For some reason, the fact that the “Watchmen” trailer features an old Smashing Pumpkins song, has become a thing, a pop-cultural convergence moment, a water-cooler conversation piece.
Maybe it’s because the Alan Moore
graphic novel, soon-turning movie adaptation is the current movie talk of the town. Maybe it’s because the original Pumpkins song is so bad, people are scratching their heads about its inclusion? No, unfortunately that level of awareness seems to be far gone. Many are noting that it’s because, the track, “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning” has something to do with Batman, but it doesn’t. Or not really.
The track is NOT to be confused with the “The End Is the Beginning Is the End,” a different track that was in the closing credits of the unintentionally hilarious “Batman & Robin” (though as nerdist completists say, they’re basically sibling songs with the same lyrics). Either way, the L.A. Times thought all the hubub was worth calling Pumpkins’ Charlie Brown leader Billy Corgan about and discover well… not much.
Corgan barely knew the song was in the trailer and he’d never heard of “Watchmen,” before this, though the excitement and buzz the trailer and song have generated has already prompted Corgan to ask the Warner Bros. if he can release the clip as a music video. The song is from a B-Sides collection from 2005, but old to most die-hard Pumpkins fans (which is anyone that still considers themselves a SP fan).
The track is already shooting up Itunes and digital retail charts which gives the always-opportunistic Corgan more reason to want a video from it all. “Certainly the massive jump in on-line sales seems to indicate it might be worth it for us and for the movie,” he told the L.A. Times.
“Watchmen” director Zack Snyder has already said the Pumpkins track won’t be featured in the movie, but even he seems confused about the song. At Comic-Con the filmmaker said the song’s use was an “ironic reference” to “Batman & Robin,” given that it’s widely regarded as one of the worst superhero films ever, but again, the song does not have exact association with that Batman film. Maybe he’s a deep cut, B-sider and actually knows the Pumpkins catalogue way deep.
Watch: Smashing Pumpkins – “The Beginning is the End is the Beginning” (from “Watchmen” trailer not “Batman & Robin”)
Watch: Smashing Pumpkins – “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” (from the “Batman & Robin” soundtrack; a different song)
