Billy: It's very strange talking so much. I'm not used to it. I used to talk a lot
then I made a deal with the band that I would shut up. A long time ago. I just um,
the year was um, 1994 and I just moved into -no clapping for the year? [chuckles] It
was a good year. [laughs] The year was 1994 and I just moved into a new house.
What was eventually going to be a purple victorian house in Chicago. And um, I was
like "ok," you know, "it's time to write this record" y'know, this record that was going
to be called Mellon Collie which I think it was going to be called that then
[applause]-yes, grievous clapping. Um, and this is the first song that I wrote for that
album. And um, this song really embodies the spirit of that time. I had just gotten
married, I'd just moved into a new house, the band was acheiving the kind of
success that people only dream of and I was really hopeful with the idea that I was
eventually and someday --and it looked like it was going to happen-- actually have a
happy life. Um, [chuckles] didn't quite work out that way. But I don't think that's
what I really want to emphasize about this particular song. Um, you know, hope is
really the key component in life because one must have hope and faith to actually
get out of bed and do anything in this world. And um, you know, in my mind at that
time, I think I was 27 years old, I thought that I had arrived. I supposedly had
everything one would want: the wife, the cat, the house, the car, and the money and
the --oh yeah, the fame. And um, but I think what I'm really trying to say here is all I
ever really wanted was a happy home. To sing this song now, it doesn't bother me
because I really went into those situations with the best intentions and when I found
out they weren't really for me, then of course, I changed those things. The other sort
of component and people often ask why I call this song 33, actually um, [applause]
yes the number 33, it is a good number. Um, I actually had hoped to write three
songs: 33, 66, and 99. Um, I never wrote 66 and 99...that's for the Internet, but um
[chuckles]...um, the reason I was attracted to the number 33 at that particular time
was um, I had a friend read my tarot cards and the person said that "When you're
33 years old" --this is when i was 27-- "When you are 33 years old, your life is going
to completely change." So um, as I sit here today at 33 years old, my life is going
to completely change at 33. So, this song serves both as [?] prophecy and um, sort
of a hope/unhoped...or unwished, maybe that's better. So this is Thirty-Three. - Transcript from VH1 Storytellers, 2000
Billy: "A simple song in a country tuning, "Thirty-Three" was the first song that I wrote when I came home from all the Siamese Dream touring. I took three days off, and this was literally the first thing that came out of my hands when I sat down. I was living in my new house for the first time, and the song conveys all of that. The "cha-cha-cha" sound is my drum machine through a flanger, and what you hear is the same one right off the demo because I couldn't remember how to recreate it. The stringy sounds are part Vocoder, plus five slide guitars tuned to one note each to create chords." |
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Written by Billy Corgan
speak to me in a language i can hear humour me before i have to go
deep in thought i forgive everyone
as the cluttered streets greet me once again
i know i can't be late, supper's waiting on the table
tomorrow's just an excuse away
so I pull my collar up and face the cold, on my own
the earth laughs beneath my heavy feet
at the blasphemy in my old jangly walk
steeple guide me to my heart and home
the sun is out and up and down again
i know i'll make it, love can last forever
graceful swans of never topple to the earth
and you can make it last, forever you
you can make it last, forever you
and for a moment i lose myself
wrapped up in the pleasures of the world
i've journeyed here and there and back again
but in the same old haunts i still find my friends
mysteries not ready to reveal
sympathies i'm ready to return
i'll make the effort, love can last forever
graceful swans of never topple to the earth
tomorrow's just an excuse
and you can make it last, forever you
you can make it last, forever you |
