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Billy Corgan Wants Fans to Help Pick Smashing Pumpkins’ Reunion Tour Set

SAO PAULO, BRAZIL - MARCH 29: Singer Billy Corgan of The Smashing Pumpkins performs during 2015 Lollapalooza Brazil at Autodromo de Interlagos on March 29, 2015 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. (Photo by Victor Moriyama/Getty Images)

Just as tickets are going on sale for the Smashing Pumpkins reunion tour, Billy Corgan is trying to sweep all that ugly D’arcy Wretzky mudslinging under the carpet and make some earnest appeals to fans. On Instagram today, he asked ticketholders to help the current iteration of the band–Corgan, James Iha, Jimmy Chamberlain, and Jeff Schroeder–decide on their set list for the upcoming shows. As promised, the bulk of the “PROPOSED” songs Corgan posted are from across the Pumpkins’ classic, pre-Zeitgeist discography, and will appease iconoclastic Machina heads as well as Siamese Dream purists.

The notable section of the document, however, is the last four songs, which are potential covers. One would expect no less from William Patrick Corgan, but the selections are perhaps a bit too well-known, or at least ambitious. Corgan, who named a song “Zowie” on his recent solo record, obviously put two possible Bowie covers on the list, but also included Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” and–God help us all–“Stairway to Heaven.” One imagines the former sounding like a lost outtake from the Fight Club soundtrack (but you can check out Corgan performing it with Peter Hook live a few years ago to get a firmer idea). It seems safest to not try to imagine the latter.

Corgan wants fans to let the Pumpkins which songs off the list they want to hear, and send “a screen cap” of ones the band may have forgotten. “But remember, the goal is to build an epic set!” he wrote. “So choose wisely.”

In other Pumpkins Instagram news, Corgan recently posted titles to eight new songs the band are working on, including a jam called “Knights of Malta.”