Lyrics for 1979 as interpreted by Ice

1979 Lyrics
Shakedown 1979
Cool kids never have the time
On a live wire right up off the street
You and I should meet

Junebug skipping like a stone
With the headlights pointed at the dawn
We were sure we'd never see an end
To it all

And I don't even care
To shake these zipper blues
And we don't know
Just where our bones will rest to dust
I guess forgotten and absorbed
Into the earth below

Double cross the vacant and the bored
They're not sure just what we have in store
Morphine city slippin dues
Down to see

That we don't even care
As restless as we are
We feel the pull
In the land of a thousand guilts
And poured cement
Lamented and assured
To the lights and towns below
Faster than the speed of sound
Faster than we thought we'd go
Beneath the sound of hope

Justine never knew the rules
Hung down with the freaks and the ghouls
No apologies ever need be made
I know you better than you fake it

To see that we don't care
To shake these zipper blues
And we don't know
Just where our bones will rest to dust
I guess forgotten and absorbed
Into the earth below

The street heats the urgency of sound
As you can see there's no one around


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ZinbobDan
03-30-2003

Rated 0 
in 1996(the year it came out) people who were born in 1979 were 17, not quite adults yet, er, rather...on the verge of becoming adults...i don't know if that's relevant but i noticed that way back when it came out, that was sixth grade...it came out early in the year, around february or so...so most people born in 1979 would hav been 16, unless it's a birthday song for when they do turn 17...

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DrkRedDuckie
04-08-2003

Rated 0 
this song is about kids having fun , at 17 years old in 1979 going out and having fun , having the best times in ur life

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Status
04-26-2003

Rated +1 
I always thought the 'It's about teenagers' explaination was too shallow, especially when Corgan himself has hinted there's more to it. So here's a theory I cooked up. Take it with as many grains of salt as you need.

In 1979, at a The Who concert in Cincinnati, Ohio, 11 young adults were killed and many more were injured during a stampede at a concert. The cause of the incident was a combination of lax security, intoxication, and poor planning on the parts of the concert organizers.

Several lines of the song could be taken as passing references to the so called "'79 tragedy". The opening lines indicate a gathering (groups of teenagers getting together and heading for the concert). The line "we were sure we'd never..." indicates that the 'change' implied in the song came as a surprise, and a concert riot would certainly come as a shock. The chorus indicates apathy or a lack of understanding, and witnesses to the 79 tragedy said that most of the crowd had no idea what was going on (due mostly to consumption of various mood-altering drugs before the show, it was a The Who concert!), and that some of those being trampled didn't even cry out for help. The second verse simply reenforces feelings of surprise or confusion ("They're not sure just what we have in store"), as well as intoxication or drug use ("Morphine, the city-slippin..."). The bridge could be taken to indicate death, as they passed on, their spirits went "faster than they thought [they'd] go" from the drug use. Numerous lines indicate the presence of music ("faster than the speed of sound", "beneath the sound of hope"). The last lines hint at chaos and confusion (the "urgency"), and ultimately solitude ("but as you see, there's no-one around.").

Just my take. Think about it. :)

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wolfperson1
04-29-2003

Rated 0 
I think the song is about memories. Memories of a past that seems long gone. Such a wonderful song...

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DeFtOnEsmatt26
04-29-2003

Rated 0 
its about the reflection and innocence of childhood

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Chameleonica
06-20-2003

Rated 0 
ive read the board but i dont think ive sat around enough thinking about this to have a real idea of what its about... the song just reminds me of sitting in my bf's garage before we went out, with him playing SP songs on his guitar, starting with this one... so maybe that is the point, teenage memories.

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Satur9
05-15-2004

Rated 0 
1979 is the year Billy wrote the song, 12 years old. That is to me pretty amazing!Get the bootleg from Vancouver in 1997 and hear Billy tell the story himself.

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damaged_roses
05-27-2004

Rated 0 
Satur9, I agree with you. I heard the concert (it was broadcast on CBC radio) and remember him saying that.

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xaphirbryan
06-18-2004

Rated 0 
I disagree with damged roses and Satur9. Billy is a jokestar, that stands for reason with anybody who knows Billy. Watch VH1 Storytellers part 2. Get it from Billy-Corgan.net. Billy says that when he wrote the song, he wrote it to a memory of sitting at a traffic light when he was 18. Now (this question is directed at Satur9) how could he write the song at age 12, to a memory at age 18? Please, answer that for me.

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Satur9
09-17-2004

Rated 0 
And how do you know which story to believe? And why did he name the song 1979 if he remembered being 18? The song should be called 1985 then..or what?

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DuncanIdahoTPF
09-22-2004

Rated 0 
Nostalgia. Thats the pure feeling from this song. I makes me think about my passing childhood. Teen-angst. I never acted like this and I may regret it for the rest of my life.

