[First posted on my Tumblr September 21, 2017.]
Happy Anniversary to Green Day’s seventh album and one of my favorite albums of all time, American Idiot. I can’t believe it was released 13 years ago, and thinking about it makes me feel kind of old, as I was 12 when the album was released.
Last year, which was the 12th anniversary, I already wrote about American Idiot on one of my blogs but since I saw Green Day live a month ago and got to hear some of the songs from that album, I wanted to write about it again and go through every track and share my thoughts about them.
Before I talk about the songs I want to talk about some history.
In 2003 Green Day wrote and recorded songs for an album that they were going to release that year, called Cigarettes And Valentines (their first since 2000’s Warning). But suddenly the master tapes for that album were stolen, and to this day nobody knows where they are. Instead of rerecording the songs, Green Day decided to start from scratch and write new material. And that led to the creation of American Idiot. If Cigarettes And Valentines had been released instead, there would be no American Idiot. The incident was a blessing in disguise, and even the band members think so too. I’m just so very thankful that American Idiot was released, and if it hadn’t, I would never have gotten into Green Day, would never get the posters and merchandise, would never see them live, and would never have loved the vocalist and guitarist, Billie Joe Armstrong.
American Idiot is a masterpiece, and would go on to inspire more people and would have a Broadway adaptation of it. It’s one of the best albums of all time and the best album of the 21st century.
So that was the history of it, and now I’ll talk about the songs.
Track One: “American Idiot.” The title track, and was released as the first single. The song is famously known for it’s verses, and also known for it’s music video. That was the very first time I saw and heard of Green Day, and when I saw it, the band members looked crazy and it kinda irritated me at first, but that changed soon enough.
Track Two: “Jesus Of Suburbia.” This song is over nine minutes long and contains five suites: “Jesus Of Suburbia,” “City Of The Damned,” “I Don’t Care,” “Dearly Beloved,” and “Tales Of Another Broken Home.” American Idiot is a rock opera, and it tells the story about Jesus, a teenager addicted to alcohol and drugs, who gets bored and tired of living in the suburbs and runs away from home to go have a more exciting life in the city. Hearing this song live for the very first time was so awesome, and I sang along to the whole song. Billie Joe once said that this song makes him emotional and never gets tired of hearing/playing it. “Jesus Of Suburbia” was released as the fifth and final single of American Idiot.
Track Three: “Holiday.” Released as the third single and it’s one of my favorite songs. It’s funny because even though I heard “American Idiot,” “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams,” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” a lot in their heydays “Holiday” is more nostalgic to me. Whenever I would listen to “Holiday” I feel like it’s 2005 all over again. I remember hearing that song on the radio a lot and watching the music video on TV.
Track Four: “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.” Released as the second single. “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” is my favorite song from Green Day. This song is very special to me, because the music video for it made me fall in love with Billie Joe and got me into Green Day. I remember hearing this song on the radio a lot too, and the video always came on. Nowadays the song makes me cry, and I cried when I first heard it live. “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” was Green Day’s very first top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, reaching number two, and hit number one on many alternative rock charts. It won many awards at the 2005 MTV VMAS, including “Video Of The Year,” and “Record Of The Year” at the 2006 Grammy Awards.
Tracks Five and Six: “Are We The Waiting” and “St. Jimmy.” Hearing those two connected songs live were awesome. “Are We Waiting” is soft and slow, and “St. Jimmy” is fast and crazy. St. Jimmy was an alter-ego that Jesus created.
Track Seven: “Give Me Novacaine.” I love this song and Billie Joe’s voice is so beautiful in the verses. I have the CD single for “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and it has a live version of “Give Me Novacaine” that was recorded on VH1 Storytellers on February 15, 2005. The live version is really beautiful.
Track Eight: “She’s A Rebel.” This song introduces Whatsername, another character in the story. The line “She’s holding on my heart like a hand grenade” was the inspiration for the album cover of American Idiot.
Track Nine: “Extraordinary Girl.” It opens with what sounds like bongo drums and eerie music. Great song.
Track Ten: “Letterbomb.” Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill, sang the opening lyrics of this song. “Letterbomb” is one of my favorites too, and it was so great hearing that song live.
Track Eleven: “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Released as the fourth single. This song is about Billie Joe’s father, who died from cancer in September 1982 when Billie was ten years old. It is very personal, and when Green Day would perform it live, Billie would get really emotional and would even cry. But sadly there is this stupid and heartless joke where people would say (and it would be in September), “Time to wake Billie Joe up,” or “It’s almost time to wake the Green Day guy up” etc. Either they don’t know what the song’s about or already knew and just say it to be mean. I get really hurt and angry when they do that. It’s really disrespectful to Billie Joe and he doesn’t deserve it. I don’t want him to be hurt.
Track Twelve: “Homecoming.” Like “Jesus Of Suburbia,” “Homecoming” is also over nine minutes long and has five suites: “The Death Of St. Jimmy,” “East 12th St.,” “Nobody Likes You,” “Rock And Roll Girlfriend,” and “We’re Coming Home Again.” “Nobody Likes You” was written and sung by bassist Mike Dirnt, and “Rock And Roll Girlfriend” was written and sung by drummer Tré Cool.
Track Thirteen: “Whatsername,” the final song. This is one of the most perfect ending songs I’ve ever heard. A perfect ending to a perfect album…
So that’s all of the songs. American Idiot is definitely my favorite Green Day album. It was such a huge part of my life, and I really miss those days when it was so popular. I would love to go back to those times again. I still have the posters that I collected from magazines and merchandise around that time. I’m so thankful to be a part of it.
“Remember, whatever
It seems like forever ago.”
