Rocket (The Smashing Pumpkins song)

"Rocket"
Single by The Smashing Pumpkins
from the album Siamese Dream
Released 1994
Format CD, 7" vinyl
Recorded 1993
Genre Alternative rock
Length 4:06
Label Virgin
Writer(s) Billy Corgan
Producer Butch Vig & Billy Corgan
The Smashing Pumpkins singles chronology
"Disarm"
(1994)
"Rocket"
(1994)
"Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
(1995)

"Rocket" is a song by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It was the fourth and final single from their second album, Siamese Dream, and was written by Billy Corgan. The CD single is a valuable rarity to fans of the band as it only saw a release in Australia. A 7" vinyl record was also released in the United Kingdom as part of the Siamese Singles box set. "Rocket" was one of the few singles that did not appear on the Smashing Pumpkins' greatest hits album Rotten Apples.

Contents

Background

Corgan once commented,

There's this line from the song 'Rocket', 'Bleed in your own light'. I wanna fuckin' bleed in my own light, not in Kurt Cobain's, not in Perry Farrell's. I wanna go down in my own fuckin' ship. That's what I'm about.

Music video

The music video features a group of children who build a rocket to fly to another planet to see the Pumpkins perform. They build the advanced rocket piece-by-piece, with no help from their unattentive parents, and fly into outer space. When they arrive on the planet, they discover that the band members have aged since the first broadcast, which is definitely not what the children were expecting. The band's 2001 Greatest Hits Video Collection DVD also includes a different cut of the video with only the band's performance. It was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who would go on to direct many more videos for The Smashing Pumpkins.

Release and reception

The single included a cover of "Never Let Me Down Again" by Depeche Mode, though it is always referred as simply "Never Let Me Down". The song was recorded by request of bassist D'arcy Wretzky who is a long-time Depeche Mode fan. It was recorded at the BBC, perhaps in one take.[1] It featured on the Depeche Mode tribute album For the Masses, as well as the soundtrack for the film Not Another Teen Movie.

"Rocket" spent five weeks on the ARIA Charts, peaking at number 26.[2] It also charted within the top 30 on the US Active Rock chart in 1994.[3]

Track listing

  1. "Rocket" — 4:45
  2. "Never Let Me Down Again" — 4:01

References

External links