Love

Iha's demonized "cyber solo" in "Love" began life, in Iha's typically self-deprecating words, as "a really bad blues solo." The song begins with a steady flanged eighth-note chunk figure over a mechanized beat. The sound of Iha's solo, tweaked through an Eventide H3000 harmonizer in the final mix, took hours to cement. "I had the general idea for it," recalls Iha, "and since we wanted something cyber-like, I tried a Roland guitar synthesizer. I sat there for four hours, and finally walked out of the room and said, 'I can't get anything out of this.'" Corgan had the same luck, but decided to go further into cyberspace, renting a Roland VG-8--a device that reproduces real guitar sounds--something that he had a, shall we say, philosophical problem with. "Why the fuck would you want a device that makes your guitar sound like a fucking guitar?!" he crows. "They've got a Twin Reverb sound on there, and a metal setting called something like 'HEVE METTLE' and it's the worst sound-- probably Tommy Tedesco's idea of what a distorted metal guitar sounds like."

1996 - Guitar School

----

GS: One of the hallmarks of your rhythm-guitar style is you incorporation of smooth "voice-leading" chords that blend into each other because of close voicings and shared tones. Is that something that you are consciously aware of, and do you use it as a tool in writing guitar parts?

CORGAN: I love that kind of thing, and am always looking for ways to make it happen. I use that technique in the middle eight os "1979" and in the verse section of "Love." That's one of my favorite things to do. It's also on "Thru the Eyes of Ruby". I like the way the thirds of all the chords shift around. Cheap Trick uses that technique a lot, and so did John Lennon. I don't know if I picked it up from listening to them, or if it came naturally.

1996-Guitar School