Comments: 66

• Sean from Wa, UsaI was only 6-7 when this song came out and first heard it, but I downloaded the album years later when I was 15 and listened to it a lot. However, I usually skipped this song when I was 15-18.
  
  As a teen I was closeted and heavily depressed, which made me purposely avoid social situations as I (incorrectly) thought nobody wanted me around. Because of this, I resented the kids in the video (who were actually 15-17 according to Billy) since I couldn't relate to them at all other than age, and in turn I started hating the song. Instead I turned to my studies and even quit activities like track where, in hindsight, I had many good friends in.
  
  Now I'm 34 and feel jaded with my career and where I work. Every time I hear the song, it makes me grieve for those years I wasted and will never get back. Billy's interviews on the video seem to indicate he was going through something similar when this came out.
• Trescool from PhiladelphiaI was 16/17 in 1979 and this tune I feel really hits the mark. The lyrics are decidely enigmatic, scattered, and confusing just like the year itself (to me at least). We had great fun then for the most part, but now those streets are ruins, that those of us still alive, dont wish to even drive by. Its true that YOUTH is wasted on the young and that apathy breeds ignorance. But so is the fact that the word "firmament" being removed from the bible, is a crime of the highest order. Maybe weee still dont care, or more likely we just didnt know what to do to make things right then and still dont 45 years later? ( DONT ASK ME NOTHIN BOUT NOTHIN CAUSE I JUST MIGHT TELL YOU THE TRUTH) B. Dylan.
• Michelle from CaliforniaI was 12-13 years old in 1979 and this song, along with the video, reminds me so much of that time. I remember being bored at that age (not many activities for teens where I lived). I met my best friend that school year. She was just as restless as me and got us in all sorts of trouble. Skipping school, toilet papering houses and trying out pot. And just like the song, as young kids you never think about it ending, you’re so far from mortality (or so you think). Back then you lived in the now and never see yourself morphing from your perception of the present. It’s inevitable that we grow up, and understand our impermanence. But it’s nice to look back at our innocence now and then.
• Hunters Biden from ChocovilleCorrigen would have been in elementary school in 1979, just so you know. prob a class of 85 grad. 1979 was used as it rhymed.
• Pj Dublin from IrelandThe imagery this song gives is to take me back to final years of school/college.. Pure Joy.. 'just about to head out to world solo '.The friends I had then I truly wish were still aroud me now..Don't we all..I miss you Mark..Vaya Con Dios my brother.
• Timh from Clarkdale, AzTo me, this song is less about meaning and more about mood and feeling. A little lost, unmoored, powerless though not without hope. There is also a postmodern acknowledgment of how beautiful, enjoyable, and special is this crazy thing called life. How lyrics, instrumentation and vocals achieve these moods is the reason for its greatness as a song.
• Joe from Castle RockThis song is about Generation X, their lives and how they lived it. Generations before thought more about their mortality and how society sees previous generations. Generation X, lives for the present and don't really care how society sees them. Love this song and I come from the baby boomers generation.
• Brain from MinnesotaLove these guys
• Christa from Atlanta I just never got into this song. Couldn’t understand what he was saying !! I hear it now and wish I had enjoyed it more I suppose
• Andres from Atlanta, GaCrazy... I was born in 2004 so 1979 was whole decades before I was even born, but I still relate to and love this song. The eerie sound and the lyrics resonate with me even today
• Pj from San Diego, CaThis song always brings a tear to my eye. I was 15 when this song came out, but instead of living in the moment and enjoying my youth with a sort of reckless abandon (at least like most other teenagers), I was a super depressed loner and quickly became hooked on some serious drugs. This song makes me long for a part of life I kinda missed out on, but I still love it. Life is a gift, and we need to savor each day. A lesson I'll pass on to my kids.
• Ss from AustraliaI was about the same age as the kids in the video in 1979, still in high school at 16 years old and had my driver's licence and a car. So it has some relevance to my own experiences at that age and time. Whilst I like the music, the lyrics don't necessarily make sense to me, but I lack artistic ability to really make that judgement.
• Tom from MaApparently this song was/is extremely popular and won many awards. But my God, it aggravates the %%% out of me. Cannot stand it.
• Valzmyth from Jersey ShoreI was 17 in 1979. The best time ever to be a teenager. Great music, great friends and awesome parties. This song brings the nostalgia for that time gone by right into my heart and soul. Another important song in the soundtrack of my life.
• Mike from Berkeley, CaAt the end of each guitar riff, they loop Corgan singing, "today, yeah" with a lot of reverb added.
• Jonathan from AustraliaContinuing from the story about losing the tapes submitted by [Alex - Oxford, England], in the video for "Perfect", one of the characters leaves a tape on the top of his car and drives away.
• Si from Auckland, New ZealandThis song always reminded me of this day in 2005, in a winter morning sitting in English class. I like this song cos it reminds me of being young, restless, and being able to bounce back. Every time I listen to this song I just remember the winter sunshine that morning in 2005
• Shelby from Westerly, Ribefore my time but this is hands down one of the best songs i have ever heard!
• Ryan from Cary, NcI could say alot about this song, the way it just feels like 1979, feels just like the way things were so relaxed then, feels like being a teenager again, being too cool to care about much but so ready to see where everything could end up. I don't pretend to understand some of the lyrics but I can explain the junebug skipping like a stone. Anyone who's ever been out late on a humid summer night, maybe close to a streetlight has see them. Junebugs are really clumsy fliers.. if they are taking off from the ground they will fly, crash land, immediately take off again, immediately crash again, rinse repeat until they get away from the ground. The result is they look like they are skipping along, just like a stone skipped on the water. This is an amazing song.
• Kayla from Carmel, InThis song brings back great memories....the first time I ever heard it was on the radio, driving home after a party at which I had just met the love of my life. Nothing but love for this song.
• Cody from St Joe, Moashley from moncton canada. i don't know how but you basically said exactly what this song means to me too. i was born in 1990 and my dad was my greatest musical influence. we had it pretty s--tty back then but everytime i was in the car with my dad and he had the cassette tape with this song on it, everything just seemed fine. i remember being like 4 or 5 and smashing pumpkins being the only thing i wanted to listen to because of this song. and i everytime i hear it i can't help but have the most vived memories of that time in my life and it almost brings me to tears everytime.
• Mo from Chicago, Ili always thought that it was about the good and bad memories surrounding loosing someone very close to you to drugs at young age...but not necessarily lost forever. the near Wrecklessness of youth, invincible feelings while partying.
  
