Green Day lived the irony of being real working class punks from the wrong side of the San Francisco Bay, who became labeled by cooler-than-thou punkers as "inauthentic" after the tremendous success of their third album, Dookie.
Barely out of their teens, singer-guitarist Billy Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool put out two killer pop-punk records on Bay Area indie label Lookout Records in the early-'90s, the success of which led to a contract with Reprise.
Dookie, released in '94, was the right record for the right time. Fueled with punk energy and full of prickly slacker anthems, Green Day's secret weapons were Armstrong's hooky songwriting, strong (but slightly off-key in the punk tradition) vocals, and the trio's super-tight musicianship. Dominating modern rock radio for a year and kicked into overdrive by the band's show-stopping performance at Woodstock '94, sales of Dookie eventually topped 10 million in the U.S. alone.
The band appeared to be headed down the path of one-album wonders, with diminishing sales and enthusiasm greeting their next two, similar albums, Insomnia and Nimrod, both of which bore many of the same attributes as Dookie, but without that album's magical freshness.
Having lost much of their original punk base, Green Day appeared up a tree, but then, seemingly out of nowhere, a single from Nimrod, the bitter ballad "Good Riddance" (a.k.a. "Time of Your Life") crossed over to become a huge pop hit and the band was back, with a new broad-based audience.
Warning was one of the best pop-rock albums of 2000. The band's punk roots still show in Armstrong's vocal style and in some of the anti-establishment themes ("Warning," "Minority"), but this is a band that has matured – in a healthy, secure way, not in a dried-out, boring manner – into a great band period, much like the Clash did.
Armstrong's songwriting is strong and melodic throughout, with a variety of styles from the early-Beatlesque of "Hold On," to the Kurt Weil-meets-Tijuana polka of "Misery," to just plain sing-along melodic rockers like his ode to relationship-building compromise "Church On Sunday," with the killer chorus:
"If I promise to go to church on Sunday
Will you go out with me on Friday night?"
That's a long way from "Longview."
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Hayley
Dear Billy Joe Armstrong. Me and my best friend Amy are your greatest fans EVER!!!!! Not only do we love your albums and songs, but we love you!! I know this will sound quite silly, but we are goths and we think you are....well.....cute... :S
PLEASE REPLY, as it will mean SO MUCH to Amy and I. PLEASE!!!
2 - Hayley
Billy Joe Armstrong
Hi, it's Amy and Hayley once again!! PLEASE reply!! Lol.
3 - sam ackman
Hi, I'm Sam. I think your songs are realy kick ass. My band, The Squagorians think you, Mike, and Tre' rock. I play bass and my friend Addison plays lead. I went to your concert in Cedar Rapids, IA. It rocked. Bye.
4 - Billy Joe
uhm, thnx guys. That's kewl.
bye
5 - Eric Olsen
uhm, you are most welcome!
6 - Eric Berlin
Great job on this EO. My take has always been that each Green Day has improved on the one before it. I like your take on them with regard to The Clash.
Weird aside: the girl who used to cut my hair in Berkeley claimed to have been Billie Joe's stylist as well..
7 - Eric Olsen
thanks EB! so do you think Billy Joe above is Billy Joe?
8 - Eric Berlin
Maybe it's Giovanni Ribisi?
9 - Eric Olsen
perhaps!
we do seem to be getting more real dudes showing up
10 - Bob A. Booey
Green Day fans should check out "Kerplunk," their last indie record on Berkeley's own Lookout records. It was recorded just right before "Dookie" and is closest to the sound they had at that time -- fast, super-catchy pop-punk with bubbly basslines and Billy's snarling, faux-British stoner accent.
I love this band, but in my mind, "Good Riddance" was when they jumped the shark. Once it got mainstream, adult-contemporary radio play, it only encouraged Green Day to slow down, get acoustic, and lose touch with the melodies that defined their youth. I don't really care for "Warning." I know every critic and lots of fans love their new concept album, but most of it is overrated and fairly boring as punk rock goes. Billy's obviously a great songwriter, but his mission to be the next Great American Songwriter who references Springsteen, Stevie Wonder, and all manner of past rock acts doesn't do for me what the early albums like Dookie or even Insomniac did. Yes, "American Idiot" is a great song that is more in their old style, but I think Green Day's the equivalent of an aging pitcher who used to be a fireballer striking out the side but lost their good fastball and now gets by throwing slow junk to get people out. You're still a fan and they're still good performers, but you know they have more in them and you keep hoping they'll reach back and find that higher gear again and hit you with it just once for old times' sake.
There's something to be said for aging gracefully and maturing, though. I guess a band in their mid-late 30s probably should slow things down and write longer tunes.
That is all.
11 - Eric Berlin
hahah -- I just caught on to what you were talking about.
Was staring at the album cover for a full minute trying to make out who it might be...
It's been one of those caffeine-drenched and subsequently blurred days that way.
12 - Eric Olsen
EB, but he does look like Giovanni, you're right!
I love the Lookout records too, BAB, but Warning really is a complete rock 'n' roll record that, like the Clash of London Calling, use punk as a jumping off point but move far beyond its rather narrow sonic strictures.
