Green Day is already going straight into the studio?

[emmericanidiot]

Jeeeeeesus Christ I came on here to have a nice little read and it’s like essay central in this thread.

I honestly don’t know if I’m alone in this but I don’t have anything specific I want them to do now, I’d just be happy with whatever. I don’t ever really think about the next thing because I like the surprise. Like when it’s a 20 track rap album about coffee.

[gaslight13]

10 hours ago, Hero_Of_The_Hour said:

Billie has given quite a lot of interviews both in print and on tv/radio discussing the meaning of various songs off Revrad. Since he wrote the lyrics I'd suggest looking up his explanations. They tend to vary from fan interpretations. One small example of one of his numerous explanations.

Some fans are going to read "Still Breathing" as a song about your personal issues these past few years, but it seems to be more universal than just your own story.
"I try to. I don't wanna be selfish. [Laughs] I'd rather write something where my eyes are forward, not so much internal. I hope it makes people happy and creates a difference in some way, just by people recognizing themselves in the song." A junkie on the verge of death, a gambler about to lose everything and a wounded soldier on the front lines are all characters in a slow-building, unsettling track. "That was a very heavy song," says Armstrong. "Sometimes I run away from being too heavy. But sometimes it just comes out that way." The chorus, "I'm still breathing on my own" alludes to the fact that "at some point, we're all going to have to be on life support," says Armstrong. "As time goes on, your thoughts get darker." 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/billie-joe-armstrong-on-green-days-topical-new-lp-w433483

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/green-days-revolution-radio-a-track-by-track-guide-w441350

 

There is another interview I have read or saw where he stated the "you" he's making his way back to in SB is himself as it's about finally being able to breathe by yourself again.

Yeah, I’ve read that answer on Still Breathing. I don’t think it really contradicts the personal explanation though. I imagine he wrote it from a fairly personal place and as he kind described, made a point to draw a connection with various other people/situations. I take the “I’m like a....” lines literally. Like he’s saying he’s going through this stuff and it’s like all these other kinds of people who are also going through things. I think a lot of his songs come from a personal place or describe personal things but he views/writes them in a way that’s meant to make them accessible to everyone. 

[Montclare]

1 hour ago, emmericanidiot said:

Jeeeeeesus Christ I came on here to have a nice little read and it’s like essay central in this thread.

I honestly don’t know if I’m alone in this but I don’t have anything specific I want them to do now, I’d just be happy with whatever. I don’t ever really think about the next thing because I like the surprise. Like when it’s a 20 track rap album about coffee.

Same here.  I rarely speculate on what the next album is going to be for any band because it's impossible to know.  And Green Day has never disappointed me, so I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever they wind up doing, whether it be concept or not, personal or political, broad or targeted, etc.

[LaughingClock]

4 hours ago, ¡Jenn! said:

I'm also not a fan of self-titled albums, and I'm not sure GD would be the type of band to do one - especially as they're such fans of concepts (in whatever form it takes.) I feel each album they've done has had a theme, and they title the album accordingly. I think they'd feel just calling it Green Day is lazy.

Also, would cause confusion since they already have a self titled song  

Funny, I was just thinking of that today.  You guys think that because I break down lyrics and read into poetry of it because with Billie I love the music and the lyrics almost mutually and there is zero band I can say that about with the notable exception of Queen (who by no coincidence is Billie's hero).   Billie has a few years on me, not many but our influences in rock music would definitely fall into the same category.  Mercury had a way of being charismatic, believable, vulnerable, sexy, loving, caring, sexy, and musical all at the same time and there are so few who can pull that off for so many years. I can only imagine what Queen would have come up with had he not gotten sick.  Billie would not argue that the singing range and ability of Mercury is not even in the same league as in (now that's not to say it's "better" as some people love Bob Dylan's voice) but Billie couldn't make an operatic album with one of the great opera singers of all time.  All that said, I don't just put on some music and listen to it and try to figure it all out, it's only once I become sort of in love with the album that I want to dig deeper ad of course speaking with others.  I didn't think much of the lyrics (literally I mean I didn't put brain power to it) until I started falling in love with The Nows.  When SN and FN bookended the album and it all occurred to me, I started digging deeper.  Here is how oblivious I am to what is being payed. I haven't spent a ton of time listening to the new GH album but I must admit, I threw it on today and after 1 or 2 listens (as I am pretty done with every song on that album in the car, live different story), I only just today noticed it was chronological.  LOL.  