  Derek from Qld or anyone, what do you mean by "cop with the 'mo" is that Aussie for mustachio?
• Mo from Chicago, Ili always thought that it was about the good and bad memories surrounding loosing someone very close to you to drugs at young age...but not necessarily lost forever. the near Wrecklessness of youth, invincible feelings while partying.
  
  Derek from Qld or anyone, what do you mean by "cop with the 'mo" is that Aussie for mustachio?
• Mo from Chicago, Ili always thought that it was about the good and bad memories surrounding loosing someone very close to you to drugs at young age...but not necessarily lost forever. the near Wrecklessness of youth, invincible feelings while partying.
  
  Derek from Qld or anyone, what do you mean by "cop with the 'mo" is that Aussie for mustachio?
• Theresa from Murfreesboro, TnLove the line - "cool kids never have the time." The video is awesome and so is the song, aww memories.
• Austin from Smallsville, New EnglandThe song was used in the movie "Clerks 2".
• Doc from Mittagong, Nsw, AustraliaI can't believe this song was finished off "overnight" just to make the album when you bear in mind how much production and recording work went into not only the 28 songs that made the double-album, but also a heap of songs that didn't make it. I love the overdriven, distorted beasts, and the 9-10 minute epics on this album, but this great pop song still fits into to it all beautifully. Can't remember 1979, I was 3, but I can remember 95/96 and how good the music was.
• Matt from Houston, TxThis was released as a single on the very day I was born.Whenever I hear it, I feel like someone is looking after me and sculpting my passage through life.Sort of like a memento or a good-luck
  charm.
• Brian from Richmond, VaIf you look very closely at the video, you'll notice that a young Vince Vaughn plays one of the cops.
• Music Junkie from In Hell In, ScI WAS 16 IN 1979! THIS SONG/VID R EXCELLENT!!!
  PROPS TO BILLY FOR CAPTURING LIFE OF A TEEN
  IN THAT YEAR! IT HARDLY MATTRES HE WAS ONLY 13, HE NAILED IT...OF COURSE...HES BILLY CORGAN!
• Jcooltrane from Philadelphia, Paunexplainable nostalgia ... i wasn't born yet in 1979 but it conjures feelings of a carefree adolescence. if you're reading this and you're a teenager relish your times with firends and family. those are the years of your life you're gonna look back on. when you become a "grown up" everything changes.
• Sam from Adelaide, Australiafav song ever! billy is so bloody tallenteddd.
  
