Song of the Week Letterbomb!

[Trotsky]

Probably some of my favorite lyrics from Green Day.

[Maddy.]

John, your sig is a little old.

[jrot]

Best song off American Idiot! (Well, next to JOS of course! )

"Where will all the martyrs go when the virus cures itself?

And where will we all go when it's too late?"

Such a great song!

[ANJI]

One of my favourites from American Idiot...absolutely brilliant song

It was amazing live!!

[AfterShock]

After Whatsername, this is my favorite off of AI. Great song.

[lovelyrita]

Woooaoaaaa, I love!

[AnnA™]

I've heard this is often the song fans like the least off the album. But I absolutely adore it.

[Angela.]

One of my favorite songs off of American Idiot. One of Green Day's best songs. And one of my all time favorite songs from any artist.

This song is so amazing. It's energetic and powerful. It really is like an anthem for the girl or guy who says, "Fuck you, I can't take this anymore. I can't deal with you anymore. I'm leaving you now. There's nothing left to discuss, nothing more to try to do in an attempt to save this 'relationship'."

[Tre_Gina]

I never really liked this song but recently I have been listening to american idiot loads and love it, I don't know what I didn't like about it the first time round!

[Bexie.]

This is my favourite song off AI

[klytaemnestra]

this is one of my favourite green day songs.

i love it so so much.

[Bastard of 1967]

You're not the Jesus of Suburbia!

The St. Jimmy is a figment of

Your father's rage and your mother's love -

Made me the idiot America!

As if it was a little summary of the album. I don't know.

Also, I like how it's followed by the most melancholic (I hope it's the right word) song on the album. I like that contrast.

Thanks for posting, Ania! I want to pick up my own analysis with the lines (and specifically the words) that you boldfaced because they're so, so important.

"Letterbomb" is the climactic piece of American Idiot, the part that ties the whole album together. It forms a nexus to all of the key concepts and hooks all the key songs in the album. Conceptually you get callbacks to all five of the main themes, concepts, and characters that have been presented in the album up to this point in the story....you have:

1. Jesus of Suburbia
   
   
2. St. Jimmy
   
   
3. Rage and Love
   
   
4. Whatsername
   
   
5. American Idiot
   
   

....and they're all tied up in one explosive shit-kicker of a package. "You're not the Jesus of Suburbia" calls back to who our lead character, Jesus, is, where he comes from, and why he ran away from home. St. Jimmy is linked in next as the fictitious "hand puppet" persona that Jesus puts on as his way of dealing with, escaping, and shifting the blame for his reality. The concepts of Rage and Love that were first presented in Jesus of Suburbia and Are We The Waiting provide a sympathetic cause for Jesus' behavior (the emotional conflict that Jesus' absentee terror of a dad in contrast with his mother's present yet distant love for Jesus, and together how this all really fucks him up). We have a callback to Whatsername herself, who is singing (screaming!) the song at him as she rids herself of this emotional basketcase of a boyfriend. And we have the result: the American Idiot. Whatsername has found out that "you're not" who you claim to be. "The dummy failed the crash test", an unemployed "flunkie only along for the ride"....and in fact she finds that Jesus is just the opposite of what he professes to hate -- that he is in fact the quintessential American Idiot -- a shallow, unmotivated, media-obsessed, apathetic stoner who can't find his own way out of his ass let alone lead others to change the world.

Edit: In this respect, Letterbomb serves as the opposing "bookend" to the American Idiot title track itself -- whereas American Idiot lays down what our protagonist aspires not to be, Letterbomb exposes him for who he really is.

Whatsername then takes a reasonable course of action for herself, anyway. Edit: unlike Gloria in 21CB, she dumps the torchbearing responsibilities ("Where will all the martyrs go when the virus cures itself, and where will we all go when it's too late"; "The city's burning/it's not my burden"), ejects herself from her dead-end relationship with Jesus, and goes off to live her own life on nobody's terms but her own ("It's not over 'til you're underground, it's not over before it's too late"). I do see some thematic similarity between Letterbomb and 21 Guns in this regard (the idea of dropping the useless, fruitless, energy-wasting battles as a way to improve oneself), but whereas Letterbomb's emotional fuel comes from anger, 21 Guns' fuel comes from beat-down, worn-out exhaustion.

