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¡Uno! - Song meanings


Homero

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It would be really cool to make this a trilogy-song-meaning-thread and not only limit it to Uno, because I think the lyrics of all three albums are connected (not all of them, for sure, but many). For example, one of the strongest metaphors that stretches over all three albums is the "red light". It's in "Oh Love" ("Don't stop when the red lights flash"), it has an own song on Dos ("Stop When the Red Lights Flash") and it appears in "Dirty Rotten Bastards" on Tré ("Chop me a line of my best friend's ashes. Dust to dust when the red light flashes"). Plus, there are other songs that deal with traffic and locomotion in the broadest sense ("Little Boy Named Train", "Walk Away"). My theory is that the red lights symbolize important turning points in your life, they give you the chance to either stop, turn around and change direction or just march on straight forward, ignoring the warning signal, whatever may come. What are your thoughts on that? (Sorry if this has already been discussed somewhere else...)

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I have a thought on Angel Blue...

Could it possibly be about Billie Joe's 'Blue' Guitar?

You're angel blue

With teenage traces

Angel blue

With pretty faces

Teenage traces suggest the amount of character Billie has given the guitar with stickers all over the years, and some possibly from his 'Teen-Hood'.

Pretty faces describes the amount of stages the guitar has been for example the 1994 stage, 1995 stage, 1997 stage, etc.

Waking up the dead and everything'll be alright

This line suggests the amount of copies he's made of Blue

These are all assumptions but it kinda makes sense to me... add on more if you seem to see a patern! :)

I´m sure the song is about Blue

Yesterday billie posted a pic of himself with blue on instagram; He wrote Angel Blue ;)

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I have a thought on Angel Blue...

Could it possibly be about Billie Joe's 'Blue' Guitar?

You're angel blue

With teenage traces

Angel blue

With pretty faces

Teenage traces suggest the amount of character Billie has given the guitar with stickers all over the years, and some possibly from his 'Teen-Hood'.

Pretty faces describes the amount of stages the guitar has been for example the 1994 stage, 1995 stage, 1997 stage, etc.

Waking up the dead and everything'll be alright

This line suggests the amount of copies he's made of Blue

These are all assumptions but it kinda makes sense to me... add on more if you seem to see a patern! :)

It's a simple song about how he used to write songs about getting his heart broken by loads of girls. Basically it's a tribute to 1,039 SOSH and Kerplunk :P

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I´m sure the song is about Blue

Yesterday billie posted a pic of himself with blue on instagram; He wrote Angel Blue ;)

But wasn't there first a different name for this song? On Quatro they was another name, I think..so maybe it was not about "Blue" when he wrote it

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Teenage Blue, wasn't it?

Oh, okay! So the song seems to be about blue, although "Teenage Blue" would fit better. Along with the post of Billie Joe, it's clear, I think :)

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Related to Angel Blue there's the lyrics; Stab my heart like a stick in the mud
Woodstock '94 is a reference to the mud I guess.

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Related to Angel Blue there's the lyrics; Stab my heart like a stick in the mud

Woodstock '94 is a reference to the mud I guess.

Entirely possible, since it's a tribute to a younger Billie Joe.

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Woah, when people in the GD instagram thread said that Angle Blue might be really about Blue I thought that it's bullshit, but that really makes sense now.

"You're just a fucking kid

And no one ever gives you a break
You wanna senorita
And now your heart is gonna break"
^ fits Ceadog's theory of it being a reference to SOSH and Kerplunk
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Basically seeing someone from your past and fucking hating them because they're a twat. Not too complicated, Chorus is a bit odd though :P

That's what I'm talking about. The chorus makes 0 sense. I still like the song because of that, but when I'm trying to be an analyzing douchebag with that song I can't be one.

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I love the "green" metaphor in Rusty James: "this broken scene, is turning green." :) On my first listen I was like oh no, so corny, but after getting to know the song my guess is that it means two things. The first is that the old punk scene is jealous of the band's success (kind of obvious), and the second is that because Green Day are so internationally famous, that the entire scene has been taken over by their success, to the point where that entire area/style of music is completely represented by the band. What was made up of original music and independent artists has now become Green Day's territory and nothing else.

Never really thought about it, but "green with envy" makes perfect sense for the metaphor. :happy:

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It's a simple song about how he used to write songs about getting his heart broken by loads of girls. Basically it's a tribute to 1,039 SOSH and Kerplunk :P

Awesome analysis. I thought it was about reflecting on the silliness of teenage love, but that's a good meaning too.

Never really thought about it, but "green with envy" makes perfect sense for the metaphor. :happy:

I love the "green" metaphor in Rusty James: "this broken scene, is turning green." :) On my first listen I was like oh no, so corny, but after getting to know the song my guess is that it means two things. The first is that the old punk scene is jealous of the band's success (kind of obvious), and the second is that because Green Day are so internationally famous, that the entire scene has been taken over by their success, to the point where that entire area/style of music is completely represented by the band. What was made up of original music and independent artists has now become Green Day's territory and nothing else.

