Blew Away (version 2)

The Smashing Pumpkins crafted Blew Away (version 2) in three minutes and twenty-seven seconds of guitar that seem to breathe. It’s not a track that stands out for its thunder, but for how it sounds just before it shatters: there’s a moment when the distortion turns liquid, as if the main riff dissolves in the air before falling back down. The original version—rawer, shorter—already held that magic, but here Butch Vig’s production gives it a dirty sheen, as if the song had been recorded in a basement with walls that still vibrate. It’s not the most polished sound from The Smashing Pumpkins, but it’s the one that best captures that mix of contained fury and melancholy that defines them.

The song was born in the same crucible as Siamese Dream, the album that launched them into the mainstream in 1993. Billy Corgan wrote it amid the chaotic recording sessions, where the leader’s perfectionism clashed with the band’s exhaustion. Tensions ran so high that Butch Vig had to mediate between Corgan—who wanted to record each guitar part separately, layer upon layer—and the rest of the band, who hadn’t slept in months. The result was an album that sold over six million copies and went platinum four times, but Blew Away (version 2) remained a hidden gem: it wasn’t a single, it had no music video, yet those who heard it kept it as a secret.