"The Everlasting Gaze" is a song written by

Billy Corgan William Patrick Corgan Jr. (born March 17, 1967) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and professional wrestling promoter. He is best known as the lead singer, primary songwriter, guitarist, and only permanent member of the rock band th ...

and recorded by

the Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Ch ...

. It is the opening track from the band's 2000 album ''

Machina/The Machines of God ''Machina/The Machines of God'' is the fifth studio album by the American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on February 29, 2000, by Virgin Records. A concept album,Interview with Billy Corgan, May 24, 2000, KROQ-FM it marked t ...

''. The song was released as the lead North American single on December 9, 1999. It was also originally going to be released internationally in January 2000 but despite the heavy rotation of the

Jonas Åkerlund Hans Uno Jonas Åkerlund (; born 10 November 1965) is a Swedish film director, screenwriter, music video director, and drummer. His video for Madonna's song " Ray of Light" won a Grammy Award for Best Music Video, Short Form, and a record of fiv ...

-directed

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing devic ...

, it was rejected in favor of " Stand Inside Your Love".

Song information

The unique guitar sound in the song was achieved by using a small

Crate A crate is a large shipping container, often made of wood, typically used to transport or store large, heavy items. Steel and aluminium crates are also used. Specialized crates were designed for specific products, and were often made to be reusa ...

practice amp.Thomas, Richard. "Signal to Noise: The Sonic Diary of the Smashing Pumpkins". EQ Magazine. October 2008. Corgan has said that this song "has a lot to do with spirituality and trying to find my place in the universe and sort of humbly accepting limitations and the things I've been graced with. It's more of a humanistic world view. I'm not writing anymore for the tortured teen—both me and whoever was listening. I'm writing with the idea that everybody's experiencing these things all the time, and even if they're not experiencing them personally, they're affected by them. You can live in the street and write about the garbage, or you can try to get up a little higher and look down and try to see the bigger picture." DeRogatis, Jim. "Corgan speaks truth: He's grown up".

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the '' Chicago ...

: April 11, 2000. During the recording of ''Machina/The Machines of God'', an early version of this song with very different lyrics had the working title of "Disco King". The final version of the song retains Chamberlin's consistent use of offbeat

hi-hat A hi-hat (hihat, high-hat, etc.) is a combination of two cymbals and a pedal, all mounted on a metal stand. It is a part of the standard drum kit used by drummers in many styles of music including rock, pop, jazz, and blues. Hi-hats consist o ...

beats. The final chorus was cut from the final version, though an

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

section was added.

Music video

The music video was directed by

and is a performance-based

, the first to feature

Melissa Auf der Maur Melissa Gaboriau Auf der Maur (; born March 17, 1972) is a Canadian musician. Auf der Maur began performing in 1993 after forming the indie rock band Tinker (band), Tinker while she was a student at Concordia University. She was recruited ...

, playing

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

with the band after the departure of

D'arcy Wretzky D'arcy Elizabeth Wretzky-Brown (born May 1, 1968) is an American musician. She is the original bass player of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins and is credited on their first six studio albums. She left the band in 1999. Biograp ...

. Originally, the band had considered

Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Jonathan Dayton (born July 7, 1957) and Valerie Faris (born October 20, 1958) are a team of American film and music video directors who received critical acclaim for their feature film directorial debut, ''Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006). Later th ...

to direct the video.

Track listing

"The Everlasting Gaze" was released with " Stand Inside Your Love" in the US as a promotional CD. All songs written by Billy Corgan

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Everlasting Gaze, The The Smashing Pumpkins songs 1999 songs Music videos directed by Jonas Åkerlund Songs written by Billy Corgan Song recordings produced by Flood (producer) Song recordings produced by Billy Corgan Virgin Records singles 1999 singles Alternative metal songs Dream pop songs