 

[LaughingClock]

On 11/30/2017 at 8:23 AM, gaslight13 said:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Haha, WOW that's a lot. Not knocking you though. I tend to get carried away too, I just waste entirely too much of my life trying to shorten my posts. I skim read the poetry part though I'll likely read closer later as I'm definitely interested to get into other writing that uses a similar style to what Billie does. Anyway, I'll probably have more thoughts on that when I've had a chance to read a bit closer.

Regarding your replies to me, when talking about the "I'll put it off another day" line. OF COURSE I don't want him to spell everything out in an obvious way, however, there's poetic tricky lines that make you work for their real meaning, and then there's lines that even when you figure out their real meaning, are just too much of a stretch. To me, this is the latter. As I said, sometimes I get stuff right away (even not "obvious" lines), sometimes I have to work for it, or someone else offers an idea and it changes my perspective. I love that. It's the best kind of writing. I just think this one missed the mark. It's not like a pride thing because I didn't pick up on it initially. I'm not that fragile when it comes to my thoughts being challenged. It's that, now that I do see it that way, I don't think it works. Generally speaking, this kind of thing impresses me whether or not I picked up on it without help, just not in this case. I guess I see what you mean about it not being all THAT sneaky in the sense that if someone considers the context and placement, the literal meaning doesn't fit so it has to be the meaning you said. However, I still think it's a bizarre and ineffective way to word that line rather than tricky and clever. Maybe that's just me. In which case, I would concede. But for now I stand with my original thought that the line doesn't really work. So yeah we probably have to agree to disagree on this one, haha.

Re: Still Breathing. Cool, I thought you were saying something else entirely but glad we're on the same page. I didn't think that was a hard one to interpret but it's one of my favorite parts of the song lyrically as I find it incredibly relatable. Definitely a beautiful example of his writing.

Re: "I want to hold you like a gun..." Okay, that possibility had definitely crossed my mind and I couldn't think of anything else that made sense but I wasn't confident. Regarding "shoot the moon into the sun", I see what you're saying there though what is lifeless and small? The person he's having sex with? I feel like that doesn't fit with how Billie talks about women. I thought of it in the context of indicating time passage. Sort of like he wants to have sex all night into the morning. I have no doubt that he thinks about every lyric. He's talked quite a bit about how painstakingly he works on the lyrics so I never thought of it as like a throw away lyric. I actually like it better now running with this interpretation rather than questioning it.

I actually do like Leonard Cohen, though admittedly I haven't spent a ton of time really diving into his work. That's something I'll definitely do at some point. I actually don't think Billie's that difficult to decipher usually (though that's not a knock at him), but I have no doubt LC is much of the time. Can't really speak to it though because as I said, I haven't really made much of an attempt. 
 

I apologize but I don't really follow you here. Are you arguing that it means what it seems to originally as in, he's going to procrastinate? That's how I'm taking your points but then @LaughingClock "loved" your post so I'm guessing it's the opposite? haha.  



 

Sorry, I read this right away but I didn't want to respond on my phone as I feel I have too much to say and didn't feel like typing it up on my phone.  I will give you my thoughts on my thoughts. And again, with some minor exception on SN, SB and FN, they are just my thoughts.  Even the metaphors in the actual song show that the song is interpretable to everyone and everything.  I mean the song is no doubt about Billie and his drug rehabilitation but it's appropriate in so many other ways, again, even in the lyrics as he says "I'm like a ......",  "I'm like a....."...etc.  Those things show that a person in those exact situation can relate to the song in their own way much like BOBD.

