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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sofaraway00
02-28-2006

Rated 0 
randamanae... you suck
honestly why would you go through all of the trouble of finding this song just to put down everyone who likes it?
you are clearly an asshole

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JLynn943
03-05-2006

Rated 0 
originally i thought that this song had to do w/ jumping/committing suicide and i'm still not convinced that it is completely independent of that idea. however, now that I've looked at it a bit longer, I feel that it in fact does have to do w/ being a teenager in a time of drugs, sex, and peer pressure and then realizing what is going on around you. Also, I've interpreted it as describing problems w/ society and how teenagers as a whole can be made scapegoats for all (or at least some) of those problems.

This is my first comment on the site, please be kind!

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suckmyschlop
03-06-2006

Rated 0 
This song introduced me to the SP's and is an absolute classic, and yea it is just about teenage years....reminiscing

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Goddess_of_Rock
03-09-2006

Rated 0 
I think it's about the good old days shared by close friends!Which Rocks! THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT SONGS EVER

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benj
03-10-2006

Rated -1 
billy corgan was 16 in 1979. the music is how he felt when he got his drivers license.

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PECOAE
03-14-2006

Rated -1 
About being a teenager, yes.

But its also about finally being freed, as benj said, Billy got his license around that time, and so he finally had the ability to say he was free.

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jar bear
04-04-2006

Rated -1 
this song is a prequal to perfect. I don't know that billy ever intended it to be that way but it ended up like that. its about kids that are simply enjoying the life they have, but go back and watch the perfect video and its the same kids in different situations. Billy is truly a genious. wowow

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ninjapirate
04-08-2006

Rated 0 
This is one of my favourite songs in the world.

I'm sure it means different things to different people, but to me it's a song about a snapshot in time; specifically, that surreal moment when you realize that your life is about to change - that you're growing up, ready or not. It's about being lost and directionless as you face the unknown future

"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"

but yet in a way it's a hopeful song, about limitless possibilities. I've always kind of equated it to those long summer nights just hanging out with friends and driving around and stuff, the summer after high school, before a lot of us went our different ways - to me, it captures that experience perfectly.

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Drewskee
04-27-2006

Rated +1 
I have an old Music Mag here where billy states that the song is about missing the old days and he wanted 1979 to stick in ppl's minds so that it can be seen as a "memory song". Which worked... well for me. If i think of the 90s and music, The Smashing Pumpkins is a good memory :)

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makemakemakeit
05-17-2006

Rated 0 
Any car guys out there know what they drive in the video?
I was thinking a Pontiac GTO, but I have no idea if that is correct or what year it would be. (I'm no car guy but remember watching the video when I was younger and really wanting the car).

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SwimPisces
06-01-2006

Rated 0 
If the video for 1979 is anything to go by, I don't think the singer was ever a part of nor wanted to be a part of the violent, destructive nature of the exclusive "crowd in high school". He appears sober and reflective while the intoxicated partiers destroy a convenient store. hmm, i really can't say.

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smashing_pumpkin
07-06-2006

Rated 0 
I read about the meaning of this in an interview *searches for interview*

"Back in 1979, I was bigger than most kids by a lot. When I was 12 I led my baseball team in home runs. By the time I was 14, I had been totally passed up. That's when I turned to guitar." - Billy Corgan

So you're all pretty much right about it being about feeling useless and bored in suburbia, but I think it went a little deeper than that for Billy personally (doesn't it always? ;])

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Shep420
07-06-2006

Rated 0 
I get chills when I hear that shaky guitar riff.

I always thought it was "urgency of now", because you don't hear the "s", just the "ow" part. And the song Tonite Tonite talks about the "urgency of now", but the lyrics in the booklet say "sound". Hmm. A typo maybe?

The picture of a car in the booklet next to this song connects with the fact Billy must have gotten his driver's license in 1979. I think it indicates motion, time passing, and change.

"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"
Shakedown meaning a thoro search makes sense. Cool kids never have the time could mean they're assholes who snub people or they don't care about time and just live for the moment.
A live wire would sparking electricity and making something happen, like love or connections or something.
Skipping like a stone means we're tossed by some unseen hand and have no control over our destinations.
Headlights pointed at the dawn is a great line, I think it means getting in motion towards clarity, you know, chasing down where it is light and certain.

"double cross the vacant and the bored
they're not sure just what we have in the 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"
- Double crossing the vacant and the bored. I think that means finding a group outcasts and hang out with them pretending to be like them but end up showing them a good time, and that being an outcast can be fun.
The rest of this verse I think Billy Corgan is trying to change heavy drug users who think no one can save them. "Slippin' dues" I think is paying your dues to karma and going thru some bad shit just like everyone else, but some people don't know how to handle it when life gives them its worst to they say fuck everything and do hard drugs. Billy is trying to show them he cares.
"poured cement" means you can't change your past, but no one is "beneath the sound of hope".

