Lyric discussion by TumoraXsault 

Cover art for The Vigil lyrics by Smashing Pumpkins, The

This song, being the first Pumpkins song, is about Billy's failure with his first band, The Marked. After playing 20 gigs down in Florida, the band came back to Chicago as failures. However, once back there, he met James Iha and thus this song was written as the first Pumpkins song.