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Before The Lobotomy


Trotsky

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This week, our song of the week is Before The Lobotomy, the 21st Century Breakdown hit about whiskey shots and throwing bricks and burning your dreams into the ground, typical shit we all do on weekends, of course. Listening to Before The Lobotomy, you could almost imagine it as the start of another 9 or 10 minute rock opera like we loved on American Idiot - it starts with soft guitars and melancholy singing, and then fades until there is nothing but an echo, and then some serious energy is unleashed.

The second part of the song is, in my opinion, one of the most fun things to sing-along to on the entire album. And then yet again it all stops, and the song brilliantly circles around.

"Like refugees, we're lost like refugees", and then we are taken back to the beginning, louder and faster than before. "The brutality of reality, is the freedom that keeps me from... dreaming..."

I have to admit, this song was at first not one of my favorites on 21st Century Breakdown, and took the longest to grow on me, but when it finally did, I couldn't get enough. And in the context of all of the album, it is essential - its lyrics bind the concept together with other songs, from the paradoxical usage of the word freedom in describing how one is limited ("the freedom to obey"), to the indulgences of smoking and drinking seen in 21CB's portrayal of the poor and discontent ("Christian's crying in the bathroom, and I just want to bum a cigarette").

Does the song speak more to you about having a good time, or numbing yourself? According to Billie Joe Armstrong, it works either way:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0X0Nvh74fBU&feature=player_embedded

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This is such an awesome song. I remember me sitting on the ground back in May 2009, leaning back against the wall and listening through the whole album for the first time. Before the Lobotomy was one of the first songs I actually really fell in love with. All the parts of the song are perfectly joined together and you can literally hear that while listening, in my opinion. Frankly, I'd love to hear this song being played live more often. It deserves some more notice, I think :happy:

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Oh, I love this song!

The line, The brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from dreaming is one of the most brilliant lyrics Billie Joe has ever written. Sometimes I'll listen to this song just for that part. It a shame, because it's often covered up by the fast paceness of the song and guitar sound, but it's one of the most important parts of the song, and album.

Actually, I believe that one lyric can sum up 21st Century Breakdown.

See, Christian and Gloria had a vision, they had a dream. As they tried to persue that dream, they were affected by life and reality. Gloria got into drugs and Christian just went in a downward spiral. So soon after, they realized that their reality was a brutal one. They were pathetic and couldn't win. In realizing their reality was so brutal, it kept them from seeing their inital dream. (The freedom that keeps me from dreaming).

That's my take on it. :happy: Great choice of SOTW!

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and Anna (Disapperingirl), don't forget her !! ;)

How dare you to forget ANNA?! :angry

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and Anna (Disapperingirl), don't forget her !! ;)

How dare you to forget ANNA?! :angry

I'm sorry :( anyway...we made it! :)

AH stop mentioning me when I'm not even here :P

Anyway YES, great song that catches the spirit and the sensations of 21st Century Breakdown. I'm gonna write something deeper later :D

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Ugh, I'm a bit disappointed, this is one of my least favourite songs from Green Day. =/

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Ugh, I'm a bit disappointed, this is one of my least favourite songs from Green Day. =/

That doesn't mean that you can't comment it :P

And isn't this a great thing about SotW?? It makes you listen again, think and revalue songs that you used to see in another way, and read different opinions about it ;)

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That doesn't mean that you can't comment it :P

And isn't this a great thing about SotW?? It makes you listen again, think and revalue songs that you saw in another way, and read ither opinions about it ;)

Uhm, that's a good point you're making :D I'll just give it another listen ;)

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Whenever I think of this song I always think of how much a lot of it sounds like Jesus of Suburbia, specifically as soon as the whole band enters. That's definitely not a bad thing though, I really like Jesus of Suburbia and it's cool that there's some influence of it in this song.

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Great choice for SotW. Def a highlight for me on 21st CB :D I was really disappointed when this got dropped from the setlists on the second leg of the tour!!

