Song of the Week Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

[Isabel]

That's the same as the vid in the OP . It's pretty funny. And I think it's especially amazing that Billie can still keep the crowd happy even when he's such a mess. You just know he had to go backstage and throw up after that!

And now it's perfectly clear that I didn't even read the first post :whistling:

I love the part where he starts off the second verse with "So make the best of this test and don't ask why, it's not a question but a lesson learned in time, tattoos of memories and deeeeeeaaaddd skin on trial, through what it's worth, it was waaoorrtthh all the while"

And the best bit has to be at the end when everyone gathers around him and he just runs under their arms and makes a hilarious face of like, ultimate achievement and then jumps into the crowd and falls

[davegrohllover]

Everyone knows this Song by Green Day! Love this song!

[newsflash777]

Holy shit, I don't know why but Billie looks cuter than normal. Besides the fact that he's drunk.

[Supermodel*Robot]

I adore this song. It just shows how good Green Day is at doing the unexpected. I first heard this song at age five, and loved it for a very long time afterward (surprising, considering my general lack of attention to anything important & love for the Spice Girls)

Anyways, after I fell in love with American Idiot, my brother was like, "Hey you know that CD you're crazy about? Those guys did Good Riddance." I was dumbfounded. This song is basically what made me realize the Green Day were not new in 2005.

[Mar]

Holy shit, I don't know why but Billie looks cuter than normal. Besides the fact that he's drunk.

Oh, he looks incredibly adorable in that tux. It's just a fact.

[Isabel]

I wish I was there...I would have caught him properly. And maybe not have let go :whistling:

[Agija]

It's a brilliant song. <3 I immediately fell in love when I first heard it.

It was also one of the most beautiful moments in my life when Billie sang it at the end of the concert.

[dolce]

I seem to be the only person who doesn't like watching drunk Billie on stage

No, no, your not alone. I don't either. I feel so uptight for being like that, but - can't help it. I love the guy to death, just don't care for watching him make a mess of himself.

[Nikki_Nimrod]

This song is SO beautiful <3 I could go on for ages, I have so many memories attached to it. The best one being when it was played at the show i went to, it really is bittersweet! It's one of my all time favorite songs, and one that's very close to my heart

[cmrnmrphy]

When billie did this in boston, he fucked up in the beginning like the real recording

[Savior of Rebellion]

this song is just so simple so beautiful that it speaks for itself, it was used for something at my graduation, at first I didn't want it there because it thought it would be cliche` but looking back at it now it just fits that feeling that you get when somethings over...like this year

[misslyssx]

Who doesn't love this song?

This was my graduation song thanks to me

I got the guys to vote for it when most of the girls wanted it to be Photograph by Nickleback.

There was no way I was letting that happen.

The ballot said Greenday too. Yes, one word. Pissed me off haha

And at prom they made all the seniors get in a big circle and dance to the song together.

OMG so cheesy

[justcause]

The studio version - after the false start and the 'fuck', when it kicks off and gets going, I always have the sense of someone with their foot on the treadle of a spinning-wheel. The wheel goes round and round, and the song spins, inward and outward, from the pain of a moment in time to the forseeing of its greater meaning - sometimes the experiences that we would never consciously seek are the ones we really need, and how we get thru them is what makes us who we are.

The true depth and beauty of this song is in its vision of time - the great hand that grabs you by the wrist, whispers that there's something greater beyond the trials of a particular moment, calls on you to have faith. Whatever the awards and fame a band can have, I think it's so much more meaningful to have written a song that people reach for when there's a sense of something ending and something else beginning, that threshold of uncertainty - and even more so, for the times when the world comes crashing down and what's beginning in that moment is distant and unclear.

[LetItBeHappy]

what the fuck? this song have haunted me this whole week! In the Latin VH1 they have just passed the best 100 songs of the 90's... guess who was number 37, just after Christina Aguilera?

[Laura!]

I loved this song when it first came out and was a hit on the radio but I never knew it was Green Day.

Then when I bought International Superhits I heard it on there and was like "This is sung by them!?"

Now I love it, I love it live.

They play it all the time at work, it makes my work day so much better.

[Alex.]

After hearing it live, I don't think I ever want to listen to it ever again. It makes me too sad.

[Mar]

The studio version - after the false start and the 'fuck', when it kicks off and gets going, I always have the sense of someone with their foot on the treadle of a spinning-wheel. The wheel goes round and round, and the song spins, inward and outward, from the pain of a moment in time to the forseeing of its greater meaning - sometimes the experiences that we would never consciously seek are the ones we really need, and how we get thru them is what makes us who we are.

The true depth and beauty of this song is in its vision of time - the great hand that grabs you by the wrist, whispers that there's something greater beyond the trials of a particular moment, calls on you to have faith. Whatever the awards and fame a band can have, I think it's so much more meaningful to have written a song that people reach for when there's a sense of something ending and something else beginning, that threshold of uncertainty - and even more so, for the times when the world comes crashing down and what's beginning in that moment is distant and unclear.

