Deluded douchebag Billy Corgan says he and Kurt Cobain were the greatest songwriters of the 90s, everyone else inferior

[Towelie]

Smashing Pumpkins mainman Billy Corgan sang praises of late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, saying that two of them were essentially the greatest songwriters of the '90s.

Chatting with the Independent, Billy also branded everyone else from the grunge era inferior.

"Whether we wanted to admit it or not, [Kurt] was quarterback of the football team, leading the aesthetic and integrity charge. He knew how to navigate those things," he noted.

"Now, he and I didn't necessarily get along. But I like to sing his praises, because he really was that talented. I like to think the world with him would have been a better place, and I like to think a lot of the crap music that followed wouldnt have existed if he had been around to criticize it. Because he had the moral standing to slay generations with a strike of the pen."

Asked if he looked up to Cobain, Corgan replied, "No. In the purest sense of the word, we were competitors. He and I were the top two scribes, and everybody else was a distant third."

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/general_music_news/billy_corgan_says_he_and_kurt_cobain_were_greatest_songwriters_of_90s_calls_everyone_else_inferior.html

Edited December 7, 2014 by Towelie

[DR DOOM]

What a cock.

[bacardimayne]

Sensationalist headline/thread title, he's saying he and Kurt were the best songwriters of the grunge movement, not the 90s as a whole.

As far as the whole grunge movement goes, he isn't wrong IMO.

I'd put Nirvana and early SP on a higher plane than PJ, AIC, SG and whoever else.

Edited December 7, 2014 by bacardimayne

[Towelie]

Sensationalist headline/thread title

Yeah, sorry about that. Cheap shot perhaps, but Billy Corgan is still a twat.

[magisme]

"scribes"

[luciusfunk]

Sensationalist headline/thread title, he's saying he and Kurt were the best songwriters of the grunge movement, not the 90s as a whole.

As far as the whole grunge movement goes, he isn't wrong IMO.

I'd put Nirvana and early SP on a higher plane than PJ, AIC, SG and whoever else.

This. Corgan's definitely not wrong.

[bacardimayne]

Sensationalist headline/thread title

Yeah, sorry about that. Cheap shot perhaps, but Billy Corgan is still a twat.

Maybe so, but I don't think declaring himself a better songwriter than Jerry Cantrell, Chris Cornell and Stone Gossard is that big a deal.

[tomfriend]

For my money Corgan was the best songwriter of the 90's. Kurt wasn't even close and for Billy to suggest that he was is quite generous. Siamese Dream, Melon Collie (double album that also had about 3 dozen outtakes), Adore and Machina's 1 & 2 were all written during that time, not to mention Pisces Iscariot, the majority of Judas O and all the other B-sides. Close to ten albums of material, most of it A-grade written while battling various addictions and mental health issues AND touring. No artist has been that prolific, inventive and consistent since. Who do you think was the best songwriter of the 90's, exactly? Guns barely wrote a song between them for the entirety of the decade.

What did you produce during the 90s exactly. I'll hazard a guess: turds.

Sensationalist headline/thread title

Yeah, sorry about that. Cheap shot perhaps, but Billy Corgan is still a twat.

Maybe so, but I don't think declaring himself a better songwriter than Jerry Cantrell, Chris Cornell and Stone Gossard is that big a deal.

Exactly. As if any of them could write anything approaching the variety of Melon Collie or the originality and emotional depth of Adore. Puh-fucking-lease. Billy is the exact opposite of deluded. He knows how talented he is - or more specifically was during his absolute heyday, and isn't disingenuous enough to lie about it. Anyone with an iota of sense who has listened to his 90s output would have to concede he's certainly in the running for best songwriter of that decade, so why him stating as much - when he has never been given his due - is being a "deluded douchebag" rather than having a bit of self-belief about the decade where he put out the best selling double album of all time when all his peers were tossing off two and a half minute thrash songs, "Rape Me" and the like, fuck knows.

Maybe OP prefers his artists to be all "Aw shucks and gee willickers, I ain't nuthin' special".

TomFriend says: "fuck that".

Edited December 7, 2014 by tomfriend

[GivenToFly]

Fair enough! If not even he thinks he's good than how could he expect anybody else to?

I don't know enough about him to agree or disagree but I like that he's honest - "yeah I like my shit otherwise I wouldn't make it and release it!"

[username]

I've always felt the Pumpkins were horribly overrated. They're a shit band with depressing songwriting and music. Never felt sincere to me either. Trying too hard. I'd put Pearl Jam above them any day.

Kurt is, strangely, both overrated and underrated. But to me, definitely up there.

Edited December 7, 2014 by username

[ShadowOfTheWave]

It's absurd for Corgan to compare himself to Cobain. Corgan is obviously superior in every way.

[GivenToFly]

I listened to two Nirvana albums (couldn't be bothered with the third) a few months back because I only knew the famous songs. The first one just sounded like noise; Nevermind was less bad but still like whatever. I don't get it.

