Unreleased Nimrod Session Tracks

[Todd]

Recently, the third page of the Nimrod session song list was revealed in the Green Day: The Ride documentary on MTV. This has sparked a lot of interest in the scrapped tracks of the Nimrod sessions. I've done a bit of investigating, and want to compile what I've found for everyone.

With all these new songs revealed, it raises the question: How many songs were there for Nimrod? Looking back at internet pages from 1997, I've found a few answers. Allstarmag.com reported on March 29th, 1997: "A Reprise spokesperson says they have more than 35 songs already penned". I found another source where Tre Cool is quoted as saying "In fact, we have about 30 songs ready to record. By the time we get into a studio, we'll probably have 50". The book Green Day: Rebels With a Cause reports that there were 40 songs. So let's take a look at how many Nimrod songs we have currently, and what we've yet to hear:

The Album:
01 - Nice Guys Finish Last
02 - Hitchin' a Ride
03 - The Grouch
04 - Redundant
05 - Scattered
06 - All the Time
07 - Worry Rock
08 - Platypus (I Hate You)
09 - Uptight
10 - Last Ride In
11 - Jinx
12 - Haushinka
13 - Walking Alone
14 - Reject
15 - Take Back
16 - King for a Day
17 - Good Riddance
18 - Prosthetic Head

The B-Sides:
19 - Sick of Me (Hitchin' a Ride Single)
20 - Espionage (Hitchin' a Ride Single)
21 - Suffocate (Australian Nimrod/Good Riddance Single)
22 - Desensitized (Australian Nimrod/Good Riddance Single)
23 - You Lied (Australian Nimrod/Good Riddance Single)
24 - Rotting (Good Riddance Single)                                        [Further research shows that these are both leftovers from the Insomniac sessions]
23 - DUI (Cut from Shenanigans)

The Unreleased:
24 - Alfred E. Normal
25 - 19th Nervous Breakdown (Rolling Stones Cover)
26 - You Irritate Me
27 - Idiot
28 - Tony the Tiger
29- Alison (Elvis Costello Cover)
30 - Ugly Day
31 - Slow

Wow! 31/40 songs of the session are now known! Pretty good, right? Well those are just confirmed songs from that list! If we want to get into rumored songs, we can go further! These songs I found from this site: http://www.oocities.org/sunsetstrip/club/4259/nimrod.html
32 - Hairy Guy
33 - World Vs. World
34 - Jump
35 - Laughing Stock

So what do we know about all of these unreleased songs? What about the rumored songs, is there any truth to those? Here's what I've gathered so far
- This site lists that 19th Nervous Breakdown and Alison, both cover songs, were going to be released as b-sides. It's rumored that 19th Nervous Breakdown was never released because Billie wasn't happy with his vocals on it
- Tony the Tiger was reported by Microsoft Music Central to be a cover of "The Frosted Flakes 'Tony The Tiger' theme". It was actually played live on July 19th, 1997 during a secret warm-up show that Green Day performed at the Viper Room in Los Angeles under the name "The Nimrods". A review of the concert mentions the song "after playing a few songs from commercials, such as the "Tony the Tiger" theme". If the song is just a cover of the commercial theme, then it's most likely this song: 

Quite catchy, huh?  

Rumored songs:
- World vs. World is most commonly known as the title for an unreleased Green Day song that was performed from 1988-1990, but it's not the official title of that older song, it was fan assigned. It's very possible that this was the title of a Nimrod session song, and someone assigned the title to the older song. It's unclear when this title first emerged or when people started using it for the older song. 
- Jump is another song that was reportedly played at the Viper Room during that secret show. The same review from above also mentions it. "[Green Day] scarcely tested out their new material, including "Jump" and "Hitching a Ride," from their forthcoming album Nimrod". Maybe it was supposed to be Chump? but if so, it wouldn't be listed as new material, would it? 

So that's what I've found so far, and I wanted to share this with everyone. There's still nothing known about Alfred E. Normal, You Irritate Me, Idiot, Ugly Day, Slow, Hairy Guy, or Laughing Stock. However, Sick of Me and Espionage aren't seen on the list of 29 songs. Perhaps one of the mystery songs could just be an early title for those? 

[Joe K]

Nice investigating! This is very interesting.

[BeautifulNightSky]

Dang, Todd, you have such an eye for detail. Great research.

[End Of The World]

Interesting. Thank you 

[Haushinka!]

Wow Todd, this is so interesting! Great post. "Hairy Guy" has me very intrigued.  

[Shahd]

I'd love to hear those! They seem so interesting, especially Idiot and You Irritate Me!

[bouncingoffthewallbja]

I love Nimrod, so it'd be pretty neat if these songs surfaced one day. Thanks for posting! 

