"Bullet with Butterfly Wings" is a popular song by The Smashing Pumpkins. It originally appeared on their 1995 album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, from which it was a single. The single would later be packed in as part of the box set The Aeroplane Flies High, and the song would appear on the greatest hits album Rotten Apples. The song won the 1997 Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.

Song

Like the subsequent Mellon Collie single "Zero", "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" was one of the Smashing Pumpkins' darker songs and one of the first signs of change in the band's style. Previous albums, though not always lighthearted, had a less gloomy sound to them. While Mellon Collie was not entirely dark, it did have several songs that had a bleak attitude, and "Bullet" exemplified this. Later albums by the Pumpkins would have a tendency towards such songs, though few would be as dismal as "Bullet". With the chorus line "despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage", the song gained the Pumpkins a reputation for writing gloomy music.

Critics of the song have sometimes claimed that the lyrics are supposed to refer to the alleged suicide of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. This is usually assumed because of the lines "but can you fake it/ for just one more show", which may refer to Cobain's attempt to disband the group before he died. However, Corgan later said that the line refers to the band's headlining slot on the 1994 Lollapalooza tour, where they supposedly became disillusioned with the idea of "alternative" rock. This is also supported by the fact that the first fully played incarnations of the song occurred at a few Lollapalooza shows, as well as on demos recorded early that year. (A very embryonic version was apparently recorded during the recording of Siamese Dream; according to Corgan, "somewhere, I have a tape of us from 1993 endlessly playing the 'world is a vampire' part over and over.") In fact, the lines quoted themselves don't appear in the song until a demo from late 1994.

Another interpretation is that Corgan felt doomed by fate, and no matter how hard he tried to break free from the "set path", he couldn't do it. Thus the name "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" gives a metaphorical image to this interpretation: the butterfly wings are a positive force, but they will never affect the path of the bullet.

The music video for the song, in which lead singer Billy Corgan wears a black shirt emblazoned with the word "ZERO", is the last one filmed while Corgan had hair; he shaved his head not long afterwards.

Single

The following tracks appeared on the original single:

1. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" (Corgan) - 4:16
2. "...Said Sadly" (Iha) - 3:09

The version of the single that appears in The Aeroplane Flies High has the following tracks:

1. "Bullet with Butterfly Wings"
2. "...Said Sadly"
3. "You're All I've Got Tonight" (Ric Ocasek) - 3:10
4. "Clones (We're All)" (Carron) - 2:43
5. "A Night Like This" (Robert Smith) - 3:36
6. "Destination Unknown" (Bozzio/Bozzio/Cuccurullo) - 4:14
7. "Dreaming" (Debbie Harry) - 5:11

"...Said Sadly" features Nina Gordon of Veruca Salt on vocals. "You're All I've Got Tonight" is a cover of a song by The Cars; "Clones (We're All)" is an Alice Cooper cover; "A Night Like This" is a Cure cover; "Destination Unknown" is a Missing Persons cover; and "Dreaming" is a Blondie cover.

Chart positions

1995  Bullet With Butterfly Wings      Mainstream Rock Tracks        No. 4
1995  Bullet With Butterfly Wings      Modern Rock Tracks            No. 2
1996  Bullet With Butterfly Wings      The Billboard Hot 100         No. 22