By Starlight

Album: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness (1995)
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Songfacts®:

  • In Billy Corgan's autobiography he describes his wedding day, writing that while the priest spoke he looked into his wife's eyes and thought she was a million miles away. He makes constant reference to her eyes in this song: "Dead eyes vacant as the sea."

    He didn't enjoy the wedding day, and at night when his wife had gone to bed he went out and looked up at the stars and thought he had made a mistake, hence "by starlight." He says, "I'll promise to be your one and only," and "Are you just like me," showing that he thinks she feels the same way. Corgan married Chris Fabian in 1993, and they divorced in 1997. >>>
    Suggestion credit:
    Leanne - Dublin, Ireland

Comments: 2

  • Rod Hooker from Sydney AustraliaIm 77 and I love The Smashing Pumpkins, By By Starlight is a brilliant song the lyrics remind me of my second marriage, dead eyes, dead eyes are you just like me, Every time I listened to it made me think did I make a mistake.
  • Ripu from North Shore, New ZealandHm i totally disagree with this interpretation. i allways thought it was about how maybe seeing someone and really just liking them at that moment but knowing their name or anything just knowing them by a distinctive feature (like dead eyes as vacent as the seas) and wondering if the person is just as lonely as you and just like you
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