Green Day Q&A Thread

[jengd]

The consensus seems to 5’7” whatever that is in metric 😂

[Hermione]

Billie claims 5'8" ("I'm only about 5'8" he said) but I think that's only in his dreams . The consensus of 5'7" seems accurate, he's about an inch taller than Tre and no more than 2 or 3 inches shorter than Mike. So yeah he'd be about 1.70 m

[Guest]

I was just discussing lyrics in another thread and it made me think of Nice Guys Finish Last. English isn't my first language so my question is; what the fuck does "pressure cooker pick my brain" mean?! I get the rest of the song but that one line I don't understand at all. I understand the individual words of it but WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN? 

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

5 minutes ago, Nightlife said:

I was just discussing lyrics in another thread and it made me think of Nice Guys Finish Last. English isn't my first language so my question is; what the fuck does "pressure cooker pick my brain" mean?! I get the rest of the song but that one line I don't understand at all. I understand the individual words of it but WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY MEAN? 

I had the same question for a long time and then I figured out that "pick someone's brain" means (to ask someone questions in order to find out what they know about something) but what does a pressure cooker have to do with it??? It must be some wordplay?

And don't get started on how long it took me to understand Hitchin A Ride.  One day I picked up this huge dictionary and it was a revelation of a lifetime lol

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, Beerjeezus said:

I had the same question for a long time and then I figured out that "pick someone's brain" means (to ask someone questions in order to find out what they know about something) but what does a pressure cooker have to do with it??? It must be some wordplay?

And don't get started on how long it took me to understand Hitchin A Ride.  One day I picked up this huge dictionary and it was a revelation of a lifetime lol

Yeah same, I get the pick my brain part but what's up with the pressure cooker??????? I've spent way too many hours wondering about this. 

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

Just now, Nightlife said:

Yeah same, I get the pick my brain part but what's up with the pressure cooker??????? I've spent way too many hours wondering about this. 

Yes, exactly!!! It must be something - I'd be so disappointed if it was random after all that thinking about it. 

[pacejunkie punk]

3 minutes ago, Nightlife said:

Yeah same, I get the pick my brain part but what's up with the pressure cooker??????? I've spent way too many hours wondering about this. 

A pressure cooker just describes a high stress environment and “pick my brain and tell me I’m insane” is him asking himself if he’s stressed out or going crazy, kind of a similar idea to Basket Case.

[Hermione]

I'd never heard this before it came up discussing the song in the past but apparently "pressure cooker" can be a slang term for a psychiatrist/shrink. Before that I thought it was just the high stress situation thing too but that makes a lot of sense, like he's telling the shrink to pick his brain and tell him he's insane (although I think he probably also chose to use that particular phrase to bring to mind pressure/stress so it's a bit of both).

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

6 minutes ago, Hermione said:

I'd never heard this before it came up discussing the song in the past but apparently "pressure cooker" can be a slang term for a psychiatrist/shrink. Before that I thought it was just the high stress situation thing too but that makes a lot of sense, like he's telling the shrink to pick his brain and tell him he's insane (although I think he probably also chose to use that particular phrase to bring to mind pressure/stress so it's a bit of both).

 mind blown etc

[The Blayr]

I'd been wondering about that pressure cooker line lately too and I haven't even been on gdc 😂. I'm so in sync with all the Green Day fans of the world lol

[jengd]

I have seen a couple of things recently about a memorial concert for Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) and all quote Billie as saying that he, Mike and Tre covered Ever Fallen In Love With Someone as best they could.  I have never heard this but know Billie did an acoustic version when Pete died.  I can find Billie's version (which is great by the way if you missed it) and a crappy phone version of the full band but does anyone know of a better version lurking anywhere?

[pouty bitch]

1 hour ago, jengd said:

I have seen a couple of things recently about a memorial concert for Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) and all quote Billie as saying that he, Mike and Tre covered Ever Fallen In Love With Someone as best they could.  I have never heard this but know Billie did an acoustic version when Pete died.  I can find Billie's version (which is great by the way if you missed it) and a crappy phone version of the full band but does anyone know of a better version lurking anywhere?

I think that crappy phone recording on Youtube is the only version online unfortunately. What bothers me even more is the fact that they played it at Reading Festival in 2004, which was pro shot but only a few of the songs from the set were actually aired and the Buzzcocks cover wasn't one of them, so there's probably some pro shot footage of it out there that we might never see.

[pacejunkie punk]

Anyone have any idea what “dead skin on trial” means? Has he ever said? 