Warning to me sounds much more universal than American Idiot, which is so jejunely political
13 - Eric Berlin
I think Idiot as a whole is superior in that it's a grand experiement that (in my opinion) works. It's also a great power po rock record in an era where you just don't find much of that.
Warning's singles do stand out as some of their best work, however.
14 - Eric Olsen
I also admit to have listened to Warning many more times than Idiot at this point
15 - Bob A. Booey
Yeah, I've always thought Giovanni Ribisi needs to play Billy Joe if they ever made a movie about Green Day.
16 - Eric Olsen
I will never forget Green Day blowing out the doors playing Ramones songs when the Ramones were inducted into the Rock Hall - that opened an eye or two
17 - Bob A. Booey
They've definitely always worn their Ramones influences on their sleeves.
Green Day was the biggest of three huge pop-punk bands that came up around the same time in the very early 1990s and late 1980s on Berkeley's Lookout Records, the other two being Screeching Weasel and The Queers. They were from different cities (Berkeley, Chicago, Boston), but they were all friendly, played on each other's records, and all had the same Ramones-based influence. Each band still has a lot of followers among pop-punk fans and each has its strong points over the others, but only Green Day made it through to the mainstream and signed that major label deal.
Screeching Weasel turned down major label offers as a matter of principle, which means they've never gotten the recognition they deserve as kings of the pop-punk scene in the 1990s. Green Day has often cited Screeching Weasel as one of their favorite bands and influences and perhaps the better band when they were coming up at the same time. Screeching Weasel were the punk purists, who had the most original, unique take on the pop-punk formula, cut with a slightly edgier, melodic Chicago-style sound (those of you who know bands like Naked Raygun, Pegboy, and The Vindictives know what that is).
The Queers were the truest to the Ramones/Beach Boys influenced pop-punk and put the most pop in their punk, with the catchiest melodies you've ever heard in your life, complete with the best punk covers of Tommy James and Beach Boys songs you've ever heard.
And Green Day was simply the cutest of the bunch, the most radio-friendly and video-ready. Dookie was a great album, the best mainstream punk release of the 1990s along with Rancid's Out Come the Wolves, and it hit at the right time. Green Day had the right mix of accessible personality and great, catchy songs to become their era's version of the Ramones, with much greater commercial success.
Anyone who loves Green Day must check out these other two bands as well, especially "Anthem for a New Tomorrow" and "My Brain Hurts" by Screeching Weasel and "Love Songs for the Retarded" and "Don't Back Down" by The Queers. All their other albums are very deserving as well, but those are good places to start.
That is all.
18 - Eric Olsen
The Queers do a remarkable version of "I Don't Want to Live On the Moon," a Sesame Street staple
19 - Bob A. Booey
Rancid should have been their generation's version of The Clash, but that's a whole other story.
That is all.
20 - Eric Olsen
I would also include the Offspring in the mix, especially Smash
21 - Bob A. Booey
I missed our music discussions, Olsen.
I loved Smash in high school, but the Offspring were always kind of poseurs. They came up on Epitaph Records in the whole OC speed punk scene, which had tons of bad bands aping Bad Religion, NOFX and the label's more esteemed elders. I liked "Come Out and Play" a lot as a kid, even though those were pretty cheesy, predictable riffs.
The Offspring, especially in their more recent releases, proved themselves a ridiculous novelty act with painful songs like "Pretty Fly For a White Guy" and "Why Don't You Get a Job" (the worst rip-off of Ob La Di ever). I'm not sure why they became such hacks -- maybe to get back on the radio after they were forgotten for a couple of years? They never took themselves that seriously going back to Smash, but they totally became a bad frat-punk clown act at some point and I'm not sure why.
It's also confusing to me because their lead singer Dexter is at once both one of the dumbest lyricists in rock and roll and one of the smartest people -- he's a microbiologist and biochemist who did his PhD at USC during his huge rockstar days. I suppose academic intelligence in science might not correlate with good taste in music, but you'd like to hope his music wasn't just a cynical, calculated kind of thing that was just a trifle for him.
That is all.
22 - Eric Berlin
I wouldn't call The Offspring poseurs -- they've never pretended to be something they're not: they're a pretty good, pretty consistent hard rock/power pop band.
I'd also put them far below Rancid in terms of talent and firepower. Just my opinion.
Onto Green Day: EO mentioned their live performances. I think that band made the crossover from teeney-bopper worshipped hipster to Serious Rock Band, in part, on the power of their live performances.
A bunch of friends of mine -- metal guys who looked down on GD at the time -- were really turned around (so to speak) by their performance at Woodstock ('99, I think?).
23 - Eric Olsen
when they burned through those Ramones songs at the Rock Hall induction I got chills.
I agree the Offspring are pretty cartoonish, but I think they are much better at funny than their HEAVY socio-commentary mode. They really rock live as well and have been able to come up with enough variations on their basic theme to keep it interesting, I would aver.
24 - billie
i think well i really dont know somtimes people who are really obsessive with somthing scare me so can you people like stop creeping me out!Rock hard!
25 - Janelle Monczka
Dear Billie,
I think that u r so kool...and i am a big fan...i am new here so it would be kool if u would write back
Janelle
P.S. I love the song " When September Ends"