Green Day

My next Rock and Roll Hall of Fame write-up is on Green Day, the punk revival band that is the youngest inductee this year, and somewhat controversial, as a lot of rock snubs consider them greasy kid stuff. After listening to two albums this week, though, I had a blast.

Formed in 1986 by a then fifteen-year-old Billy Joe Armstrong, Green Day (the name taken by a love for cannabis) were part of a wave of post-punk bands in the early '90s that were dumped into the vast "alternative" genre, like Sublime, Rancid, and The Offspring. They had smash hits with their debut album, Dookie, but had diminishing returns on their next three albums.

In 2004, they rose from the ashes with the concept album American Idiot, which later became a Broadway musical and is still kicking around the corridors of Hollywood. Finally, punk was respectable, which may mean it is finally dead.

Anyhoo, I've also thought of Green Day as the snot-nosed kids of punk, forever young. They have appealed to young people--my much younger cousin was a huge fan when she was a tween (her parents, my aunt and uncle, dutifully took her to a concert, earplugs firmly placed). Armstrong, with his adenoidal voice, seems like he would have fit in nicely with The Dead End Kids of a few generations earlier, looking up to gangsters like Jimmy Cagney.

But I was surprised by the level of sophistication Green Day had. The first record I listened to this week was International Superhits, and I was surprised by how many of the songs I knew. "Longview," "Welcome to Paradise," "Basket Case"--they are all imprinted on my memories of the '90s. Others I remembered but were farther back in my memory, like the terrific "Hitchin' a Ride," "Warning," with its infectious backing guitar, and the heartfelt manifesto "Minority""

"I want to be the minority
I don't need your authority
Down with the moral majority
 'Cause I want to be the minority"

Then there's "Good Riddance (The Time of Your Life), a sweet, pretty ballad that has turned out to be used as a theme for the endings of things, such as Seinfeld's last episode and many funerals (I fear that they don't know the song's true title). Depending on my frame of my mind, I can get choked up by it:

"Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road
Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go
So make the best of this test, and don't ask why
It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time
It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right,
I hope you had the time of your life."

American Idiot, which I only knew for a couple of songs, is no Tommy, which it was clearly influenced by, but it is a damn good record. There's a lot more of Armstrong's teenage suburban angst--the whole thing is a condemnation of suburbia, as young people want to escape the mundaneness of their lives. The plot, as it were, is not quite clear in the record as it was in the Broadway show, but there are a few characters. One is known as the Jesus of Suburbia, and another as St. Jimmy, so Armstrong has also introduced religious imagery into his opera.

The opening title number is a blast of fresh air:

"Don't want to be an American idiot
Don't want a nation under the new mania
Can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America"

There are many references to the hell of suburban life, such as:

"I read the graffiti in the bathroom stall
like the holy scripture in a shopping mall"

And the whole thing may be summed up by this line:

"I don't care if you don't care."

Later there is another strong tear-jerker ballad, "Wake Me Up When September Ends," and, in the penultimate track, "Homecoming," I get a little chill when church bells start ringing. Armstrong knows his stuff. Granted, American Idiot can be a little trite--"Suburbia is Hell" is an old concept, and did he really dare to use a worn phrase like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams?" But overall, I loved this record, and am sorry I didn't go see the show.

The band has mostly consisted of Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, (they are original) and drummer Tre Cool, who really pounds the skins like a controlled maniac. Their musicianship is quite high, making the records fun to listen to just to follow the licks, riffs, and rhythms.

So, I'm all for Green Day being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.