[BeautifulNightSky]

Why am I convinced that the other ska-core song is DUI? "punk with some polka horn lines", as it says--that reminds me of DUI/

Sorry for double posting but I just realized something--Ha Ha You're Dead is a Nimrod outtake, and so is DUI (confirmed by this list). That means that DUI and Ha Ha You're Dead could have both been advertised as both "previously unreleased songs", and if DUI's liner notes weren't sprayed out, it would've likely gave us information about it being recorded around the time of Nimrod.

[Todd]

11 minutes ago, Castaway2000 said:

Why am I convinced that the other ska-core song is DUI? "punk with some polka horn lines", as it says--that reminds me of DUI/

Sorry for double posting but I just realized something--Ha Ha You're Dead is a Nimrod outtake, and so is DUI (confirmed by this list). That means that DUI and Ha Ha You're Dead could have both been advertised as both "previously unreleased songs", and if DUI's liner notes weren't sprayed out, it would've likely gave us information about it being recorded around the time of Nimrod.

Ha Ha You're Dead I believe is NOT a Nimrod outtake. It was recorded at Catbox Studios, which is where Green Day recorded Maria in 2000, where the 2000 Pinhead Gunpowder songs were recorded, and where Billie recorded the 2001 Common Rider songs. They never used Catbox prior to 2000 as far as I'm aware. Also, I'm pretty sure the song is about Tim Yohannan, as is Platypus, and he died in 1998, after Nimrod.

[BeautifulNightSky]

Lol, I thought it was because of Wikipedia. Oops, ha ha ha. Well, the point is this: they could advertise Shenanigans for having two previously-unreleased tracks, right?

[Steven Seagull]

Oh I wanna hear these. Nimrod is so awesome 

[Maddie86]

50 minutes ago, Todd said:

So that's what I've found so far, and I wanted to share this with everyone. There's still nothing known about Alfred E. Normal, You Irritate Me, Idiot, Ugly Day, Slow, Hairy Guy, or Laughing Stock. However, Sick of Me, Espionage, and Rotting aren't seen on the list of 29 songs. Perhaps one of the mystery songs could just be an early title for those? 

first off, great research! I love this shit, especially since nimrod is one of my favorite albums. I wanna point a couple things out though. Espionage wouldn't have been on that list, it's an instrumental and that's a vocal overdub list. but then again, Last Ride in is on it, weird, maybe it originally had vocals! Also, look at the credits from Shenanigans. The nimrod session was recorded by Ken Allardyce and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. Suffocate, Desensitized, and Espionage all list Ken and Chris in the credits. Rotting and You Lied list Kevin Army and Jerry Finn for the recording and mixing credits, so I think it's a safe assumption that those were part of the insomniac sessions. I forget which, but one of the Green Day books I have said that there were 20 or more songs recorded for insomniac, so when you count the 14 on the album plus Rotting, You Lied, Do Da Da, I Wanna Be On TV, and Don't Wanna Fall In Love then that gets you close to filling in that session (maybe the demo of Good Riddance counts for that session too). Now we have Sick of Me left, and I'm not quite sure how this one fits. Sick was recorded by Ken Allardyce, but it was mixed by Neil King, who is the recording (not mix) engineer from Dookie, so that's kinda odd that he would just mix that one song

[Libertine Angel]

1 hour ago, Castaway2000 said:

Why am I convinced that the other ska-core song is DUI? "punk with some polka horn lines", as it says--that reminds me of DUI/

Sorry for double posting but I just realized something--Ha Ha You're Dead is a Nimrod outtake, and so is DUI (confirmed by this list). That means that DUI and Ha Ha You're Dead could have both been advertised as both "previously unreleased songs", and if DUI's liner notes weren't sprayed out, it would've likely gave us information about it being recorded around the time of Nimrod.

Do we know when Jackass was written? That's what I first thought of.

[greendepent]

I knew that Nimrod has a lot songs recorded and released, but now is that lot songs, seems odd that BJ said on "Cuatro" that this record was a "lyrical nightmare". Maybe is because they were trying to hit big with this album. I knew too that Nimrod was planned as a double album, so maybe now this "nightmare" sentence has sense, considering how many songs are inside!

[That Dude]

25 minutes ago, greendepent said:

I knew that Nimrod has a lot songs recorded and released, but now is that lot songs, seems odd that BJ said on "Cuatro" that this record was a "lyrical nightmare". Maybe is because they were trying to hit big with this album. I knew too that Nimrod was planned as a double album, so maybe now this "nightmare" sentence has sense, considering how many songs are inside!

Could have been a 90's Trilogy!  Nimrod! Dumbo! PLATYPUS!

Aaaaaaaaaaaand they would have flopped, except for the one with "Good Riddance" on it.  

HAHA!    