Please read the poetry part as I put that there just for you.  I actually spent some time formatting that and picking out the most easy to understand part and how it exacts the circular nature of humanity that Billie has been writing about for almost two decades.  And by the way, even though Billie I say has been writing with more circular type poetic pros over the last couple decades, that's not to say he hasn't been writing lyrics that pop people's brains and make them think or just get excited such as the infamous "When masturbation's lost its fun.  You're fucking lonely".  Of course everyone says that sounds like the lyrics of a listless bunch of punks who are trying to get a rise and it's such a great lyric.  It's vulnerable.  He's talking about his issues as a younger man here.  This song was written when he was pretty much a kid and here he is writing about, again, while showing the thing that (when you're a teenager/young adult) that if you can't even enjoy one of the pleasures of being alone, you're lonely. It's a simply lyric but it's pretty fucking good. I wrote a whole soliloquy about "Welcome to Paradise" which was obviously written about the slums they lived in as they were younger but they still loved it besides "Welcome to this place that I like to call my home...a gunshot rings out in the staton...it makes me wonder why I'm still here....and I'm never gonna go".  I am of the opinion that the whole song is applicable to today and America.  He doesn't live in the slums but this is his home and Billie is extraordinarily patriotic.  Of course red necks would disagree but he could pick up and leave to any town or country in the world and live there happily and peacefully but he never left the bay area and he never left America regardless of the fact that in a different way America is now a "slum". Not literally but it's not the America of the 50s-80s.  I mean there are better civil rights and shit like that but schools still teach lies, we are war mongers, mass shootings, stupid people in government, child molesters running for fucking office.  That's a different kind of slum but Billie wants to revolutionize.  He's a modern day Hamilton.  Came up from noting and made a name for himself and instead of writing the Federalist Papers and The Constitution, he writes American Idiot, Twentieth Century Breakdown, and Revolution Radio.  

Where was I?  I sometimes just go off track.  I was responding to a couple things that you were on about that I wrote in my last long post.  On the poetry part, just read the poem on "Joy and Sorrow" and tell me if Billie was an 18th century Lebanese philosopher/poet that he couldn't have written that.

Regarding your replies to me, when talking about the "I'll put it off another day" line. OF COURSE I don't want him to spell everything out in an obvious way, however, there's poetic tricky lines that make you work for their real meaning, and then there's lines that even when you figure out their real meaning, are just too much of a stretch. To me, this is the latter. As I said, sometimes I get stuff right away (even not "obvious" lines), sometimes I have to work for it, or someone else offers an idea and it changes my perspective. I love that. It's the best kind of writing. I just think this one missed the mark. It's not like a pride thing because I didn't pick up on it initially. I'm not that fragile when it comes to my thoughts being challenged. It's that, now that I do see it that way, I don't think it works. Generally speaking, this kind of thing impresses me whether or not I picked up on it without help, just not in this case. I guess I see what you mean about it not being all THAT sneaky in the sense that if someone considers the context and placement, the literal meaning doesn't fit so it has to be the meaning you said. However, I still think it's a bizarre and ineffective way to word that line rather than tricky and clever. Maybe that's just me. In which case, I would concede. But for now I stand with my original thought that the line doesn't really work. So yeah we probably have to agree to disagree on this one, haha.

That's cool and the gang, I am not trying to convince you to think like me, I am only giving you my thoughts.  You're certainly entitled to your's.

Re: Still Breathing. Cool, I thought you were saying something else entirely but glad we're on the same page. I didn't think that was a hard one to interpret but it's one of my favorite parts of the song lyrically as I find it incredibly relatable. Definitely a beautiful example of his writing.

Perfect example of where everyone is different.  I have had more discussion about this and trying to convince people what the lines about the wreckage and the light mean, way more so that what you disagree with me as stated above.

Re: "I want to hold you like a gun..." Okay, that possibility had definitely crossed my mind and I couldn't think of anything else that made sense but I wasn't confident. Regarding "shoot the moon into the sun", I see what you're saying there though what is lifeless and small? The person he's having sex with? I feel like that doesn't fit with how Billie talks about women. I thought of it in the context of indicating time passage. Sort of like he wants to have sex all night into the morning. I have no doubt that he thinks about every lyric. He's talked quite a bit about how painstakingly he works on the lyrics so I never thought of it as like a throw away lyric. I actually like it better now running with this interpretation rather than questioning it.

