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Smashing Pumpkins’ ‘Aeroplane Flies High’ Nears Infinity With 104-Track Reissue

smashing pumpkins, aeroplane flies high, reissue

The Smashing Pumpkins’ massive reissue campaign will continue on July 23 when Virgin/UMe re-releases the 1996 box set The Aeroplane Flies High. Originally, Aeroplane featured 33 tracks spread across five discs, collecting expanded versions of singles from the band’s 1995 double-album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Now the retrospective has been fattened to include a jaw-dropping 104 tracks — 90 audio and 14 audio-visual, according to an official announcement. 

Bob Ludwig remastered the upcoming redux, which comes in four different formats: A six-CD and single-DVD set, a five-LP vinyl package, a deluxe digital version, and a standard digital edition. The physical and deluxe digital variations are filled with unreleased demos, alternate takes, rarities, and live tracks.

The sixth disc in the CD set contains live recordings from the Pumpkins’ 1996 Mellon Collie tour, while the DVD captures a July 4, 1997 performance in Belfort, France. Additionally, writer David Wild contributed liner notes for a 46-page booklet that also features extensive commentary from Billy Corgan. 

“What I like about The Aeroplane Flies High is that it’s almost the existential backwater of the Mellon Collie album,” Corgan notes in the booklet. “Listening to the music gathered here is a little bit like seeing what goes on behind the walls of Disneyland. I’ve always been fascinated with places that are very well constructed, and finding out what’s really going on just over the fence. You look over that gate and notice that things on the other side are not well painted — or maybe you spot that guy dressed as some character sneaking a smoke on his break. At least for me, the behind the scenes feel heard on The Aeroplane Flies High represents something revealing not found on the main album. In retrospect, it’s a nice document of how we arrived at the apex of Mellon Collie — and also what standing on that apex did to us personally.” 

The Aeroplane Flies High is the fifth Smashing Pumpkins’ release to get this sort of deluxe reissue treatment, following Gish, Siamese Dream, Pisces Iscariot, and Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Wade into the full track list below.

The Aeroplane Flies High deluxe reissue track list: 

“Bullet With Butterfly Wings” (CD1):
1. “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”
2. “…Said Sadly”
3. “You’re All I’ve Got Tonight”
4. “Clones (We’re All)”
5. “A Night Like This”
6. “Destination Unknown”
7. “Dreaming”

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
8. “Movers and Shakirs”
9. “Germans in Leather Pants”
10. “Millieu”
11. “Jackboot”
12. “A/Ab/E/B/F#”
13. “Rings”
14. “Ugly”
15. “Blaster Caster”
16. “Little Ditty”
17. “Verily I Say”
18. “New Waver”
19. “The Groover”
20. “Ravi Revi Roo”
21. “On the Loose”
22. “Slurry”

“1979” (CD2): 
1. “1979”
2. “Ugly”
3. “Believe”
4. “Cherry”
5. “The Boy”
6. “Set the Ray to Jerry”

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
7. “Tonight, Tonight (acoustic version/instrumental rough)”
8. “Jupiter’s Lament (billy solo)”
9. “Zero (8trk demo)”
10. “Marquis in Spades (8trk demo)”
11. “Have Love Will Travel (8trk demo)”
12. “Infinite Sadness (siamese outtake)”
13. “1979 (acoustic)”
14. “Aeroplane Flies High (acoustic snippet)”
15. “Take Me Down (instrumental)”
16. “Star Song (dat mix/vocal rough)”

“Zero” (CD3): 
1. “Zero”
2. “God”
3. “Mouths of Babes”
4. “Tribute to Johnny”
5. “Marquis in Spades”
6. “Pennies”
7. “Pastichio Medley”

LP Only:
7. “Pastichio Medley (with fades)”

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
8. “By Starlight”
9. “Set the Ray to Jerry”
10. “Mouths of Babes”
11. “Cupid de Locke”
12. “Galapagos”
13. “To Forgive”
14. “Lily (My One & Only)”
15. “Here Is No Why”

“Tonight, Tonight” (CD4): 
1. “Tonight, Tonight”
2. “Meladori Magpie”
3. “Rotten Apples”
4. “Medellia of the Gray Skies”
5. “Jupiter’s Lament”
6. “Blank”
7. “Tonite Reprise”

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
8. “Stumbleine”
9. “Ugly”
10. “Meladori Magpie”
11. “God”
12. “Love”
13. “Pissant”
14. “Hello Kitty Kat”
15. “Special Winner’s Song”
16. “I Just Wanna Make Love to You”

“Thirty-Three” (CD5): 
1. “Thrity-Three”
2. “The Last Song”
3. “The Aeroplane Flies High”
4. “Transformer”
5. “The Bells”
6. “My Blue Heaven”

Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks:
7. “Silverfuck (live 7/10/96)”

Deluxe Edition Live CD:
Live Inside the Dark Globe (CD6):
1. “Where Boys Fear to Tread” (Cleveland, Ohio 7.3.96)
2. “Zero” (San Francisco, California 2.7.96)
3. “Fuck You / An Ode to No One” (Stockholm, Sweden 4.10.96)
4. “X.Y.U.” (Los Angeles, California 2.3.96)
5. “To Forgive” (Washington, D.C. 1.6.96)
6. “Thirty-Three” (New York City, New York 1.11.96)
7. “Tonight, Tonight” (New York City, New York 1.11.96)
8. “Lily (My One And Only)” (Washington, D.C. 1.5.96)
9. “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans” (Cleveland, Ohio 7.3.96)
10. “Jellybelly” (Gent, Belgium 4.6.96)
11. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings” (Los Angeles, California 2.3.96)
12. “By Starlight” (Buffalo, New York 7.2.96)
13. “Bodies” (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 7.5.96)
14. “Silverfuck” (Copenhagen, Denmark 4.9.96)

Deluxe Edition Concert DVD (Malsaucy Lake, Belfort, France,  July 4, 1997):
1. “Glimpses”
2. “Where Boys Fear to Tread”
3. “Eye”
4. “Tonight, Tonight”
5. “Transformer”
6. “Thru the Eyes of Ruby”
7. “The End Is the Beginning Is the End”
8. “By Starlight”
9. “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”
10. “Muzzle”
11. “1979”
12. “X.Y.U.”
13. “Porcelina of the Vast Oceans”
14. “The Aeroplane Flies High (Turns Left, Looks Right)”