ZwanSong

"Jesus, I've taken my cross/All to leave and follow thee/I'm destitute, despised, forsaken/All to leave and follow thee."

Take your pick about Zwan:

sex and drugs and rock and roll and ruthless relationshipS (read)

and/or

anointed worship music?
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From Phantom Tollbooth:

It’s an interesting trend. You could see it in Eddie Vedder’s lyrics on the latest Pearl Jam record, Riot Act. Then Chris Cornell seemed to have found it with Audioslave. Now Billy Corgan, legendary front-man for that other grunge-affiliated super-group of the 90’s, Smashing Pumpkins, appears to have found it too in the music of his new band Zwan. Tell me, what’s with all these former dysfunctional generation poster-boys finding God?

I admit I was never a huge fan of the Smashing Pumpkins. While I still love hearing their ‘classics’ (barely ten years old, mind you) from Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness on the radio; “Cherub Rock,” “Today,” “Disarm,” “Zero,” “Bullet With Butterfly Wings,” “Tonight Tonight,” “1979”; it was never enough to inspire me to buy an album. Still, I roomed next to enough rabid Pumpkins fans at school to understand their vibe. While the music was mosh-worthy, Corgan’s lyrics struck me as being clearly not seriously occupied with things eternal.

I noted with passing the Pumpkin’s descent into the morbid plodding of the albums Adore and Machina: The Machines of God. Watching a bald Corgan destroy guitars and amps on the video for “Everlasting Gaze” and singing through his nose about the “fickle fascination of an everlasting God” didn’t do anything to change my perceptions. He was, in my opinion, a poser whose lyrics said little to address the human condition beyond a ‘f***-you’ attitude and sounding second-rate to boot. I was not surprised when the band broke up soon after.

However, with _Mary Star of the Sea_ now spinning daily in my CD player, I’m wondering from where in heaven did Zwan fall? Rounding out Corgan’s troupe of musos are fellow ex-Pumpkin drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, Paz Lenchantin (borrowed from A Perfect Circle) for bass and some sweet backing vocals, plus David Pajo and Matt Sweeney on guitars - both longtime friends of Billy’s from some more obscure bands.

The deliberately ‘hippie’ cover suggests the album is going to be a 70’s style love-in rock fest. In this it doesn’t disappoint, but I struggle for adjectives that won’t sound as corny as that. I’ll try. Zwan is happy; it’s refreshing, it’s catchy, it’s rockin’, it’s playful, it’s camp, it’s sweet, it’s lovey-dovey … and amazingly, so much of it is positive about God. So much so, that some Smashing Pumpkins fans in web chat rooms are asking, “Are Zwan a Christian band?” It’s the wrong question of course, but you can understand their suspicions. The music, while still decidedly alternative rock, is a distinct departure from the angry negativity of the former band’s repertoire.

The album opens with Corgan singing, “Here comes my faith to carry me on,” then continues with a bridge and verse expressing commitment and love to a partner in beautiful, almost godly imagery. Track two, “Settle Down” continues that same theme. In “Declaration of Faith,” Corgan sings “I declare myself of faith,” and sums up, “Maybe we were born to love each other.”

It goes on. The first single “Honestly” lives up to its name with the words “I believe you mean the best that life can bring, I believe in it all,” and boasts perhaps the catchiest chorus of the year so far. Following the acoustic lilt of “A Broken Heart,” track seven, “Ride a Black Swan” gets deep again over an uplifting, driving pop-rock melody. It’s worth quoting several lines of it here:

A white horse picks my dreams up, to take my hopes to God
My prayers have nestled brightly, to dim my sense of awe
I want you to be someone I can’t deny. A house of fire.
I want you to be something I realize.
As the world goes round, it’s got me thinking
That the things I want just keep me sinking down
Remove my spirit from darkness, love become my heaven
As the world goes round with our love
I want you to be my message. I want you to be my friend
I want you to be that answer, an answer I must defend
I want us to solve our distrust of everyone and trust in God
I want us to solve our distrust of who we are.

The great songs continue through “Heartsong,” “Endless Summer,” “Baby Let’s Rock!” and “Yeah!” to “Desire” which addresses itself to the ‘northern star’ (Mary perhaps?) saying “Please enlighten the lost prayers of my soul.” As such, there is not much on this album that would not garner high rotation on pop radio, with each song having some melodic highlight that sticks to your brain like a well-sucked lollipop. The only exception to this rule is perhaps the astonishing 14-minute rock epic “Jesus, I / Mary Star of the Sea,” which in itself, however, is another masterpiece of spiritual reflection.

Jesus, I’ve taken my cross, all to leave and follow thee
I’m destitute, despised, forsaken all to leave and follow thee
Man may trouble to distress me, to drive my heart to the cross
I’m resolute, reviled, forsaken, all to leave and follow thee…
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Reborn, Reborn, Reborn, Reborn…
So perish every fond ambition, God and trouble are all I’ve known
Yet how rich is my condition, God and heaven are all my own

I find it hard to connect the hymn-like lyrics of this song with the same voice that once sung, “God is empty, just like me “ but it’s definitely Billy Corgan. There is plenty of his crazy wah-guitar soloing and distortion throughout to convince me that this was once the head Pumpkin, but it’s like he died and rose to new life with Zwan. The bonus DVD that comes with some editions of this album even features a Zwan version of the old spiritual song, “God’s Gonna Set This World on Fire”. Where God would have previously been sung about with a sneer, he now seems to be firmly embraced and celebrated. I’m perplexed, but simultaneously enraptured.

