It is fairly obvious that this is a song about angst, and pretty much nothing else. But it is not about your angst, nor mine. It is about Billy Corgan's angst. At the time this song was written and released The Smashing Pumpkins were one of the biggest bands in the world. Billy's angst is not like our angst. He is not angsty about the sort of stuff that people with actual struggles are angsty about. He is angsty because he has achieved success, and it is still not enough that an insane amount of people love him. He is angsty because not every single person loves him, and because the industry that gave him his success is also profiting from his campaign against good lyrics.
Let's do this.
The world is a vampire - sent to drain
When he calls the world a vampire I don't think that is a compliment, which is strange considering that Billy Corgan was in full Nosferatu cosplay at the time. So who are these vampires? Like, the industry, man. But also you, his fans. You heartless, undead bloodsuckers just keep wanting more and more from Billy, and maybe he just might quit this business and perform that one man play about Uncle Fester he has been working on since Gish.
Secret destroyers - hold you up to the flames
Yes, this is also about those rich assholes who made Billy rich, and it is also about you. You gave him your shine, but now it's too much, and it's burning him. The secret is out, Billy hates you.
And what do I get - for my pain
Betrayed desires - and a piece of the game
Billy is totes pissed here because after all the blood-letting, all he has to show for it is millions of dollars, international superstardom, and the kind of mega-privilege that only a fraction of a percent of human beings will ever experience. He totally thought it would be more, and now he feels betrayed. Can you even imagine attaining that kind of success and still being an unpleasable toddler about it? Here's a tip, Billy - perhaps your megalomaniacal ego just needs to get a little perspective, because the world seems to be doing you hella right from just about everybody else's point of view.
Despite all my rage I am still just a rat in a cage
No Billy, your rage is the cage. Your entitlement and profound self-absorption are a prison of your own devising. And quite frankly it is embarrassing that you would present this infantile pity party to a world of people whose suffering and oppression you will never come close to knowing.
Someone will say, "What is lost can never be saved"
I'm not sure what he thinks is lost? His innocence? That is the best I can come up with. Gee, sorry guy, that you traded your innocence for massive adoration and cash, but most people trade theirs for some actual horror or a life of mundane wage slavery.
Now I'm naked - nothing but an animal
He is naked because he no longer enjoys the privacy of obscurity. A victim of his wildest dreams coming true. And there he sits naked in his cage like an animal while everyone throws love and money at him. Well there's no lock on the cage's door, Billy. Skedaddle if ya wanna, ya animal.
But can you fake it - for just one more show
I'm pretty sure we have just made a sudden perspective shift here. This is Billy talking to himself. Can he fake the notoriously bad live performances of his studio-orientated music even one more time without finally thrusting his neck into the fangs of the world and letting it all just drain away into a blackness blacker than the blackest eyeliner? Of course he can, because after a few more he will be able to buy himself an even bigger, fancier cage and have enough left over to spite-purchase that silver-plated Ferrari that Iha had his eye on.
And what do you want - I wanna change
And what do you got - when you feel the same
I think at this point in the song Billy has become aware that he has just spent the last two verses and a chorus telling his audience how awful they are, so now he is going to throw them a bone by asking them an insincere question, so they'll feel like they are part of this song. So they can know his pain. However, as inauthentic as that pandering ploy was, he really did want to change. That is why he followed this album up with a record full of terrible dance grunge and techno emo. That will learn you assholes real good not to like what he does!
Even though I know - I suppose I'll show
All my cool and cold - like old Job
Okay, now it is no longer just you and The Man punishing Billy - God Himself has gotten in on the game. But Billy, by throwing a tantrum about his circumstances, is committed to playing it cool and cold. Oh, really, Billy? Is that what you think you are doing? Interesting. In case you don't know who Job is, he is a guy in the Bible whose life God completely destroyed in every way in order to win a bet against Satan while the two were on a tequila and cocaine bender. It's been awhile since I read it, but I'm pretty sure that's what happened. And of course becoming a rock legend and enjoying all of the spoils that go with it is exactly like what happened to Job, right? Well if you think that's nuts....
Tell me I'm the only one
Tell me there's no other one
Jesus was an only son, yeah
Tell me I'm the chosen one
Jesus was an only son, for you
And just like that Billy has gone from Job to Jesus. After God has taken everything from him, you ungrateful recipients of his love and eternal redemption gotta come along and put him on a cross and make him a martyr? Well don't that beat all!
I still believe that I cannot be saved
Agreed.
So there you have it, Bullet With Butterfly Wings is a song about having an ego so big that the term 'Biblical proportions' would be a severe understatement. And about how Uncle Festeratu really, really hates you.
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