Green Day

As it's now 25 years since Green Day made a name for themselves in the UK and they were a band I particularly liked when I was younger, I thought I'd write a piece about them.

My Green Day story also begins 25 years ago. Whilst Grunge hadn't exactly gone out of fashion yet, we knew there would be no more records from Nirvana and when you're young you want to hear something new. That new music came from Green Day along with The Offspring. Whilst both bands are described as Punk, or Pop Punk, nobody I knew at the time was describing them as that. Instead the description was along the lines of "Not really Grunge".

The "Dookie" album came out and I listened to it on friends Walkman's etc but never owned it myself. Then I got into rave and more or less forgot about them for the rest of the 90s. I do recall Billie Joe Armstrong appearing on Top of the Pops by himself to do "Good Riddance" but think I mistakenly thought it was a solo record for him and that Green Day were no more.

Around the turn of the century a couple of people I knew were listening to "Dookie" on their Walkman loudly and singing along and therefore I recognised it. What struck me the most though was the drums, something I never really paid attention to the first time round. I basically realised I love that fast drum beat you get in a lot of punk records, so much so that I bought the "Dookie" album myself shortly afterwards on a day trip to York. I bought the cassette so I could listen to it in my car on my way home.

It came close to being an album where I really like every single track, but I'm not overly keen on "Coming Clean". I do really like all the other tracks though. The main difference between the Green Day brand of punk and 70s punk is that Green Day wasn't political at all. The subject matter was more to do with the problems you encounter as a young adult such as anxiety and boredom. That suited me perfectly, politically there wasn't really an awful lot to complain about at the time like there is now.

I had no idea what the current status of the band was at the time. I liked to think they appeared in 1994, made a near perfect album and then called it a day, a bit like the Sex Pistols did in the 70s.

I knew that wasn't really the case though as I'd seen other albums of theirs in the shop. I looked them up on the internet but I couldn't tell whether or not they were still going. I did however find they had 5 albums, the most recent of which came out 3 years prior.

I decided to expand my Green Day collection starting with "Nimrod", their most recent album at the time. It had some good tunes on there, but what disappointed me was the number of tunes that lacked the drum beat I love. There was the instrumental "Last Ride In" which doesn't sound very Green Day at all, it's not bad though. I liked "Walking Alone" even if it was a bit slow.

I then bought "Kerplunk", their 2nd album which came before "Dookie". This was much better than "Nimrod", though as it was from their days before being on a major record label it did sound a bit like it was recorded in their bedroom. "Welcome to Paradise" appears on this as well as "Dookie" and there is a notable difference in sound quality between the 2 versions.

Next I bought "1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours", their debut album. This sounded even more like it was recorded in their bedroom. I liked a lot of the tracks, but to me the sound quality meant the drumming didn't sound as effective as it should.

Finally I bought "Insomniac" which was their follow up to "Dookie". It had the good sound quality and most of the tracks had the drum beat I love. As "Nimrod" had many tracks that didn't have that drum beat, I owned "Dookie" on cassette so the sound quality wasn't as good and the first 2 albums had a poor sound quality, in theory that should make "Insomniac" my first choice to listen to. But it wasn't, it was actually my least favourite album. It followed the same formula as "Dookie" but the many of the tracks just didn't do anything for me. It made me understand why the felt the need to experiment a bit on "Nimrod".

Later on in the year 2000, Green Day were back and had a new album coming out. I looked forward to it being released and bought it the day it came out. When I heard the first track, "Warning" which was also the albums title, I thought what the fuck is this? not only did it lack the drum beat I like, it lacked any sort of oomph that some of their slower songs at least have. First track not good then, but surely some good tunes will follow.

Well, it took until track 5, "Castaway" until we reached a track to have the drum beat I like. The problem though was the guitar wasn't heavy enough so didn't think much to it. Track 7, "Deadbeat Holiday" sounded promising to begin with but when the beat came in it was too slow.

It wasn't until track 10 that I found one I actually like, appropriately titled "Waiting". It lacked the beat, like every other track except "Castaway" did, but at least it was good. Similarly with the next track "Minority" which I already knew as it was the lead single. Then came "Macys Day Parade" which is probably the worst track on the album. It ended with a bonus track, a live version of "86" from the "Insomniac" album. That was more like it, but the fact a track from my least favourite album prior to this livens up the album tells you this album was pretty poor.

A greatest hits album came the following year which was followed by "Shenanigans", a compilation of b-sides and a few other tracks. This was a sign they were calling it a day.

Then one day in 2004 having not listened to Green Day for some time, I decided to look on the internet to see if Green Day had split up. Instead I found they had a new album coming out, which was "American Idiot".

Suddenly they were massive, particularly amongst the kids who would have been too young to remember "Dookie". They've pretty much remained that big ever since. I on the other hand never bought "American Idiot", or any of the other albums they've released since. I do like one or 2 songs they've done since, but I'm not keen on most of what I've heard.

What amazed me most though is how often there is no acknowledgement of them even existing prior to "American Idiot", I've read numerous times that "American Idiot" was their breakthrough hit. When "Know Your Enemy" came out in 2009, somebody described it to me as them going back to their roots. My thought was do you even know what their roots are?

That all said, I can't really knock what Green Day have done since "Dookie" as they've been hugely successful in doing it. This is on the back of an impossible situation i.e. by sticking to the same formula as "Dookie" they had "Insomniac" which didn't work because it's basically an inferior version of "Dookie", but then being experimental doesn't work either because it's too different to "Dookie".

Except them being experimental does work because whilst it alienates fans of "Dookie" like me, they gain a whole new set of fans at the same time. How many bands can make such an impact with their 7th album, some 14 years after their debut?

I thought I should put a Green Day song on this post, obviously one I like. The one I've picked is "One Of My Lies" from the "Kerplunk" album for no other reason than I like it.