Corgan still advancing his “ChicagoSongs” project 1:27 pm // Wednesday, June 2, 2010
Posted by jjb in amusing, chicagosongs, news.trackback
Even Billy Corgan is sometimes shocked by his own prolificity:
Let’s get a list going in the comments, HU readers: How many of these supposed six dozen “ChicagoSongs” do we the public even know about?
Is it possible that “Riverview,” having been performed several times by Zwan, is the best-known of the batch? Or might Billy and Billy’s helper be including on their list other familiar songs?
Are the ChicagoSongs still ‘relevant’?
Yesss…
If Billy Corgan does plan on eventually releasing his old unfinished projects, then it becomes a virtue and not a vice that he has been willing to abandon good material along the way. Imagine what a let down it would be to learn that all of the best Chicago Songs were plucked out and used in, say, Zwan. I very much doubt this was the case, however.
It happens. I just recorded and released an album that I finished writing 7 years ago.
I don’t think it is all that relevant. But I guess he just wants to make some money off it somehow. I dunno how he is going to put it out there and sell it. The marketing for it will be interesting considering how long it has been or even talked about.
BTW, everyone on stage for that performance of Riverview looks bored out of their minds to be up there playing. 4:30 and on for sure.
(xforewarnedx,
Asking whether the songs are “still relevant” was meant as a joke. Look at where the hyperlink leads. We should not judge music on whether it is relevant; we should judge it on whether it is good. I’m not putting them in the same league, obviously, but it’s worth remembering that the work of J.S. Bach was thought to be passe and “not still relevant” during his lifetime).
umm. I have to assume the lion’s share of the Djali Zwan songs are classified as Chicago Songs.
1. Pony Express
2. El-a-Noy
3. Black Sox
4. Bobby Frank
5. Columbus
6.The Ballad of Frank and David
7. Black Irish
8. White Lights
9. White City
10. World’s Fair
11. Prairie Song
12. You were Mine
13. Riverview
14. Friends as Lovers
15. Say Goodbye
16. Consumed
17. Diamonds
18. The Girl with the Cruel Face
19. The Girl with the Sad Face
20. I held a Rose
21. Song for Judy
22. Roma Girl
23. The Spy Tra La
24. Whatever, Whenever
25. What have they done to me?
26. Solace & Serenity
27. The Bells
28. Riverview
a lot of those are only guesses. that’s all I got…
Here’s where I admit that I haven’t yet gotten into the Djali Zwan material. If they largely overlap, then I guess he’ll be killing two birds with one stone.
Wow, Randelius!! Do you have these songs? Where can they be found?
Anyhow, I’m thrilled Billy is so busy anmd remains as prolific as ever, but I’m just anxious for song #5 from “Teargarden” and hope that it will arrive soon…
if it pleases you, it’s good.
it saddens me that the space key on billy corgan’s keyboard does not seem to work.
there were also these two song that billy mentioned in his “integral naked” blog in 2004..
29. All Saints
30. Cease To Be
and also (going to the spfc page in order to check the correct names) there are also these other 2 songs, played at the Metro in 2004
31. Come Undone
32. Spike Driver
(but we don’t have any recordings for these four)
not sure where they can be found these days.. I have all kinds of bootlegs from the Emerson the Intersection shows — the only 4 djali zwan shows played. I don’t count the acoustic zwan shows in Europe although they played 1 or 3 of the djali zwan songs.
IMHO, Djali Zwan is some of the most brilliant material billy has ever conceived and the main reason I was excited about zwan’s existence. I was extremely bummed out by zwan’s implosion that nixed the possibility of the oft-promised Djali Zwan dvd/record. That these songs may come out gives me great joy and hope!
oh- I also remember Billy saying he had about 100(?) unreleased Zwan songs in the can. Maybe he’s tapping into that?
@Floppy: It saddens me that his “irrational conspiracy theory detection” key also doesn’t seem to be working :)
El-A-Noy, Roma Girl… Some of my favorite. If these are part of the Chicago Songs, I can’t wait.
USA TOUR DATES ARE UP!!!!!!!!!!
link?
@Chris & @Floppy: Hilarious. Both of you.
Also, the Emerson and the Intersection. Those were the times. Sniff.
that’s what she said.
Randelius, can I get a copy of those???
I honestly think Zwan was the last time Billy made great music without trying to conceptualize it… If it’s Zwan songs, I’d be freakin happy. I’d love if he had Matt Sweeney in there too, but I’m just wishing..
Copies of the Djali Zwan songs that is.. My email is jonkchar(at)gmail.com .. Thanks man.
@jjb You made my day. I was just reading Hipster Runoff before coming over to this site and I almost fell over laughing. I <3 Carles.
Here’s a link to those of you looking for those Djali Zwan shows. They’re the 12/13/01 and 12/14/01 dates(They played 2 shows on each date). http://www-tracey.archive.org/search.php?query=collection%3A%22Zwan%22&sort=-%2Fmetadata%2Fdate&page=2
Not the greatest quality, but it’s all there is.