Okay, if you are with me on the noting of that part being a sexual line, and it is, the whole thing reeks of sexuality.   "I want to hold you like a gun, we'll shoot the moon into the sun", I must again reiterate that I wish that I didn't bring that up but it was so universally panned as just a line that he put in there to rhyme or all kinds of reasons, and I know Billie doesn't write like that, that it means were not just buddies.  I want to hold you like a gun just conjures up images of sexuality (and I apologize to anyone who gets offended, as I know their are kids all over this forum which is also why I didn't want to bring up this line) and so does "shooting" and no I don't mean the person that he is holding like a gun is lifeless. I meant that the phrase "we'll shoot the moon into the sun" is we will take this lifeless MOON (as I am sure you know the moon is a lifeless dusty nothing that orbits us) and we will shoot it into the sun making it hot and fiery "the sun".  So yeah, just that.  As he is loving all over Addie in this song he is saying "I want to take you and not have boring lifeless sex with you but I want to hold you and fire you to the hottest known place in the universe".  Make better sense what I was saying?

I actually do like Leonard Cohen, though admittedly I haven't spent a ton of time really diving into his work. That's something I'll definitely do at some point. I actually don't think Billie's that difficult to decipher usually (though that's not a knock at him), but I have no doubt LC is much of the time. Can't really speak to it though because as I said, I haven't really made much of an attempt. 

I am somehow not surprised that you like LC.  I would probably guess there are about 3 people on this forum that do and based on what you were writing, I thought you would and I cited "Famous Blue Raincoat" as an aside to how really deep poetry can get in a song.  That song has been debated by some of the best poets in the modern world.  But if you ask Leonard Cohen (RIP, he died last year, six months after I saw him at the Nokia) if he was a musician or a poet, he would say a poet.  He is a poet.  He was writing books on poetry long before he ever wrote a song.  He learned a few chords and started putting his lyrics to music so he could earn a living. That he had a musical career that lasted over 50 years and never picked up an instrument and learned how to play in until he was 36 is nothing short of astonishing.  This was his first major hit, and most people here I would believe wold hate it but it's actually an easier song to understand.  He used to be a gypsy, he was also once a monk and spent about 2 years in a buddhist monastery in LA without uttering a word.  He was a certified Buddhist Monk at one point.  He is one of the most interesting people on the planet when he was alive.  He also put all of his music into the public domain so people can cover his songs and release them for free.  He declared that about 25 years ago or something (hence the reason, "Hallelujah" is the second most covered song in the world next to "Yesterday" by Sir Paul and the Beatles.  Go listen to the song "Suzanne" by him.  It's about the love he had for his mentor's wife who he was madly in love with but they were gypsies and admitting these type of things was not considered taboo.  He released this song and was still good friends with Suzanne's husband.  Ah fuck it, I'll post it:

My point of this is while some of Billie's lyrics are highly interpretable and poetic, it doesn't even touch actual poetry in which people that listen to music for the sake of music don't want to take the time to sit there and make a lesson out of learning what the fuck the song's about.  This is one of his easier to understand songs and yet it probably makes no sense to most people. I am one who likes to study these type of things. I am definitely a lover of pros.  The more meaning you can fit in tighter spaces, the better (and yes I know the irony of my famously long posts contradict that but I also write poetry daily as my own therapy).  I'll even post a couple here of my own work.

Here is another great, and easy to understand LC song called "Everybody Knows" and it's a song about the world and how everything in the world is fucked.  This song was written sometimes in the 90s.  This song was popularized a little in the movie starring Christian Slater "Pump Up The Volume" which is an awesome film and you should all watch it.

And finally a song that he wrote (the one that was in Natural Born Killers) where he does something he doesn't normally does, and Billie does all the time where he becomes the character that wants the shit in the world as he says "give me this...give me that...".  It's a great song and talks about all the terrible things in the world that we have done and he uses some things that aren't necessarily on their face a bad thing but the way he puts them, makes them bad sounding by their placement and execution.  He plays the bad roles in this character demanding "Absolute control" and "Lay beside me baby, that's an order".  Amazing song. (added the lyrical one I found so you can see the lyrics).  This song was written maybe 20+ years ago, prophetic?

 Might as well end on the song that everyone thinks that Jeff Buckley wrote because he probably has the most famous version but no, this is the 2nd most covered song in the world and it was written by LC..  This is actually a shortened version of the "song", it was actually a poem first and it has about 23 more verses, not kidding.

 

I apologize but I don't really follow you here. Are you arguing that it means what it seems to originally as in, he's going to procrastinate? That's how I'm taking your points but then @LaughingClock "loved" your post so I'm guessing it's the opposite? haha.  