WMUWSE's placement right after Letterbomb as the emotional low point of the album, seems also very deliberate and very effective. After Jesus gets the kiss-off (by letter or maybe even text-message no less?) from Whatsername, he hits bottom. Nobody likes him, everyone left him, they're all out without him, having fun, and now even his girlfriend's dumped him. In response, Jesus, his St. Jimmy persona having been unmasked and Jesus himself stripped bare, crashes into a depression from which he then begins to rebuild himself......but that's the subject for a future SOTW discussion.

You get this song, you get the whole damn album. Love it, love it, love it.

[Opezi]

yesssss FINALLYYYYY <33333

[bass boy]

my favourite song off AI. one of my all time faves too.

[Clayish]

Oh boy..

This is, BY FAR, the best song Green Day has ever made. The emotion in the song is staggering. Its the most important song for the story of AI, it has some of the best lyrics I've ever heard... You're not the Jesus of Suburbia! The St. Jimmy is a figment of, your father's rage and your mother's love, -Made me the idiot America!" and "Well, she said I can't take this place, I'm leaving it behind. Well, she said I can't take this town, I'm leaving you tonight."

It also has the best bridge and closing to a song ever.

I have played it 693 times on just iTunes.

How I wish to hear this live.

[misslyssx]

I think I can say this is my favorite Green Day song

[AleKerplunk]

LETTERBOMB finally.

one of the most emotional song of the album (i think that) and i FUCKIN LOVE THE LYRICS.

"You're not the Jesus of Suburbia

The St. Jimmy is a figment of

Your father's rage and your mother's love

Made me the idiot America"

is maybe my 3rd favorite song of American Idiot album

[boosho]

:woot: OMG... I fucking love this song second fav song.. (nothing beats JOS)

Everytime i hear the end i get all choked up and tears in my eyes... and the Musical version is fucking amazing.. (nothing beats the original either)....

[gdpony]

whatsername is such a lovely song

one of my favorites off american idiot!

the lyrics and the music are so powerful!

I never get tired of playing or listening to this song

[LetItBeHappy]

The way Rebecca sings this song live is so... Oh, dear lord, that woman can sing!

and I freaking love Letterbomb is so powerful, wether you're analizing the lyrics or the music. And is so fun to play too

[justcause]

There's a lot of things going on in this blazing, beautiful song. I remember thinking that the only thing that construes this as coming from Whatsername is the 'Dear J' in the lyrics book- even that is ambiguous, because 'Dear J' could just as easily be JOS writing to himself - and the 'she said' stuff appended to the end, a voice from the past, the one who was all 'for crying out loud!!'. Without the Whatsername angle, you got JOS crying out 'where have all the bastards gone?' - the sense of 'is it really up to me to step up to the plate, is there no-one else who's gonna say this stuff?' He agonizes about who he is, says 'it's not my burden', concludes that 'there is nothing left to analyze', just gotta fucking do it, strike the fucking match. He takes all of his courage and he strikes that match, not knowing if anyone will see the flame, if anyone will rally to it, if anyone will even consider he has the right - and they come. We come.

[Laura!]

My favorite song (tied with Whatsername) off of American Idiot.

[in_your_face]

Song of the week! Letterbomb is really an amazing song! brilliantly done by our boys!

[Bastard of 1967]

the only thing that construes this as coming from Whatsername is the 'Dear J' in the lyrics book- even that is ambiguous, because 'Dear J' could just as easily be JOS writing to himself

Darnit, every time I think I have a song figured out you come along, look at it from a completely different angle, and blow the whole thing wide open for me again.

Don't you dare stop, ya hear!!??

GREAT interpretation as always!

[amy_runs]

Ahhhh Letterbomb

True love.