1979

This song means so much. It brings something out in me that I dont think I have seen from any other song. Might help that I'm a disillusioned teenager, just like Billy is singing about here, but I guess that's what 90's alternative rock is all about.

This song makes me think of where I am now. Being a teenager is a strange time... it's the prime of our youth, when we get out and see the world. We learn so much about ourselves during this time. Like Eddie Vedder said... all that's sacred comes from youth... but it's more than that. Not only is it the prime and the epitome of our youth, but it's also when the prospect of being an adult really dawns on us. It's a very exciting, magical time, but it's also a very sad, fleeting one. To realize that here we are, old enough to drive and stay out late and fall in love and everything, but we gotta make the best of it while we can. Because tomorrow, we may be putting on a suit and tie every day, paying bills, sitting at a desk. It's like we only get a tiny window to learn who we really are as mature people, before the burden of modern life crushes who we wished to become. This is my favorite verse, it almost chokes me up

"And we don't know Just where our bones will rest to dust I guess forgotten and absorbed Into the earth below"

Getting old is inevitable, but for a teenager, it feels so far away... we're safe from all that noise and despair in our little bubble of rebellion.

"And we dont even care as restless as we are"

Rare indeed is the teen who is content with sitting at home with themselves. We all want love and fulfillment and happiness and our own space. It's hard to find sometimes. But the trip is half the fun.

Not sure why I just wrote all that, I guess I'm in a very shapable mood and this song caught me in the right way. So remember, you're never too young for love and fulfillment and you're never too old for rebellion and change. And if you're a teenager trying to find your way, do it, no matter what holds you back. Smoke a joint, sneak out, stay out with your friends until 4 AM, tell the person you love that you love them, see the world, tell people you hate to fuck off, listen to music that makes you happy to be alive, or okay with wishing you werent. Some day we'll be old and gray and we'll look back on the 5 years or so from when you come into your own and when you get real world responsibilities, and we'll wish we'd have done these things. Or, we'll be glad we did. Enjoy the ups and downs of teenage life while you can. Dont worry too much about the future, because tomorrow may never come, but today is here for sure.

This is one of the Pumpkins' best songs, one of my all-time favs... The lyrics are obscure but some of them make sense if you think about it. The theme of the song is nostalgia about Billy Corgan's youth. "With the headlights pointed at the dawn / we were sure we'd never see an end to it all" - the youths in the story of the song are full of life and invincible and full of hope - they'll never see an end to their youth. "And i don't even care to shake these zipper blues" - zipper blues - sexual frustration? "And we don't know just where our bones will rest / to dust i guess" - the teens have no real aim in life and an uncertain future. "We feel the pull in the land of a thousand guilts and poured cement" - this is a metaphor for life in the city. All in all such a good song, even if not all the lyrics make sense ;-)

Shakedown 1979 Cool kids never have the time On a live wire right up off the street You and I should meet

This suggests the typical longing for connection felt by most suburban teenagers. Notice that the speaker seems to speaking only to himself; “Cool kids never have the time”. The next 2 lines are that yearning for a specific friend (perhaps a girl) “on a live wire right up off the street” A telephone wire perhaps? It also seems to point towards that desire all teenage boys have, they want to be “live wires”- dangerous, outgoing and generally interesting.

Junebug skipping like a stone With the headlights pointed at the dawn We were sure we'd never see an end To it all

I’ve read that Junebug was a song Billy was fond of when he was young, the “skipping like a stone” also creates the image of carefree times by the sea. Notice also that the speaker now appears to be older than in verse 1. He has access to a car, and refers now to “we” rather than “I”; he now has friends he was longing for. The “headlights pointed at the dawn” creates the sense of looking to the future. In the next line however, the speaker is now reflecting on the past, no longer speaking as a teenager. There’s real sorrow in the last 2 lines of this verse.