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Necronic
07-18-2006

Rated -1 
was corgan high when he wrote this or something?

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defenestrator
07-20-2006

Rated 0 
Shakedown means a period of adjustment. "Junebug skippinig like a stone" refers to the speed at which theyt approach June and graduation. Zipper blues is not sexual innuendo, here is a link to what it means http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zipper+blues.

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brideonfire
07-21-2006

Rated 0 
how could he have gotten his license in 1979 if he was 12 at the time? i think everyone pretty much covered the song meaning, which is to say its about being nostalgic about your youth blah blah blah, but the mystery of why he named it 1979 instead of some other year remains a mystery to me. if he wrote it thinking of a memory at a stoplight when he was 18, why would he name it 1979, a year in which he was 12? ahh...this is gonna bug me for awhile. 1979 is just so random.

anyway i suggest everyone go to billy's myspace or livejournal right now. there is alot of stuff about his childhood, family and first marriage and what not. i feel like it's totally given me more insight into his songwriting.

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InsaneJediGirl
07-27-2006

Rated 0 
To me the song is about hanging out with your friends,growing up,and looking back at all the experiences you had.

Always reminds me of my pre-teen/early teen years

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SuperCrazy
08-03-2006

Rated 0 
I grew up with this song and remember the first time I saw the video, and though it has been years I barely remember imagry of slow moving people at a party, in a suburbean household. If thats what the video is. It's cool, but yeah this song is all about teenage angst, I feel it still and I'm 19. Sometimes I just want to go party and have one of the best hours of my life wiht some new girl I've never met before but really want to see more of, and just dance freely to this kind of music in the streets and wheat fields and just spin starring at the stars. It's like, it makes me want my life back, and makes me want to never give up my years, my days how long or little left I have. And it points out three different types of lifestyles I think of a teenager. The first are the cool kids who are out all night haveing a party or whatever you wanna say. Then the second part is about druggies cause I notice the words speed and morphine, just hint I guess. And the third part is about teens who have it bad. I notice he mentions the unusual name Justine and says she spent her time wiht the freaks and Ghouls, that just amde me think Marquis de Sade's book. And at ever ending explaination there it tells that the singer/narrator being Billy's true opinion or his shoes at all doesn't matter, the lyrics mean we don't know what happens if we turn to dust or jsut fade away with history, and here we are in our suburbean little basements sitting around, when we could be doing something better. Is there really anythign better to do though for teenagers? If anyone comes up with a real answer and not bullshit like build a robot, pat yourself on the back cause you might have some things figured out. Otherwise I'm gonna just stick wiht NO there isn't, so leave the druggies and sluts and partiers and losers alone parents.

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Cherub Rock
08-17-2006

Rated 0 
"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"

These lyrics are some of the best I've ever heard about teenage, about the excitement, the boredom, the restlessness and the emptiness and the optimism. This song IS the teenage years, from the album that is definitely the soundtrack to my teenage years. Even more so if you've seen the video.

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Viva_Italia2k3
09-11-2006

Rated 0 
Just want to try and see if I can clear up some of the "zipper blues" confusion.

Personally, I always thought that line was a double meaning about the promiscuity of teenagers. On one hand, "we don't even care, to shake these zipper blues" means it's no big thing to teens to lose their pants and get sexual with each other, and "zipper blues" is the pants (jeans, typical teenage clothing).

On the opposite side, it symbolizes sexual frustration. Getting the "blues" from being trapped behind a "zipper".

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Rocklovinggirl
09-14-2006

Rated 0 
this song is about growing up... living in the moment and not caring what happens!
listening to this song makes me feel infinite...
it is SO very beautiful.

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mattezyk
10-30-2006

Rated 0 
I remember getting this cd the day it came out ( around this time of year 11 years ago ) and this song just captivated me and I don't know why. I had no idea what the lyrics meant I just loved the feel of the song and how it just moved along so fast it was over before you knew it.

I kinda put this song on the back burner a while ago and havn't listened to it in quite sometime. Then last month in the movie theater seeing "Clerks 2" they had it playing in a montage at the end of the movie. Now hearing it 11 years later, I can understand it more because now I'm looking back on my teenage years realizing what the song means.

Just a wonderful song that I will never forget!

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King of Some Island
11-06-2006

Rated 0 
the part where d'arcy and billy sing together is just amazing, it gives me goosebumps everytime, listen and feel indeed.

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70schic
12-14-2006

Rated 0 
love the song
it reminds me of that 70s show
the show did end on on december 31, 1979 right before new years.
its about teen years and angst

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197NINE
12-28-2006

Rated 0 
unjokingly and unexageratingly this is my favorite song in the universe.

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