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Brain Stew


pasalaska

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Song of the Week this week is my all-time least-favourite Green Day song, Brain Stew, the 10th track, and 3rd single off Green Day’s 4th studio album, Insomniac (1995).

Brain Stew’s lyrics are fairly well known to be about the exhaustion and “delirium” Billie Joe felt after becoming a father for the first time, thanks to the sleepless nights brought on by looking after a new-born baby. The album title ‘Insomniac’, while not inspired by Brain Stew’s lyrics, fits well with the song’s lyrical content. Musically, Brain Stew is pretty unique amongst Green Day’s catalogue. It’s slow, chugging, grinding pace punctuated by complete silence (the pauses were edited and cleaned up so that they are literally silent) adds a feeling of restlessness and agitation that furthers the song’s meaning. Brain Stew transitions, without pause, into Jaded, and when the two songs were released as singles, it was together as Brain Stew/Jaded.

The song’s music video, directed by Kevin Kerslak, has the band sitting on a beaten-up old couch that’s being dragged around a rubbish dump by a bulldozer, filmed in sepia tone, with cut scenes of hula dancers and an old lady mouthing some of the lyrics. Here it is for your viewing pleasure:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNq9gmY_Oz4

And here’s what the live performance of the Brain Stew (and Jaded) was like during the 21st Century Breakdown tour, complete with pretty pyro, Mike being shouty, water guns and toilet paper (filmed in Irvine, California in August of 2010):

I'm in this video! wheeee!

:woot:

Lyrics:

I'm having trouble trying to sleep

I'm counting sheep but running out

As time ticks by

And still I try

No rest for crosstops in my mind

On my own... here we go

My eyes feel like they're going to bleed

Dried up and bulging out my skull

My mouth is dry

My face is numb

Fucked up and spun out in my room

On my own... here we go

My mind is set on overdrive

The clock is laughing in my face

A crooked spine

My senses dulled

Passed the point of delirium

On my own... here we go

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

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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This song is just awesome, the flow of energy that is created when played live is what I like. The way Billie goes mad and Mike shouts and stuff :lol: Its just full of energy ! Yes the lyrics fit perfectly to the album title xD

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This is not only my favorite Green Day song, but my favorite song of ever. It was the first one I ever learned on guitar three years ago, and I can play it on any instrument I know how to play. This song captures the feel of insomnia perfectly, not just in the lyrics, but in the music as well. Starts out slow, uneventful, almost boring, then picks up, then drops back down, picks up, drops down, and then finally picks up for the rest of it. Anyone who's stayed up for more than twenty-four hours (or longer, depending on the person) knows the feeling when your brain just finally says "fuck it, we're awake and apparently staying that way, I'm gonna stop telling you to go to sleep". Then the lyrics are just more than perfect, from him saying he ran out of sheep to count, to the clock laughing in his face. I've spent countless nights watching the clock and seeing it go from "I should go to bed now" to "it is now tomorrow". If there's one Green Day song I relate to more than any other, it's this one.

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How has this song not been song of the week yet?! I love this song, it perfectly describes my inability to sleep. Despite only using one chord progression this song is just damn awesome. It's one of my favorites to hear live, especially with Mikes screaming. And when Billie changes the melody on "dried up and bulging out of my skull" to go all high and stuff. Yeah, it's just awesome

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I just cannot ever get into this song. I really can't stand it to the point that I skip it when listening to Insomniac. It's just so repetitive, grating, and downright boring after a while. It actually annoys me :lol: I guess it works when you think about what the song's about, but still, I just don't understand the appeal at all.

Live, it's not so bad, especially at the end with the fire and Mike's screaming, but usually I use the song as the breather and a rest period during a show.

Fun factoid - I read in an interview with Larry Livermore that he hates the song. heh.

http://www.thelookouts.net/2010/01/ronnie-riggar.html

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I absolutely love this song, like i do most of the Insomniac album. great song to bang your head too, or to relate to when you can't sleep, are hungover, pissed off etc..

i think the song needs Jaded at the end of it, certainly in the studio version anyway, but i love it!

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The best music-going experience of my life was Brain Stew at Manchester in 2010

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why did i have this song in my mind during my hangover last night? :D :D i absolutely love this song

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Song of the Week this week is my all-time least-favourite Green Day song

:shok: This song is one of my favourites! :cry: But well...just my opinion.

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Love the song, hate the music video, love the song live :)

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I love Brain Stew, one of my favourites from Imsomniac. The lyrics of the song define how are you feeling when you have insomniac, and I feel identified with that because I've had so many sleepless nights. About the composition, is a song very easy to learn to play with guitar, because it has only five chords I think, but in my opinion they have shown that they can create a great song with only five chords. Other reason what I love the song is because increasingly is filled with more sounds, it starts with a simple guitar in the 1st verse, the second verse the drums appear, later they introduce that plugged guitar between verses and the end of the song is full of distortion. That represents a constant evolution to me, in my point of view I think that's maybe a way to represent that you are feeling more angry for not being able to sleep, and that's why the sound of the song becomes darker and dirty.

p.s: I love that live video! Never seen it before! :lol:

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This is one of my favorite Green Day songs. I love it!!

This song captures the feel of insomnia perfectly, not just in the lyrics, but in the music as well. Starts out slow, uneventful, almost boring, then picks up, then drops back down, picks up, drops down, and then finally picks up for the rest of it. Anyone who's stayed up for more than twenty-four hours (or longer, depending on the person) knows the feeling when your brain just finally says "fuck it, we're awake and apparently staying that way, I'm gonna stop telling you to go to sleep". Then the lyrics are just more than perfect, from him saying he ran out of sheep to count, to the clock laughing in his face. I've spent countless nights watching the clock and seeing it go from "I should go to bed now" to "it is now tomorrow". If there's one Green Day song I relate to more than any other, it's this one.

I totally agree with you.

And I love the way BJ sings the lyrics, like he's really angry that he can't sleep (in my opinion). I can relate to that. When I can't sleep, I'm really pissed and this song represents perfectly how I feel in these moments.

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I like Jaded more than Brain Stew.

It's a good song...not my favorite like at all. But it's one of those songs that is so Green Day, you can't really hate it.

The music video creeps me out :lol: That old lady and everything is all yellow

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I really like it, I feel identified with the lyrics 'cause I can barely sleep :lol: so it fits me perfectly.

Btw I love that live performance, didn't know there are those things to throw toilet paper :lol:

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Does anyone know who that old lady really is? like is she a relative of one of the band members I'm so curious :lol:

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