I always thought of it as a metaphor of post-civilization. The idea that when the world ends, our civilization literally cracks, and all the wildlife comes back and retakes what was built over it. The idea of grass on the sidewalk and what-not. I see it as Billie hinting that the scene is really starting to truly die, and soon it will have to face a new beginning since it has failed to function the way the East Bay punks wanted it to. The "green with envy" interpretation is brilliant though.

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I have a thought on Angel Blue...

Could it possibly be about Billie Joe's 'Blue' Guitar?

You're angel blue

With teenage traces

Angel blue

With pretty faces

Teenage traces suggest the amount of character Billie has given the guitar with stickers all over the years, and some possibly from his 'Teen-Hood'.

Pretty faces describes the amount of stages the guitar has been for example the 1994 stage, 1995 stage, 1997 stage, etc.

Waking up the dead and everything'll be alright

This line suggests the amount of copies he's made of Blue

These are all assumptions but it kinda makes sense to me... add on more if you seem to see a patern! :)

I agree with everything you said, cause that's what I thought too, maybe it's just made so it can have another meaning but it's about blue in the end.

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I agree with all the interpretations of Angel Blue being about looking back on your teenage self and your old ways of dealing with infatuation and heartbreak, and kind of how you were a self-inflicting sadist, seeking the pain to milk your heart for whatever it got. And though I do find the guitar "Blue" a fantastic manifistation of Billie Joe's teenage years, I find it a little forced to make a song about a guitar because Billie posted a reference on Instagram. He probably just thought up the 'pun' when he wanted to post a picture of Blue. There's nothing explicitly stated about it in the song either, I think "angel blue" likely refers to an innocent, youthful kind of sorrow. It's an interesting metaphor to built upon but I don't think it was any initial inspiration to the song.

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I agree with all the interpretations of Angel Blue being about looking back on your teenage self and your old ways of dealing with infatuation and heartbreak, and kind of how you were a self-inflicting sadist, seeking the pain to milk your heart for whatever it got. And though I do find the guitar "Blue" a fantastic manifistation of Billie Joe's teenage years, I find it a little forced to make a song about a guitar because Billie posted a reference on Instagram. He probably just thought up the 'pun' when he wanted to post a picture of Blue. There's nothing explicitly stated about it in the song either, I think "angel blue" likely refers to an innocent, youthful kind of sorrow. It's an interesting metaphor to built upon but I don't think it was any initial inspiration to the song.
To me it isnt a coincidence that the title is angel BLUE, there are the lyrics:

" gonna build it up just to burn it down" (Billie used many Blue guitars since they all stopped "working". )

"Stab my heart like a stick in the mud" ( since blue was full of mud at the 94 woodstock show...)

And about instagram I think it was more a clue than a reference :) and sorry for my bad english

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To me it isnt a coincidence that the title is angel BLUE, there are the lyrics:

" gonna build it up just to burn it down" (Billie used many Blue guitars since they all stopped "working". )

"Stab my heart like a stick in the mud" ( since blue was full of mud at the 94 woodstock show...)

And about instagram I think it was more a clue than a reference :) and sorry for my bad english

The thing is, I already read the points people made about the mud, and the multible copies, but I still think it is a very forced interpretation. Come on, there is nothing explicitly stated, it's just when people hear "mud", they automatically connect it to Woodstock, and forget the rest of the line and the context in which it stands. "Stab my heart like a stick in the mud/ Cut my chest just to see the blood/ Now I'm singing out the alphabet/ As the tears keep putting out my cigarette". I've underlined all the words that could have something to do with a guitar and/or Woodstock, it's not much... Also the first example you give is even worse, it is followed by "You're the princess I'm a fucking clown/ Stop the presses cause I'm killing time/ Won't you be my bloody valentine", what's that got to do with Blue? You could probably make it fit somehow if you tried hard enough, but the fact that you have to explain why a line is about Blue in brackets, should tell you that it's probably not that self-explanatory or convincing of an argument.

Overall I really do think people can overanalyze on an idea sometimes. In this example you see Billie post a picture and think "could the song be about Blue?", and then forcefully try to make the lyrics fit that concept by only reading those few words that fit if taken out of context.

But in the end the beautiful thing about good songwriting is that nothing is overly explicit, and you can make the whole song all about a man and his guitar, or whatever else, if that's what you want to hear.

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The thing is, I already read the points people made about the mud, and the multible copies, but I still think it is a very forced interpretation. Come on, there is nothing explicitly stated, it's just when people hear "mud", they automatically connect it to Woodstock, and forget the rest of the line and the context in which it stands. "Stab my heart like a stick in the mud/ Cut my chest just to see the blood/ Now I'm singing out the alphabet/ As the tears keep putting out my cigarette". I've underlined all the words that could have something to do with a guitar and/or Woodstock, it's not much... Also the first example you give is even worse, it is followed by "You're the princess I'm a fucking clown/ Stop the presses cause I'm killing time/ Won't you be my bloody valentine", what's that got to do with Blue? The fact that you have to explain why a line is about Blue in paragraphs, should tell you that it's probably not that self-explanatory.

Overall I really do think people can overanalyze on an idea sometimes. In this example you see Billie post a picture and think "could the song be about Blue?", and then forcefully try to make the lyrics fit that concept by only reading those few words that fit if taken out of context.

