The Smashing Pumpkins – I of the Mourning

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  Song Comparison:"Radio, love transmission"... anyone?.
  
  They used to play a version of that one live right?. I don't know if there's a connection between songs but I like this song a lot. This guy is definately one of the best songwriters of his generation.

  Flag vavason April 02, 2013   Link

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  General Comment:it really makes me heated that this isnt a more well known song. i absolutely cant get enough of the build-up in this song, especially when the power chords hit. the drumming is phenomenal. i cant be the only one wondering what all these songs on Machina are gonna sound like on the reissue this year, right?

  Flag sevinteenon March 11, 2013   Link

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    songs that i REALLY want to hear from this years reissue:
    I of the Mourning
    Wound
    Glass and the Ghost Children
    Age of Innocence

    Flag sevinteenon March 11, 2013  
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  General Comment:The song speak about him, ...is about glories of the past a Rock star who read the letters from his fans and see his awards, and hear his own voice in the radio, his footprint on the earth
  "Please don't let me go, radio".
  
  

  Flag BLOODYon February 09, 2011   Link

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  General Comment:I think the main aspects of this song are seclusion, loneliness and lament. It's obvious that he's been away for a while, and once he got home he shut himself off from the world, not wanting contact of any kind with anyone. He's in a state of mourning, not so much about his present condition, but more of a nostalgic desire to live again in times that have since gone by. He thinks that because he's survived and gone on with his life that he can return to that which he misses so fervently. However, the "radio" is taunting him, offering both criticism and praise, comfort and pain.

  Flag ilikeathfon August 06, 2009   Link

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  My Interpretation:This song, (like many of the Smashing Pumpkins songs) creates a strong visual for me. Before, I had always imagined a guy, coming home (like to his parent's home) after being away at college. But now I see it more like a Soldier who had come home from war. "I peer thought curtain on empty streets, behind a wall of called id"...the world has changed. I of the mourning, The fallen soldiers, and the family that survives them. He comes home, and maybe feels empty, or feels like he's lost something. Maybe fellow soldiers. Maybe a girl who didn't wait. Maybe a parent. I don't know. that's just what goes on in my head when I listen to it.

  Flag ghettoccinoon November 07, 2008   Link

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  General Comment:I'm surprised nobody else thought of this. The way Isee it is that this song is about the acceptance of his Mom's passing away. Look at the way the title os spelled...it's not Morning its Mourning. As in mourning the loss of someone. I of the Mourning is like Billy saying that he is one of the mourning now. He knows what it is to mourn. So now the lyrics:
  
  "I peer thru curtains on empty streets
  Behind a wall of caller i.d.
  No one's out there
  To hear if I care
  About the troubles in the air" - He feels alone, he doesn't have his mother to listen to his thoughts and ideas anymore.
  
  "As I of the morning now come
  Pick up where my thoughts left off
  Cause i'm home to die on my own" - Mourning is now just morning, as in a regular day, he's picking up where his thoughts left off before his Mom's passing, and now he realises she's gone and he's by himself.
  
  "I blow the dust off my guitars
  In the attic with the stars
  I read your letters to feel better
  My tears upon the fading ink" - By blowing the dust of his guitars, he's going back to something that brings him happyness...music. The letters he's reading are from his Mother, he reads them to remind himself of her, but it makes him sad because she's gone. The fading ink means he's kept the letters all this time, he really loved her.
  
  "I sit in the dark light
  To wait for ghost night
  To bring the past alive
  To make a toast to life
  Cause I have survived" - He's waiting for the day he dies(ghost night), so he can be reunited with his Mother(to bring the past alive). But they day he dies, he'll make a toast to his life, because he survived...he got through his Mom's death and found happyness again.
  
  "What is it you want?
  What is it you want to change?
  What is it you want?
  What is it you want to change?
  What is it you want to change?" - Would he have changed anything about the past?
  
  "Radio" appearing so much throughout the chorus and other lyrics are just referencing the only good thing left in his life, music. He's talking to his Radio because its the only thing he has. He's using the radio as a means to vent his anger and sadness.
  
  This song is easily my favourite from Machina. Machina as a whole is an amazing album. One of the best the Pumpkins ever released. It's a very sad song, but as it goes on, the feeling picks up, eventually making you feel good. Billy Corgan is an amazing poet with his lyrics, and this song really shows that. Hope you guys like my review!

  Flag saturnine_drownon June 23, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:To me, this song always seemed one of the more direct stories about Glass. Glass hears God speaking to him through the radio. The radio is calling him, telling him to reform his band, The Machines of God. Glass asks him back, "What is it you want? What is you want to change?" The repetition of "radio" at the end of the song is Glass begging for a response.
  
  Of course, Glass is crazy.

  Flag MaddAddamson May 26, 2007   Link

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  General Comment:great song... i love it, though i had not a clue what it was about when i fell in love with it. I'm convinced now that it's about Corgan's return to the music he does best

  Flag BeterThanYouFakeIton May 13, 2007   Link

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• +1
  General Comment:"I've blown the dust off my guitar
  In the attic with the stars
  I read your letters to feel better
  My tears upon the faded ink"
  
  that describes exactly how my life is right now. i love this song. but what smashing pumpkins song dont i love?

  Flag Panacaeon May 10, 2007   Link

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• +1
  General Comment:radi-yaoww.

  Flag Manxbasson March 18, 2007   Link

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