Jump to content

Blasphemy & Genocide: Unpopular Green Day Opinions, Part 2


Spike

Recommended Posts

Hey, when I realized I'd accidentally double-posted I had to do something. :P

Macy's is great, but there's just so many spectacular Warning songs--Castaway, Blood Sex and Booze, Misery, Fashion Victim, Minority--and, while I'm sure it wasn't intended this way, it can come off as an inferior attempt at another Good Riddance.

I'd already deleted your post and had to restore it after I saw you'd edited it :lol:

Yeah, I see what you mean. That said, I much prefer Macy's to Good Riddance, they're not even in the same league. The lyrics have always hit me hard, whereas Good Riddance always just struck me as quite good. That's probably unpopular in itself...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, when I realized I'd accidentally double-posted I had to do something. :P

Macy's is great, but there's just so many spectacular Warning songs--Castaway, Blood Sex and Booze, Misery, Fashion Victim, Minority--and, while I'm sure it wasn't intended this way, it can come off as an inferior attempt at another Good Riddance.

For the love of God, man. STAHP.

Eh, track list placement. Check. Acoustic. Check. That's about it for me. Different songs in my opinion. I do, however, see Warning as a copycat of Walking Contradiction. Same goes for the music video

Link to comment
Share on other sites

:mellow: Interesting. Go on?

They both have that witty, play on words type of lyrics, and the music videos appear to be a visual representation of this as well. "Shenanigans ensue..." essentially. Lyrically, Warning also carries the obvious relationship with Minority - "sanitation, expiration date. Question everything! Or shut up and be a victim of authority"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They both have that witty, play on words type of lyrics, and the music videos appear to be a visual representation of this as well. "Shenanigans ensue..." essentially. Lyrically, Warning also carries the obvious relationship with Minority - "sanitation, expiration date. Question everything! Or shut up and be a victim of authority"

Plenty of Green Day songs have witty plays on words, though. That's kind of Billie's thing as a lyricist. Same with music videos, "shenanigans ensue" seems to be a running theme through a lot of their videos - Holiday? American Idiot? Hell, even the bit where he takes the phone off the hook in When I Come Around :lol:. The link with Minority makes more sense because they're both political statements on a relatively political album, whereas Walking Contradiction is far more personal.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm referring to their stories, not the environments they're in—Star Wars is famous for being the most archetypal, standard Hero's Journey of all time because Lucas wrote it to channel the monomyth.

All stories are about heroes in one way or another. I don't see your point being valid here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All stories are about heroes in one way or another. I don't see your point being valid here.

Not true. Many of the best stories have no clear hero in them. For example.

  • Macbeth
  • Breaking Bad
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Clockwork Orange
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I much prefer Macy's to Good Riddance, they're not even in the same league. The lyrics have always hit me hard, whereas Good Riddance always just struck me as quite good. That's probably unpopular in itself...

Oh God, without a doubt, I prefer Macy's. I like Good Riddance well enough and its (albeit kind of misguided) sentimentality is lovely, especially at the end of the concerts, but God, Macy's is just, God, I love it so much that I find it difficult to explain exactly why I love it, yknow? Good Riddance is a song you can kind of sing along with a wink and a nod, but the sentiment in Macy's can hit you hard, like you said. It's one of the songs where I most strongly feel like I'm getting a look into Billie's thoughts and feelings; the bridge just feels so melancholy and sometimes gut-punching in its simplicity. I don't crie everytiem, but many tiem :lol:

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not true. Many of the best stories have no clear hero in them. For example.

  • Macbeth
  • Breaking Bad
  • A Christmas Carol
  • Clockwork Orange

Depends on what your definition of hero is. Mine is synonymous with protagonist. There will always be at least one character that things revolve around, therefore there's always a hero.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Depends on what your definition of hero is. Mine is synonymous with protagonist. There will always be at least one character that things revolve around, therefore there's always a hero.

