In 2003, Green Day began recording tracks for an album
called ‘Cigarettes and Valentines’, before the master tracks were stolen. Rob
Cavallo described the songs as mediocre. They decided, rather than re-record
that album, to make a new one – ‘American Idiot’ (a rock opera similar to
‘Tommy’ and ‘Quadrophenia’ by The Who), which follows an antihero known as the ‘Jesus
of Suburbia’, as well as the characters of ‘St. Jimmy’ and ‘Whatsername’.
This album contains so many great songs, five of which
received Platinum certification from the RIAA (Recording Industry Association
of America). The title track was noted for its criticism of the United States, particularly
the control of “the new, biased media”. Billie Joe Armstrong was inspired as an
opposite of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘That’s How I Like It’, which seemed to take pride
in rednecks. Perhaps unsurprisingly, it only reached number 61 on the Billboard
Hot 100 (only just prior to their inclusion of internet download purchases),
but reached number 3 in the UK charts.
Another classic was ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’. Its
acoustic, sombre introduction makes for a contrast to the preceding track,
‘Holiday’. If you listen carefully, you will hear it featuring the same chord
progression as ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis; you may have also heard the mash-up of
the two songs. As for ‘Holiday’ – in the words of Billie Joe; “This song is not
anti-American, it’s anti-war.”
For me, every track stands up and makes itself counted.
However, my personal favourite Green Day song will probably always be ‘Wake Me
Up When September Ends’. It was composed regarding Billie Joe’s memories of the
death of his father, making it the most personal track on the album. People relate
to it.
As previously mentioned, this album features much political
discontent towards the then Bush administration, perhaps the most notable
anti-Bush piece on record. This was not something new though; there have always
been protest songs throughout US history - Bob Dylan in the 60s including ‘Blowin’
in the Wind’, followed by anti-Vietnam songs (Edwin Starr’s ‘War’) and
anti-Reagan songs including Springsteen’s ‘Born in the USA’.
This remains Green Day’s best album to date and showed how
far they came since their 1994 hit ‘Dookie’. It demonstrated what punk rock could do.
For me along with ‘Elephant’ by the White Stripes and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ ‘By
The Way’, this is one of the best albums of the 00’s.
