Siamese Dream2011 is the Year of the Reissue thanks to deluxe re-releases of Nirvana's 'Nevermind', U2's 'Achtung Baby', and the entire Pink Floyd discography, and two more can't-miss reissues, Smashing Pumpkins' 'Gish' and 'Siamese Dream,' are due out on November 29th. Both 2CD/1DVD packages offer the entire remastered album plus B-sides, unreleased tracks, alternative mixes, and demos. Seattle's The End 107.7 got their hands on four tracks from the reissues and posted embryonic versions of "I Am One," "Today," "Rocket," and "Disarm."
It's no secret that Billy Corgan was listening to an obscene amount of 'Loveless' when writing these albums, and the My Bloody Valentine influence is all over these 'Siamese' sketches. It's most apparent on the Broadway rehearsal demo for "Today," as all the softer parts and the musicbox guitar of the 'Siamese Dream' version are replaced with non-stop thrashing. The rehearsal demo of "Rocket," one of The Amp's favorite Pumpkins songs (with "Soma" and "Drown"), scales back the avalanche of shoegaze distortion and puts more emphasis on Corgan's vocals, which were largely obscured in the style of 'Loveless' on 'Siamese Dream.' Even the rough acoustic mix of "Disarm," stripped of most of its gut-wrenching strings section, sounds more poignant.
Are these versions better than what producer Butch Vig coaxed out of the Pumpkins for 'Siamese Dream'? No, but like the 'Nevermind' demos on that reissue, they give fans some intimate, never-before-heard insight into these landmark albums in their infancy.