Tag Archives: green 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.

#661: Green Day – Jaded

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‘Jaded’ is the eleventh track on Green Day’s fourth album Insomniac, released all the way back in 1995. That is my favourite album of theirs. You may argue and say “err, Dookie?” or “durr, American Idiot?” I stick with my choice. The tracks on the waste no time. Billie Joe seems to be at his most self-loathing and messed up on here, which for one reason or many others I enjoy quite a bit. It’s just over half an hour in length. It won’t take up too much of your time.

When listening to the album, you will notice ‘Jaded’ launches off like a rocket while the guitars are still fading out from the preceding track ‘Brain Stew‘. This came to good use when the band needed another single from the album. Instead of releasing ‘Brain Stew’ by itself, the band/record label/whoever decided to release it and ‘Jaded’ as a joint single. The long music video for both songs can be seen above, though I set it so it could start when ‘Jaded’ begins.

The track is a minute and a half freak out to contrast with the lazy/lethargic/apathetic outlook of ‘Brain Stew’. It’s a very energetic song that basically tells you to get out there and do something with your life instead of finding yourself doing the same old thing over and over again, whether it be a 9 to 5 job or just sitting at home doing nothing at all. We’re not getting any younger, and you don’t want to get old thinking you could have done so much more with your time. Once you get past the overall jumped-up/tweaked out atmosphere of the track, or not that’s probably the best part about it all, it’s quite serious. It’s a firecracker of a tune, though.

#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.