see it as one song per month
Holy shit, does this “band” need an stylistic intervention!
There’s no cohesion at all in the band “look”. Billy & Mark looked good, but Mike & Jeff looked like roadies asked to fill-in at the last moment. The chorus was embarrassing and also looked like last-minute fill-ins. Tape logo on the kick drum? Amateur hour. I’m not asking for matching outfits, but could they at least pretend they are a world-class rock band and not show up on national TV looking like the local cover band playing the VFW mixer this weekend?
I’m a fan of the song, and agree with GV @78, the movement of the ‘oh oh’ from the beginning of the song was a nice improvement.
@D4
If that’s the only problem, I can say I’m officially a happy fan.
You have to wonder if Leno’s crew is so used to the nightly train-wreck that they didn’t even bat an eye at the chorus.
I have to agree with D4. With every Pumpkin era there has been a definitive style that linked the garb with the artwork with the tone of the music. I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a retro-psychedelic look, updated for 2010 (not unlike the Spree) with a touch of Corgan’s glam. What that performance feels like is ‘who gives a fuck, where what you want, they’ll hate me anyway’ attitude.
*wear
not *where
damnit
I thought the guy in the back corner who i believe is Linda’s dad did a great job, and the two girls in front were great!
But other than that. the family was a little stiff and didn’t seem relaxed.
as for @D4 comment about Jeff and Mike i must disagree. Mike looks great. maybe you haven’t spent enough time watching them to see that. I like that they come across as real instead of over the top.
@Monte
Yeah, I’m also guessing that’s her dad, and he was rocking out. Good times!
@MonteLDS
I don’t know Monte, that one little girl just stared and froze on stage. The one did a great job though I think. if they didn’t have that deer in headlights look on stage, it wouldn’t have been as bad.
if you guys think the performance was so bad, then why don’t you go on leno and do a better one? if wwmm is such a bad song, then go write a better one. it’s easy to sit here and judge this band when you haven’t done shit.
harvey its kinda silly argument, but damn right. I agree with you.
[...] Children help Corgan sing “Widow Wake My Mind” on Leno (Photo of “the lonely spot” by Kristin Burns) Billy Corgan won’t be the only Smashing Pumpkins [...] [...]
Can anyone instruct me and tell me what these posts like no.123 here are?
The performance by Billy and the band was great but the backup singers were ummmmm…
It’s like Billy just drove through a farm and picked up a family and said “youre going on the tonight show”
The women all had this “wtf” look on their faces