The excerpts above are only a taste of the exceptional lyrical quality of this debut album from Zwan. The music sounds like a band set free, making great melodies to be played loud while driving down the highway on a summer’s day. Despite all Corgan’s past rage, it seems the rat has been freed from the cage.

-Brendan Boughen 3/4/2003

From Christianity Today:

"Jesus, I've taken my cross/All to leave and follow thee/I'm destitute, despised, forsaken/All to leave and follow thee."
— from "Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea"

When the Smashing Pumpkins died of natural causes in 2000, their inscrutable singer/songwriter Billy Corgan could have easily packed up his instruments and retired from his hectic rock and roll lifestyle with mounds of money in the bank. Instead, he re– teamed with Pumpkins' drummer Jimmy Chamberlin in 2001, adding guitarists Matt Sweeny (Skunk && Chavez) and David Pajo (Slint, Papa M, Tortoise, Stereolab), plus bassist Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle). The alternative rock quintet christened themselves Zwan, making their official major label debut with Mary Star of the Sea, which incorporates melodic pop, arena rock, and sophisticated, spiritually tinged songwriting.

Spiritually tinged? Corgan? Yes, and it's present from the very first verse of the album's first song, "Lyric," in which he wails, "Here comes my faith to carry me on, a faith not ungreat/I fight to stay strong so I stand accused of playing numb/I know it is wrong for I give my strength/I give my heart, take these chains." His reflections may seem to some nothing more than the poetic prowess he's demonstrated with Smashing Pumpkins, but others might interpret lines that come later in the song as pointing toward heaven above — "A lyric, a time, a crusade, a line/One minute, a friend, a road without end."

Religious mentions are equally evasive on "Declarations of Faith" as the front man groans, "So stop laughing and play the muse/This heartache rots that which spills from my heart into your will/ So give in to the rivers' wind/I declare myself, declare myself of faith." Metaphors for earthly love or indications of a higher power?

By far the most intriguing selection is the epic medley of "Jesus, I/Mary Star of the Sea," a song that stirs up bombastic instrumental rage with gargantuan guitars and progressive percussion. The lyrics just don't get more specific than this, with Corgan clearly singing "Jesus, I've taken my cross/All to leave and follow thee." This is later followed by stirring choruses of "Jesus, Jesus … reborn, reborn," which could either refer to spiritual renewal or brand new artist life after the end of the Pumpkins.

This is all pretty stunning coming from a man who once declared God "empty" with the Smashing Pumpkins — a new article from Rolling Stone magazine indicates that Billy was taught to believe this from his father. Still, Corgan is credited in the liner notes under the name "Billy Burke," a well–known evangelistic preacher from Florida, which implies that this could possibly all be tongue–in–cheek. It should also be noted that there is some brief profanity found in the songs "Baby, Let's Rock" and "Yeah." Questions of context aside, these things pale next to the surprisingly uplifting music of Mary Star of the Sea, which provides a masterful balance between the catchy and cathartic.

-Christianity Today

Jesus, i've taken my cross
all to leave and follow thee
Jesus, i've taken my cross
all to leave and follow thee

i'm destitute, despised, forsaken
all to leave and follow thee
and follow thee

man may trouble to distress me
to drive my heart to the cross
yeah, man may trouble to distress me
to drive this heart to the cross

i'm resolute, reviled, forsaken
all to leave and follow thee
and follow thee

Jesus
Jesus
Jesus
reborn
reborn
reborn
reborn

so perish every fond ambition
god and trouble are all i've known
yet how rich is my condition
god and heaven are all my own
god and heaven are all my own
God don't want no part-time soldiers
God don't want no part-time soldiers
God don't want no part-time soldiers
God don't want no part-time soldiers
God don't want no part-time soldiers
One of these days

God's gonna set this world on fire
God's gonna set this world on fire
And all you sinners gonna turn up missing
And all you sinners gonna turn up missing

God's gonna set this world on fire
One of these days
God's gonna set this world on fire
One of these days
One of these days

I'm gonna walk and talk and pray with jesus
I'm gonna walk and talk and pray with jesus
I'm gonna climb, climb, climb jacob's ladder
I'm gonna climb, climb, climb jacob's ladder

God's gonna set this world on fire
One of these days
God's gonna set this world on fire
One of these days
One of these days

I'm gonna climb, climb, climb jacob's ladder
Gonna climb, climb, climb jacob's ladder
Gonna climb, climb, climb jacob's ladder
Gonna climb, climb, climb jacob's ladder

God's gonna set this world on fire
One of these days
God's gonna set this world on fire
One of these days
One of these days



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