  He was given 1 night to write this song before mellin collie was produced, it was the last song on the album
• Corey Maller from Roslyn Heights, NyI first heard this song from the soundtrack of GTA 4 (the car radio). I liked it and am now getting into the smashing pumpkins.
• Conor from Belfast, IrelandThis is called 1979 because it was released in 1995 along with Mellon Collie. This is significant because anyone born in 1979 would be 16 in 1995 and the song is about the transition into adulthood ie adolescence. Makes sense.
• Bertrand from Paris, FranceIn [b] Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadness [b], an expansive double album dedicated to down emotion, "1979" is almost perky. However, it's gentle sense of nostalgic reverie works well with the year's mood of inward contemplation.
  
  
• Chris from New York, Nymasterful song. a song that can definately relate to kids in college taking that first step towards adulthood but still being a kid
• Dana from South Range, WiThis song is so great. I grew up in the 90's when this song was made and hearing it today just makes me think about the past and my childhood, wishing to go back again. I love 90's music, it takes me back.
• Chris from London, EnglandAstroZombie asked what Zipper blues means. It is a state of depression caused by moving around a lot and not being able to settle down. Its a term that is commonly used by kids that have parents in the forces and are frequently relocated.
• Brian from Vancouver, CanadaI like listening to this song cause i had the album when i was about 11, im 22 now but its really trippy to hear this song again, this song makes me think of being a kid and a girl from high school, this song brings me back to what seems like a million years ago
• Astrozombie from Chchit's "i'm 12 again" like somebody said before..cool eh. can anyone explain zipper blues??? not quite understanding
• Gooup from Houma, LaBut WHAT is the phrase he keeps repeating after the guitar riff, that is flanged and unintelligible ... sounds to me like "Dead Man..."
• Madalyn from Greensburg, PaBilly Corgan...is the best poet and this song takes me back to the day when i went to my friends house (he didn't know i liked him at the time) to visit him (he was kicked out of school) and it had been raining outside and i hadn't seen him for 2 weeks and i went up to his front door to drop out a package (it was christmas time) and in the package was the pumpkins cd with this song on it...we shared a love for the smashing pumpkins and everytime i hear this song i think of him and how i wish he could be back in my life for just one more day.
• Michael from Oceanport, NjNever thought this was an amazing song, but the prominent play in gets during a serious montage in Clerks II is not only one of the best montages ever, but it transcended the song.
• Jon from Oakridge, OrTotaly on the some page Ashley,Moncton,Canada.
• Ashley from Moncton, CanadaThis song has always affected me. I guess I heard it when I was maybe 6 or something. I think I can remember that. But when I was maybe 9 or 10 I heard it again, and it stirred something inside me- a spirit of youth or something like that. Reminds me of friends and spring and somewhat cloudy days, and uncertainty of the future. These days when I listen to it, it just makes some inner part of me want to be a kid forever. One of my favourite songs ever. 90s songs have this amazing atmosphere to them, like it takes me back to childhood. That's why I listen to 90s music too much, I don't like this over-materialized pop culture crap decade.
• Stephen from None, IrelandI remember the first time I heard this track and the later album truly changed my life and the way I view the world. I was always a fan of the Pumpkins but I truly loved this album it went in a totally different direction musically than anything else around at the time (as the Pumpkins always have done). I also loved the world they/Billy created for this album and the artwork, and the way it seemed to take you on a journey musically. Remembering back I almost totally missed this album, I remember commenting how cool I thought 1979 was to my girlfriend at the time and who consequently went out and bought it for me for Valentines day, which was mega, mega cool, as I'm not entirely sure if I would have bought it myself. And as I mentioned I totally loved it, esp. 1979, Here Is No Why and Beautiful. In fact this album became the soundtrack for one of the most memorable, beautiful and painful periods of my life, and if I was to be honest the album title totally and correctly estimated how I would fell when myself and the afore mentioned girlfriend parted ways (and still do really!)
  So now I'm just past 30 and over ten years have passed since those lazy days at school and when all there was to do was to hang out with those treasured few and do what kids that age do, maybe that?s why I loved 1979 so much then, and when looking back do still. And so while I?m thinking about it, and if I may, Billy, or Mr. Corgan maybe, thank you so much for this wonderful gift.
  