I don't remember what the post was that I "loved" said or if I disagreed or agreed with it but unlike some, as long as things are said respectfully, I do love when people disagree with me for two reasons.  1.  It makes me re-evalute my own interpretation (although on FN, I happen to know thought what some of the meaning are for sure) and 2.  It means that we are having a healthy discussion about two of my favorite things in the world, poetry and Green Day.

Unfortunately, unlike people like Leonard Cohen, because they are a pop band (and yes guys, Green Day is a pop and by definition, so were The Doors, who cares?) people don't consider them by and large as poets (Billie) but he most certainly is.  

If a poet wrote this and entities it "She":

She...
She screams in silence
A sullen riot penetrating through her mind
Waiting for a sign
To smash the silence with the brick of self-control

Are you locked up in a world
That's been planned out for you?
Are you feeling like a social tool without a use?
Scream at me until my ears bleed
I'm taking heed just for you

She...
She's figured out
All her doubts were someone else's point of view
Waking up this time
To smash the silence with the brick of self-control

It would not be viewed as anything but poetry.  Granted, this particular song not a deep one. It's pretty easy to interpret but it's not written like:

She's got a smile it seems to me
Reminds me of childhood memories
Where everything
Was as fresh as the bright blue sky
Now and then when I see her face
She takes me away to that special place
And if I'd stare too long
I'd probably break down and cry

This is one of my favorite songs of all time but nobody is claiming this is poetic pros as some of the stuff we've been breaking down.  It's simply about a girl he likes.  Pretty easy.

 Damn, I wanted to make this one short.  Sorry for all the typos or just major misses as I have to go to court again right now.  Ugh.  Peace y'all.

 

 

3 hours ago, Montclare said:

Same here.  I rarely speculate on what the next album is going to be for any band because it's impossible to know.  And Green Day has never disappointed me, so I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever they wind up doing, whether it be concept or not, personal or political, broad or targeted, etc.

Agree.  They have yet to disappoint me with any release they have ever come out with and I don't concern myself with what they will do next.  Not at all.

As for the essays, you can put that on me. I have a tendency to do that and I figure nobody  reads them save for a couple people and am always surprised when people do.  Whenever I write something, It's usually for myself.  I write all day, all the time.  For me it's stimulating and educational to write.

[DookieLukie]

I love Billie's lyrics most of the time, but some of you guys really go overboard with lyrical analysis. Sometimes lyrics are written just because they sound cool and fit. Not every line needs to hold up under a microscope. Sometimes a door is just a door.

[WhiteTim]

Leonard Cohen is the greatest of all time as can see got all the studio albums (as for the other albums pictured well i like a variety of music lol)

 

[DeJennsitized]

4 hours ago, DookieLukie said:

I love Billie's lyrics most of the time, but some of you guys really go overboard with lyrical analysis. Sometimes lyrics are written just because they sound cool and fit. Not every line needs to hold up under a microscope. Sometimes a door is just a door.

People analyse lyrics because it's fun. Sometimes a line simply means what it says but trying to find other meaning can turn out to be fascinating. Words are funny things, and IMO it would be remiss not to take advantage of that fact. 

[That Dude]

Okay, that is a big no to a self titled album.  

I am picturing a blue album cover.  Possibly some wooden boards are involved somehow....anyway.

Green Day could explore the duality of loud / quiet.  With songs bouncing off the wall from St. Jimmy esque tunes to beautiful acoustic numbers or Forgotten / Brutal Love sweeter pieces. 

Is there anyone that wants an instrumental from them?  A lot of bands do forgettable Intros to albums these days but Green Day could do a cool one. The Simpsons Theme, Espionage and Last Ride In were all pretty rad and it's been a while.  Heck, Last Ride In was the only one on an album.....I think a really rocking intro could be the kick off Album 13 needs.  

So....21st Century big songs but without the produced polish.   Big rockers. 

Acoustic smaller numbers. 

And end big instead of an acoustic end song. 

The last song should be a monsterous 13:00 minute track that is just freaking all over the place....

Also.....haven't had a cover song on an album since....the pre dookie days? 

Queen cover!  

Misfits cover! 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hermione]

9 hours ago, ¡Jenn! said:

People analyse lyrics because it's fun. Sometimes a line simply means what it says but trying to find other meaning can turn out to be fascinating. Words are funny things, and IMO it would be remiss not to take advantage of that fact. 