And I don't even care To shake these zipper blues And we don't know Just where our bones will rest to dust I guess forgotten and absorbed Into the earth below

Again we are back to the voice of the teenager. “zipper blues” may be sexual frustration. I think he is saying that, although this is the source of a lot of paint for teenagers, it doesn’t even occur to him that this will change. “we don’t know…where our bones will rest” paints the picture of a young person who still has no idea where his life will go. As we see later in the song, it suggests that he doubts that he will even be in his current city/town later in life.

Double cross the vacant and the bored They're not sure just what we have in store Morphine city slippin dues Down to see

The first line is a reference to how teenagers are often quite ruthless in how they pursue a good time. The “vacant and bored” are peers who they don’t want to spend time with because they are seen as dull. This is perhaps a nod to the voice in the first verse longing for “cool kids”. Is he now one of those cool kids he used to idolise? The idea of morphine could be that of using drugs to suppress pain, I’m guessing it’s a metaphor for teenagers’ drinking/smoking pot. Morphine is also very similar to heroin, is the speaker now loosing innocence and being exposed to the destructive behaviour in the city?

That we don't even care As restless as we are We feel the pull In the land of a thousand guilts And poured cement Lamented and assured To the lights and towns below Faster than the speed of sound Faster than we thought we'd go Beneath the sound of hope

The first two lines represent that teenage dichotomy of emotion- you are both carefree and incredibly caught up in yourself, so at the time your problems seem real, but as you get older they seem insignificant. Feeling the pull of “the land of a thousand guilts and poured cement” seems to be corgan’s gothic phase- very melodramatic language coupled with the desire to head for the big city and make something of yourself, in this case, musically. The part of the verse about speed refers to the speed at which time passes “faster than we thought we’d go”. As if he has been taken by surprise by how quickly “we” have aged. Is “beneath the sound of hope” the idea that there’s nothing that can be done about it?

The line “lights and towns below” has a personal meaning for me, as, when I was walking home from school there was a railway bridge, which by a strange illusion made it look like my neighbourhood was hovering above the neighbourhood I was walking through. Sitting in my home I often reminisce about my old school, which is in a particularly beautiful part of the city- I feel drawn to “the town below” the railway bridge and my childhood.

Justine never knew the rules Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls No apologies ever need be made I know you better than you fake it

Notice the speaker is now alone again, and like at the end of the previous verse is now looking back at the past. This is particularly warm verse; he is saying to his friend “no matter how you change, you will always be the same person to me”. Anyone older than 16 will have friends from their childhood who have changed, but no matter how much they try to transform their image, these friends always retain the essence of the person you first knew them as.

The street heats the urgency of sound As you can see there's no one around

I’ve always thought he sings “street heats the urgency up now” in this line, but either way I think it means this: He is walking down the street where he grew up, probably in a metaphorical sense, this brings back the “urgency” teenagers feel in their lives- everything is about now, not latter. He soon realises, to his disappointment, that the people that made this place special are no longer there. This brings the dreadful realisation that memories cannot be relived, because the people who created them have moved on.

I think this song is particularly poignant because of the tone of the last line of each verse- always tinged with sadness. Yet the song as a whole is not depressing- it displays the range of emotions you’d expect from a review of the past. However, I think its fair to say that regret is the overriding sense that this song evokes.

I realise that this is a song, and the music is just as important as the lyrics, but I can’t really talk about music using text alone.

Its about a group of care free teenagers. the line "And I don't even care ,To shake these zipper blues" seems to imply that it is a group of guys who would rather just goof off and hang out rather than make themselves appealing to the opposite sex. later in the song it says "Justine never knew the rules, Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls" implys that there was a girl who liked them for who they were and didn't care that they didn't have much to offer her.

I think this song is about the politics of being a teenager, and growing up.

song about the past. some nostalgia.

I'm 14. It's raining outside. My best friend and myself are sitting in my room making mix tapes. He's my love, my life, my everything. We're talking about our band. We're going to make it huge. We are. We'll get out of this fucking town.