Never heard the Pumpkins.

[Georgy Zhukov]

When I think of great songwriters from the 90's, Billy Corgan doesn't really come to mind. I think of Noel Gallagher, Richey Edwards, Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe, Jerry Cantrell, Eddie Vedder, Trent Reznor and also Kurt Cobain. I guess Billy's good too.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Georgy Zhukov

[Bono]

I think Dave Pirner is an amazing song writer. He's from the 80s but Soul Asylum broke big for a bit in the 90s and his song writing skills are up there with the best I think.

Eddoe Vedder is a better song writer than both Cobain and Corgan as well.

Edited December 7, 2014 by Bono

[GivenToFly]

I think Dave Pirner is an amazing song writer. He's from the 80s but Soul Asylum broke big for a bit in the 90s and his song writing skills are up there with the best I think.

Eddoe Vedder is a better song writer than both Cobain and Corgan as well.

The three 90s albums by Soul Asylum are SO GOOD!

[Bumble's Bridge Pickup]

It may be a dickish to put yourself up on the pedestal but that does not make the statement wrong.

[username]

When I think of great songwriters from the 90's, Billy Corgan doesn't really come to mind. I think of Noel Gallagher, Richey Edwards, Thom Yorke, Michael Stipe, Jerry Cantrell, Eddie Vedder, Trent Reznor and also Kurt Cobain. I guess Billy's good too.

I'd agree with all of these, except Trent. It's an incredibly unpopular opinion but I really think NIN is one of the most overrated bands in music, ever.

[All dolled up like Christ]

"I like to think a lot of the crap music that followed wouldnt have existed if he had been around to criticize it."

Look who's talking. But Mr. Corgan, if that was the case, then how would you have made a living? I like Siamese Dream as much as the next guy, but are people seriously still going on about Mellon Collie? That album is no more of masterpiece than the Illusion albums. It could have been great, had they not decided to release a whole bunch of songs that should have been thrown in a pile and hidden from the public. Instead it became a mediocre effort with glimpses of excellence. Corgan has not released anything worth mentioning since then.

Like many decades, the best songwriters of the 90's are to be found outside of the global charts. Will Oldham, John Balance, Michael Cashmore and David Berman come to mind. Trent Reznor does not.

Edited December 7, 2014 by All dolled up like Christ

[Strange Broue]

Cobain> Alice in Chains > Pearl Jam


Others (incl. Corgan: LOL)
(let's exclude GNR because most of the songs were done in pre AFD days and in 89)

Edited December 7, 2014 by Motivation

[Sixes]

Nick Cave was right at the top of the best songwriters of the 90's, as well as all time

[dalsh327]

He shared Courtney's vagina with Cobain, but he's just a sarcastic schmoe from south Chicago like the guys in Styx and REO Speedwagon.

I get what he's saying behind his blowhard comment - Cobain set the tone and the snark to be measured by, but the guy had a great sense of humor when you go back and look at it. Corgan? Not so much, but neither did Frank Black for that matter. I still think the music that came out of Boston in the late 80s-early 90s set the tone for a lot of the Seattle shit.

Edited December 7, 2014 by dalsh327

[Len Cnut]

He shared Courtney's vagina with Cobain, but he's just a sarcastic schmoe from south Chicago like the guys in Styx and REO Speedwagon.

I get what he's saying behind his blowhard comment - Cobain set the tone and the snark to be measured by, but the guy had a great sense of humor when you go back and look at it. Corgan? Not so much, but neither did Frank Black for that matter. I still think the music that came out of Boston in the late 80s-early 90s set the tone for a lot of the Seattle shit.

I don't think any of the Seattle shit could touch what Frank Black and them were up to.

[Sixes]

Dave Brockie is up there too

[dalsh327]

He shared Courtney's vagina with Cobain, but he's just a sarcastic schmoe from south Chicago like the guys in Styx and REO Speedwagon.

I get what he's saying behind his blowhard comment - Cobain set the tone and the snark to be measured by, but the guy had a great sense of humor when you go back and look at it. Corgan? Not so much, but neither did Frank Black for that matter. I still think the music that came out of Boston in the late 80s-early 90s set the tone for a lot of the Seattle shit.

I don't think any of the Seattle shit could touch what Frank Black and them were up to.

Dave Grohl skipped Boston, big mistake in my opinion

[Len Cnut]

The Seattle scene was a load of bollocks really. Handful of good bands, Nirvana, Mudhoney...uh..thats about it really, Pearl Jam are/were awful, same with Alice in Chains and them, there was really nothing very inventive or clever or different or...anything at all happening there. The bands those guys listened to were 50 million times better than the shit they came out with, bands like Scratch Acid or The Butthole Surfers, they were just fantastic, The Pixies too, cuz they were doing something different musically, the Seattle thing was just a bunch of bandwagon bollocks.