Tag Archives: green day

#627: Green Day – In the End

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Sorry for the wait for any of you eagerly anticipating a post from here. I was at Lovebox Festival on Friday and Saturday. Have been gradually recovering since. I’m almost there.

‘In the End’ is the third track in that four-short-song-suite (as only I like to refer to it) that appears towards the end of Green Day’s 1994 breakthrough album Dookie. Preceded by ‘Coming Clean‘ and ‘Emenius Sleepus‘, ‘In the End’ concerns Billie Joe Armstrong’s feelings when his mother started dating a man who he wasn’t very fond of, as you can see in the song’s lyrics. It seems that he’s disappointed by his mum’s choice in choosing this person as opposed to practically anyone else and tells her straight that if this new boyfriend lets her down, he hopes he won’t be there to pick up the pieces.

I never properly appreciated the song until it was playable on Green Day: Rock Band. Next year that game turns 10 years old and I would be surprised if anyone remembers it. I reckon it’s quite easy to play on the guitar as its mostly based on two power chords with a bit of variation during the choruses but Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool are bossing it on the rhythm section, particularly on the instrumental section that separates the second chorus from the final one. It’s not very long so there’s not much to say about it; it is thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.

My iPod #543: Green Day – Horseshoes and Handgrenades

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“>”Horseshoes and Handgrenades” would have been the perfect first single for 21st Century Breakdown, in my opinion. “I’m not fucking around” seems like the perfect first line to come back after five years of waiting for a new album, Billie Joe sings like he is attacking with a vengeance on here and sounds absolutely untouchable. He isn’t playing any games. Most of all, the song doesn’t play it safe; though it’s a bit repetitive it is still very exciting to listen to whereas, unfortunately, “Know Your Enemy” pales in comparison.

Like Sex Pistols’ “Holidays in the Sun”, “Horseshoes” begins with a chanting soldiers march but instead introduces the song’s rip-roaring riff before Tré Cool pounds on the tom-toms to get things really rolling. In three and a bit minutes, Billie Joe Armstrong doesn’t really sing as he does melodically shout about destroying everything in his path and not giving a fuck about it. He has no respect for himself, labelling himself as ‘a hater’ and ‘a traitor’, so why should he care about what anyone else says? The solid wall of guitars made by Butch Vig’s production heighten Billie Joe’s delivery, providing a relentless riff that repeats for what seems like hours on end and come to a sudden stop after Billie’s snarling screams.

There’s a raw intensity captured in “Horseshoes” that doesn’t appear so much in the album, and it is the only one where the band go balls to the wall in their performance for the whole track.

My iPod #539: Green Day – Homecoming

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Jimmy’s story comes to an epic close in the second medley on American Idiot. In “Homecoming”, the anti-hero rids himself of his ‘St. Jimmy’ alter ego and makes an effort to lead a normal life before, overcome with self-pity and loneliness, deciding to return to the home that he had left ten songs earlier. In nine minutes, the track tells this story in five separate movements (“The Death of St. Jimmy”, “East 12th St.”, “Nobody Likes You”, “Rock and Roll Girlfriend”, and “We’re Coming Home Again”), acting as the final chapter to the main storyline before the epilogue of “Whatsername“.

Mike Dirnt actually instigated work on the track, writing a ‘thirty second song’ that caught Billie Joe’s attention. He then went to write his own half-minute number with Tré Cool doing the same. Serious business grew as the three members began to try and outdo each other, but the time arrived when they began connecting their snippets together and realised that they could really start something with the method. “Homecoming” was born, and “Jesus of Suburbia” followed soon after.

“Homecoming” has always edged further than “Jesus” for me. Both are excellent compositions for sure, but the former sees the narrator in a somewhat more mature light than the latter. Instead of feeling victimized and angry with those around him, Jimmy realises that he has been in the wrong the whole time. After all the shit he has gone through, it is good to hear the steps that lead to his much needed happy ending.

My iPod #536: Green Day – Holiday

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Green Day’s “Holiday” is the third song on their 2004 ‘punk rock opera’ American Idiot, released in 2004. Having no idea who Green Day were at the time, I didn’t know why such a big deal was being made about their so called ‘return’. After years of avid listening I know now that it was their first album since pretty much disappearing after 2000’s Warning, so the hype was understandable. Still, I wasn’t that great a fan of the title track. Nor did I pay that much attention to “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” when it was out as the next single. My whole attitude toward Green Day changed upon the unveiling of “Holiday”; I liked it that much that ended up watching all of the band’s older videos. “Holiday” is the reason why I started listening to Green Day. And I have no regrets.

In terms of the album’s storyline “Holiday” arrives at the point where the main character “Jimmy” AKA “The Jesus of Suburbia” has left his shitty home and is enjoying his freedom in the big city.  Out of the album’s story, the lyrics were written by Billie Joe Armstrong as a ‘fuck you’ to George W. Bush and Republican politicians. The song has a swinging rhythm that aids the sense of swagger and reckless abandon displayed in the lyrics. What I really loved about the track way back when were the vocals of the track. Billie Joe’s yelling/singing at the top of his lungs, along with the chanting backing vocals (AMEN), gave me a feeling that I was on top of the world and nothing could touch me. It was good being ten years old.

The rest of 2005 was made up of me listening to Green Day and watching Homestar Runner. Don’t think I would have done the former if it wasn’t for “Holiday”. It has been a good ten years listening to their music.

My iPod #531: Green Day – Hitchin’ a Ride

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Green Day’s 1997 album Nimrod exhibited a change in the band’s musical direction. Differing vastly from the angst and rough punk rock sounds delivered two years prior on Insomniac, Billie Joe, Mike and Tré decided to branch out from their origins and make an album where they weren’t confined to one type of sound. This new sense of freedom resulted in a total of thirty songs being recorded before they were whittled down to create one of Green Day’s most eclectic record to date.

“Hitchin’ a Ride” was the first single to be released from Nimrod. Whilst not explicitly showing the experimentation that was to come in the album, one could tell that there was something different about the band. It is much different from the first single used to promote the previous album. A mysterious violin opens the song, before its chugging four note riff takes over. Remaining relatively calm for the majority of the beginning, bar the instrumental break where the riff is played with more venom, things don’t get very rowdy until halfway through. The chorus finally arrives for the first time and all hell breaks loose shortly after Armstrong yells “SHIT” from the pit of his stomach.

“Hitchin’ a Ride” manages to symbolise the change in style Green Day were going through at the time whilst also giving off the vibe that this was the same Green Day who had released “Basket Case” a few years earlier. It was a wise decision to use it as the first song to represent their new material. People would at least be a bit more prepared for what was to come.