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Who's St. Jimmy?


DannyDirnt

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Hi! I've noticed Jimmy was mentioned at least in St. Jimmy,Homecoming and Give me Novacaine and I was think who the hell he is.I always imagined him as an old man who was a very good friend of Billie's?

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A figment or your own imagination.. a voice in your head..

I don't know. That's how I see it most of the time. Everyone has different opinions/interpretations about who St. Jimmy is. That's what's so great about the American Idiot album. It's not just one story.

There's been more threads like this lately though.

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st. jimmy is the guy mentioned in st. jimmy, homecoming and give me novacaine.

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A lot of people agree that he's the alter ego of Jesus of Suburbia, and just a symbol for drugs and evil, but you're free to interpret it any way you feel.

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You get your own picture of him while listening to the songs. I mean it's up to interpretation.

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Sorry about my little joke earlier, its actually Billie's pet name for his penis

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As amusing as some of these replies are, best get back to proper answers to the question now or there won't be much point in keeping this open.

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I always thought, that since the creative process for American Idiot started after Mike wrote, "Nobody likes you." That St. Jimmy may of been Billie Joe's code name for his marriage because at the time, he's marriage was going through a bit of, "private suicide"

And Jesus of Suburbia could be Tre filling out divorce papers or something wishing he was some where else.

I dunno that's just my take on it by over reading everything.

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Opinions differ :)

Some people say Saint Jimmy isn't actually real. He's just a voice in the mind of the Jesus Of Suburbia, pushing him to do things like take drugs. He's like JOS's alter ego that was formed in his head so as to protect, quote unquote, JOS while he's on the streets.

Some others say that Jimmy is real, and he's a guy the Jesus Of Suburbia finds on the streets and they befriend each other, and sort of help each other get through life on the streets.

In both cases, Jimmy is a figure that influences JOS a lot, and Jos only 'obeys' him, let's say.

Therefore, the line "Jimmy died today, he blew his brains out into the bay" can be interpteted in two ways 1) Jimmy is no longer in JOS's mind, he's finally found sanity 2) Jimmy actually committed suicide and JOS is leaving

I like both cases, cause they're both really nice and trigger lots of things for anyone to imagine. Figures like JOS, Whatsername and Jimmy are the figures I grew up with :lol: I like to think of Jimmy as a real person that just had a huge impact on JOS's mind for a while, and showed him how to live on the streets.

That's what I think when I listen to the songs in AI and all the Jimmy references. I get the picture of a man that's pretty 'mysterious', badass and evil at the same time, and I like the idea that he's a real man that in the end just ended is life, I just like it better.

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Well,I never really tried to interpret Whatsername and JOS as persons or anything.Only Jimmy,because it's actually a person name xD But,besides the jokes,all your answers sound pretty awesome

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Actively listening to AI with nothing else to do is like watching a movie to me.

I've imagined a lot of movie scenes over the years of listening and I flip through them and find new interpretations of the lyrics almost every time I listen.

It's come to a point where listening to AI feels like an "undertaking" to me and I'd rather just put another GD record on if I just want to relax.

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St. Jimmy is a figment of jesus of suburbias farther which takes over. This is just my interpritation.

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i've always seen St Jimmy and Jesus Of Suburbia as one person, so St Jimmy is kinda JOS alter ego, BJ once said that you COULD see them as one person, which also means that you also can see them as two persons...

...if you go away from just an album meaning and the characters being just invented, i'd say St Jimmy is Billie himself (or JOS is Billie and ST Jimmy the alter ego)...i dunno whether that's right, but he wrote the most songs and he also said that Whatsername is his ex girlfriend who moved down to equador and in the songs Whatsername is St Jimmy's girlfriend, so i interpretated it as BJ is St Jimmy/JOS and Whatsername is his ex (Amanda :whistle ), though it still are songs, which means it's probably not completely about Billie's life ;)

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Well,I never really tried to interpret Whatsername and JOS as persons or anything.Only Jimmy,because it's actually a person name xD But,besides the jokes,all your answers sound pretty awesome

:sherlock: Oh! I've always thought of them as people. American Idiot is a story of love, getting lost and trying to find who you are. For me the Jesus of Suburbia is a man, that's sort of like the kinda irresponsible party animal and with a little ideological backing to everything he does. He represents all young Americans that feel lost in this world and don't know what to do and which path to follow so just drown themselves in the joys of (suburban) life. Jimmy and Whatsername have also always been people for me, they're both fighters and hardcore but in really different ways. They represent the paths a lost, young American (or not) can take: Jimmy represents the more evil path, where you drown your pain in drugs etc. Whatsername represents the good path, the one in which you keep on fighting and stop being ignorant. Finally, Whatsername leaves him, he hits his rock bottom, Jimmy dies, JOS starts being 'good' and a little less lost. This is the element that makes it a bit of a love story.

I could write a fucking book on the American Idiot story.

...which means it's probably not completely about Billie's life ;)

I don't like interpreting EVERYTHING as if they are from Billie's life. Most of his songs, are of course, inspired by things he's done or saw, especially most of the old stuff. But for American Idiot, I believe that it's really not based on Billie's experiences. It's rather based on his way of seeing the world and maybe he's felt like JOS at one point, maybe became as evil as Jimmy or not, but I think Green Day just made this incredible story up, wanting to be symbolic and show what they want to show in AI, without referring to specific people they knew before.

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I still think St. Jimmy is JOS's alter ego, and that everyone has a little St. Jimmy inside of them.

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When Jesus of Suburbia is sick of walking the 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' he becomes the 'St Jimmy' in a new city to try and reinvent himself as someone 'cool'. However things go wrong and he ends up destroying his creation, 'Jimmy died today, he blew his brains out into the bay' is symbolic rather than literal. Then Jesus leaves the city and returns home to continue being a no one where 'all regrets, are useless in my mind'. There you are!

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When Jesus of Suburbia is sick of walking the 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' he becomes the 'St Jimmy' in a new city to try and reinvent himself as someone 'cool'. However things go wrong and he ends up destroying his creation, 'Jimmy died today, he blew his brains out into the bay' is symbolic rather than literal. Then Jesus leaves the city and returns home to continue being a no one where 'all regrets, are useless in my mind'. There you are!

Yeah, that's one of the awesome interpretations :happy: it's such an awesome story, so many messages and symbolism and stuff.

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Well, I always think of him like jesus' other personality...don't know exactly how to describe it...like he's gone crazy and sometimes that Jimmy cames out of this head. But it can also be a charater Jesus meet during the story.

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I think of Jimmy as a part of you like a type of demon that you need to overcome, whether it be drugs, drinking, or even something miniscule like a fear. It's a figment of imagination, the side of you with troubles and some confusion in finding who you want to be. The music video of Jesus of Suburbia has a good interpretation of Jimmy and AI the musical defines him more as a character and his traits.

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