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I love the soft start and the way it's reapeated at the end in a stronger and louder way, like happens in RHS.

I wish they would have played it here in Argentina... =/

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This song is its own world. It expands like a teardrop thought-bubble, but it doesn't progress, it rounds on itself and reiterates its initial with a grand, gothic finality - the teardrop reaches out to the rain it's made of, loses itself in that rain, and reforms as a single, lonely tear.

This song is its own world, because it's depression set to music, and everything it sees and knows and seeks is on those terms. It looks outwards in fear, and inwards in to the past - the enchantment of melancholy, bursting out in the anguish of 'like refugees', lost and ragged in the rain, hey-old-man-in-women's- shoes, the only difference between him and and a homeless man is the roof over his head, but

the roof is an illusion, and the rain comes in - the rain is always there, always.

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I remember the first time that I heard this song, blew my mind. This was actually the song that "really" got me into Green Day. I had liked a few songs off of AI and 21CB, and for some reason one day, I searched them on Youtube. After listening to 21 guns (which i already knew) this song came up as like the recomended video thing. Intrested, I took a listen, and fell completly in love with the song. I can pretty much say that this song converted me from pop/rap/shit fan to a punk/rock fan.

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I've always loved this song. It sounds great when it starts with just Billie and the guitar, and then bang. Everything else comes in. It is always one of my favorite moments in the song.

The line, The brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from dreaming is one of the most brilliant lyrics Billie Joe has ever written. Sometimes I'll listen to this song just for that part. It a shame, because it's often covered up by the fast paceness of the song and guitar sound, but it's one of the most important parts of the song, and album.

Actually, I believe that one lyric can sum up 21st Century Breakdown.

See, Christian and Gloria had a vision, they had a dream. As they tried to persue that dream, they were affected by life and reality. Gloria got into drugs and Christian just went in a downward spiral. So soon after, they realized that their reality was a brutal one. They were pathetic and couldn't win. In realizing their reality was so brutal, it kept them from seeing their inital dream. (The freedom that keeps me from dreaming).

Wow. I totally agree:)

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Probably my least favourite song from 21st CB apart from Last Night on Earth, but don't get me wrong, I do like the song. (Rhyme wasn't intended there :lol: ) BTL has some brilliant lyrics, especially, as has been mentioned a few times, "The brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from dreaming". I had never really paid much attention to that one before, but, bloody hell, that is a brilliant piece of writing.

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This thread makes me remember hearing it for the very first time, on May 15th 2009. It was such a quiet wonder of a song - or at least so it deceivingly appeared for a little over a minute - and I remember being almost hypnotized as I was listening outside in the bright clear sun, before the drums and guitars kicked in and snatched me awake again. As much as I love the whole song, that first part will always be my favourite; and the one time I heard it live, in Oslo Spektrum later that year, it was such a precious moment when Billie was singing those lyrics with his eyes closed and the whole arena silently listening. Maybe a lot of those people just didn't know the song, but in my mind we were all entranced the same way I was the first time I heard it, and I think that was the first moment my eyes filled with smiling tears that night. <3

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Before The Lobotomy's soft, melodic opening invites us to remember what life used to be life before the world went on a bender from sanity. For me, I think of the days in my early teens when I used to be able to take long summer walks at camp, without fear that in the blink of an eye this whole fucking illusion that we cling to like rats on a sinking ship could come crashing down around us and destroy everything that we know and hold dear. That was "life before the lobotomy" in a nutshell.....and now, we live in fear. Our dreams, those "songs of yesterday" lay dying, "drenched in gasoline", buried in the underground, almost forgotten....waiting for some spark -- revolution or apocalpyse? maybe it doesn't matter exactly what -- to come along and light up the whole fucking joint as if it were a giant pile of cherry bombs on the Fourth of July.

