Billie Joe's Song Writing

[ScatteredPictures]

Great question. I wondered the same thing. I think Johnny comes strictly from the stage play. When you read the lyrics, the closest you get to Johnny is "J". Maybe to distinguish him from St. Jimmy? If you look at the lyrics in the booklet, my take on it is that his name is Jimmy, and then he takes on the St. Jimmy persona when he has his break from reality. And then Jesus of Suburbia is the other facet of his personality that is really symbolic of anyone and everyone in modern America.

Oh, I guess I'll stick to Jimmy though because that's how Whatsername called him in Jesus Of Suburbia video.

[Heather.]

I never really liked that they gave him the name Johnny. I kind of see why they felt the need to do it for the play, but I also think they could have kept his real name a mystery and just kept referring to him as JOS, like Whastername... for me, it devalues the power of the name Jesus of Suburbia by just thinking of him as Johnny.

[melissawebster]

But only referring to him as JOS would devalue the symbolism JOS represents. Johnny is just a character that personifies JOS and St. Jimmy. They had to give the central character a name.

[classof12]

I never really liked that they gave him the name Johnny. I kind of see why they felt the need to do it for the play, but I also think they could have kept his real name a mystery and just kept referring to him as JOS, like Whastername... for me, it devalues the power of the name Jesus of Suburbia by just thinking of him as Johnny.

Yeah, for me Whatsername will always be the girl without name and not Amanda...I used to like the mistery around that name, because as long as it hasn't a name Whatsername could have been any girl...now we now that she's also the gurl who inspired Good Riddance.

[farley drexel hatcher]

Yeah, for me Whatsername will always be the girl without name and not Amanda...I used to like the mistery around that name, because as long as it hasn't a name Whatsername could have been any girl...now we now that she's also the gurl who inspired Good Riddance.

Well it was always kind of implied they were about the same girl, but I don't think this means the character of Whatsername was based totally on this Amanda girl. I think he always said she was a combination of different people.

In fact in one interview I read recently he said that the characters on AI were all in relation to people he, mike and tre had known, in some form or another, or situations they'd been in, or even themselves. Which puts an interesting spin on it.

[classof12]

Well it was always kind of implied they were about the same girl, but I don't think this means the character of Whatsername was based totally on this Amanda girl. I think he always said she was a combination of different people.

In fact in one interview I read recently he said that the characters on AI were all in relation to people he, mike and tre had known, in some form or another, or situations they'd been in, or even themselves. Which puts an interesting spin on it.

You may be right and Whatsername it's not exactly Amanda, anyway I prefer to keep thinking of her as a girl that stills somewhere..I don't know how to express it...let's say that I prefer it as a mistery

[VisionsofGreenDay115]

I think it's Johnny (Jesus of Suburbia) justifying running away and that he doesn't feel any shame for it because it's just another sad consequence of a broken home.

but isnt he the one running away from pain when he's been victimized?

[melissawebster]

Yes, and he's saying he's not apologizing for running away and justifying his actions by saying that it's just another story of a broken home.

[desertrose]

quotes from Billie Joe

What inspires you to write a song?

A lot of it is melody. I’ll get my mind on a melody and the lyrics just come later. But sometimes everything comes all at once. When I have a song idea I’ll write it down on scraps of paper or on my Blackberry. It’s interesting, because looking back I can see where all of those ideas came from. It could have been just a word or a phrase—like “class of 13” or something like that. I’ll think, “What am I going to do with this?” Eventually it starts coming out in a song.

Do you write all the time?

Yeah. Whether it’s good or bad, I don’t know. Or if it’s appropriate for what kind of idea or sound that we want to get across on the record.

Where do you think the great songs come from?

I don’t know. I really don’t. It comes from somewhere deep down inside of you that you didn’t even know existed. It’s kind of like seeing a shrink or something. (Laughs) There can be a lot of anger, or sadness, or joy, that you had but you didn’t even know you really had – but it can all come out. You feel a connection with it, and so other people can, too. You strike a nerve.

Does songwriting get easier the more you do it?

I think so. I think you definitely learn more as you go. I think you find new ways to motivate yourself. You test yourself a little bit more and see what comes about. And you challenge yourself in new ways to see what comes out. You learn new ways to get the engines going. But whether or not it does get easier, it’s what I do. And I love doing it.

Are you always clear about the meaning of a song while writing?

No. That’s hard. I mean, sometimes I’ll have things in the back of my head that I want to write about. But I never want to come across as pretentious or preachy. So I just wait for my thoughts to settle. To a certain extent, you have to be a little self-righteous and I think it’s healthy. Especially when, nowadays, there’s so much stuff that is about decadence. And when it comes to rebellion, a guy who has a Rolex watch and is driving around in a Porsche, talking about that he really wants something to break, I don’t really think of that as rebellion, I think of that just as a decadent rock star.

