I Am One

"The only thing I didn't like about Gish has to do with "I Am One." In hindsight, it was really the first true Pumpkins song - it really seemed to click us into another gear. We recorded it for a seven-inch at least a year before recording Gish. I'm disappointed that I didn't take advantage of the chance to re-record the song for the album.What disappointed me was that I didn't take advantage of the chance to re-record the song for the album. The two versions are virtually identical; in fact, I've had guys come up to me in bars and say that the solo on the seven-inch is better that the one on the record. I'm sure they have a point, because the seven-inch solo was a one take deal. But with everything else, I was pretty pleased. It' s easy to get confused--you get older and a little wiser, and you think, I was dumb then, things like that.

95 - ATN

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"For years I've sworn that we'd never play "I Am One" again, because it's got to be the stupidest riff ever. But it
rocks, and it works.

RG: I was watching the Pumpkins' "Euphoria" video, and there's that monologue on "I Am One" where you go off....

Billy: The Rant

RG: Right The Rant About "nothing." Coming back to that word all the time-"giving me a whole lot of nothing." You're talking about the erosion of the belief structure.

Billy: And I get a lot of shit, including from my band! about those very monologues. But those monologues were really the gestation of my thinking on this record. You're at Lollapalooza or wherever, and there they are, the Youth of America. Do I toe the party line and put on the happy show-"Thanks for coming!"-or do I really take the opportunity to fucking push the buttons and make a rock & roll statement as much as, like, "Rock 'n' Roll Nigger" was a statement? Make a fucking stand. Believe in something. You hit it right on the head. That's exactly what I'm talking about I supposedly have everything. I don't have jack shit Here you are, you ain't got shit, either. You know, 'It's negative, what are you trying to say? You're insulting your audience, you're attacking your audience." It's like, "No, you don't get it." You have to go down in this muck to see it You cannot stand up on this hill and go, "Gee, it's really desperate down there."

1995-ATN