BTW, for the best quality electric Zwan show you’ll ever here, check out the 6/13/03 show. It’s soundboard, and it’s pristine(after the first minute or so of the first song.) The Jesus, I is mindblowing.
Is it possible that “Riverview,” having been performed several times by Zwan, is the best-known of the batch?
Surprised no one’s mentioned “The Chicago Set” yet — Billy’s solo acoustic show at the Metro (summer 2005??). It was filmed for the ChicagoSongs DVD, which was then put on hold.
Setlist:
1. The World’s Fair
2. Black Irish
3. Black Sox
4. Friends as Lovers
5. Say Goodbye
6. Prairie Song
7. Bobby Franks
8. White Lights
9. Riverview
10. White City
11. El-A-Noy
12. Columbus
That’s 12. No clue what the other 60 songs are…
whoops, make that April 19, 2004:
http://www.spfc.org/tours/date.html?tour_id=1036
We can also add Spun songs to the list.
Freedom Ain’t What It Used to Be
Think You Know
Revolve
Wasting Time
Freedom
No, Freedom is a Richie Havens song.
Miss Zwan. Wish Billy still loved relevant minorities. Dijali Zwan was most authentic Corgan performance. Afraid Dijali Zwan material will never be released.
Is The Bells really about Chicago?
Will Billy play Geek USA in Japan to confuse audiences and anger Americans?
Was Billy wrong about Syracuse basketball?
I have always liked this song, especially this recording of it….
thank fuck he’s finally releasing some of the best material he’s written in the past 10 years. World’s Fair is probably in my top 5 of favorites from the past decade. Very excited to hear this.
@bd lee: Also ‘whoops’ because arpeggi (in #9) had already mentioned that ’04 Metro show. And also ‘whoops’ because every song on the setlist was already mentioned by someone.
Could anyone recommend Zwan’s best live shows? I have Glass House, and nothing else. Hearing some of these songs has got me really excited. I’ve been missing out!
@jjb: Yes, the song titles were mentioned already, but they were lumped in with other Djali Zwan songs indiscriminately. I just wanted to point out that Billy had specifically set aside this group of songs and labeled it “The Chicago Set.”
Seemed like it was worth clarifying…
I’m still surprised you singled out “Riverview” as your starting point for this discussion — not the taping that was done exclusively for an official “ChicagoSongs” release (and which was widely bootlegged).
Randelius: “I have to assume the lion’s share of the Djali Zwan songs are classified as Chicago Songs.”
Billy Corgan: “I have this sprawling group of acoustic songs, but at the core of it is this group of songs about Chicago. I thought, ‘I like the idea of a really nice, cohesive thing,’ and when I saw that, I focused on it and I wrote more songs with that in mind… In essence, the Metro show is like the premiere of the entire 12 songs together, and I’m really proud of it.”
(http://www.spfc.org/news-press/articles.html?content_id=1980)
Stuckinvain i’d recommend the show at the Blue Note they did its very good, especially the Kinks cover. its on archive.org. also pinkpop 2003 is amazing and very good quality.
On being prolific:
So, what is Corgan’s success rate?
LOL he basically calls his mom a bully and a coward (17:10).
Perfection is in the eye of the beholder. He claims even this video cannot conceivably be perfect, but what if it is? Imperfection can be perfection in its own way, no? Just a thought, not that I totally agree with myself, lol. Is nature (God) inherently perfect? Obviously not as Stephen Hawking points out in his recent series “Into the Universe with…” Imperfections allowed the universe to materialize and even he cannot provide any clue as to why they occurred. Of course these are all objective imperfections but is believing that one’s self is subjectively perfect a leap of faith, that God had a reason for molding you a certain way or that he created the world in a particular way, or is it straight up ignorance or an ego-driven defense mechanism? This is what keeps me up at night. I’m not well versed in these philosophies but I like the discussion. Maybe Billy can’t handle the criticism anymore because of his own anxiety from imperfection, though he claims he’s okay now with mediocrity now. I guess he gave up in a way?
but how many years do we have to wait for these songs with this TbK project going on?
“Stuckinvain i’d recommend the show at the Blue Note they did its very good, especially the Kinks cover. its on archive.org. also pinkpop 2003 is amazing and very good quality.”
That was my first Zwan show- it was sublime. Paz’ first appearance as well as the debut of most of the second batch of Poets material.
I would like to see some of the first batch make a comeback in some form. Glorius, the Empty Sea, The Shining Path, Chrysanthemum, ect.
Gv thank you for that video. And thanks to all for links :)
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This is Billy’s best, and most authentic feeling, music of the last 10 years. World’s Fair is so beautiful
I don’t understand why he would release so much crap work while he has so much good stuff in the can. It baffles me!
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