 

[Todd]

1 hour ago, Kyle Serlington said:

first off, great research! I love this shit, especially since nimrod is one of my favorite albums. I wanna point a couple things out though. Espionage wouldn't have been on that list, it's an instrumental and that's a vocal overdub list. but then again, Last Ride in is on it, weird, maybe it originally had vocals! Also, look at the credits from Shenanigans. The nimrod session was recorded by Ken Allardyce and mixed by Chris Lord-Alge. Suffocate, Desensitized, and Espionage all list Ken and Chris in the credits. Rotting and You Lied list Kevin Army and Jerry Finn for the recording and mixing credits, so I think it's a safe assumption that those were part of the insomniac sessions. I forget which, but one of the Green Day books I have said that there were 20 or more songs recorded for insomniac, so when you count the 14 on the album plus Rotting, You Lied, Do Da Da, I Wanna Be On TV, and Don't Wanna Fall In Love then that gets you close to filling in that session (maybe the demo of Good Riddance counts for that session too). Now we have Sick of Me left, and I'm not quite sure how this one fits. Sick was recorded by Ken Allardyce, but it was mixed by Neil King, who is the recording (not mix) engineer from Dookie, so that's kinda odd that he would just mix that one song

Good research on your end too! I checked You Lied on my Good Riddance single to see if the mixing/engineer guys matched up when writing my post, and You Lied lists Ken Allardyce and mixed by Richard Dodd. I didn't think to check Shenanigans. So that's really odd that it's completely different in Shenanigans. I don't know what to think about that! That's weird about Sick of Me too.

[Libertine Angel]

As to Don't Wanna Fall In Love that's in the Dookie demos so does that work for the Insomniac count?

[Todd]

8 minutes ago, Libertine Angel said:

As to Don't Wanna Fall In Love that's in the Dookie demos so does that work for the Insomniac count?

Well it was recorded for Insomniac. Scattered was written during the Dookie sessions too, wasn't it? and Haushinka was written in 92. I guess what we're focusing on is what songs they were trying to record for the album, not what songs they wrote for the album. 

 

[Libertine Angel]

8 minutes ago, Todd said:

Well it was recorded for Insomniac. Scattered was written during the Dookie sessions too, wasn't it? and Haushinka was written in 92. I guess what we're focusing on is what songs they were trying to record for the album, not what songs they wrote for the album.

Ah right, I was unaware of that, didn't know about Scattered too.

[WhiteTim]

21 minutes ago, Todd said:

Good research on your end too! I checked You Lied on my Good Riddance single to see if the mixing/engineer guys matched up when writing my post, and You Lied lists Ken Allardyce and mixed by Richard Dodd. I didn't think to check Shenanigans. So that's really odd that it's completely different in Shenanigans. I don't know what to think about that! That's weird about Sick of Me too.

yeah Shenanigans has Jerry Finn for Rotting and You Lied I believe the AUS Nimrod had the same info but i don't have the case for that one anymore so can't check for it 

[Todd]

Just now, WhiteTim said:

yeah Shenanigans has Jerry Finn for Rotting and You Lied I believe the AUS Nimrod had the same info but i don't have the case for that one anymore so can't check for it 

I have it, didn't remember the booklet saying anything about the bonus tracks, but I just checked. You Lied says mixed by Richard Dodd and Engineered by Ken Allardyce, Do Da Da is the only one on there with Jerry Finn and Kevin Army. So it's Nimrod credits and Good Riddance credits vs Shenanigan credits

[WhiteTim]

Just now, Todd said:

I have it, didn't remember the booklet saying anything about the bonus tracks, but I just checked. You Lied says mixed by Richard Dodd and Engineered by Ken Allardyce, Do Da Da is the only one on there with Jerry Finn and Kevin Army. So it's Nimrod credits and Good Riddance credits vs Shenanigan credits

then I'd go with the Nimrod ones which makes sense cause they didn't really sound like Insomniac songs 

[Todd]

Just now, WhiteTim said:

then I'd go with the Nimrod ones which makes sense cause they didn't really sound like Insomniac songs 

The only thing that checks out is Rotting. Both the Good Riddance single and Shenanigans show that it was recorded during the Insomniac sessions, which I never suspected! So that's cool to know now. 

[WhiteTim]

2 minutes ago, Todd said:

The only thing that checks out is Rotting. Both the Good Riddance single and Shenanigans show that it was recorded during the Insomniac sessions, which I never suspected! So that's cool to know now. 

was Shenanigans put together by GD or Warner? 

[Todd]

6 minutes ago, WhiteTim said:

was Shenanigans put together by GD or Warner? 

I have no clue. If I had to guess, I'd guess Warner? But then the inclusion then exclusion of DUI makes it hard to guess