The Smashing Pumpkins song ripped off from Rush
Most artists will want to emulate the heroes that came before them. Even if they are trying to find a voice on their respective instruments, there are always going to be a handful of artists that end up creeping into a band’s sound without even noticing it. Although most bands might be cagey about what kind of artists they like to steal from, Billy Corgan was unafraid to admit that he pulled from a prog rock giant on one of Smashing Pumpkins’ biggest hits.
Then again, Smashing Pumpkins were never meant to be the biggest band in the world to begin with. Although they may have been bubbling from underneath the surface in the local Chicago scene, another movement arriving out of Seattle was about to turn the music industry on its head simultaneously.
Using the same producer that the Pumpkins worked with on their album, Gish, Nirvana would take Seattle to new heights with Nirvana’s Nevermind, breaking records for underground music with Butch Vig at the helm. Since there was a new avenue for groups like the Pumpkins to take over, though, Corgan felt that it was time to craft an album that could celebrated among the classic albums he grew up listening to.
Compared to their Northwest counterparts, Siamese Dream was one of the few records from the grunge movement that felt comfortable being played in stadiums worldwide. Compared to artists looking to air their pain through their music, Corgan brought his inner torment across with a bit of sonic honey, creating harrowing acoustic tunes like ‘Disarm’ and radio-rock fodder on ‘Today’.
Announcing the record, ‘Cherub Rock’ features some of the loudest guitars to be heard on a Pumpkins record until then. With Corgan playing nearly all the instruments, the song chugs along insistently as the frontman works off Jimmy Chamberlain’s drum groove to create the song’s push-and-pull dynamic.
When asked where he got the idea for the song, Corgan remembered being inspired by Rush when putting the track together. Instead of using the prog-rock trio as an inspiration behind guitar tones, Corgan went so far as to say that most of ‘Cherub Rock’ was a blatant lift of Rush’s deep cut, ‘By-Tor and the Snow Dog’.
Discussing the lineage of the guitar riff, Corgan recalled the initial groove being linked to Rush, recalling, “A song like ‘Cherub Rock,’ that’s basically us doing Rush or something. The beginning of ‘Cherub Rock’ is ripped off from ‘By-Tor and the Snow Dog’ by Rush. It is a straight rip-off Rush, but the backbeat rhythm; we see ‘Cherub Rock’ as a halftime song”.
Although Rush’s first episodic song certainly goes in different directions, it’s easy to see Corgan playing with that ambitious song format, including a mind-bending solo that feels like it’s taken directly out of Alex Lifeson’s riff library. While most of the alternative scene had their hangups about ascending to the realm of rock gods, ‘Cherub Rock’ is Corgan’s first attempt to put himself on the same level as Led Zeppelin or Aerosmith.
