WEEKEND VIDEO / A FAVORITE FROM 15 YEARS AGO
June 27, 1994:
If the members of Green Day ever tour Singapore, they’ll all probably end up as candidates for caning. The punk trio’s new CD, Dookie, is immature (“I’m not growing up, I’m just burning out,” run the lyrics to opening song “Burnout”), rude (“I don’t know you, but I think I hate you,” the band sings on “Chump”) and violently threatening in a he-was-such-a-nice-boy-before- he-shot-the-senior-class kind of way (“Having a Blast” goes, “I’m taking all you down with me, Explosives duct taped to my spine”). But bad attitudes often make for good rock ‘n’ roll. Green Day takes its adolescent snottiness and channels it into music. The result is a cathartic punk explosion and the best rock CD of the year so far.
This is music for people with raging hormones and short attention spans, for the sort of kid who, as his burrito rotates in the microwave, impatiently frets, “Three minutes is an eternity. Three minutes is an eternity.” Every song on Dookie is brief and hard — the entire 14-track album is just 39 minutes long. Most of the songs are built around seductive guitar riffs, and each one is performed with controlled frenzy. The lyrics are about being young and screwed-up, about having your hopes and dreams dipped in disillusionment and then swallowed whole like so many Chicken McNuggets. “My mother says to get a job, But she don’t like the one she’s got,” vocalist-guitarist Billie Joe sings on “Longview.” Even romance is, like, a bummer. On “Sassafras Roots,” Billie Joe makes the proposition, “I’m a waste like you … May I waste your time too?” Green Day’s punk nihilism works because it’s delivered with self- deprecating humor, not with narcissistic rock angst.
All the members of Green Day — Billie Joe, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool — are in their early 20s. Billie Joe, who writes almost all the trio’s lyrics, grew up in Berkeley, California (his given name is Billie Joe Armstrong). His father, a jazz musician, died when Billie Joe was 10; his mother is a waitress, and he is the youngest of six. “Mom gradually got less strict with each kid,” admits Billie Joe, and that evolution in parenting style may help explain the anarchic themes in his lyrics and his carefree approach to music in general. “I still can’t read music,” he says, “and I only know about three chords. But that’s all you need.”
He’s right. The band started modestly, putting out two albums on a tiny Berkeley record label (Lookout!), but now, on their major-label debut (Warner Bros./Reprise), their raw three-chord rock is finding a wider audience (Dookie has sold 600,000 copies). This summer Green Day is set to pull off a cross- generational coup — the group will not only tour with the hip annual Lollapalooza music festival, it will also play the nostalgia-laden 25th anniversary of Woodstock. So rock’s torch is passed on. Look for Green Day to light some fires.
Thanks for that. Made my friday.