Song of the Week Misery (The Day the Green Day Community Server Went Down)

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

I really like this song. It's not one of my favourites, I think, but I really like it. I don't listen to it very often though, for me it's one of those songs you really have to listen to fully enjoy it, so I almost always skip it when it randomly pops up on my shuffle and I can't really listen to it. In a way, that makes it sort of more special to listen to. I never really understood the lyrics before (mostly because I couldn't really hear what the lyrics were, or I got them wrong, haha), but now I've studied them more carefully and looked some words up, I like the song even better, I really like the whole storyline thing, it never really stood out to me. And, like a lot of people, I really like the line "Hell hounds on your trail now once again, boy". Musically, I also really like this song.

I sort of failed to explain my thoughts on this, I hope it makes at least some sense

Like you want to do some kind of ethnic dance or something.

I just totally got a mental image of someone waving their arms like a tree in this like wiggly, wavy way. Like Spongebob sometimes does. Totally offtopic, I know. I'm weird

[Smoothed Out]

That definately was a day filled with Misery

But I love the song, even though it's miserable (duh) it never fails to make me smile and laugh when singing along to the lyrics

[**She**]

Misery is like a little rock opera on it's own.

These are exactly my thoughts about Misery. I always thought about it as a small version of the American Idiot album, like a precursor.

Just that there are not individual songs but individual verses about the different characters and the descriptions of what they are going through.

Billie uses a different kind of vocabulary, I had to look up several words and I like the use of rhymes. That really fits the song, in my opinion.

It's a brilliant piece of songwriting!

[Anja]

My favourite three! And yes, I love how he says 'boy' too. In such a badass way

Four!

He does that again in St Jimmy but it doesn't sound as "badass".

[insomniaticnimrod]

sometimes i like this song, sometimes i dont lol

my fave part is when billie sings "they found him in a Cadillac bludgeoned with a baseball bat" i just like the way he sings it lol

[Fuzz]

So much more appropriate now.

[RobyRoom]

Probabily it's on the top list of my favorite Green day songs ever. I love the mood of this song, I love the lyrics, and I actually learned 2 new words listening to it, like bludgeoned and Panhandling

[cherylr]

I really like this song. It's not one of my favourites, I think, but I really like it. I don't listen to it very often though, for me it's one of those songs you really have to listen to fully enjoy it, so I almost always skip it when it randomly pops up on my shuffle and I can't really listen to it. In a way, that makes it sort of more special to listen to. I never really understood the lyrics before (mostly because I couldn't really hear what the lyrics were, or I got them wrong, haha), but now I've studied them more carefully and looked some words up, I like the song even better, I really like the whole storyline thing, it never really stood out to me. And, like a lot of people, I really like the line "Hell hounds on your trail now once again, boy". Musically, I also really like this song.

I sort of failed to explain my thoughts on this, I hope it makes at least some sense

I just totally got a mental image of someone waving their arms like a tree in this like wiggly, wavy way. Like Spongebob sometimes does. Totally offtopic, I know. I'm weird

I was thinking more like "Fiddler on the Roof" ethnic dancing, but OK. Spongebob can dance to it.

[darenmay]

i laughed when i first listened to this song. green day, really?

but i loved it.

[J'net]

So much more appropriate now.

Indeed! Let's hope the misery is over now and we can just discuss it in peace .

[Juliette]

Gahhh I love this song so much. It's one of the reasons I love Warning so much, that album's just so diverse and experimental and this song is unlike anything they'd ever done before.

And that wee video proves they can play it live There is hope.

[LetItBeHappy]

OMG, I love this song the catastrophic hyms from yesterday... OF MISERY

and I'll use this page to say GDC, I MISSED YOU

[RobyRoom]

I have always agreed with anyone who said it sounds like an Ennio Morricone theme

[Guest Hayley]

I totally love this song.

[JHyena86]

Oh, "The Day the Green Day Community Server Went Down" is a great song.

Most appropriate song for this week ever. And I love this song anyway- it's one of them that got me hooked on GD, since Warning was the second album I bought. It's such a fun song. I've always wanted to do an animation to it, and I probably will one day

[Nikki_Nimrod]

haha, this is my dad's favorite Green Day song

But I love it too!

