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Green Day "Long Songs" Album Pattern


maryjanewhatsername

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4 minutes ago, Adorkable said:

It was stated that doing this is Green Daying, and that is just wrong. Credit needs to be given where credit is due 

Ah didn't notice that, fair enough

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American Eulogy is a stretch to label it a long song, as are the RevRad tracks. The call and response is definitely a clear feature of the last few albums

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2 minutes ago, Joe. said:

American Eulogy is a stretch to label it a long song, as are the RevRad tracks. The call and response is definitely a clear feature of the last few albums

So Forever Now, which is 6:52 and has multiple sections (I'm Freaking Out, A Better Way to Die, Reprise of Somewhere Now), isn't a long song? Most songs are 3-3:30 minutes. 

I think AE is a "long song" even though it's only 4:26. It has multiple songs in it. Song of the Century, Mass Hysteria & Modern World (my spotify version opens with the reprise of Song of the Century)

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1 hour ago, Joe. said:

American Eulogy is a stretch to label it a long song, as are the RevRad tracks. The call and response is definitely a clear feature of the last few albums

I think we're considering multi-part and long as synonymous in the context of Green Day songs but yeah, they are technically different things. AE isn't even one of their longest songs, 21 Guns, Oh Love, The Forgotten etc. are all 5 minute long songs but they aren't considered "long" Green Day songs in the same way AE is cause they don't have multiple distinct parts. Somewhere Now isn't really a multi-part song in the same way as the others mentioned but it's connection to Forever Now I think grants it that status.

2 hours ago, Little Boy Named Airplane said:

Last of the American Girls / Murder City
BOTW / Still Breathing

I mean they're different songs. They're not 2 parts of the same song, not multiple parts of 1 song. And besides, I don't think the transition from BOTW to Still Breathing is really anything of interest or note

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4 minutes ago, Christian's Inferno! said:

I don't think the transition from BOTW to Still Breathing is really anything of interest or note

Nah you're right I don't think either. The transition is just perfect tho.
Probably the same for LOTAG and Murder City (even though I can't listen to Muder City before listening to LOTAG)

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3 minutes ago, Little Boy Named Airplane said:

Nah you're right I don't think either. The transition is just perfect tho.
Probably the same for LOTAG and Murder City (even though I can't listen to Muder City before listening to LOTAG)

I really don't care for that transition between SB and BOTW at all tbh. It's just loud static at the end of BOTW going into SB

Green Day have done so much better transitions i.e. Chump into Longview, Holiday into BOBD, Christian's Inferno into LNOE and LOTAG into Murder City are the firsts that come to mind

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I think some transitions are felt to be particularly fitting (like BOTW into SB), like "married songs" to re-use the expression used by GD themselves during one of the Rev Rad interviews (I can't remember which!), and other transitions seem less obvious, but it's also kinda subjective, every song following one another in an album is the result of a thought, it's not random. I do agree though that they are some songs I can't listen to without expecting to hear the following one on the album (such as BOTW flowing into SB).

As for the long song pattern, I guess sometimes it's random in the way that it just turns out that way when the song is written, but it sure is something Billie seems to cultivate. I would't pretend to know how he comes up with such songs, but he definitely doesn't place them randomly in one given album.  

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8 hours ago, Adorkable said:

It was stated that doing this is Green Daying, and that is just wrong. Credit needs to be given where credit is due 

That's my fault, I didn't realize it was a Who thing as I only know a couple of their songs. I apologize. 

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I feel that is a connection between 21st century breakdow (song) and see the light... not only for the piano intro... I think that see the light could be a part of te "multi-part" 21st century breakdown sometime, but finally Billie decided to separate both songs.

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On 3/16/2019 at 12:52 AM, Christian's Inferno! said:

Interesting topic. I don't think it's done exactly like that purposely but I think it probably is part of their "formula" to have 2 long songs (or multi-part songs) near the start and end of these albums. You could say that the album Tré follows this formula as well, with Brutal Love (5 minutes long, I consider it to have multiple parts i.e. 1. Slower section, 2. The Build Up, 3. Drop Dead Hideous) at the start and Dirty Rotten Bastards near the end (6:26, also multi-part). I think the only real difference with Tré is that the sections of these songs weren't named like they were in the AI and RR songs and in American Eulogy from 21CB

What's interesting is people always mention the reprise of Somewhere Now in Forever Now as particularly interesting and unique about the track and I agree, I do really like that part of the song too and the slight changing of lyrics. But, they did basically the exact same thing with 21st Century Breakdown as well. The beginning of American Eulogy is just a reprise of Song of the Century. As well as that, the intro to 21st Century Breakdown is reused in See the Light, right after American Eulogy. I feel like people forget about that when they talk about the Somewhere Now reprise

The same happens with Letterbomb intro/Homecoming

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12 hours ago, maryjanewhatsername said:

That's my fault, I didn't realize it was a Who thing as I only know a couple of their songs. I apologize. 

No need to apologize. I just felt it needed to be pointed out that this is not a concept developed by Green Day. The Who is famous for multi-part songs, but many other bands have them. It is quite common on Prog Rock, bands such as Yes or Rush. Even The Beatles had a multi-part song (A Day in the Life)

Green Day covered A Quick One from The Who (and did a damn good job of it) Listen to the album Quadrophenia, it's brilliant.   

Speaking of The Who, I just had to mention the story of Billie meeting a naked Roger Daltrey in a sauna. It always brings a smile to my face.

Here is one of my favorite Who songs, it is multi-part, but very seamless:

  

and the original A Quick One:

 

 

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