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MtterOFctItsAllDrk
09-25-2004

Rated 0 
The title could be about Billy in 1979. Duncan i could not agree with you more. If there's anyone under 18 reading this raise some hell while its still acceptable and you can get away with, you'll regret it if you stay in.

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harmfulifswallowed
09-25-2004

Rated 0 
"Justine never knew the rules.."

I love this song, and my name goes well in it! =-)

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nullportal
10-10-2004

Rated 0 
I suspect that many of the references in 1979 may be to the punk rock movement, which pre-dated 79 in origins but was coming into the mainstream in that year. By the time of writing this song, punk was abandoned: "as you see there's no one else around". Indeed X's "The Unheard Music" has allusions in these lyrics that I can pick up on, particularly the fastness and lack of hope in the music. X often wrote about the "urgency of sound" as a punk ideal, though not in that exact phrase, being locked out of the public eye, and perhaps related to inspiration while stopped at a traffic light: "no hard cords, on the car radio/ some stupor on the car radio". I think Smashing Pumpkins musical treatment of this song would count as "some stupor", ironically.

In 79 a proto-goth would be described as hanging out with the freaks and ghouls, as Justine is here. They were, as goths are now, tremendous posers.

"Zipper blues" does have a sexual frustration connotation, and is also slang of limited circulation for "ups and downs" and being despondent because it seems like things are going well and then they crash. (Would describe punk pretty well. Nirvana et al were POSTpunk, not really punk.)

I would think "shakedown" of 1979 would refer more to an act of aggression, which was what punk was about in trying to kill off the insipid "music" all around it.

In many ways the anti-suburban, despondent youth, don't give a shit attitude of punk is all over this lyric, but I don't want to go on too long.

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Soundboy
10-15-2004

Rated 0 
This song means sitting in my room by myself as a 6th grader in 1997. IT means recording it onto my tape player and listeing to it over and over procrastinating my pre-algerbra homeowork.

"and poured cement, lamented and assured
to the lights and towns below
faster than the speed of sound
faster than we thought we'd go, beneath the sound of hope"

I think this part of the songs is one of my favorite 20-30 seconds in all of the music I have ever listened to. I always have a million thoughts/feelings/longings running through my head when I hear this. The ironic thing about it is I still have many of the same things going through my head as a jr. in college as I did when I was 12. I think the central thing going through my head when I hear this part is the need for a friend, because most of the music I listen to is when Im alone, so many times music is a replacement for a friend, in hopes that this need for relationship and connection with people will only last temporarly and ill find a friend, yet I'm never want this song to end.

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Azzathoth
10-21-2004

Rated 0 
I haven't read through all these comments, but re: the nostalgia thing: I always wonder what people (especially in their 20s) are smoking when they discuss childhood or adolescence as carefree and idyllic (apparently forgetting that when they're older they'll be looking back at their current ages and thinking the same thing), and why they won't share... x.x

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Azzathoth
10-27-2004

Rated 0 
Ah, here we go:

"It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave." -Anatole Broyard

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paintsyourmirror
10-27-2004

Rated 0 
This is one of the best songs I have ever heard.

Azzathoth's first comment made me laugh.

:)

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nullportal
11-02-2004

Rated 0 
"shakedown 1979, cool kids never have the time/on a live wire right up off the street/you and i should meet"

A bird on a wire fits this positioning. They perch on live wires all the time. "A bird on a wire" is possibly a lyrical allusion. Dylan: "Like a bird upon a wire/like a thief in a midnight choir/I have tried in my way to be free". There are other "bird on a wire" references that could also be suitable as allusions.

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Mortonium Ice
11-16-2004

Rated 0 
Damn, whatever your feeling this song ll amplify. if ur a little pissed, it floors you with depression, if your happy u get the most badass giddy thrill.
eh
love sp
love how they make me want to be an american suburbanite, lol.

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nesterreg
11-20-2004

Rated 0 
Back to 'Zipper Blues' - it is my understanding that zipper blues are the feeling one gets when coming down off drugs.

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tsubaki
11-26-2004

Rated 0 
"and we don't know /
just where our bones will rest /
to dust i guess /
forgotten and absorbed into the earth below "
thse are my favourite lines!! i thnk cos of how it goes wif the music. it makes me so nostalgic. i so want to be back at when i could still think life sux and i dont care.

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promisexkept
12-01-2004

Rated 0 
dear fucking lord

i love-LOVE-love this song.

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smashing_me
12-03-2004

Rated 0 
this song makes me smile
i love it when he sings
'and i don't even care to shake these zipper blues
and we don't know
just where our bones will rest
to dust i guess '
when i hear this song i picture the street outside my old house, its in the suburbs and its sunset and all the kids in the neighboorhood are out on the road playing footy with eachother or hide and seek, like on dennis the mennice!!!

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peaceblossom
12-15-2004

Rated 0 
It's about being young and carefree, while at the same time being on the verge of adulthood and having adult things to be worrying about.

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