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The Grouch


J'net

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Okay, I’ve been stuck in this house for almost a week – snowed in! I’m getting sick of this. I’m getting very cranky. I think it’s a perfect time to have The Grouch for Song of the Week. I’m not saying this is going to cheer me up or anything. But here it is. At least it matches my mood! Please use this thread to discuss your thoughts and feelings about the song.

Nimrod is Green Day's 5th album and was recorded May through July 1997. It was released October 14, 1997 and entered the Billboard charts at #10. Most people are at least somewhat familiar with Nimrod because of its hugely popular second single, Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life). The album has sold over 6 million copies worldwide since its release.

I love this song partly because it has that upbeat sound with those angry, negative lyrics. I also love the fact that what Billie’s singing about happens to everyone to some degree – not necessarily becoming a grouch, but growing older and realizing that we’ve become like our parents in some ways – or that we haven’t accomplished things we dreamed about when we were younger – or maybe our bodies betray us and we lose our sex drive. Whatever, if it happens to you, it’s probably something worth feeling grouchy about.

Here’s a video from Astoria, London in 1998. It’s a pretty good video with good quality audio, but you can’t really see Tre in it … so watch the second one if that’s what you need.

I’ve always loved this video. It’s so funny the way they just take over and ignore the host of the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1c4_kPZZxY

The Grouch Lyrics

I was a young boy that had big plans

Now I'm just another shitty old man

I don't have fun and I hate everything

This world owes me so fuck you

Glory days don't mean shit to me

I drank a six pack of apathy

Life's a bitch and so am I

The world owes me so fuck you

Wasted youth and a fistful of ideas

I had a young and optimistic point of view

Wasted youth and a fistful of ideas

I had a young and optimistic point of view

I've decomposed yet my gut's getting fat

Oh my God, I'm turning out like my Dad

I'm always rude, I've a bad attitude

The world owes me so fuck you

The wife's a nag and the kids fucking up

I don't have sex 'cause I can't get it up

I'm just a grouch sitting on the couch

The world owes me so fuck you

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You can nominate songs for discussion as Song of the Week in the Song Discussions thread, which contains links to each previous Song of the Week from 9/14/2009 forward in its original post.

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This song is brilliant and so fucking true -so many grown-ups bittered because of all the shit the world puts in your way. It's like, it shows how they see their situation: "life's a bitch and so I am", how they let the world put their spirit down. I love it<3

The best line: "The world owes me so fuck you!"

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I think it’s a perfect time to have The Grouch for Song of the Week.

Yeah gotta love this song best line "The world owes me so fuck you!"

and "Life's a bitch and so am I"

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I love drowning people out with this song.

This song gives me even more motivation to not become like my parents.

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This is one of my favorite songs from Nimrod. There is some excessive swearing, but that is what makes it kinda hilarious.

"Wasted youth and a fistful of ideals / I had a young and optimistic point of view"

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The Grouch is one song that should have been SoTW a long time ago, in my opinion. I loved King For A Day and Hitchin' A Ride like crazy, but the first day I got Nimrod they didn't even cross my mind. I listened to The Grouch at least eight times in a row just listening to the song, taking in the lyrics, and trying to understand it. Now I find The Grouch to be one of my favorite songs from Green Day. I always find that no matter how I feel, sad, happy, depressed, pissed off. Somehow I can relate to the song and it really cheers me up, or just helps me with my day, although sometimes it can make my anger worse depending on my situation :P

There is so much about The Grouch I can relate with. The music in general is very uplifting for me if I'm having a shitty day or just feeling down. It's like Christian's Inferno. If you got rid of the lyrics it would seem like a song you just want to dance to, or a song that makes you feel good inside. The lyrics added give the song a different side. When I started to understand more it came across as a message that pretty much said "Fuck you, fuck me, fuck the world." Something like that. Now that I have listened to the song alot more I see the message as "Fuck everything." Like in Bullet In A Bible when Billie says to just fuck everything.