Agreed. And part of analysing them can also be working out that the line just sounds cool and doesn't have much in depth meaning. It isn't only looking for complexity or applying your own meaning, it can just be figuring out that "a door is just a door" or seeing that the meaning is straightforward. You don't know any of that if you don't look at them and think about them, and if it's enjoyable to do why not.

[That Dude]

There really isn't any downside to more Green Day music but people do give them crap about their setlist, and with more songs coming it's only going to get harder for them to decide what to play and what to leave out.   They've pretty much locked in what they play from older records.  But what songs from Revolution Radio should stick around once another record comes out?  Or even a few records down the road?  

Their set list typically includes about 5 songs from the current record, tons of Dookie and Idiot and then a couple songs from each album except for the Trilogy.  So Revolution Radio songs will be cut down from 5 to possibly 2 once new records start coming out.  The obvious answer would be to keep BANG BANG and Stil Breathing and that's probably what will happen.  

What's going to happen when Green Day have 18-20 records and are getting older?  It's possible we will stop hearing live performances of so many songs, and entire albums are almost certainly getting the ax.    

39/Smooth, Insomniac, Uno, Dos and Tre  are really screwed.  Kerplunk will live on only through everyone hearing 2000 Light Years Away.   

American Idiot, Dookie and Nimrod are really the only albums that are  not in danger of becoming endangered, haha!

I'm not complaining, just thinking about how a 2030 Green Day set list is going to be put together with so many freaking songs.  

Studio tracks alone have stacked up to over 160.     

Like they've said before though.  Good problem to have.  

 

[MillenniumFan]

But the situation could be considerably improved if they didn't keep their setlists so goddamn static. But assuming they keep things static (which I think they really really REALLY shouldn't do as they kind of band they are), I think they should keep: 

-Bang Bang

-Still Breathing

-Forever Now

Revolution Radio is quite nice, but can be omitted, Ordinary World was taken out anyway and Youngblood is so utterly forgettable that it definitely won't be missed (by me at least).

[Hermione]

6 minutes ago, MillenniumFan said:

But the situation could be considerably improved if they didn't keep their setlists so goddamn static. But assuming they keep things static (which I think they really really REALLY shouldn't do as they kind of band they are), I think they should keep: 

-Bang Bang

-Still Breathing

-Forever Now

Revolution Radio is quite nice, but can be omitted, Ordinary World was taken out anyway and Youngblood is so utterly forgettable that it definitely won't be missed (by me at least).

They've always stuck with quite static setlists, for decades. And they're known as one of the best live bands and continue to play successful tours. Soooo.....isn't it working pretty well for them?  

[Christian's Inferno!]

15 hours ago, Too Dumb to Die(s) said:

Is there anyone that wants an instrumental from them?  A lot of bands do forgettable Intros to albums these days but Green Day could do a cool one. The Simpsons Theme, Espionage and Last Ride In were all pretty rad and it's been a while.  Heck, Last Ride In was the only one on an album.....I think a really rocking intro could be the kick off Album 13 needs.  

I haven't really liked their instrumentals. They're pretty boring and repetitive. Like LRI and Espionage are the same thing for like 3-4 minutes. If it was like the first 2 minutes of Panic Song, like it had a build, that'd be good.

[LaughingClock]

On 11/30/2017 at 2:12 PM, MillenniumFan said:

Because he doesn’t understand Green Day as well as Rob. 21st Century Breakdown isn’t a patch on previous albums (American Idiot, Nimrod, Dookie) production wise.

It's a matter of opinion really. Between Rob and Butch, you can't go wrong.

Of course I'm still holding on to hope that they will get Rick Rubin in the studio one day for two reasons. One is he's a fan and two is I don't think he's ever produced an album I didn't like going as far back to RUN DMC and Beastie Boys first album, not to mention the Jonnie Cash cover (greatest hits album).

He took probably one of Trent Reznor's greatest songs "Hurt" and with Rubin made it so good that Trent said it's not his own song anymore and now belongs to Cash.

I'm staring to realize all my favorite songs are about drug use. :-X

 

 

[MillenniumFan]

51 minutes ago, Hermione said:

They've always stuck with quite static setlists, for decades. And they're known as one of the best live bands and continue to play successful tours. Soooo.....isn't it working pretty well for them?  

