Song of the Week Misery (The Day the Green Day Community Server Went Down)

[J'net]

This week's Song of the Week is Misery – it was written in honor of our forum and is subtitled, "The Day the Green Day Community Server Went Down." Please use this thread to discuss your thoughts and feelings about the song.

The Warning album was released in October 2000 and climbed to a peak chart position of #4, going gold.

I have to say, I have ambivalent feelings about this song. There are times when I would class it with my favorites and others when I'm just not in the mood for it. Listening to it while preparing this post, I've really enjoyed every nuance. My favorite part in every way: "Well hell hounds on your trail now once again, boy. It's groping on your leg until it sleeps. The emptiness will fill your soul with sorrow. Cause it's not what you make, it's what you leave," including the various sound and musical effects that immediately follow.

Here's an audio of Misery for you to listen to while thinking about tasting the lightning …

And here's a little snippet of Misery at the Milton Keynes sound check:

Misery Lyrics

Virginia was a lot lizard from FLA.

She had a compound fracture in the trunk.

It started when she ran away

Thumbs out on the interstate -

She hitched a ride to misery.

Mr. Whirly had a catastrophic incident.

He fell into the city by the bay.

He liquidated his estate.

Now he sleeps up on the Haight -

Panhandling misery

He's gonna get high, high, high

When he's low, low, low.

The fire burns from better days.

And she screamed why, oh why?

I said I don't know.

The catastrophic hymns from yesterday -

Of misery.

Vinnie was a hustler out of Amsterdam.

He ran the drug cartel in tinsel town.

They found him in a Cadillac.

Bludgeoned with a baseball bat –

In the name of misery.

Gina hit the road to New York City

Mysteriously the night Vinnie croaked.

She stopped in Vegas to elope

With Virginia and the dope -

And kissed the bride eternally.

And they're gonna get high, high, high

When they're low, low, low.

The fire burns from better days.

And she screamed why, oh why?

I said I don't know.

The catastrophic hymns from yesterday -

Of misery.

Hell hounds on your trail now once again, boy.

It's groping on your leg until it sleeps.

The emptiness will fill your soul with sorrow.

Because it's not what you make, it's what you leave.

And we're gonna get high, high, high

When I'm low, low, low.

The fire burns from better days.

And she screamed why, oh why?

I said I don't know.

The catastrophic hymns from yesterday -

Of misery.

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You can nominate songs for discussion as Song of the Week in the Song Discussions thread, which contains links to each previous Song of the Week from 9/14/2009 forward in its original post.

[Chelsea Hotel]

I love the little reference to The Replacements.

[Guest]

ooh haha nice one!

[Bohemian+Scandal]

I feel similar, J'Net. Sometimes I completely dig it, other times I'm like, "keep it away from my ears."

Lyrically, I'm madly in love with it though. One of my favorites as far as Billie's writing goes.

[Supermodel*Robot]

AH NO! this new song means I never got around to posting in the Sassafras Roots thread. GAH.

I have loved this song since I first heard it. I think it has a cool Doors feel to it & I like how it has a lyrical narrative. It was the first time Billie really wrote a full story within a song. I also adore Billie's voice when he sings "well hell hounds on your trail now once again, boy. It's groping on your leg until it sleeps." He sounds so aggressive. Rawr.

[Seedless_Reject]

I love this song so much that when we had to analyze a song for English, I chose it. Of course my teacher had to point out everything that I missed and when he noticed that it seemed to be about a lot of suicidal themes he asked me if I needed help.

anyways this is one of my favorites

[Juan]

the bridge is insanely overdubbed, try to get a hold of all the things going in the song. That's what I love about it

[Supermodel*Robot]

I love this song so much that when we had to analyze a song for English, I chose it. Of course my teacher had to point out everything that I missed and when he noticed that it seemed to be about a lot of suicidal themes he asked me if I needed help.

anyways this is one of my favorites

this makes me want to go analyze it more... it's not that suicidal...

[Angela.]

Ahhh, I love this song. It would be amazing to hear it live. Slim chance, but still, it's a nice thought.

[Juan]

I love the little reference to The Replacements.

and that song is an homage to The Beatles itself, that's what I call two birds with one round

[J'net]

AH NO! this new song means I never got around to posting in the Sassafras Roots thread. GAH.

I have loved this song since I first heard it. I think it has a cool Doors feel to it & I like how it has a lyrical narrative. It was the first time Billie really wrote a full story within a song. I also adore Billie's voice when he sings "well hell hounds on your trail now once again, boy. It's groping on your leg until it sleeps." He sounds so aggressive. Rawr.

The Sassafras thread is still open for discussion - as are all the others from since we started over. The index with links to each one is in the OP up above. I'd love to hear your comment .

[Seedless_Reject]

this makes me want to go analyze it more... it's not that suicidal...

exactly what I was thinking, but then again I think the teacher was out to prove me wrong

[Sarahnade.]

It's not one I've ever considered my favorites. I do love it though, but sometimes, yeah, I'm just against it and don't want to hear it. Other times, I listen to it all day. But I do love the lyrics and the music is really interesting. A really different kind of song.

[gone2pasalacqua]

when i think of this song i'm not crazy about it, but then i listen to it and really love it. the lyrics are great and i love the mandolin parts and the all-around instrumental randomness of it.

[Mari91]

i honestly have mixed feelings about the song. Part of me absolutely love it, but the other part of me is frightened by it and im not sure why.

anyways, it is absolutely amazing lyrically

[LilyMarie]

I love this song because it's so different.

And because bizarrely, it makes my daughter crazy happy. It's her favorite song EVER, and if I need to snap her out of a rotten mood I put this one on.

[Mar]

Ain't that the truth!

Great, great song. I love the little vocal nuances (like BOOOOOIIIIIII), and I like that this is like a precursor to the Jesus of Suburbia style of storytelling. It's different from most of their stuff, which I love.

[Rebel07]

I love this song, and I would LOOOOVE to hear it live. Billie said in some interview that its a hard one to play cause they need a mariachi band, but I think they could manage lol

[gabbag]

I really love this song a lot as I love all songs on Warning and it would be so awesome if they actually played it live, but alas, they only played it at like one sound check and then a few seconds at a show and I was not at either I like how it is so different in style from all their other songs and it is just so cool!

[Emmalee]

I'm pretty sure this is the song that made me love Warning I just love everything about it. It's so...dramatic!

I especially love the way he sings

"He's gonna get high, high, high

When he's low, low, low"

and ahaha, I was so innocent/ignorant when I first listened to this...

[Laura!]

I'd have to say it's my favorite off of Warning

[Heather!]

I love the accordion and the mandolin! It's such an interesting song and so different.

[Vespertine]

I LOVE THIS SONG, seriously. It is one of my favorites GD songs.

It's so different and... brilliant

[alaniluau]

Damn right Misery was the day GDC died! This is one of the most absolutely random, crazy ass songs ever. I absolutely love it and I couldn't believe it when Billie started to sing it in Sacramento.

[Emmalee]

I forgot to add in my earlier post... I am rather amused by the title of this thread ahaha so true...