My favorite lyric in the song has to be "Life's a bitch and so am I. The world owes me so fuck you." In a strange way I can relate to it. I always feel like I'm on the edge. People constantly telling me opinions and expecting me to agree, school, expected to do something one way, not do another thing. And when I start getting pissed and getting a bad attitude it just gets worse. I always fell like life is being a bitch to me so why not be a bitch back? And y'know what the world fucking owes me for this shit. I know it's not true and just my pissed off mind getting bitchy but still.

To wrap up this long post about The Grouch, it's an amazing song that I can always relate to :thumbsup:

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Here comes the almighty couch again - centerpiece of The Simpsons, slashed up in Longview, somewhere in Jesus of Suburbia cause it's where you get the television fix, sitting - yeah, sitting on the crucifix. Getting comfortable and being passive - feel the ring-pull of the apathy right there - and this song is 'that could be me'. Here's the shrine of one-time modern life, couch and tv, sitting back and taking it all in, yelling at the stuff you don't agree with, all fucking impotence - can't get it up - and stagnating. What a waste - and this song sees the waste, sees the prequel of idealism and energy - when it could be so different. 'The world owes me' - so you sit back in resentment, spewing negatitivity - or you do something with it. You make a song and you fucking sing it.

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i love this song because it makes my happy when i'm..well...a grouch!

but it makes me worry that thats what i'll become when i'm older

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never ever ever gets old. this song made me fall in love with nimrod. wish i could have seen them back then. look at that pit! too bad i was 8 years old :(

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My first favourite song off Nimrod. I have such vivid memories as a 12 year old, popping that CD into the stereo and listening to this song on repeat for ages.

It's definitely one of my top "I hate everything and I don't want to talk to anyone" songs.

I particularly love the angry energy on Nimrod in general, but this track sticks out for me in a different way than Platypus or Take Back.

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I just listened to this song last night for the first time in a while. I always thought it was funny how billie made a song about him getting older and wasting his life, and now 14-years later he's running around, accomplishing crazy things, an having 5 times the energy of most people his age. Im glad he got out of that rut and got back to being amazing!

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this is deffinetly a contender for my favourite Green Day song :D it never fails to make me smile

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I listened to this song 5 times today and then I read it's song of the week :lol:

The lyrics of this song are pretty much the sum up of everything I don't want to be, haha but it's an awesome song!

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'I was a young boy that had big plans, now i'm just another shitty old man'

I love this song. My favourite performance of this was the second video posted. I think that is my most watched video on youtube. I love it!

My favourite line!

'The world owes me, so fuck you'

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A while ago I was feeling really shitty because someone I know kept going around and telling people that I was worth nothing and that everyone should hate me just as much as they did. It was during a time of my life when I really didnt need it, and besides, it hurt a lot that someone could think that about me. I just remember listening to this song on repeat and thinking, 'Life's a bitch and so am I, the world owes me, so fuck you', "so what if I am a fucking bitch. Get the fuck used to it" :runaround: In real life I was too terrified to say anything but I owe this song for making me feel confident about it and being able to ignore the whole thing.

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the first time i heard it i was like, "wtf is he singing?" :lol:

i like listening to it while i work out because it's so energetic

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Aw J'net sorry to hear you're stuck in like that, it must be shit!

I love The Grouch, for the lyrics but mostly the melody. Its such a catchy, dancy number. And another GD song where the lyrics don't match the mood of the melody at all!

At Marlay Park, Dublin, Billie was walking down the catwalk looking at the crowd. I assumed he was looking for song requests so I kept shouting "the grouch, the grouch!" . No idea why, its not my favourite song, just came into my head there and then. No such luck that time though!

Fav line? "Life's a bitch and so am I, the world owes me so fuck you."

Also, I love how he writes like such a grumpy, old man in this song when in fact he's only 26 :lol:

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