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Last 15 Articles

9-10-2004 - Green Day: American IDIOTS?

17h29 pm GMT+1

Attention: Many have been searching for the video "Wake Me Up When September Ends". Link

I was video channel flipping and stopped on one in German who announced Green Day had a new album called American Idiot and then played the video. I was struck by two things: Billy Joe Armstrong's Robert Smith eyes and that it was very political. The first verse took me by surprise. This was Geen Day who are not known for anything serious. They had their 'green day' when they hit it big with Dookie and later Nimrod, but had become passe due to the amount of bands like them taking their place on the charts:

Don't want to be an American Idiot
Don't want a Nation under the new mania
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mind fuck America

I remarked to Mr S that they may regret doing this because of the climate in the states these days and we both agreed that it was so bold, it could cause some flack. Careers have been ruined for less. It's popular, the site claims it debuted at number one but how's it going to go over when Jenna and Barbara are blasting it in their room and Laura overhears and goes running to her goofy hubby who quick calls Colin Powell, demanding he get Michael on it and now! This would be the verse that would cause her cage to rattle:

Well maybe I am the faggot America
I'm not a part of a Redneck Agenda
Now everybody do the propaganda!
And sing along on the age of paranoia

I had such a strong sense about reaction to it, I went to Google and found all sorts of reviews in the "news" section, not the regular web result page. Aha. I knew it. I wasn't disappointed. There were 491 to scan. Metrowest wrote in a review:

Welcome to Green Day's heightened political agenda. The 1990s punk heroes return with a concept album -- a veritable rock opera -- smack-full of anthems that ring with mature intent. Like a latter-day Clash, the Bay Area trio takes a hard look at media-saturated life in post-9/11, war-torn America.

Punk purists decry the term punk as applied to Green Day, but at the time they were happening, everyone was listening to them. Perhaps it's because they were always so poppy, for lack of a better word. TuftsDaily had a lengthy review which was quite good:

While the band certainly isn't all grown up, the disc is rife with pensive musings on what it's like to grow up in a post-Sept. 11 world. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a stirring and much-needed dirge to the month that never seems to end. Armstrong bids goodbye to it and gives it its own funeral in song: "Summer has come and passed, the innocent can never last / Wake me up when September ends."

The article went on about how they stole Kerry's thunder on Letterman and wound it up with:

Sure, the anti-celebrity, can't-take-a-joke nay-sayers may wink at the opportunity to bash a new release that does all but denounce the president by name. But, sometimes it takes a trio of rock stars (one of which calls himself Tre Cool) to make audible what our politicians don't have the balls to say themselves.

They've been around long before their first major label release, Dookie which came out in 94 and that was followed by several albums and then after a period of not much they released "Warning", containing Minority which is also political, but it doesn't carry the anger and angst of American Idiot:

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

Now that I think about it, they were considered punk when they first began and had a cult following and their stuff out on an indy label and it was only after they got big, the punk crowd didn't dig them anymore. I remember when they were unknown and played a Mexican restaurant in Oxnard for 2 bucks a pop and everyone was tripping on them. I still sing "sometimes I give myself the creeps/sometimes my mind plays tricks on me" and nope, this isn't a dis-job on Green Day, I'm afraid of the backlash that could follow. It's so obvious it's about Bush and Iraq that I didn't need reviews to tell me that. I only wish I could hear it all to talk about the album and not just the single. One reviewer from Florida's Sun-Sentinal likened them to Springsteen, yikes, (I am not a fan) and wrote this:

But Springsteen didn't deal with Vietnam until the Reagan administration, whereas several of Armstrong's new songs -- including the title track, which refers to a "redneck agenda" -- are pre-election grenades tossed at the Republicans and the current war in Iraq.

On the snappy Holiday, Armstrong sings: "Zieg heil to the president gasman/ Bombs away is your punishment/ Pulverize the Eiffel Towers/ Who criticize your government." It's not Dylan, but Green Day never saw lit majors as a target audience. It's the kids from Redondo and Asbury, many of whom are probably serving in Iraq, who will be shouting along with this album through Election Day and beyond.

I don't want to continue with what other people are saying. I cited these to illustrate that American Idiot is being taken seriously and there's hardly a country that hasn't had something positive to say. The song was the hit of their British tour this summer and gained them many new fans and just may bring back the old. Check out the comments on Canda's Rabble. I wasn't surprised to hear that key words are being bleeped in America.

Green Day's site is done in slick flash, black white and red, featuring a raised fist clutching a red heart-shaped grenade. I haven't been able to find anything about a fan boycott or record burning partys. In fact I haven't read anything negative about American Idiot. It's new and only time will tell if their bold move with this album will cause them any grief. Somehow I don't think so as their fans aren't the country type who flip out and boycott anyone who criticizes the government. Green Day isn't alone in making political statements. Steve Earle has one out called "The Revolution Starts Now" containing a sweet swipe at Ms. Rice called Condi, Condi a reggae type number with lyrics like, "Skank for me Condi, show me what you got / They say you're too uptight, I say you're not." REM has also gone political with their 13th album, Around the Sun which is purposely being released before the elections. Who said protest music was dead? Want to see the video? Manchesteronline has it in several formats. Click here.

Don't want to be an American Idiot
One Nation controlled by the Media
Information Age of hysteria
Calling out to Idiot America
--Green Day

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