Well said

[justcause]

Well said

Thanx - what I love about reading this thread is how this song is woven into people's lives in so many ways. That's how special it is.

[*withoutadoubt*]

The studio version - after the false start and the 'fuck', when it kicks off and gets going, I always have the sense of someone with their foot on the treadle of a spinning-wheel. The wheel goes round and round, and the song spins, inward and outward, from the pain of a moment in time to the forseeing of its greater meaning - sometimes the experiences that we would never consciously seek are the ones we really need, and how we get thru them is what makes us who we are.

The true depth and beauty of this song is in its vision of time - the great hand that grabs you by the wrist, whispers that there's something greater beyond the trials of a particular moment, calls on you to have faith. Whatever the awards and fame a band can have, I think it's so much more meaningful to have written a song that people reach for when there's a sense of something ending and something else beginning, that threshold of uncertainty - and even more so, for the times when the world comes crashing down and what's beginning in that moment is distant and unclear.

I was waiting for this, and I agree with Mar - very well said.

I love this song - it's so happy and sad all at the same time. Seeing Bille Joe perform it live, I get those feelings, too - smiling thru tears, loving it, but knowing that you've come to the end of something wonderful. It's a timeless song, and one that I think will be a classic.

My mother recently heard this song and was singing along in the car, and when her husband said, 'You know this is Green Day,' she was really surprised. It made me laugh when she told me because it was like - oh, they really do have some good songs, lol.

[justcause]

I was waiting for this, and I agree with Mar - very well said.

Cheryl, I could write a million words about this song.

[*withoutadoubt*]

Cheryl, I could write a million words about this song.

I can imagine, and that's why I was looking forward to seeing what you'd write. As always.

[sarita]

The studio version - after the false start and the 'fuck', when it kicks off and gets going, I always have the sense of someone with their foot on the treadle of a spinning-wheel. The wheel goes round and round, and the song spins, inward and outward, from the pain of a moment in time to the forseeing of its greater meaning - sometimes the experiences that we would never consciously seek are the ones we really need, and how we get thru them is what makes us who we are.

The true depth and beauty of this song is in its vision of time - the great hand that grabs you by the wrist, whispers that there's something greater beyond the trials of a particular moment, calls on you to have faith. Whatever the awards and fame a band can have, I think it's so much more meaningful to have written a song that people reach for when there's a sense of something ending and something else beginning, that threshold of uncertainty - and even more so, for the times when the world comes crashing down and what's beginning in that moment is distant and unclear.

This was beautifully said. I agree with you 100%. It's that moment of not being sure what is going to happen next, what is in store for you, especially when going through a particularly difficult moment in your life. This song has made me cry quite a few times. Not what most would consider a punk song, but like Mike said, the fact that it's there made the album that much better and all the more punk. Easily one of my favorite songs.

I wasn't aware that there was an Insomniac version. Can't watch it right now as I'm at work, but I'll be sure and check it out this evening.

[AnaArmstrong]

I think that Good Riddance is all my life. When I listen to this song I think about the best moments of my life and I can just see in front of my eyes Billie Joe who plays in acoustic in front of me during Green Day last concert in Milan. This song makes me understand that music is all my life, and Green Day are part of it. This song makes me understand that life doesn't suck at all. It gives me the strenght to believe in a better world.

[Bastard of 1967]

The studio version - after the false start and the 'fuck', when it kicks off and gets going, I always have the sense of someone with their foot on the treadle of a spinning-wheel. The wheel goes round and round, and the song spins, inward and outward, from the pain of a moment in time to the forseeing of its greater meaning - sometimes the experiences that we would never consciously seek are the ones we really need, and how we get thru them is what makes us who we are.

The true depth and beauty of this song is in its vision of time - the great hand that grabs you by the wrist, whispers that there's something greater beyond the trials of a particular moment, calls on you to have faith. Whatever the awards and fame a band can have, I think it's so much more meaningful to have written a song that people reach for when there's a sense of something ending and something else beginning, that threshold of uncertainty - and even more so, for the times when the world comes crashing down and what's beginning in that moment is distant and unclear.

I *love* your spinning wheel analogy. The guitar rhythm and the meter of the song support that vision so, so well, and when I listen to the song now, I've got this spinning wheel stuck inside my head -- see what you did to me (and will you please keep doing it)?? I also think you're exactly right when you say that Good Riddance tells you there's something bigger out there waiting for you, and that the song "calls on you to have faith." My sister is going through a rough patch right now that she'll undoubtedly get through better than she is now, she just doesn't "feel" that yet -- and I *so* need to tell her to listen to this song.

[lovelyrita]

Just love it, especially live version .