Glass + the Ghost Children

i've read that originaly billy wanted to do another double disc album like Mellon Collie, but the album nixed it, and just chose their favorite songs and slapped them together, which totally screwed up Billy's whole storyline to the concept album. Machina was the album title, "the Machines of God" was supposed to be the imaginary band's name a-la "Ziggy Stardust" Billy even makes reference to Bowie's rock opera on "if there is a God": "... he likes our loud guitars, and our spiders from mars". so Virgin released half of the songs, all out of order and it indirectly led to the breakup of the Pumpkins. a while later, they pressed a very limited number of vinyls called "machina II: the friends and enemies of modern music" it was a 12" and then three(?) 7"s of b-sides and alternates like TAFH was to Mellon Collie. They mailed them out to their most active fans, along with instructions to make the songs available for free download on the internet. Billy literally called Machina II "a final farewell to the fans, and a final fuck-you to the industry". I've heard that one of the super-fans who recieved this oh-so-coveted rarity was Elijah Wood, he is one of the most avid SP fans alive.

The words in the song arent supposed to be Billy, but "Glass"; the ficitonal rock star leader of TMOG who loses his mind after losing his drug-addicted girlfriend. whats interesting is that the song "the aeroplane flies high" seems to be a precursor to this song, similar taped dialouge, similar subject matter.

I absolutely love this song. it's so... eerie. i don't really know what it means, (like most of the smashing pumpkins songs!) but i always thought it was about how we all do what we are called to do, and that there is no escape, and then we start to doubt... and that our thoughts and faith and impulse could all just be a crazy lie that your mind has made up.

I feel much of the song is about the realization that everything Glass (the main character) understood to be true could just be in his mind. Glass had believed God was speaking to him and letting him know that his life had a greater purpose. This is the the fear induced by self doubt.

I also think there is definitely a dual personality theme. Where the main character has two sides: Zero and Glass. Zero is persona of depression, worthlessness, and despair as characterized by much of the early SP music. Glass is the persona that matches how Billy later was later taking on at this point in his life. I think Billy/Glass came to believe God was speaking to him somehow, and he had a purpose far greater in life. Whether that is true or not, he is questioning his beliefs and that scares him.

I think this song is about his doubts and fears of what he had thought to be an enlightenment, he though he was seeing things as clear as glass, but mostly because life still seems to go on the same depressing way - Zero's persona seems to be creeping back in. To quote the song Zero: "I'm your Zero, I'm the face in your dreams of Glass"

The Machina Story, Glass and the Machines of God, is really just a big pisstake. Billy wasn't being serious. He was just having fun. Hey, with all the little bits he's thrown out all over the place - music/booklets/handouts from shows/artwork/a web cartoon that's down now ect, it's probably still only Billy who know's exactly what the story is.

The Machina Duology is kinda concept albumish, but it's probably more of a subtle parody of a concept album.

Definitely a creepy song. The live version of this from their second to last show at the United Center is incredible. It's about a girl dealing with drug problems, and ties in with that whole story thing Billy made up.

The whole Machina album is a sort of fictionalized, dramatized version of the Smashing Pumpkins itself. Billy was sort of taking the piss out of the public's and media's portrayal of the Smashing Pumpkins, its fans and himself.

I think a lot of the imagery in this song is lifted straight from David Bowie's song "Glass Spider" (on his Never Let Me Down album) and I doubt it's by accident. Machina II has a few Bowie/Ziggy Stardust references as well, Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders From Mars being the ultimate fictionalized rock band of course.

Like Ziggy Stardust, Machina was just pure theatrics.

This song used to be a mystery to me. This song starts out so eerie and kind of chilling, and then the middle section with Billy talking makes this song, to me, feel like one of the only songs on the album strictly about the concept of Machina, and then the section of the song is kind of reassuring to me. Anyway now to explain how I think of the song:

Back in 2000 when Machina came out, Billy had a contest for fans to post their interpretations of the concept online, Billy then posted his favorites on his blog. One of the many interpretations was under the title "Glass And The Machines Of God" and went in depth explaining the story. Now, this was the last fan interpretation Billy posted on his blog, which makes me think it's the most accurate. Now, as most fans know Machina is about a rock star named Zero who hears the voice of God in a radio (I Of The Mourning), renames himself Glass (Glass' Theme), renames his band The Machines Of God, and begins telling people the message he heard from God. That's what most fans know, but that is really the only part of the story confirmed by Billy. Now, the interpretation "Glass And The Machines Of God" says that Glass never told anyone that he heard the voice of god, and that his "girlfriend" so-to-speak, June, is a heroine addict. One night Glass comes home and finds June in a druggy haze, as she is one heroine. Glass feels he needs to tell SOMEONE about hearing the voice of god, and figures June wouldn't remember anyway and tells her. This, to me, explains the middle section of the song, where Billy, or Glass I should say, is telling June about hearing god, and it's from June's point of view. This explains why Glass sounds so distorted, and the pitch of his voice changes. It also explains why every now and then you can hear someone, presumably June, going "Mmhmm" or something like that. "Glass And The Machines Of God" also says that sometime after Glass tells Junes, when she is no longer under the influence of heroine, they get in a fight and she tells him she never loved him and says she remembers when he told her about hearing god and that she thinks she is crazy. She drives off in a dark and stormy night and gets into a car accident. This to me explains the last section of the song, "She can hear Glass calling" she's semiconcious and Glass is out looking for her. As for the begining part, I'm not too sure. The fact that Smashing Pumpkins fans are called "Ghost Children" makes me think that it has something to do with Glass' Band's fans.

That's all I've got.

this a song about that story that billy is writing,...i like this song because it's like an entire movement...it starts off like it was being born slow but still a little edgy...then it starts off into this loud,noisy,din with a voice-over, like a busy adult life...then it slows down into a preceeding slow soft type of thing...it's a pretty good song with great lyrics

this album is probably the most masturbatory concept album EVER. It's not like there isn't any competition, either. Total hokum. Lucky for Corgan it's quite so good...otherwise he'd look a right tit.

what concept?