⋆ ♫｡ Song of the Week ˚♬ ﾟ⋆

Tonight, Tonight 

- The Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins is probably a household name, and has been for 3 decades now. Just about everyone and their mom has heard them, with our parents being the ones who really grew up on the band. Like mine! The Smashing Pumpkins is noted as a classic rock band, one of which has influenced too many artists to count! To name at least one, My Chemical Romance. Yes, Gerard Way admires and looks strikingly similar to his idol, Billy Corgan!

Most known of them, though, is their 1995 album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Now I haven't ever gotten around to fully listening to this album (I'm very slow to getting around to things), but for what I have heard of it, it's pretty good. My mother actually owns the deluxe edition cd! 

Our focus this week though, is the second track on this album, Tonight, Tonight. Not a whole lot is known specifically about the lyrics' meanings, but Tonight, Tonight is one of those songs anyone can dive right into. One of which, I'd say, encourages personal attachment, and most of all, hope. Hope for progress, hope for change.

" Time is never time at all

You can never ever leave without leaving a piece of youth

And our lives are forever changed "

Some may interpret these opening lines as youth being the price of time. As time passes on, our lives gradually change in differing ways. As we grow old, the innocence residing in our youth leaves. As well as one's usage of this time passing, "Some people wish to rid themselves of their past. For those people, time is an escape, a waiting game. Wait out your pain long enough, and you are promised salvation in the form of old age and worse remembrance. For those people, time is but a mechanism to move on..."

" The more you change, the less you feel "

Some say this is alluding to someone changing themselves to conform to society, in whatever ways those might be. In a way, we all do it. Whether it be major physical transformations, subtle, or even personal mannerisms. Through that, I think some of us may lose a bit of ourselves the more we change to fit some sort of standard or expectation. We lose sight of what we actually like, what we feel, what we want for ourselves. The more you change in this way, the less you feel like your own person. 

This can also allude to physical change as we grow older, our minds mature. We no longer are as motivated to action by our emotions, not as much as we did when we were younger. A child, a teenager, a new adult. We will always behave differently, hopefully most of us become more aware of ourselves and our emotions, as well as how to regulate that. We don't ever exactly stop feeling all together, but we don't feel as deeply towards certain things as we grow older.

" Believe, believe in me

That life can change, that you're not stuck in vain

We're not the same, we're different "

The topic of "can people really change?" has been a long-time standing question for much much longer than you and I have been alive. Everyone has their own answer to this question, and Billy Corgan here seems to believe that yes, people can change. And I would agree. You and I are not the same person we were 10 years ago, I'm not even the same exact person I was a year ago. Some things within us stay the same, others don't. 

You are not expected to remain the same. Tonight, Tonight holds out hope that everyone can change for the better. It's only a matter of if that person so chooses to put in the work to do so. Acknowledging what needs to change, taking the necessary steps. At the end of the day, everyone is different. Our bodies, our looks, our minds, our feelings. And so everyone has different journeys of self discovery, realization, self-help. 

Unfortunately, not everyone will look within themselves and acknowledge what needs to change. Maybe they do, but not everyone wants to put in the effort. Some people like being stuck in their ways, and that is a choice they make for themselves. The potential resides in everyone, it's only dependent on whether they realize it and make the change, or not.

" And you know you're never sure

But you're sure you could be right

If you held yourself up to the light "

We speak of self doubt, again bringing back the burning question, "Can I really change?" In this same verse, we see all we need is faith. Faith in yourself, you have to believe. Believe in yourself that you can change. When no one else does, it's crucial that you support yourself. Redemption is possible if you only test yourself and pull yourself back up and towards a new beginning.

" And the embers never fade

In your city by the lake

The place where you were born "

A sweet, nostalgic, and personal segment for our singer, Billy Corgan, reminiscing on his Chicago hometown. I love these lines, it's a sentiment that can rest deep within many people, looking back on the places that they grew up in.

" We'll crucify the insincere tonight, tonight

We'll make things right

We'll feel it all tonight, tonight "

"The 'insincere' represents the opposite of truth, justice, and all that is right. To believe in ourselves and each other, a staple of the lyrical content, implies that we acknowledge the fact that, at the core, we all carry a light of truth and rightness, thereby 'Crucify[ing] the insincere...' "

" We'll find a way to offer up the night, tonight

The indescribable moments of your life, tonight

The impossible is possible tonight, tonight

Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight..."

Ending with a burst of energy, simmering down into a soft sort of ballad, our singer speaks for us with words of hope for change. Asking for us to believe in him, just as he has expressed belief in you and your future. All the big moments in your life, all the moments yet to come. 

Believe that you, and the others around you, can change. Believe that whatever rut you may find yourself in, it will pass. The passage of time can be cruel, but it can also bring upon great things. 

We are constantly moving, take the time to cherish the current moment. We are constantly changing, look within yourself and ask what you truly want out of life. 

Your life is not stuck in one spot, in one moment. Believe and have hope that you still have things to live for.