Tag Archives: green day

#1072: Green Day – Pulling Teeth

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Green Day’s ‘Pulling Teeth’ gets a bit of an unfair deal. The sixth track on the band’s massive breakthrough major-label debut Dookie from 1994, it’s sandwiched by two of the trio’s most well-known and well-beloved songs (singles, too) in ‘Welcome to Paradise’ and ‘Basket Case’. Kinda sticks out like a sore thumb in its placement too, marking a sudden change in pace compared to the other songs that surround it on the album’s first half. But with all that being said, I’d still much rather listen to ‘Pulling Teeth’ rather than those other two. Would explain why there isn’t a ‘Basket Case’ post on here, nor will there be one for ‘Paradise’ either. I’ve just heard both too many times, you know? Sort of lost their power after a while.

The lyrics don’t leave much to the imagination. What you see/hear is what you get. And what that is is the account of a narrator who’s been physically abused by their girlfriend and is having a bit of an internal crisis about the whole situation. Inspired by a real-life incident where bassist Mike Dirnt broke both his elbows during a playful pillow-fight with an ex-girlfriend, the track takes things to the next level where this injury is caused on purpose leaving the narrator to deal with something of a bit of an existential crisis as they ponder on whether this relationship is really worth continuing with all the pain that’s bound to happen.

And despite the somewhat heavy subject matter, the track’s general tone is one of a relaxed kind that’s established from the very start with those dream-like, hazy guitar chords. They only alternate between two chords, but just the sound of them have this entrancing quality which I can’t pin down a cause to. Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt pretty much harmonize throughout the whole track on lead vocals, and I can’t think of another Green Day song where this occurs. From what I know, it’s usually Mike Dirnt coming up with harmonies here and there. But for an entire track? Surely, this must be the only one. I’ve seen comments that commend it for its Beatles-like quality, which I guess I can see. Not sure about similarities to the Beatles myself. I hear an almost surf-rock influence in there, but I don’t know of any bands to base this opinion on. Whatever’s going on here, I’m all for it. Everyone will go for the big hits from Dookie, but from the majority of other posts I’ve done for the album on here, you can see I’m for the deeper cuts. And with that, you’ll never see Dookie here again. More Green Day though, for sure.

#932: Green Day – No Pride

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After becoming jaded with the phenomenal success of Dookie, Green Day headed into the studio to begin work on that album’s follow up. Angry at the world, fuelled on methamphetamine, and, in particularly Billie Joe Armstrong’s case, walking around having barely reached the minimum hours needed to sleep because of a newborn child, the band produced track after track of no nonsense, pissed off punk rock that was eventually unveiled to the world as Insomniac in October 1995. The album was a lot darker in tone, from the artwork to the lyrical content, a lot of which took on a point of view along the lines of “why bother with anything in life because we all die and everything in between is pointless.”

A lot of tracks on there take on this nihilistic approach. ‘No Pride’ is a prime example. Its first line, “Well I am just a mutt, and nowhere is my home”, sets a base straight away. From there, Armstrong tells the listener to forget about hope, forget unity, don’t stand up for what you believe in, forget about your morals and values. Basically disregard all things that arguably make you a decent human being. At that point in time, he must have done so and felt no shame hence the track’s sentiment of having no pride. There are two verses and two choruses. And after a rushing instrumental break which repeats the opening chord progression four times with no solo or change up, the track falls right into the final chorus, tail-ended with the closing lines where Armstrong tells us to “close your eyes and die.”

It’s a good time all-in-all. The subject matter may be a downer, but is elevated by the simple yet effective melodies throughout and the propelling speed that track is played at. All three members perform at their most forceful throughout this album, and with an attitude that they’d never fully revisit again. Dookie may be the more popular record, that goes without saying, but those who really know about Insomniac recognise its power.

#918: Green Day – Nice Guys Finish Last

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Green Day’s Nimrod goes down as the album of the band’s where Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool decided to experiment a little bit. Steering away from the harsh, pessimistic tone of Insomniac a couple years before, the three pursued in writing material that covered different styles of rock music and utilising a wider range of instrumentation. Outside of Dookie and American Idiot, it’s probably the record that’s loved the most amongst Green Day fans. But before all the experimentation starts, it all kicks off with a nice traditional punk-rock track in the form of ‘Nice Guys Finish Last’.

