Green Day

A review by Graham Main

Band information

• Origin - East Bay/California/USA

• Genres - Punk Rock / Pop Punk / Alternative Rock

• Years Active - 1987-NOW

• Record Labels - Lookout(1989-1993) & Reprise(1993-NOW)

• Associated Acts - Pinhead Gunpowder / The Frustrators / The Network / Foxboro Hot Tubs

• Members - Billie Joe Armstrong (Vocalist) / Mike Dirnt (Guitarist) / Tre Cool (Drummer)

• Former Members – John Kiffmeyer, Al Sobrante

• Website – Greenday.com

How They Perform

• Green Day has often been said to sound like some first wave punk bands such as The Ramones, The Clash, The Jam, The Buzzcocks and The Sex Pistols.

• A lot of Green Day’s songs have Distorted Guitar, Fast Paced Drumming  and Low Heavy Bass.

• Their songs tend to be under the average length mark of 4 minutes, unlike the song Jesus Of Suburbia which is over 9 minutes.

Billie Joe

• Billie Joe was born in Rodeo, California on the 17th  of February 1972. He is the Lead Guitarist, Vocalist and mainly writes all the Lyrics for Green Day. He is also a Guitarist and Vocalist for Punk Rockers Pinhead Gunpowder and singer for Garage Rock band Foxboro Hot Tubs. He was also lead singer for New Wave band The Network.

Tre Cool

Born on the 9th of December in Frankfurt, West Germany, Frank Edwin Wright lll aka Tre Cool lives in Willits, California with his father and his 2 older siblings. They ended up living their because his father was a helicopter pilot. Tre’s closest neighbour was a guy called Larry Livermore who was the singer in the punk band The Lookouts. When Tre was 12 Larry made him drummer and named him Tre Cool ( which in French means very cool). Then when Green day drummer Al Sobrante left Billie Joe decided to recruit Tre Cool.

Tre also wrote, sung and composed some songs for Green Day to name a few “ Dominated Love Slave” on album “Kerplunk!” , “All By Myself” on the album “Dookie” and “Rock and Roll Girlfriend” composed this sub track for the song “Homecoming” on the album “American Idiot”

Mike Dirnt

• Michael Ryan Pritchard AKA Mike Drint was born in Berkley California on the 4th of May in 1972. He got the name Dirnt due to his school days where he’d play air bass guitar and he made the sound (Dirnt, Dirnt, Dirnt) while doing this. His mother was addicted to heroine and gave him up for adoption aged 6wks he was later adopted by a Native American mother and a European American father. His step-sister Myla left home aged 13.

• In Rodeo Elementary School Mike met Billie Joe, they later moved in together and formed Green Day. They did a gig for the history books playing at Woodstock ’94 which unfortunately ended up in a mud fight, with loads of fans on stage covered in mud, then a security guard mistook Mike for a fan, tackled him and broke Mike’s teeth in attempt to drag him of stage.

Jesus Of Suburbia

In 2004 Green Day released the  album American Idiot which topped the charts and got the name “Punk rock opera” the album tells a story about  Jesus Of Suburbia.  

His real name is Jimmy and is from Jingletown, USA and his parents are divorced, he lives with his mother. When younger he would take Cola and Ritalin, watch TV while taking drugs and would loiter about in the shop fronts. 

By the end of the song Jimmy feels trapped and bored, and leaves town. His actions in the song aren’t described until the following tracks Holiday & Boulevard of Broken Dreams. 

Green Day describe Jimmy in this song as “ The son of rage and love. The Jesus of Suburbia, The bible of none of the above, on a steady diet of Soda Pop And Ritalin.”

 Jesus of suburbia has 5 different section:

l. Jesus of Suburbia

ll. City of the Damned

lll. I Don’t Care

lV. Dearly Beloved

V. Tales of Another Broken Home

Jesus of Suburbia Lyrics

I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of Suburbia
From the bible of none of the above
On a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
At least the ones I got away with

And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me

Get my television fix sitting on my crucifix
The living room or my private womb
While the moms and brads are away
To fall in love and fall in debt
To alcohol and cigarettes and Mary Jane
To keep me insane and doing someone else's cocaine

And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me

At the center of the Earth
In the parking lot
Of the 7-11 where I was taught
The motto was just a lie
It says home is where your heart is
But what a shame
Cause everyone's heart
Doesn't beat the same
It's beating out of time

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to care

In the bathroom stall
Like the holy scriptures of a shopping mall
And so it seemed to confess
It didn't say much
But it only confirmed that
The center of the earth
Is the end of the world
And I could really care less

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to careeeeee

I don't care if you don't
I don't care if you don't
I don't care if you don't care

I don't careeeeeeeeee

Everyone is so full of shit
Born and raised by hypocrites
Hearts recycled but never saved
From the cradle to the grave
We are the kids of war and peace
From Anaheim to the middle east
We are the stories and disciples
Of the Jesus of suburbia
Land of make believe
That don't believe in me
Land of make believe
And I don't believe
And I don't care!
I don't care!

Dearly beloved are you listening?
I can't remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented or am I disturbed?
The space that's in between insane and insecure
Oh therapy, can you please fill the void?
Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed
Nobody's perfect and I stand accused
For lack of a better word, and that's my best excuse


To live and not to breathe
Is to die In tragedy
To run, to run away
To find what you believe
And I leave behind
This hurricane of fucking lies
I lost my faith to this
This town that don't exist

So I run
I run away
To the light of masochist
And I leave behind
This hurricane of fucking lies
And I walked this line
A million and one fucking times
But not this time

I don't feel any shame
I won't apologize

When there ain't nowhere you can go
Running away from pain
When you've been victimized
Tales from another broken home

You're leaving...
You're leaving...
You're leaving...
Ah you're leaving home...

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