Bullet with Butterfly Wings is a song by the Smashing Pumpkins. It was released in October 16, 1995 as the lead single from their 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and is the sixth track on the first disc. This song was the band’s first top 40 US hit, peaking at number 22 on the Billboard Hot 100. It also spent six weeks at number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and peaked at number four on the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart. In Canada, the song peaked at number 18 on the RPM Top Singles chart and spent four weeks at number one on the RPM Alternative 30 chart, becoming Canada’s most successful rock song of 1995. It also reached number one in Iceland for a week.
The song won the Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance in 1997. It was named the 91st best hard rock song of all time by VH1 in 2009 and ranked number 70 on the 2008 list of “The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time” of Rolling Stone. The song came second in the Triple J Hottest 100, 1995, was later voted number 51 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time, 2009 and placed at number 25 in the Triple J Hottest 100 of the Past 20 Years, 2013. The song had its origins during the recording of 1993’s Siamese Dream. According to frontman Billy Corgan:
“I have a tape of us from 1993 endlessly playing the ‘world is a vampire’ part over and over”. It was not until 1995 that Corgan finished the song with the noted chorus “rat in a cage”, on an acoustic guitar during the same session that “Landslide” was recorded.
The lyrics “Can you fake it, for just one more show?” may refer to the band’s experience headlining the 1994 Lollapalooza festival, with Corgan calling it “old Job”. Along with other parts of the album, Corgan appears to compare himself to Jesus Christ, with the line “Tell me I’m the chosen one, Jesus was an only son”.
Tracklist:
- Bullet with Butterfly Wings
- Said Sadly (features Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt on vocals)
Filming for the music video of Bullet with Butterfly Wings took place in late September 1995 with Samuel Bayer as director. The filming location was a quarry located in the Simi Valley California hills, most likely the mining pits of the Gillibrand Industrial Sands facility, located adjacent to the Big Sky Film Ranch The visual look of the video was inspired by the work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado on gold mining, while, in contrast, the band used the video to debut their new glam rock wardrobes notably, Billy Corgan‘s black shirt with the word Zero written in silver, and silver pants. The video also marks the last filmed appearance of Billy Corgan prior to his decision to shave his head.
When asked why the band chose Bullet for the first video, Corgan responded “the record company did a survey of K-Mart shoppers between 30 and 40 and this is the song they came up with”. “This is the blue light special”, said Chamberlin, though it is likely in the context of the interview that these statements were sarcastic.
The Smashing Pumpkins
Jimmy Chamberlin: drums
Billy Corgan: lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, piano, keyboards, autoharp, production, mixing, art direction and design
James Iha: rhythm and lead guitar, vocals
D’arcy Wretzky: bass guitar
