Tag Archives: holiday

My iPod #537: Weezer – Holiday

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It is time to talk about another holiday. This one appears as the ninth and penultimate song on Weezer’s classic debut album. The Blue Album is one that I have owned and cherished for almost ten years now. Knew it was something I would take to the first time I heard the strident opening power chords of “My Name Is Jonas”; the bar is high on every track, and it is one of those albums that I can play from front to back without becoming tired of it.

Like yesterday’s “Holiday”, the one by Weezer also celebrates a new-found freedom. But whilst Green Day’s celebrates freedom from leaving one world, Rivers Cuomo sings about the joy of entering a new one. Along with “In the Garage“, “Holiday” was written in a sudden burst of excitement after Weezer had been signed by major record company Geffen Records. It differs from the former in that that feeling of excitement can be sensed by the song’s tempo, rhythm, atmosphere and execution.

Cuomo invites the narrator to ‘go away for a while’ somewhere. Not even to a specific location because that’s how much his sense has gone out the window because of this ecstasy. All four members feature on vocals too, with Brian Bell, Matt Sharp, and Patrick Wilson performing the Beach Boys influenced vocals for the bridge. If you listen carefully during the feedback that the song ends with you can hear someone in the back let out a huge scream. If it’s because of the realisation that what they had just performed was the perfect take then it’s for a good reason.

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 #253: Green Day – Deadbeat Holiday

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“Deadbeat Holiday” is the seventh track on Green Day’s sixth album “Warning”, released in 2000. The album is one of Green Day’s ‘softer’ albums with less of a punk rock oriented sound and incorporating more acoustic elements (thank you Wikipedia). For this reason, it is not one of the band’s most acclaimed albums. But at a time when punk rock was not as big, it showed that the band were able to look in a new direction.

For myself, “Warning” was the last Green Day album I listened to. The Green Day:Rock Band had recently come out and the only albums of theirs I physically possessed (and still do) were “American Idiot“, “Dookie“, “Smoothed Out Slappy Hours” (which is quite a strange choice looking at it now) and the “International Superhits!” compilation, which I got way before realising that compilations are not the way to go. Buy original albums, people.

“Minority”, the title track, “Waiting” and “Macy’s Day Parade” were tracks that I had heard when I initially started listening to Green Day about ten years ago. They were singles, and their videos were available to watch on the band’s website. It was only the album tracks I had to go through now, and “Deadbeat Holiday” was another that was rather enjoyable. It’s about living an empty life and feeling miserable which isn’t so great, but the narrator’s knowledge that they are not alone in this situation is somewhat of a comforter. It is very poppy though, which does lighten the mood.