But the beautiful thing about good songwriting is that nothing is overly explicit, and you can make the whole song all about a man and his guitar if that's what you hear.

This is actually my main interpretation of the song. It's not about Blue the guitar, per se, but it's definitely seems to be about reflecting on how a person deals with heartbreak when they're young; in this case writing songs. Those lines you mention clearly point that out: "Stab my heart like a stick in the mud/ Cut my chest just to see the blood/ Now I'm singing out the alphabet/ As the tears keep putting out my cigarette". It was also once called Teenage Blue, BJ probably changed it to "Angel" to make a different metaphor or to make something less obvious.

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Yeah, I'm of the opinion the Blue theory is a little forced. But it is easy to read a little to much into songs when the songwriting is just that damn good.

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Never really thought about it, but "green with envy" makes perfect sense for the metaphor. :happy:

And: Green with decay as well (brass knuckles left in the rain -- ever see what brass looks like after it's been soaking wet for years?). Awesome metaphor, operating on many different levels all at the same time.
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Just my opinion but I don't see Angel Blue as being about the guitar. Before the picture I thought it was about a young girl and wanting to take her virginity, and I still do really - I guess it could all be weird metaphors relating to his childhood and Blue, but... I can't really see that. I think the "stick in the mud" line is a metaphor for not realising that she's hurting the narrator, like a child mindlessly stabbing at the mud without realising they're doing harm (a reference to the girl's age which he stresses throughout the song). In the boxset version one of the captions on the song is "baby has barely started" which adds to that meaning too.

Here's what I wrote about my interpretation of Angel Blue in my review:
Now the narrator has truly decided to pursue this girl, but she obviously hasn't committed to it yet. I can't help hearing won't you be my bloody Valentine? as we'd say it in England, but it's probably a metaphor for wanting to take the girl's virginity. The lust is as evident as it is in Troublemaker, but there's still hints that it's more than that; Stab my heart like a stick in the mud / Cut my chest just to see the blood / Now I'm singing out the alphabet / As the tears are putting out my cigarette. It's filled with desperation, knowing that she wants to but she won't, and wanting to hurt her in return because she's tearing him apart. There's also the battle with commitment, knowing that this is "wrong" not just because he's married, but a lot of the phrases in the song stress her young age; bloody Valentine / senorita / you're just a fucking kid / teenage traces. (just personal obviously, not implying anything about Billie)

I love reading all the different interpretations though. :D

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for me, angel blue is billie joe himself. like 'blue angel'. it's like he's telling his story about his younger days.

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I vaguely remember in one of the interviews when Uno! came out, Billie said he didn't even know what Nuclear Family was about.

Oh I see that's been covered...sorry.

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I vaguely remember in one of the interviews when Uno! came out, Billie said he didn't even know what Nuclear Family was about.

Oh I see that's been covered...sorry.

Really? haha that's weird.

I gotta say I love Troublemaker, but the lyrics don't make much sense, altough it's like "going in to a party" right? That's the way I see it, and he wants to have sex, of course.

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do they all have to have some kind of meaning behind them? maybe he just liked the way the rhymes fit together haha

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do they all have to have some kind of meaning behind them? maybe he just liked the way the rhymes fit together haha

haha yeah maybe, but every song can have it's own meaning even if he didn't want it.

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Just my opinion but I don't see Angel Blue as being about the guitar. Before the picture I thought it was about a young girl and wanting to take her virginity, and I still do really - I guess it could all be weird metaphors relating to his childhood and Blue, but... I can't really see that. I think the "stick in the mud" line is a metaphor for not realising that she's hurting the narrator, like a child mindlessly stabbing at the mud without realising they're doing harm (a reference to the girl's age which he stresses throughout the song). In the boxset version one of the captions on the song is "baby has barely started" which adds to that meaning too.

Here's what I wrote about my interpretation of Angel Blue in my review:

Now the narrator has truly decided to pursue this girl, but she obviously hasn't committed to it yet. I can't help hearing won't you be my bloody Valentine? as we'd say it in England, but it's probably a metaphor for wanting to take the girl's virginity. The lust is as evident as it is in Troublemaker, but there's still hints that it's more than that; Stab my heart like a stick in the mud / Cut my chest just to see the blood / Now I'm singing out the alphabet / As the tears are putting out my cigarette. It's filled with desperation, knowing that she wants to but she won't, and wanting to hurt her in return because she's tearing him apart. There's also the battle with commitment, knowing that this is "wrong" not just because he's married, but a lot of the phrases in the song stress her young age; bloody Valentine / senorita / you're just a fucking kid / teenage traces. (just personal obviously, not implying anything about Billie)

I love reading all the different interpretations though. :D

yea I completely agree with you!!! this is my interpretaion as well :) I think it is about a young girl and wanting to take her virginity... bloody Valentine / senorita / you're just a fucking kid / teenage traces .. In the boxset version another caption on the song is: It's better to just rip the band aid off..

and before Billie's pic on IG, I thought that maybe "Blue" was a nickname of this young girl....or she has blue hair xD

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