[J'net]

Most appropriate song for this week ever. And I love this song anyway- it's one of them that got me hooked on GD, since Warning was the second album I bought. It's such a fun song. I've always wanted to do an animation to it, and I probably will one day

When you do, I hope you share it, because I'd love to see it!

[Daughter.of.Rage.and.Love]

There used to be a video on Youtube from a student group or something that chose making a video for Misery as their project, it was pretty good. If I recall it right, it was like a cartoon, but clearly handdrawn.

I wouldn't know how to find it though, no idea what it was called, plus Warner have probably removed it anyway.

Yeah, doesn't really add anything to the topic, but I just remembered it.

[Abstractication]

Haha, one of my favorite songs. It's actually one of the songs that got me back in to Green Day.

[minority29]

i love this song so much. it's one of my favorites from Warning. when i first heard it though, i thought it was a little weird for a Green Day song but i've come to really love it

[JHyena86]

When you do, I hope you share it, because I'd love to see it!

Of course I will

I'm actually animating the Ballad of Wilhelm Fink for a class. My first step into 2D animation.

Ever since reading Billie say somewhere that this song was inspired by Disney/Kids movies I've wanted to see someone make a video for this song, so I figure it might as well be me. It'll translate well I think.

[J'net]

Of course I will

I'm actually animating the Ballad of Wilhelm Fink for a class. My first step into 2D animation.

Ever since reading Billie say somewhere that this song was inspired by Disney/Kids movies I've wanted to see someone make a video for this song, so I figure it might as well be me. It'll translate well I think.

<gasp> I love the ballad of Wilhelm Fink, and coincidentally, next week I'll be staying at the Berkeley Marina ("said that I'd meet'cha" ).

Please share that one, too ... <begs> ...

[MascaraTears]

love love love this song, it really captures the experimental vibe of Warning. now if they would only play it live!

[Bastard of 1967]

"Misery" = digging the car out of THIS tomorrow afternoon:

Yep, we're in Alexandria, Virginia, and we're getting decked by a monster Nor'easter.... already about 9" on the ground and they're saying we could have over two feet by tomorrow afternoon. It ain't powder either, it's that heavy, wet shit that gives you all sorts of fun things like backaches, hernias, heart attacks, etc. when you try to lift it.

Now, back to the song. Like many others who have posted so far, whether I love it or hate it depends on what kind of mood I'm in. But no matter what my feelings for it are at any particular moment, the one thing that always stands out for me is how incredibly unique the music is. Start with a circus/carnival/slow-tempo ragtime-like melody that sounds like it's straight out of the mid-1930s Great Depression era, baste with a Hammond organ intro, then add two cups of mandolin, a pinch of accordion, and top it with a helping of gyro meat from your favorite Greek restaurant (OK, OK, it's that damn mandolin coming through again and now it's making me hungry!) Accent with a slow yet steady, fierce bass and percussion rhythm to back it all up. Toss it in a blender, garnish with Billie Joe's gifted wordplay, and Misery is what you get. And like some folks I do too hear echoes of this song on 21st Century Breakdown, not just in Little Girl (Billie expresses a similar dark, metaphor-filled, storytelling-like lyrical style in both songs) but also in Peacemaker (the mandolin adds to both songs a comparable Greek/Gypsy feel).

I haven't had much time to parse out the lyrics so, other than the dark, empty, hopeless mood the song sets overall (and which wallops you upside the head as opposed to your having to do much work to dig up the themes), I can't offer much in the way of inspiring interpretation this time. "Mr. Whirly" makes me think of a flushing toilet for some reason, and The Haight is a neighborhood in San Francisco. "Kissed the bride eternally" gives me the chills, and the creeps...this just throws a powerful image of death and decay right into your lap.

I think I'll sing it to myself when I'm digging out the car tomorrow. It might help!

[Bastard of 1967]

My favourite too! With the best bit of all being how he says "BOY!".

Billie sure can do some amazing things with his voice...and I love how he can turn it on a dime too. I'm just blown away at how he can go from a croon to a scream and right back again -- or how he can suddenly drop a snide, sarcastic "BOYYYYYY!!" on you out of nowhere and then jump right back to the melody. He makes it seem so easy, yet you know it's taken him decades of practice to get that good.