Aiding the midsection's lyrics, the staccato, intense bursts of percussion and power chords channel the anger that brews as the listener travels through the opening. "It's enough to make you sick, to cast a stone and throw a brick." Society tells us that we're supposed to corral the rage we feel when we look at what the Bastards of 1969 have done to our world? To our lives? The hell with that! Those with the cajones to do so might stage an uprising; the rest of us will medicate ourselves into submission ("remember to learn to forget/whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes"). In that lyric we find one of the lessons of the 21st Century Breakdown -- that until we fix what's in between our heads, until we break the addiction, until we medicate the problem with outward action and not by blinding ourselves to the pain, we can never ressurrect those dreams we claim to hold so dear. "Well I'm not stoned, I'm just fucked up . . . I'm not in love 'cause I'm a mess . . . the brutality of reality is the freedom that keeps me from dreaming." It's not meant to be an excuse, but I think it is meant to be an explanation.

BTL ends on a defeated note, on a reprise of the painful, mournful lyrics of the opening -- but without the gentle touch of the opening's acoustic guitar. Instead, we might picture ourselves pounding our fists on the table with each downbeat of Tre's percussion, while Billie's lead guitar and Mike's bass line lay down the traces of our tears. The rage builds again, this time exploding into Christian's Inferno.

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I don't know, i always thought of the line "well i'm not stoned, i'm just fucked up" as a direct answer to the question "am i just paranoid, am i just stoned?" - a question that has been unanswered for 15 years. I know, theres no real connection and there have been more well-thougt out, elaborated comments by now but i'm thinking of this whenever i hear the line and thought now was a good time to tell.

Besides that, Before the Lobotomy is one of my favourite songs on 21st Century Breakdown.

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Everytime I put 21CB in, I have to listen to this first (and then maybe second and third). The lyrics and the way the song comes full-circle are so arresting and raw. It's the ultimate collision of beauty and rage. And it's so fun to sing along to!

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I don't know, i always thought of the line "well i'm not stoned, i'm just fucked up" as a direct answer to the question "am i just paranoid, am i just stoned?" - a question that has been unanswered for 15 years. I know, theres no real connection and there have been more well-thougt out, elaborated comments by now but i'm thinking of this whenever i hear the line and thought now was a good time to tell.

Besides that, Before the Lobotomy is one of my favourite songs on 21st Century Breakdown.

Good observation -- and especially that Billie Joe's question is still unanswered 15 years later. He's still wrestling with this, as, I think, are we all.

(Edit) Don't discount whether there is a connection between Basket Case and Before the Lobotomy. One thing we've come to learn about Billie Joe's songwriting is that some songs -- or at least the concepts behind them -- start cooking in that giant mass of spaghetti some might call his brain *ages* before we hear them (if we ever do wind up hearing them at all). Some of his songs talk back to others on the same album, one, two, three, or more times depending on what song you're studying -- yes, studying -- and sometimes they even reach to others across albums. Just one non-21stCB example would be how Westbound Sign's "Is tragedy 2000 miles away" lyric connects -- in anxiety-filled anticipation of her arrival in Billie's home -- the collection of everything that Billie felt about Adrienne the night of their first kiss when "I hold my breath and close my eyes and dream about her, 'cause she's 2000 light years away." So please don't be so quick to dismiss the connection you found between Basket Case and Before the Lobotomy. They both use mental illness as a driving metaphor for the mind-fuck that the world is doing to us. They wrestle with some of the same questions in different ways and from different perspectives. And where one asks "what's wrong with me?" and goes no further, 15 years later -- or maybe not so long afterwards? -- the other declares "I *know* why I'm like this" and moves on to the follow-up question: "so what am I going to do about it?"

Edit: I think this was just my 2000th post in the forum! And in a post where I was talking about 2000 LYA. How the f*ck did THAT happen?? 8)

:D

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That was a great SotW John, much better than anything I could have written for this song. I never really realised just how deep the lyrics were and how much they could be expanded upon.

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