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Cigarettes and Valentines


J'net

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This week's Song of the Week is Cigarettes and Valentines. Please use this thread to discuss your thoughts and feelings about the song.

As you all know, this song was first recorded pre-American Idiot when the band were working on their next album. Whatever happened to the original recordings, I'm sure none of us will ever know for sure. The song was played live for the first time at a sound check in San Jose last year (where I was standing outside unable to hear it), and there were no recordings for those of us who were left out. At the Denver show on August 28 this year, we were privileged to hear it twice (Alex, Matt, and Tony know how excited I was about that). As a matter of fact – I was talking to Alex and Matt about this song and how much I wanted to hear it right before the show. After the Denver show, it was played at every show for the rest of the tour and will be included on the upcoming live album.

When trying to describe this song to people who hadn't heard it yet, I felt it had the feel of the 1039 / Kerplunk! era but with more polish. After all, the guys can afford slightly better equipment now! I know this song has been discussed in another thread, but it so sums up the excitement of the last few weeks that I thought an in-depth discussion of the feel and the lyrics would still be appropriate.

I want to hear your opinions. Go for it!

Here's a video from the first time the song was played at the Denver show, where I finally got to hear it after waiting impatiently all that time:

Cigarettes and Valentines Lyrics

I don't wanna go back home.

I don't wanna kiss goodnight.

Let us paralyze this moment till it dies.

To the end of the earth,

Under the valley of the stars,

There's a car crashing deep inside my heart.

Take a ride thru the Avenues

Across the Great Divide.

There's a siren screaming.

"I'm alive," it cries.

Red alert is the color

Of your paper valentines

Intertwined on this moment passing by.

Don't pass me by!

Take a ride thru the Avenues

Across the Great Divide.

There's a siren screaming.

"I'm alive," it cries.

Red alert is the color

Of your paper valentines

Intertwined on this moment passing by.

Do you wanna be my valentine tonight?

So come away with me tonight

With cigarettes and valentines.

Cigarettes and valentines.

So come away with me tonight

With cigarettes and valentines.

So come away with me tonight

With cigarettes and valentines.

Cigarettes and valentines.

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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.

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I seriously love the lyrics to this song. I completely relate to them on a simple, personal level. The music is also just plain awesome. Awesome choice :happy:

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OMG!!! J'NET I LOVE YOU!! THAT'S 3 SONGS OF THE WEEK THAT YOU NAILED (i've only been around for 3 songs of the week btw starting with homecoming.) this is prolly the best choice so far and you're the whoa man.

keep bossin' it up

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I never thought I'd see the day when Cigarettes & Valentines was song of the week. I thought it was just gonna be one known as the lost album forever. I know this is only one song from that album but It's so cool to finaly have it, it's like new but also like steping back about 10 years in time. Can't wait to hear the live album version for better quality. :)

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Ahh! I still haven't heard this yet! My computer is broken and can't play sound. Oh God, I feel like such a bad fan. :(

I'll try to listen on my phone later. :)

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I've had this song playing soooo much (my band has even already covered it)

I am so excited for the Live Album!

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Awesome song.

I still want to hear the whole album...

live album or c's+v's because personally i think that they should only choose a few off the stolen record. obviously that was one of the better songs and i think to have them all played or whatever is a little bit too much. i'd like to stick with just a few off that record

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Love this song. Has the crisp feel of Warning, with the energy of their earliest songs. Excellent.

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This really is a great song; I'm glad they finally decided to reveal it. Personally I think it has more of a Warning feel to it than anything, which makes sense as its creation followed that album :rolleyes: I also think it's interesting that BJ seems to really like the phrase "red alert is the color of ___" Kind of an odd phrase to use more than once.

Love it, can't wait to hear it on the album!

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Perfect choice, J'net. :happy: I love C&V so much. The lyrics are amazing, I especially like this part:

"I don’t wanna go back home.

I don’t wanna kiss goodnight.

Let us paralyze this moment till it dies.

To the end of the earth,

Under the valley of the stars,

There’s a car crashing deep inside my heart."

:wub:

I immediately fell in love with this song when I first heard it, and listening to it always makes me smile. Cigarettes and Valentines is the main reason why I'm really looking forward to the live album.

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Interesting. 'Red alert is the color of...' and 'the great divide' lyrics also in American Eulogy. Love this song

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As i mentioned on the podcast, I feel like this song could be placed (in style) between nimrod and warning. It reminds me of a song like Minority, simple chords, but catchy. As much as it might annoy some people, that's kind of what defines Green Day - their ability to write simple catchy songs. Obviously most of us here define them differently and appreciate the extent of their ability, but when they do something like this, I think it's pretty damn near perfect Green Day for me.

Side note, I'm still not convinced C&V was a real album. I have nothing to support that, just my feeling about it since the band has been relatively hush-hush about it. I think the existence of this songs shows that in the 7 years since we first heard about C&V, they've written a song with that title. I hope to be proven wrong.

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