‘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.