Appels + Oranjes

"It is easy to think that it's just a pose. That this is really just Corgan's trip. Until, halfway through the interview, I mention that one of the lines in the song "Appels and Oranjes" really hit home with me.

At which point Corgan says matter-of-factly that if not for D'Arcy, the song wouldn't be on the album. "D'Arcy gets a lot of credit for that one," he says. "That song was on the way out for a long time."

"Beat him over the head to keep it, not throw it away," says D'Arcy, picking at a salad.

"I was gonna change [some of the lyrics] because I thought they were too stupid, too plain," he admits. "And she felt very strongly that it would be a big mistake."

Thanks to D'Arcy, the song -- one of the album's best (with the original lyrics) -- made it onto Adore.

1998 - ATN

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In a rare glimpse into the creative process of the group, D'Arcy and Corgan explained that one of the album's more poignant songs, "Appels + Oranjes", almost didn't make the cut because Corgan began to have second thoughts about its lyrics. The song features the revealing line "digging for the feel of something new," which D'Arcy said she really loved, but Corgan admitted that he was still uncomfortable with.

"I really like it 'cause it can mean so much, so many different things, you know," D'Arcy said, soliciting a Beavis and Butthead-like " 'digging' is good" response from Iha. Corgan, however, said he saw the line as more sentimental than existential. "Like, there were lines like: 'What if all the birds decided to walk? What if Fellini wanted to be a singer? What if we all moved to Rome? What if we all just showed up late?' It was all more like a jokey thing."

Unsatisfied with those abstract, jokey questions, Corgan said he decided to take the song in a more "cerebral" direction, adding more simplified lines such as "What if the sun refused to shine? ... What if the clouds refused to rain?"

But those didn't quite feel right either. "I was gonna change those because then I thought they were too stupid, too plain," Corgan said. D'Arcy, though, felt that removing the lines would be a mistake, according to Corgan. "And, actually, that was the moment that the song got named, because then she said, 'Well it's all apples and oranges or something.' "

6/98 - Sonicnet

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Interviewer: Billy, i understand that song was created, scrapped, and reconstructed is that the case, and why?

Billy: Wow, you're on it man. Um, yeah we have like a demo of the song that's almost kinda like a hippie-folk song kinda like funny, the lyrics are alot funnier. Then i kinda ripped the song asunder, re-did all the music kinda more sparse and fragmented. I re-wrote the lyrics, then i was gonna rewrite the lyrics again, then D'arcy talked me into keeping the lyrics, so that's what you hear.

7/98 Rockline