Happy Anniversary to Green Day’s seventh album and one of my favorite albums of all time, American Idiot. I can’t believe it was released 13 years ago, and thinking about it makes me feel kind of old, as I was 12 when the album was released.
Last year, which was the 12th anniversary, I already wrote about American Idiot on one of my blogs but since I saw Green Day live a month ago and got to hear some of the songs from that album, I wanted to write about it again and go through every track and share my thoughts about them.
Before I talk about the songs I want to talk about some history.
In 2003 Green Day wrote and recorded songs for an album that they were going to release that year, called Cigarettes And Valentines (their first since 2000’s Warning). But suddenly the master tapes for that album were stolen, and to this day nobody knows where they are. Instead of rerecording the songs, Green Day decided to start from scratch and write new material. And that led to the creation of American Idiot. If Cigarettes And Valentines had been released instead, there would be no American Idiot. The incident was a blessing in disguise, and even the band members think so too. I’m just so very thankful that American Idiot was released, and if it hadn’t, I would never have gotten into Green Day, would never get the posters and merchandise, would never see them live, and would never have loved the vocalist and guitarist, Billie Joe Armstrong.
American Idiot is a masterpiece, and would go on to inspire more people and would have a Broadway adaptation of it. It’s one of the best albums of all time and the best album of the 21st century.
So that was the history of it, and now I’ll talk about the songs.
Track One: “American Idiot.” The title track, and was released as the first single. The song is famously known for it’s verses, and also known for it’s music video. That was the very first time I saw and heard of Green Day, and when I saw it, the band members looked crazy and it kinda irritated me at first, but that changed soon enough.
Track Two: “Jesus Of Suburbia.” This song is over nine minutes long and contains five suites: “Jesus Of Suburbia,” “City Of The Damned,” “I Don’t Care,” “Dearly Beloved,” and “Tales Of Another Broken Home.” American Idiot is a rock opera, and it tells the story about Jesus, a teenager addicted to alcohol and drugs, who gets bored and tired of living in the suburbs and runs away from home to go have a more exciting life in the city. Hearing this song live for the very first time was so awesome, and I sang along to the whole song. Billie Joe once said that this song makes him emotional and never gets tired of hearing/playing it. “Jesus Of Suburbia” was released as the fifth and final single of American Idiot.
Track Three: “Holiday.” Released as the third single and it’s one of my favorite songs. It’s funny because even though I heard “American Idiot,” “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams,” and “Wake Me Up When September Ends” a lot in their heydays “Holiday” is more nostalgic to me. Whenever I would listen to “Holiday” I feel like it’s 2005 all over again. I remember hearing that song on the radio a lot and watching the music video on TV.
Track Four: “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams.” Released as the second single. “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” is my favorite song from Green Day. This song is very special to me, because the music video for it made me fall in love with Billie Joe and got me into Green Day. I remember hearing this song on the radio a lot too, and the video always came on. Nowadays the song makes me cry, and I cried when I first heard it live. “Boulevard Of Broken Dreams” was Green Day’s very first top 5 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 charts, reaching number two, and hit number one on many alternative rock charts. It won many awards at the 2005 MTV VMAS, including “Video Of The Year,” and “Record Of The Year” at the 2006 Grammy Awards.
Tracks Five and Six: “Are We The Waiting” and “St. Jimmy.” Hearing those two connected songs live were awesome. “Are We Waiting” is soft and slow, and “St. Jimmy” is fast and crazy. St. Jimmy was an alter-ego that Jesus created.
Track Seven: “Give Me Novacaine.” I love this song and Billie Joe’s voice is so beautiful in the verses. I have the CD single for “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” and it has a live version of “Give Me Novacaine” that was recorded on VH1 Storytellers on February 15, 2005. The live version is really beautiful.
Track Eight: “She’s A Rebel.” This song introduces Whatsername, another character in the story. The line “She’s holding on my heart like a hand grenade” was the inspiration for the album cover of American Idiot.
Track Nine: “Extraordinary Girl.” It opens with what sounds like bongo drums and eerie music. Great song.
Track Ten: “Letterbomb.” Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill, sang the opening lyrics of this song. “Letterbomb” is one of my favorites too, and it was so great hearing that song live.
Track Eleven: “Wake Me Up When September Ends.” Released as the fourth single. This song is about Billie Joe’s father, who died from cancer in September 1982 when Billie was ten years old. It is very personal, and when Green Day would perform it live, Billie would get really emotional and would even cry. But sadly there is this stupid and heartless joke where people would say (and it would be in September), “Time to wake Billie Joe up,” or “It’s almost time to wake the Green Day guy up” etc. Either they don’t know what the song’s about or already knew and just say it to be mean. I get really hurt and angry when they do that. It’s really disrespectful to Billie Joe and he doesn’t deserve it. I don’t want him to be hurt.
Track Twelve: “Homecoming.” Like “Jesus Of Suburbia,” “Homecoming” is also over nine minutes long and has five suites: “The Death Of St. Jimmy,” “East 12th St.,” “Nobody Likes You,” “Rock And Roll Girlfriend,” and “We’re Coming Home Again.” “Nobody Likes You” was written and sung by bassist Mike Dirnt, and “Rock And Roll Girlfriend” was written and sung by drummer Tré Cool.
Track Thirteen: “Whatsername,” the final song. This is one of the most perfect ending songs I’ve ever heard. A perfect ending to a perfect album…
So that’s all of the songs. American Idiot is definitely my favorite Green Day album. It was such a huge part of my life, and I really miss those days when it was so popular. I would love to go back to those times again. I still have the posters that I collected from magazines and merchandise around that time. I’m so thankful to be a part of it.
“Remember, whatever
It seems like forever ago.”
