Gish - The Album

The Album

Gish was recorded towards the end of Billy Corgan's psychedelic influence, while the band's New Wave roots had almost entirely evaporated. It introduced the alternative rock sound and heavy dynamic shifts that would characterize later Pumpkins work.

Regarding the album's thematic content, Corgan would later say,

The album is about pain and spiritual ascension. People ask if it's a political album. It's not a political album, it's a personal album. In a weird kind of way, Gish is almost like an instrumental album - it just happens to have singing on it, but the music overpowers the band in a lot of places. I was trying to say a lot of things I couldn't really say in kind of intangible, unspeakable ways, so I was capable of doing that with the music, but I don't think I was capable of doing it with words.

"I Am One", "Rhinoceros", "Daydream", and "Bury Me" were previously recorded as demos by the band in 1989. All four songs were re-recorded for Gish.

The following songs were written and recorded for Gish but did not make the final cut:

• "Blue" (released on Lull and Pisces Iscariot)
• "Obscured" (originally a B-side on Today, re-released on Pisces Iscariot)
• "Slunk" (released on Lull)
• "Why Am I So Tired?" (released on Earphoria)
• "Jesus Loves His Babies" (Never officially released, appears on Mashed Potatoes bootleg, a five-disc set assembled by Billy Corgan and given to band and staff as a gift for Christmas 1994. A rough mix was also released on the 2012 Deluxe reissue of "Pisces Iscariot")
• "La Dolly Vita" (originally the B-side to "Tristessa", re-released on the 2012 Deluxe version of Pisces Iscariot, and a slightly different mixed version on the Deluxe reissue of "Gish".)
• "Pulseczar" (released on Earphoria)
• "Smiley" (released on Peel Sessions and a demo version appears on the 2011 Deluxe reissue of Gish)
• "Crawl" (released on the 2012 Deluxe reissue of "Pisces Iscariot".)
• "Purr Snickety" (released as a "B-Sides Session Outtake" from the Gish sessions on the 2012 Deluxe reissue of "Pisces Iscariot".)