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

20 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Anyone have any idea what “dead skin on trial” means? Has he ever said? 

I have a feeling it's connected to "tattooes of memories"...tattooes are permanent in contrast with "dead skin on trial". But I can't make a good guess of what he meant by dead skin. 

[Marki.]

I wish Billie gave explanations to more of his lyrics, it's always really interesting to hear them. 

I always thought of "tattoos of memories" as referring to nice memories you want to hold on to and "dead skin on trial" as referring to the moments you scrutinize your decisions/things you did in the past, beat yourself up for past mistakes ("dead skin") and put yourself metaphorically "on trial". And then it's followed by "for what it's worth, it was worth all the while", which is a kind of reassurance, stating that it's not worth it to beat yourself up over the past.

[pacejunkie punk]

10 minutes ago, Marki. said:

I wish Billie gave explanations to more of his lyrics, it's always really interesting to hear them. 

I always thought of "tattoos of memories" as referring to nice memories you want to hold on to and "dead skin on trial" as referring to the moments you scrutinize your decisions/things you did in the past, beat yourself up for past mistakes ("dead skin") and put yourself metaphorically "on trial". And then it's followed by "for what it's worth, it was worth all the while", which is a kind of reassurance, stating that it's not worth it to beat yourself up over the past.

Oh I really like that, so like the opposite of “tattoos of memories” it’s the ink that reminds you of mistakes or bad times. 

[Asik]

14 minutes ago, Marki. said:

I wish Billie gave explanations to more of his lyrics, it's always really interesting to hear them. 

I always thought of "tattoos of memories" as referring to nice memories you want to hold on to and "dead skin on trial" as referring to the moments you scrutinize your decisions/things you did in the past, beat yourself up for past mistakes ("dead skin") and put yourself metaphorically "on trial". And then it's followed by "for what it's worth, it was worth all the while", which is a kind of reassurance, stating that it's not worth it to beat yourself up over the past.

Not sure, but dead skin might be a reference to molting of insects/crayfish etc, when they leave their old skin behind, and evolve/move on.

[Goofygoldfish]

4 hours ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Anyone have any idea what “dead skin on trial” means? Has he ever said? 

I always interpreted this... Tattoos are pretty permanent, so remind you of events and times gone by, good or bad. Dead skin on trial, I associated with the tattoos and skin they're on, that those memories and tattoos themselves may not be ones you wish to revisit. If you decide (by trial!) that you no longer want to be reminded of something, you can get them removed or as Billie does, covered. 

[Slave To The Network]

While we're talking about lyrics, what the heck is up with "You made your bed in salad..."?

[Guest]

30 minutes ago, Green Day In Seattle said:

While we're talking about lyrics, what the heck is up with "You made your bed in salad..."?

From Wikipedia: 

Salad days is a Shakespearean idiomaticexpression meaning a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person. A more modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a heyday, a period when somebody was at the peak of their abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth. 

[Hermione]

Yeah it's "salad days", it's referring to her younger days/youth (which in her case is the present or recent past I guess)

Gloria, where are you Gloria?
You found a home
In all your scars and ammunition
You made your bed in salad days
Amongst the ruins
Ashes to ashes of our youth

So I think the complete verse is referring to making a life in troubled circumstances (finding a home in it/making her bed in it) and then the last line is about how going through that stuff puts an end to youth/innocence. Not totally sure about it though

If there was just a line that said "you made your bed in salad" it would definitely be puzzling , I'm going to hear it that way whenever I listen to it now.

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

This thing he does when he throws in a line like salad days or the scarlet letter or "future ain't just what it used to be" is just sneaky. It's not the kind of influences you'd expect to hear in pop-punk lyrics and at first sight it sometimes looks like he's grouping random words together. 

[jengd]

And I love that he mixes it up, two well know phrases like "made your bed, now lie in it" and "salad days" and he's brought them together, he's awesome!

[DeJennsitized]

A lot of the times with Billie's lyrics I think "god that sounds so good but I don't understand it"  never knew that about pressure cooker, that's really cool - I just assumed he was referring to himself as a pressure cooker, and that 'pick my brain' was a new sentence. 😛 Dead skin on trial always got me though. 

[BilIie Joe Armstrong]

39 minutes ago, DeJennsitized said:

A lot of the times with Billie's lyrics I think "god that sounds so good but I don't understand it"  

Exactly. And then we say he's a dumbass, but in fact we are