I don't agree. Keep things consistent, yes. But I'd like to see 21CB or trilogy tour variation. AI was very static, but then that album really took off at the time, so naturally most people wanted to hear that. If you look at setlists pre RevRad (and excluding the AI tour) then you'll see that they were structurally very consistent, but they weren't 100% static (same songs, same exact order) for prolonged periods. So again, you keep saying they've always been static and I keep agreeing partly, because I know Green Day have never varied a lot. But that doesn't change the fact that this kind of static setlist isn't entirely the norm. 

[Hermione]

4 hours ago, MillenniumFan said:

I don't agree. Keep things consistent, yes. But I'd like to see 21CB or trilogy tour variation. AI was very static, but then that album really took off at the time, so naturally most people wanted to hear that. If you look at setlists pre RevRad (and excluding the AI tour) then you'll see that they were structurally very consistent, but they weren't 100% static (same songs, same exact order) for prolonged periods. So again, you keep saying they've always been static and I keep agreeing partly, because I know Green Day have never varied a lot. But that doesn't change the fact that this kind of static setlist isn't entirely the norm. 

If we're talking show to show rather than tour to tour (at my show on this tour they played 9 songs I hadn't seen before so that definitely wasn't static) this still only affects people who see them multiple times per tour though. And that's still only a tiny percentage of the crowd. And there's no way they're designing their setlists for people sitting at home who just want to look at their setlists online and see what songs are on them . I just don't think it's a problem for them.

[That Dude]

The piano post got me thinking.  The new album could have more piano.  Lots of piano and it would still ROCK!

[The Bellie]

On 30/11/2017 at 5:23 PM, gaslight13 said:

I apologize but I don't really follow you here. 

That's alright, I was responding spontaneously and my answer may have been somehow obscure.  Even in French, and while I'm quite good at writing, I regularly get misunderstood when I start talking in detail about things I love the most. So in English... And I had never written in such a developed way in English before joining this forum. 

On 30/11/2017 at 5:23 PM, gaslight13 said:

Are you arguing that it means what it seems to originally as in, he's going to procrastinate? That's how I'm taking your points but then @LaughingClock "loved" your post so I'm guessing it's the opposite? haha.  

To me, when Billie sings "Oh I, don't want to think about tomorrow, don't want to think about the - (or about it) oh-u-ooh-oh-oh " and then "I'll put it off another day", he is indeed literally describing the way he thought of his addiction, not necessarily at the present time but when he still had to put it off. So to me there's no particular enigma about the way he spells it, except he sings about something in the past (in a quite recent past) while he uses the present in these verses.

In other terms:

1) when he sings today "I'll put it off another day", he has in reality already put it off ;

2) yes I do think he was day after day seeing himself "procrastinating" with his addiction, in a helpless way and with reason, because getting rid of an addiction is not the same as getting a random, even hard, work done. Finding how not to need anymore something you're addicted to, is so much harder than simply saying one morning "okay, today I'm going to get done with it".

What I feel from the song (and how I immediately felt from the first time I heard it, without ever putting it into words like I attempt to now) is how Billie describes the way he was trapped in trying to get rid of his addiction, while he was taking it from an insoluble perspective : well, tomorrow doesn't matter anyway, but here, right now I actually want to start a revolution and hear it on my radio. That'll work to keep him going, make him forget his addiction for a moment, not giving himself time to stop and think of it. And he managed to go on and on like this for quite some time (and anyone with a pronounced addiction may relate to his experience).

Also, to me, the "silence of a thousands cries" refers to the fact that when "another catastrophe" (in Somewhere Now) happens, it distracts you from your personal problems, who seem to get silent then, and that tends to feel good. What Billie says, to my sense, is that he has been going on like this for some time but he can't continue like this forever, that's no longer livable for him. He must "hurry up" to find a solution, another way to look at his problems and not let them take over, for "[he wants] a better way to die". That's the hurry, and all other distractions (a new conspiracy...) are no longer the hurry... Even if these are coming up, always faster, all the shit happening in the world, Internet that drives it to us in no time... despite of that all, the hurry for Billie has become, at one ultimate point, to stop his run and notice he's still breathing, and then deciding not to stand in line anymore - which might well be a metaphor for saying, if you don't change something, act on something within you, the same addiction you've always worked with will keep waiting you around the corner, to end up killing you. "I ain't gonna stand in line no more" regarding - beyond society, beyond others - my own addiction, for which I have been standing in line until now. Well, that either, not anymore.

