American Idiot - Green Day
Track List:
American Idiot
Jesus of Suburbia
Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Are We the Waiting/St. Jimmy
Give Me Novacaine/She’s a Rebel
Extraordinary Girl/Letterbomb
Wake Me up When September Ends
Homecoming
Watsername
They called it a punk rock opera…
This was released when I was a senior in high school. I didn’t really listen to Green Day much at the time. I had listened to Nimrod when I was even younger but the pop punk didn’t really appeal to me, I was more interested in The Dead Kennedys and The Suicide Machines. I think as I have grown I have become more accepting of pop music in general and I think I can sing along to Boulevard of Broken Dreams and Wake Me up When September Ends just because of how much play they received. I’ve never listened to most of this album.
American Idiot
I apparently recognize the start of this one. I don’t know the words. The music isn’t screaming complexity. Even the solo doesn’t branch far from what is already being played. That being said, it's catchy. That being said the message seems to be more on point. It’s talking about how the media and their propaganda are influencing the American public to the whims of whomever is in control of the media. I would say this was a rather on the nose take about what was happening then and what’s happened even more so in the last 2 decades.
Jesus of Suburbia
So again the music isn’t complex. I am probably going to stop addressing it unless it becomes something that is more interesting than distorted power chords. The lyrics seem to describe growing up in a world where everything is double speak. The narrator is taught about the American dream and being loved while the guardians are not really involved and there isn’t any real room for him to pursue the American dream. There are multiple movements in the song where the style changes, it seems forced and I think fails to be “epic” which is what I think this song was trying to be.
Holiday/Boulevard of Broken Dreams
I didn’t realize that this was considered a single song. Holiday is a commentary on the state of the world. A fictional fascist America. An America that is at war to be at war, likely pushed by the media that was mentioned in American Idiot. The gated chords that start Boulevard of broken dreams are actually pretty neat sounding. The fact that this song got so much airplay when this came out is part of why I didn’t want to listen to this when I was younger. It’s an angsty teenage anthem that reminds me of the “emo” clicks when I was a youth. Screaming about being a loner and not needing others while also hoping to find others that you connect with. Being both fiercely independent and craving attention.
Are We the Waiting/St. Jimmy
This one I am very confident I’ve not heard before and the intro is already remarkably different. Are We the Waiting is a ballad of self reflection. The narrator acknowledges the story told in Jesus of Suburbia and indicates its lie. We then meet Jimmy. He is encouraging us to fight against authority. I will note that some of the lyrics seem forced. This is the most “punk” sounding song I’ve heard on this album.
Taking a small break for reflection. I think that there is a protagonist here “Jesus of Suburbia” I haven’t followed the full story but he does appear to have a drug and alcohol problem, he is a teenager and his home life is not consistent. He lives with his mom and Dave and they are often not around and he is left to his own devices. He is upset at the world being in the state it is and he doesn’t feel like there is any real meaningful road to improvement currently. He feels that he is alone and would love company but nobody has met his standards. Our protagonist tells about nights in the city while he is out gallivanting around getting into untold mischief and his fantasies of watching the city burn. Instead of acting out his fantasies he instead is waiting on something…anything…nothing. Then we are introduced to “St. Jimmy”. Jimmy seems to be the alter ego of our protagonist. The person who comes out when he uses it. Also the person who is reckless and spontaneous to a fault. I think that is our story so far…
Give Me Novacaine/She’s a Rebel
I think we have a steel guitar in this song. It’s a slower one that is more like Ween than I expected to hear. The lyrics describe a headache and a want for pain relief, begging for drugs. Given we know that the narrator has an issue with drug abuse I think that this could also be alluding to withdrawal from drug abuse and the urge to get drugs, which could also be why Jimmy’s name is brought up in the song. She’s a Rebel is a song about a woman who our narrator has fallen for. She shares much of the same worldview that our narrator has, however she seems to have a plan or at least an illusion of one to make the world better which is something that our narrator has been looking for. He also acknowledges that she is dangerous.
Extraordinary Girl/Letterbomb
Well this one starts with hand drums, almost like a drum circle. Then we get some strings, something like a zither. When the rock instruments come in it’s back to a standard pop punk song. So Extraordinary Girl is describing the relationship between Jimmy And the rebel girl from the previous song, I believe her name is Whatsername.Jimmy still has his vices and problems and Whatsername is desperate to become famous and upset that she hasn’t been successful. There is a recording between the songs that shows self hatred. Letterbomb seems to be about the break up betweenJimmy and Whatsername. There is also another perspective for the narrator, neither St. Jimmy nor Jesus. This new perspective seems to be his true self, not a character he plays. He acknowledges that these personas were made up by him to cope with a difficult upbringing. This is followed by an acknowledgement of his self worth and hope.
Wake Me up When September Ends
I know that this song is about Billie Joe Armstrong’s grief and coping with the death of his father. I don’t think it has a connection with the story of the album.
Homecoming
This is a melody of different songs, some seem related to the story, Jimmy tries to commit suicide and isn’t successful and ultimately decides to return to his home, I guess he had ran off with Whatsername and these are the different things he sees and experiences. There is still self doubt and no American dream.
Whatsername
A song about wondering what happened to Whatsername.
Outro
Well I am listening to the additional 3 songs from the “Deluxe Edition” while writing this, if that tells you anything about if I liked the album. It’s pop music and it is enjoyable. From a story standpoint it’s one of the more explicit ones I’ve listened to. A look at how the events of 9/11 could affect the youth. We got a story of an angsty teen who starts coping with a bad home life by using drugs and alcohol, he ends up running off with Whatsername. They are pursuing a life of happiness, freedom, the American dream. They didn't find it and had a falling out. He hit rock bottom. He returned to the city he fled and feels like nothing has changed. The album was quite ambitious. I had some knowledge of the album before listening but tried to not research anything. I can see where they were trying to make something that would be held in regards to The Wall or Tommy. The overall style of the album feels very narrow in focus, it’s fun to listen to because it’s very produced, I can’t think of any genre that this would be other than pop punk. It is a fun listen and looking back at myself I would say I was the target audience for this album when it was released, weird.
The 3 bonus tracks thoughts: The first is Too Much Too Soon is about being over aggressive in a relationship and committing too fast, it could have possibly fit in before Letterbomb. The second is Shoplifter which I can only guess is about some 3 strikes law. The last one is Governator and is about people viewing the government as entertainment and how that would be a bad thing, it is also probably the most punk sounding song on the album.
