[whir22]

So I sat on the beach today with my beer and listened to the entire Aeroplane Flies High and although I already knew I absolutely loved this compilation, I especially appreciated the James Iha songs. Said Sadly, The Boy and Believe are superb songs and I have listened to each of them hundreds of times. That being said, when I listen to James' cd Let It Come Down, I just do not have the same reaction to the songs.

I am a huge SP fan, but will not claim to understand the recording process or who does what or all the facts that a lot of you know on this board. All I know is that I love the music.

The question I have is how much influence do you think Billy had on the songs that would be known as the James songs (Blew Away, Take Me Down, Said Sadly, The Boy, Go.....etc)? Did Billy write the music to these songs, the lyrics, or does James take most of the credit for these?

[Rocket_Baby_Dolls]

A lot of James' contributions after Gish where recorded in his own studio with the exception of a few songs. I'd say Take Me Down, The Boy, Summer and Go had the input of Billy. James helped shape the sound in the early days, a fair few of the songs pre-gish where co-written and a couple where James' alone. Apparently some of the more famous riffs are James' too, i've heard that the main riff to Zero came from the man himself from a couple of sources but i can't supply actual evidence.

[snail33]

Rocket_Baby_Dolls, on 05 May 2012 - 02:24 PM, said:

A lot of James' contributions after Gish where recorded in his own studio with the exception of a few songs. I'd say Take Me Down, The Boy, Summer and Go had the input of Billy. James helped shape the sound in the early days, a fair few of the songs pre-gish where co-written and a couple where James' alone. Apparently some of the more famous riffs are James' too, i've heard that the main riff to Zero came from the man himself from a couple of sources but i can't supply actual evidence.

i couldn't disagree more. i don't think billy had any input whatsoever on any of james' songs. that he might have had an INFLUENCE is something altogether different, and something i don't doubt. i am sure james wrote certain songs couched in a way where the atmosphere and arrangement made them feel more widescreen and more suitable for a band setting, especially a SP setting, whereas others he kept simple and approached them in his more singer-songwriter convention. occasionally one of these more typical solo-y sounding james things would make it to a SP release (like "said sadly" and "summer"), but mostly the ambient, vaguely shoegazey/dreamy iha songs were the ones to become pumpkins songs ("blew away", "take me down", "go", "the boy", "believe"). but i do not believe billy had any actual hands-on input on the result of james iha songs...plus, isn't it documented that james recorded most of his stuff by himself, in a separate place?

[Rocket_Baby_Dolls]

snail33, on 06 May 2012 - 11:26 AM, said:

i couldn't disagree more. i don't think billy had any input whatsoever on any of james' songs. that he might have had an INFLUENCE is something altogether different, and something i don't doubt. i am sure james wrote certain songs couched in a way where the atmosphere and arrangement made them feel more widescreen and more suitable for a band setting, especially a SP setting, whereas others he kept simple and approached them in his more singer-songwriter convention. occasionally one of these more typical solo-y sounding james things would make it to a SP release (like "said sadly" and "summer"), but mostly the ambient, vaguely shoegazey/dreamy iha songs were the ones to become pumpkins songs ("blew away", "take me down", "go", "the boy", "believe"). but i do not believe billy had any actual hands-on input on the result of james iha songs...plus, isn't it documented that james recorded most of his stuff by himself, in a separate place?

James did record a lot of material in his own studio or sometimes someone elses but not all of them. Go was recorded in the same studio as part of the Machina sessions. The same goes with The Boy, Take Me Down and Summer with their respective eras. Up until late '92 Billy said himself that Blew Away was the first song he didn't "stick his nose" in whatsoever, it doesn't mean it was the only song that he didn't. You can hear The Boy being toyed around with in the 666 video. Unless a direct statement is given then we will never know. We can only assume!

[themadcaplaughs]

Billy's exact comments on "Blew Away..."

Quote

"written by and produced by the man himself, welcome to james. quiet and cool and whispered. this is a beautiful song. the only song we have ever done that i did not stick my nose into and i am glad i didn't. not to be confused with blue. and if you love her..."

"blew away has kerry playing drums cause jimmy was on vacation."

Also, during those message board interviews Flood did a while ago, he claimed that while James did a lot of the work on the songs, the band was still very much involved with James's songs. Also, wasn't it confirmed at some point or another that "Summer" was a Let It Come Down song reworked for SP?

Never understood the love for "The Boy," one of the most cringe-worthy SP songs in my opinion.

[crepe]

The riff in the boy sounds like something that Corgan would have thrown away in 95.

[Dusty]

crepe, on 07 May 2012 - 04:05 PM, said:

The riff in the boy sounds like something that Corgan would have thrown away in 95.

I happen to agree, though this is all opinion. I'm sure that Billy did "stick his nose" in James' songs at least to a small extent, but they are definitely James, exactly as Billy puts it. They just don't sound like Billy songs.