The song isn’t really about anything in particular. A lot of the lyrics are just common sayings and phrases from everyday life – case in point, the title – that Armstrong puts some sarcastic and joking twists on. Not to scoff at anyone who has found some level of meaning or a story in the words, but I truly feel there’s nothing that the listener is supposed to latch onto. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it because you definitely can. What helps the track is the band’s overall performance and the great melodies throughout. What normally gets me pumped throughout is Tré Cool’s drumming. It’s fair to say he’s never been the weak point in Green Day song, but in this particular one it seems like he doesn’t have any moment to breathe. One moment he’s rapidly tapping away on the hi-hat before switching to the ride cymbal and throwing in all those fills in between. There’s a moment where Armstrong does this grunt thing before the last instrumental section of the track that’ll caught me surprise upon first listen, but feels very appropriate within the context the more times you hear it.

On a personal level, it took me a while to warm up to this track. I’d known it since about 2005 when I was really into Green Day. It was probably the second band I properly geeked out on after The Darkness. The music video (as you can see above) was on the band’s website. I thought the track was all right and nothing much, but I was nine/ten at the time and didn’t know much better. Probably because compared to ‘Hitchin’ a Ride’, it sounded too normal. Now I listen to ‘Nice Guys’ more than I do ‘Hitchin”. It just does the job.

#845: Green Day – Minority

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‘Minority’ by Green Day. This is a track I’ve known and really liked for a long time now. Was one of the videos I watched on repeat on the band’s website when I was really into them in ’05. So much so that I remember my aunt making fun of the way Billie Joe Armstrong sang the track’s first line. But I liked it then, and still do today. It’s the penultimate track on Warning, but was released as the first single from it, and is one of those “fuck the Man, I’m doing me” type of songs.

I’m in that group who say Warning is an underrated album. It might not have the grandiosity of an American Idiot or a 21st Century Breakdown, but the simplicity of all its songs really highlight the band’s chemistry and Billie Joe’s melodic talents. And ‘Minority’ has one of the most memorable singalong moments on there. The whole track is like one long chorus, and I appreciate this. The one part of the track that I really like is the “Stepped out of the line” section, and that only appears once before changing back to the pre-chorus again. Kinda leaves me wanting more. But as it stands, the track’s still one of the best from the album.

I think it’s fair to say the band like it too. It’s a staple in their live performances. Sometimes the band stretch the track out for about eight to ten minutes to allow a lot of instrumental breaks, crowd banter and “hey-heys” and “hey-ohs” and “ay ay ays”. While those are all probably very nice when in the moment, I’ll take the studio recording any day.

#762: Green Day – Longview

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‘Longview’ by Green Day has been in my music library for a long time now. The band were probably one of the first that I had a proper phase for when I actually found out about music and started learning new things about it. That was around the time of that American Idiot was released… so that would have made me a nine year old. Kinda crazy. When I was on Green Day’s website back then and trying to listen to more of their stuff, the video for ‘Longview’ was up on there. And this wasn’t when videos would just show up and start playing automatically. Windows Media Player had to open up, and if your connection wasn’t good – a lot of the time would just be spent waiting for the video to stop buffering so it would play fluidly. The way I put it doesn’t make it sound too different from how videos work today. In 2004, it really was. Don’t mean to make this sound like a whole ‘back in my day’ thing. Just gotta state the facts sometimes.

So by repeated watches of the video and listens of the song as a result, ‘Longview’ ingrained itself into my head and the imagery of feathers raining down on Billie Joe Armstrong as he sits still on his sofa enters my thoughts on rare occasions. The track still gives me the same rush it did all those years ago, particularly when those roaring guitars enter during the choruses. And overall it’s just a song that’s filled with great melodies from the famous bassline Mike Dirnt created while high on LSD to the Billie Joe’s wearisome vocal delivery in the verses. The song is about being bored, jacking off and getting high until the days are no longer fun. And you’ll think well that’s a bit juvenile. Sure… but it sounds great.

‘Longview’ was released as the first single from the band’s breakthrough album Dookie. I own a physical copy of that album. Have done since 2005. Something I hold dear. And it’s got Ernie from Sesame Street on the back. Apparently lots of copies exist which don’t have him on there because the record label were afraid of getting sued. The main reason I wanted to get the album was because I had read on a Green Day fansite that another song called ‘Chump’ comes before ‘Longview’ and it transitions into it seamlessly on the album. That transition is a highlight for many a Green Day fan.