Snail

"Um, probably the song the consistently stays with me is 'Snail'. Because its a song that like, it wasn't one of those songs when you play it you say, 'Hey this is a really great song'. We had to work on it and work on it, and kept it in my mind, and kept thinking about it. "

91 London

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James: "I think Snail's a really good song live."

-96-Modern Rock Live

"Speaking of Gish, this next song.. Why did I choose this song? I was riding in the cab today and thinking "why did I choose this song?". Because it doesn't really have a good story. Often times on an album there's a song where you sorta put off writing the lyrics really getting down in the core of what a song means. You'll have like..what we call 'bullshit lyrics' like.. "the sky is grey, and everything's ok..and..you know.. Your dad's gay" You just sorrta sing things.. Somewhere in there there's a meaning and it takes a long time sometimes to.. and often times ..this song in particular - Snail, from Gish, and also Mayonaise from Siamese Dream are songs that.. At the time when i wrote the lyrics i really didn't think much of the lyrics, i though, again in my mind the lyrics were sorta bullshit because i really wasn't saying anything in particular. I thought 'well this song doesn't really have a particular message'. Now that i look at this song in particular I think the reason that i'm so attracted to this song is because it really invokes the sorta simplicity that we actually did feel at that time of our lives. In 1990 and 1991 when we were making our first record we were simpler people um.. you know nobody knew who we were, not even in Chicago not really anybody knew who we were, So our views about our music and our views about the world were much simpler. Almost sorta fay-psychedelic. So when i listen to this song now it evokes to me a simpler time within the band and within our lives where it really was sorta about getting up and playing..and the sun shining."