On 01/12/2017 at 7:46 PM, LaughingClock said:

I apologize but I don't really follow you here. Are you arguing that it means what it seems to originally as in, he's going to procrastinate? That's how I'm taking your points but then @LaughingClock "loved" your post so I'm guessing it's the opposite? haha.  

I don't remember what the post was that I "loved" said or if I disagreed or agreed with it but unlike some, as long as things are said respectfully, I do love when people disagree with me for two reasons.  1.  It makes me re-evalute my own interpretation (although on FN, I happen to know thought what some of the meaning are for sure) and 2.  It means that we are having a healthy discussion about two of my favorite things in the world, poetry and Green Day.

I felt the same way about @LaughingClock's reaction to my post as he has described it, I don't think we've agreed on FN, I think we have very distinct ways of seeing it (not necessarily opposite, but as long as all is said with respect like, who cares, I hope it only makes the conversation more interesting).

On 01/12/2017 at 7:46 PM, LaughingClock said:

As for the essays, you can put that on me. I have a tendency to do that and I figure nobody  reads them save for a couple people and am always surprised when people do.  Whenever I write something, It's usually for myself.  I write all day, all the time.  For me it's stimulating and educational to write.

I personally have written dozen of thousands of pages when I was a teenager, like a diary, and I hardly want to write a line today. Here is almost the only exception.

On 01/12/2017 at 4:51 AM, Hero_Of_The_Hour said:

There is another interview I have read or saw where he stated the "you" he's making his way back to in SB is himself as it's about finally being able to breathe by yourself again.

I would be mostly interested to check this out! Do you think you could find it again and post a link?

[pacejunkie punk]

I like when he says, “I want to start a revolution” because it means so many things. It has the obvious political meaning, but also personal, meaning literally “to turn around” and start again, making a change in your life. 

[Christian's Inferno!]

2 hours ago, pacejunkie punk said:

I like when he says, “I want to start a revolution” because it means so many things. It has the obvious political meaning, but also personal, meaning literally “to turn around” and start again, making a change in your life. 

You know I never thought about it like that. 

[CherryBombs&Gasoline]

Forever Now should stay, even though I think it won't. I'd even go further and say that I'd like them to keep Forever Now and get rid of Jesus of Suburbia instead. JOS is great, but I think it's not the perfect song to play towards the end of a show. I would replace it and make some space for other songs because if you replace JOS, you can play at least two other songs, if not more. I understand that they are very proud of that song, and they can be, but to me personally, it's not one of the "must play" songs during a Green Day show. You can fight me on this, but if they replaced it and played a song that hasn't been a consistent part of their setlist for years, I'd be more than happy. 

A lot of would and if in this post...They will probably not change so much in the future. 

 

[That Dude]

They could do the Sonic Highways approach and record different songs in different places.  I was just reading an article about Green Day hanging out in Australia and I came up with this: 

Foo Fighters already did different cities, so Green Day should do continents!  (or at least countries, but GO BIG OR GO HOME! haha)  

7 continents.  7 epic tracks!

and then three songs recorded in orbit around the earth to celebrate unity of all mankind!

Planet: Punk is a working title.

Meteorite could be cool title as well.  

  

 

 

[Thatsername]

33 minutes ago, Too Dumb to Die(s) said:

and then three songs recorded in orbit around the earth to celebrate unity of all mankind!

Planet: Punk is a working title.

Meteorite could be cool title as well. 

Looks like this already happened

[localinsomniac]

5 hours ago, Too Dumb to Die(s) said:

They could do the Sonic Highways approach and record different songs in different places.  I was just reading an article about Green Day hanging out in Australia and I came up with this: 

Foo Fighters already did different cities, so Green Day should do continents!  (or at least countries, but GO BIG OR GO HOME! haha)  

7 continents.  7 epic tracks!

and then three songs recorded in orbit around the earth to celebrate unity of all mankind!

Planet: Punk is a working title.

Meteorite could be cool title as well.  

  

 

 

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