7OtiJOR.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7OtiJOR.png

Figured you'd do this. Still disagree. I think this is how the modern world and industry has made people view it, and there definitely is a broader sense to the word hero than just that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Figured you'd do this. Still disagree. I think this is how the modern world and industry has made people view it, and there definitely is a broader sense to the word hero than just that.

You've got it backwards. The idea of the pure hero is the oldest in storytelling, beginning with The Iliad and The Odyssey and even the Bible. What you're referring to is the anti-hero which has become vastly more popular in the last 50 years or so.

UrI49e4.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good Riddance is alright. I can see why it's a concert closer, but the album version is nothing special.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good Riddance has this thing where at times, you can relate so deeply to it. Most other times it's just a nice song, but then occasionally it just hits bullseye. How tumblr would've said it a while ago, right in the feels.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You've got it backwards. The idea of the pure hero is the oldest in storytelling, beginning with The Iliad and The Odyssey and even the Bible. What you're referring to is the anti-hero which has become vastly more popular in the last 50 years or so.

UrI49e4.png

This one, I agree with. Now back to my argument of all stories being about heroes in some sense, that also includes the anti-hero idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

All stories are about heroes in one way or another. I don't see your point being valid here.

You're missing my point. The Hero's Journey is a specific story structure, one that Star Wars cribs from almost exactly. Includes:

-young everyman is called to action by older mentor

-inherits his father's sword

-gets companions

-performs a rescue

-is trained to gain power

-goes through an underworld of testing/is captured and escapes

-goes to destroy/be reconciled with his father

Starting to sound familiar? :P

I know it's practically required of all Green Day fans that they heartily roll their eyes at Good Riddance, but I listened to it for the first time in a few months the other day and it just really struck me, both the music and the lyrics. It's really a great song on its own even when all the hype, concert sentimentality, etc., have been stripped away.

I think zackjones and I are the only people in this thread who unironically love that song 100% of the time. :P
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I feel like now would be a good time to post the isolated vocal track from Homecoming. How could anyone ever claim it's anything short of perfect? From Billie's raw intro, to Mike's harmonies throughout most of the song, the filters and delay, Mike and Tre's lead parts... oh my god. This really showcases what sets them apart from other punk bands: backing vocals. The same goes for Jesus of Suburbia. Fantastic.

Billie's vocals are fucking perfect.

Edited by Not Anyone.
Video quote!
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Past unpopular opinion: "Prosthetic Head" used to be my favorite Green Day album closer.

Then I had my heart broken by a girl I loved for the first time. Lo and behold, it changed to "Whatsername". Funny how that'll change your perspective on things.

:P

I dunno why but I always though Prosthetic Head leads on to Warning nicely
Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're missing my point. The Hero's Journey is a specific story structure, one that Star Wars cribs from almost exactly. Includes:

-young everyman is called to action by older mentor

-inherits his father's sword

-gets companions

-performs a rescue

-is trained to gain power

-goes through an underworld of testing/is captured and escapes

-goes to destroy/be reconciled with his father

Starting to sound familiar? :P

Wait you lost me here, what was your point again? Ceadog got me distracted from what you were trying to say.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wait you lost me here, what was your point again? Ceadog got me distracted from what you were trying to say.

My point was that it doesn't matter if a story is a common one, because lots of masterpieces have incredibly common stories. All that matters is that it tells that story well, which, IMHO, AI does.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My point was that it doesn't matter if a story is a common one, because lots of masterpieces have incredibly common stories. All that matters is that it tells that story well, which, IMHO, AI does.

It does indeed tell a story. But this idea is much more than common, it's basically cliche, this is where the problem is. I don't think it would bother me as much if it was just somewhat common, not a subject that every (pop-)punk band has to cover in at least a few of their songs. I guess this exasperation comes exactly from the fact that some shitty bands have very well coattail-ridden on such ideas for songs (well, at least not albums as far as I'm aware of.. so that's kinda good).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • lizziebix featured this topic

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...