A rocket escaping from earth's gravity to reach the sky is a great metaphor for many things (some mentioned already), and I think Billy Corgan might have been referring to more than one in the final version of Rocket. But there are many clues that a romantic breakup is at least an important one. It was apparently first performed around June 1991 along with Drown (see spfc.org), so it may have been written in the spring of 1991, well before most of the other Siamese Dream songs, and initially had a similar context to Drown, which is more clearly about a romantic breakup. Rocket's lyrics apparently evolved some for the 1993 album, though (see YouTube postings of 1992 concerts). Earlier lyrics included lines such as "come back again" and "we'll rise again". And the artwork for the single (see Wikipedia) included a heart and the words "bye bye". I think the "Love" at the beginning of the song should be included as an important part of the lyrics (with possible multiple meanings), and I think the first "free" should be after the question mark. I don't think there is much "filler" in this song.
A rocket escaping from earth's gravity to reach the sky is a great metaphor for many things (some mentioned already), and I think Billy Corgan might have been referring to more than one in the final version of Rocket. But there are many clues that a romantic breakup is at least an important one. It was apparently first performed around June 1991 along with Drown (see spfc.org), so it may have been written in the spring of 1991, well before most of the other Siamese Dream songs, and initially had a similar context to Drown, which is more clearly about a romantic breakup. Rocket's lyrics apparently evolved some for the 1993 album, though (see YouTube postings of 1992 concerts). Earlier lyrics included lines such as "come back again" and "we'll rise again". And the artwork for the single (see Wikipedia) included a heart and the words "bye bye". I think the "Love" at the beginning of the song should be included as an important part of the lyrics (with possible multiple meanings), and I think the first "free" should be after the question mark. I don't think there is much "filler" in this song.