Happy Ho-Ho-Holidays to you from me, Father Christmas, and – for a final time this year – I’ve got a new entry in my ‘Scuzz Sundays’ December takeover to give our regular writer Jacob Braybrooke (Who is almost the busiest man in the world, bar me) a little break, because it is his day-to-day pleasure to write up about a different piece of music every day! My takeover has come and gone incredibly quickly, almost as quickly as the time it takes for one of my Elf’s to create a toy for the little children of the world, but it draws to a natural conclusion with a rare track from one of the most established alternative rock bands of the 1990’s, The Smashing Pumpkins. Best known for albums like ‘Melon Collie and The Infinite Sadness’ and ‘Siamese Dream’, the name of the group probably has more to do with Halloween than Christmas. However, their blend of soft metal, dream rock, shoegaze, electronica and gothic rock has persisted throughout the ages, and their ambitious frontman Billy Corgan, who was also once a promoter for Total Nonstop Action wrestling, has ensured the project has sold its way to over 30 million records worldwide. It is also a solid achievement that the band are still going, having released a new album as recently as their eleventh LP outing – ‘Cyr’ – in 2020. Our good friend Jacob tells me that he is quite fond of The Smashing Pumpkins himself and that although their discography can be a little hit-or-miss, particularly in their dwindling late-00’s period and with some of their most recent material garnering mixed-negative receptions from him, they make music that is never inherently uninteresting and he appreciates all of the visual work that Corgan puts into their art, and so he still likes to make it clear that even his least favourite releases of The Pumpkins are not without merit. Believed to have been released in 1997 originally, their creative rendition of ‘Christmas Time’ was an original Christmas song that was a rare recording to come across since it was never formally released on one of Corgan’s albums. Instead, it was found on the compilation ‘A Very Special Christmas 3’ that was produced by the usual trio of Bobby Shriver, Al Cafaro & Linda Feder to benefit the Special Olympics via A&M Records. Let’s check it out below.

‘Christmas Time’ can also be found on The Smashing Pumpkins’ 2005 compilation, ‘Rarities and B-Sides’, that just does what it says on the tin. The original source, as mentioned, was ‘A Very Special Christmas 3’, the third in the titular of Christmas box sets released for charity. This iteration of the series also featured some appearances from Mary J. Blige, Dave Matthews, No Doubt, Natalie Merchant, Sting, Enya, Hootie & The Blowfish and Steve Winwood, and the big release runs for over 66 minutes in its entirety. It reached #2 on the US Billboard Top Holiday Albums chart and it was certified as ‘Gold’ for shifting over 500,000 units by the RIAA. Keeping things short and sweet at a less daunting 3:17 however, was Corgan’s original track ‘Christmas Time’ which was second in the track listing, and it feels like a natural choice to warm you up for the more mellow or hard-hitting cuts later on. Reflecting on the fuzzy and kind-hearted memories of times gone by, Corgan uses nostalgic lyrics like “We watch the children playing, beside the Christmas tree/The presents are wrapped up, it’s beautiful and secretly” and “I remember dreaming, Wishing, hoping and praying for this day/Now I sit and watch them/The little ones I love” introduced a more mature theme of enjoying Christmas time as an adult, which feels like unique and relatively untapped subject matter in other yuletide anthems. There’s a delicate String section that dominates the backbeat, as well as some whimsical Horns that help to set the tone of a simple Christmas done right in the opening. The key hook of “Christmas time has come, toys for everyone” gets the simple message of ‘Christmas is finally here’ across in a sweet and pleasant way. Musically, this probably has the most in common with the band’s ‘infinite sadness’ era as it doesn’t really reflect harder rock archetypes, but it feels almost child-like in the way that it depicts Christmas in such an earnest way that is complemented by Corgan’s vulnerable vocals well. There’s a few Synth textures buried in here, but the track certainly has an eclectic air of rhyme and reason to it. As a complete package, this makes for a really gorgeous and subtle Dream-Pop release that wears its heart on its sleeve and conveys a basic message in a pleasant way. It plays to the softer side of The Smashing Pumpkins that is rarely seen, but is very appreciated when it does pull in an appearance, and it feels somewhat strange that it hasn’t really been given any cover versions or re-workings for John Lewis ads at Christmas in later years. At the time, it was a refreshing change of pace for a band who are known to release intimidating double albums and inter-connected albums to opt for something simpler and indulge in straightforward holiday cheer, and Corgan strikes a good balance between child-like joy and more adult-oriented nostalgia in his lyrics. I’m sure that Jacob would love for me to point out that Corgan could have easily just recorded a simple cover version of an already more established song for the record all of those years ago as it would have cost him nothing. However, he instead decided to write his own lyrics and chord sheets from scratch. This is testament to what makes Corgan’s project so appealing over the decades and why The Smashing Pumpkins have survived throughout the saturation of ‘Indie’ for so long. He never repeats himself and, as an artist, he always gives his all into everything what he does. That’s something that we can all deeply admire about Corgan. To conclude, this is an essential addition to your playlist as it has everything that you could want from a Christmas song since it feels traditionally festive as well as original.

Jacob has also informed me that Corgan and his co-horts have made two previous appearances on the site. You can catch up on their recent material with ‘Wyttch’ from 2020’s ‘Cyr’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2020/11/27/todays-track-the-smashing-pumpkins-wyttch/. Or, you can relive their ‘Melon Collie and The Infinite Sadness’ days with his take on ‘Tonight, Tonight’ here: https://onetrackatatime.home.blog/2019/10/27/scuzz-sundays-the-smashing-pumpkins-tonight-tonight/

I’ve got to give Rudolph’s nose a wipe – and so I’ll leave it there for today! Thank you very much for having me throughout December, and I’ll leave you in the capable hands of Jacob Braybrooke again tomorrow, who will be having a brief reset before Christmas to help you catch up on some music that you may have missed in 2021. The next pick comes from a Black Metal-influenced Art Folk and Country singer songwriter who issued her tenth studio LP via Sacred Bones Records and Bella Union in October.

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