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This week’s Song of the Week is the airy Rest; track 9 off Green Day’s first album 39/Smooth, released in 1990, as well as the compilation album 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours (1991).

There’s a certain dream-like quality to Rest’s lyrics, they seem to describe the fleeting flashes of thoughts and images inside a tired brain that’s not letting its owner go to sleep. It’s unclear whether the “angel” that’s keeping him up all night is being portrayed in a positive or negative light. The line “the gleam in your eyes, it troubles my brain” can be interpreted in many ways; the “trouble” could be a lusting or an infatuation, or it could be worry over some sort of malicious intent or hurt caused by the “angel”.

Rest’s sound is certainly a stand-out on 1039/SOSH, with its slow tempo, drawn-out vocals and hazy guitar; there’s a sort of strange mellowing-yet-unsettling vibe to it. Looking back into Green Day’s back-catalogue, the song is also an early indication of the band’s potential range of sound and song writing that we all are now so familiar with.

Our video this week is a real oldie; footage of the band playing Rest at the Davis Community Centre in Davis, California in June 1989. The audio is surprisingly good quality despite the bad footage quality.

Lyrics:

Hey can you hear me?

I'm calling your name

Hello? Or is this goodbye?

The gleam in your eyes

It troubles my brain

Will I see it again?

So I can rest my head

Angel...Angel! Dancing away

As all of my thoughts get rearranged

Angel...Angel! Turning away

Just when things seem

To have changed

So I can rest my head

Hey can you hear me?

I'm calling your name

Hello? Or is this goodbye?

The gleam in your eyes

It troubles my brain

Will I see it again?

So I can rest my head

So I can rest my head

*********************************************************************************************************

You can nominate songs for discussion as Song of the Week in the SotW Nominations and Archive thread, which contains links to each previous Song of the Week in its first post.

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For me, Rest has always been a pretty outstanding song in Green Day's early years. That's probably what makes it so special to me. I fell in love with its melody right away in the first second when I listened to this song for the first time. Talking about the lyrics, I can't pick a favorite part. All the lines together make the song seem so complete that I don't want to pull out one single part. Great song :)

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I like Rest, though it makes me wanna sleep... :lazy: And is quite different from all the songs of 1039.

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I do like the lyrics and I don't think I'd realised that they were this good. But... although there isn't one I really dislike, Rest is probably still my least favourite Green Day song. It's just a personal thing (I know a lot of people felt this way about 1000 Hours which I love) but for me it just feels like a weaker song.

I should go listen to it, it'll probably grow on me if I do. :P

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This song is very relaxing,I sometimes use it to get sleepy haha it's a nice song,it should totally get some live performance in the next tour

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one of my favorites green day songs. i love the lyrics so much. awesome choice

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I love it, it's like a punk rock lullaby and it shows how even early Green Day had already reached a certain maturity that allowed them to move away from simple punk rock and experiment with music.

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Oh I love this song! And I love the guitar in it!

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For me this is one of the most odd songs by Green Day, but it pass to the canon. On every recors there must be at least one song, which is different than the others.

Rest is also relaxing, mostly after hard day in school ;)

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I always skip this song and I don't regret it, sorry. :(

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I must admit I don't care for this song. I don't like it, at all. It's not really a song I dislike or hate either. I just don't care for it. Sorry. :(

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It took a while for this song to grow on me, but now I really like it. I like the odd, drunken vocals especially when they sing "angel!"

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I like that it's a nice change of pace for them, especially among their older songs. In later years they were more willing to release less aggressive songs, but back when 1039 came out, it was a real nice break in their sound.

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Haha, someone just drew me rest in draw something :lol:

This song, it's an interesting one. I like the sound of it. Good choice

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Personally i love this song. 1039/Smooth isn't the strongest GD album but there are a few songs i always skip to if i haven't time to listen to the whole thing and Rest is one of my favourites. I heard the music in the background of a documentary about Dookie years ago when they (the documentary people) were talking about when the guys were roughing it trying to make it from day to day and were homeless and Mike said how they were actually some of the best times of his life and as it played the music it showed a series of old photos of them on the streets of Berkley and i couldn't place the song. Later i skipped through my mp3 player playing a few seconds of each song off 1039 till i found Rest and fell in love all over again. It is melancholy yet somehow uplifting and i just love it.

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It took a while for this song to grow on me, but now I really like it. I like the odd, drunken vocals especially when they sing "angel!"

what? i thought it was "angie!"... :mellow:

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Young Billie Joe was sooo cute... Every time I listen to a love song off this album I'm always a bit moved thinking of that!

However, let's focus on the song.... This is a song I don't listen to very often, but I actually like it, it's just cause I have to feel in the right mood! :thumbsup:

I like very much the lyrics, especially "That gleam in your eyes, it troubles my brain... Will I see it again? So I can rest my head..."

I love it, because it makes me think of all the strategies and ways you try to find to meet that special person, to catch her attention etc., you spend a lot of time doing that, but you don't know if they will work: and Will I see it again? it's a question that shows in a good way this doubt. You only wait to have some rest, to find a solution, to stop liyng awake many nights, asking yourself when all your troubles are gonna end and if you will understand if she(or he) wants to be your friend and so on... Billie is very able to describe that kind of feeling. And it's very easy to feel attached to song like this :)

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i love this song, the sound is so special. definitely one of my favourites of the album :)

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One of my favorite songs. Billie's voice is just so soft and the melody is calming. I enjoy listening to this especially at night.

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OK so when it goes "Angeeeel, angeeeeeeeeeeel" the corniness is just too much :lol:. But it's very sweet too so it makes me smile. And the lyrics themselves are much more than just sweet, telling of the mixed feelings and questions swirling round in his head that he needs to settle in order to "rest his head" and feel content. It's pretty impressive that they were already experimenting with a song like this so early on, the music is almost epic-sounding. The level of rock ballad cliche does stop this song being one of my favourites, but I find it endearing at the same time and that along with the lyrics and ambition in the music means I have much more to enjoy than cringe over when I listen to it :happy:

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