Thats what this song reminds me of. Just being young, bored, stuck in suburbia. Wanting to get out, not knowing how. Making plans for the future. He's still in that town. I'm a 20 minute drive away, but I'm still tied to that town. We're both 21. We're both still planning our great escape. Some things just don't change.

1979 will always be the theme song for our plans.

Ok, it seems like everyone has gotten some basic facts wrong about this song, so i'm posting this just to clear a few things up and make a few verses clearer.

Shakedown 1979 Cool kids never have the time On a live wire right up off the street You and I should meet

Billy is being nostalgic and saying it's a shame there wasn't enough time for you to get to know him back when he was one of the "cool kids" and his life was energetic and unpredictable (on a live wire).

Junebug skipping like a stone With the headlights pointed at the dawn We were sure we'd never see an end To it all

Billy is now painting a portrait of his youth: he's driving in a car with his friends and doesn't know where they are going or will end up in life-adulthood just seems too far away as a teenager. A Junebug is an old car and it's skipping like a stone because it no longer runs well. Headlights pointed at the dawn is a direct reference to their driving without a destination and the fact their whole lives are in front on them.

And I don't even care To shake these zipper blues And we don't know Just where our bones will rest To dust I guess Forgotten and absorbed Into the earth below

Zipper blues is slang for depression caused by always moving. It's a reference to being depressed (blue) because you're never in one place long enough to unzip your jacket. Anyway, he's saying he doesn't even care to settle down in one place. He is a young and doesn't know where he will end up or where his bones will rest. He knows he will eventually die and have his bones absorbed into the earth, but he has no idea where he will be going in the meantime and he seems to enjoy being young with his future ahead of him and not knowing what will happen. This could also be a reference to Billy being on tour with his band, and constantly going from city to city on tour.

Double cross the vacant and the bored They're not sure just what we have in store Morphine city slippin dues Down to see

The vacant and bored are probably adults who no longer have the passion that teenagers have and Billy is saying he wanted to stir things up and change the world because it's become boring and tedious-they don't know just what he has in store for them. (This may also be a less subtle reference to teenagers being mischievous and playing pranks on the adult world-the music video shows them vandalize a convenient store while a vacant and bored adult sits at the register oblivious to what's going on.)

That we don't even care As restless as we are We feel the pull In the land of a thousand guilts And poured cement, lamented and assured To the lights and towns below Faster than the speed of sound Faster than we thought we'd go Beneath the sound of hope

They are restless teenagers with no immediate desire to grow up yet are getting pressured towards adulthood (the land of guilt and poured cement aka offices and buildings adults work at) and they eventually do get pulled into the into this world faster than they thought they would and they lost their youthful dreams and hopes along the way.

Justine never knew the rules Hung down with the freaks and ghouls No apologies ever need be made I know you better than you fake it

Justine hung out with outcasts as a teenager. Back then, Billy had a strong enough bond with her (and probably the rest of his friends) that apologizes weren't needed between them-he was close enough to tell the apologies were fake anyway.

To see that we don't even care To shake these zipper blues And we don't know Just where our bones will rest To dust I guess forgotten and absorbed Into the earth below

See above.

The street heats the urgency of now As you see there's no one around

Time moves too fast; the times Billy shared shared with his friends as a teenager were all about being there in the moment disfranchised with the world yet having what seemed like infinite possibilities for their futures ahead of them. Billy and his friends have all grown up and moved on; there's no longer anyone around.

It's about not having anything to do, growing up in the suburbs, and being bored in general. And yeah, the lyrics are obscured, but what Pumpkin's song isn't?

ROUS, you are very, very wrong. What Billy said was that lots of people were telling him that "Perfect" had a "1979" feeling, so for the VIDEO for perfect, he got together almost all of the kids from the 1979 video, and the VIDEO was supposed to be of the kids 10 years later. The song itself, 1979 is just about what everyone has said, reminiscing on billy's part of being a teenager and being restless and bored. Perfect I think is about just... meeting a special girl or something, I'm not really sure, whatever though, Billy is a god.