  Lol, apologies, not a musical fact really, more over a semi emotional rant really!
• Maurice from Philly, PaSid Vicious from the Sex Pistols died in 1979. Morphine city slippin dues down to see. Could be taking about when Sid was high on herione, which is like morphine, and killed Nancy, and then he killed himself later. Just an observation
• Yolanda Morphinite from Bountiful , UtOne day I was walking home from my high school and listening to this song. It really made me think. I just couldn't believe it, everyone I knew was growing up. We were all getting cars and jobs and doing things for ourselves. We were becoming independent and resonsible. It was a wierd feeling, but it felt really good. I think this song illustrates perfectly what I was feeling. This happened before I knew what the song was about, I didn't know the lyrics or anything. It was the just the sound and feel of the song that triggered those emotions. Its just so amazing.
• Orangebeaker from Edinburgh, ScotlandIf you listen closely you will notice that Billy repeats the line "I'm 12 again" during the verses. He was 12 in 1979. I used to think it was a guitar noise or some weird effect but it's actually Billy. Pretty cool when you realise it.
• Matt from Millbrae, Cai think the "junebug" line might be a reference to a song by the punk band The Melvins, who had a song called Junebug.
• Marlow from Perth, Australiabilly corgan is also meant to be an expert in martial arts
• Jill from Warren, PaI love this song and agree with the comments above. This is my fave from The Smashing Pumpkins
• Melissa from Mission Viejo, Casometimes when i need to recollect my thoughts and unwind after a long day, its a good kick start .
• Derek from Qld, AustraliaFor those who didn't realise, the cop with the mo' in the convenience store is Jimmy Chamberlin.
• Marcos from Stevenage Uk, United StatesThe song Perfect off of Adore is described as the sequel to 1979 by Corgan ( check out commentary on SP singles DVD ). Also there is a part with a videotape being destroyed which I think ties in with an earlier comment.
  
  "IF YOUR GIVING IN, THEN YOUR GIVING UP!"
• Iscariot from Tempe, AzIs it me, or do the fourth and fifth facts here conradict each other?
• Elliot from Toronto, Canadathis is a beutiful song with an awesome video. I don't think that there could have been a better video for this song.
• Brian from Mayfield Heights, Ohi love this song...everything about it fits so well together, and it's just beautiful.
• Peter from Carmel, InThis is the one Smashing Pumpkins song that I like.
• Heather from Mead, Nethis song has an awesome video. it reminds me of what me and my friends do on a daily basis. maybe not the part where they rob the gas station or whatever that is.
• Craig Macdonald from Blair, ScotlandI have no idea why but this song just has an excellent mood which makes me think about what its going to be like having the transition to total adulthood.
• Andrew from Seattle, WaIts not about the "punk revalation".
• Bobby from Sydney, Australiabilly says that the song is about growing up and teenagers in suburbia, a childhood that he wished he had. billy was born in 1967, in 1979 he would have been on the eve of becoming 13 years old, the first year of his teenagehood.
• Ingrid from Huntington, WvAlso it is said that Billy wrote this song very early in the morning in Chicago, at a stop light, but kept writing even when the light turned green. Nobody was around, so he kept writing and came up with 1979.
• Edwin from Toronto, CanadaBilly said it was just about growing up in general. He also said the year 1979 was chosen just because he thought it went well with the lyrics.
• Matt from Amarillo, TxIt is about the punk revalation which was 1979

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