Do you have any kind of routine for songwriting?

Last record I was just sort of pounding songs. Anytime I had any inkling of an idea of anything at all, I would just grab my guitar and play it and work on it no matter what the song was like. Whether it was inspired or I just got drunk and started playing. But this time I waited for inspired moments. And I think it took me a long time just because of that. I wanted everything to sound refreshing, and something that would make you want to turn it up a little more.

Did you have times when you tried to work and nothing would come?

Oh yeah. You get frustrated. You feel, “Man, I just want to write a fucking song.”

And sometimes it’s just not there. And you can’t dwell on that when that happens. You have to just let it go.

I don’t ever want to try to outdo myself. I feel like if you try to outdo yourself from the last thing, instead of just working on your inspiration, I think the music kind of suffers a little bit, sometimes. Sometimes I’ll just get a very general idea about the kind of song I want to write. And I’ll just sort of store it in the back of my mind and see what comes out. It can come out in five decades.

Are there many songs you start that you don’t finish?

Yes. And I’ll just wait for the right time and the right place for it. There are some songs I finish but then I think it’s not right for the record we’re working on. There’s a couple of songs like that off of Nimrod. “Time of My Life” had been written a couple of years before.

[melissawebster]

Oh wow, great post! Thanks for sharing. A lot of what he says is so true for writers, at least for me anyway. There are a lot of stories I've had to let play around in my head for months before they finally came together for me to write them, and some of them are still rattling around in the back of my head, not yet ready to write. He's right that inspiration comes from all kinds of places, and I've had to learn to only write from inspiration instead of trying to pump out "something." The stuff I write from inspiration is so much better than the stuff I've forced just to have something on paper or because I had a general idea about something that wasn't fully formed and developed. And the stuff I write purely from inspiration falls into place easier and doesn't need the kind of re-writes my other writing did. And the heart and emotion and message definitely shines through.

The only thing I really struggle with is trying not to come off as too preachy and self-righteous, especially with the scripts I've written based on Green Day's music, because let's face it, try as he might, his lyrics are preachy in his observations about the world around us and his disgust and opposition to it, not that I don't fully agree with him on it. It just makes it harder to adapt that to a script that appeals to a diverse audience.

[VisionsofGreenDay115]

quotes from Billie Joe

What inspires you to write a song?

A lot of it is melody. I’ll get my mind on a melody and the lyrics just come later. But sometimes everything comes all at once. When I have a song idea I’ll write it down on scraps of paper or on my Blackberry. It’s interesting, because looking back I can see where all of those ideas came from. It could have been just a word or a phrase—like “class of 13” or something like that. I’ll think, “What am I going to do with this?” Eventually it starts coming out in a song.

Do you write all the time?

Yeah. Whether it’s good or bad, I don’t know. Or if it’s appropriate for what kind of idea or sound that we want to get across on the record.

Where do you think the great songs come from?

I don’t know. I really don’t. It comes from somewhere deep down inside of you that you didn’t even know existed. It’s kind of like seeing a shrink or something. (Laughs) There can be a lot of anger, or sadness, or joy, that you had but you didn’t even know you really had – but it can all come out. You feel a connection with it, and so other people can, too. You strike a nerve.

Does songwriting get easier the more you do it?

I think so. I think you definitely learn more as you go. I think you find new ways to motivate yourself. You test yourself a little bit more and see what comes about. And you challenge yourself in new ways to see what comes out. You learn new ways to get the engines going. But whether or not it does get easier, it’s what I do. And I love doing it.

Are you always clear about the meaning of a song while writing?

No. That’s hard. I mean, sometimes I’ll have things in the back of my head that I want to write about. But I never want to come across as pretentious or preachy. So I just wait for my thoughts to settle. To a certain extent, you have to be a little self-righteous and I think it’s healthy. Especially when, nowadays, there’s so much stuff that is about decadence. And when it comes to rebellion, a guy who has a Rolex watch and is driving around in a Porsche, talking about that he really wants something to break, I don’t really think of that as rebellion, I think of that just as a decadent rock star.

Do you have any kind of routine for songwriting?

Last record I was just sort of pounding songs. Anytime I had any inkling of an idea of anything at all, I would just grab my guitar and play it and work on it no matter what the song was like. Whether it was inspired or I just got drunk and started playing. But this time I waited for inspired moments. And I think it took me a long time just because of that. I wanted everything to sound refreshing, and something that would make you want to turn it up a little more.

Did you have times when you tried to work and nothing would come?

Oh yeah. You get frustrated. You feel, “Man, I just want to write a fucking song.”

And sometimes it’s just not there. And you can’t dwell on that when that happens. You have to just let it go.

I don’t ever want to try to outdo myself. I feel like if you try to outdo yourself from the last thing, instead of just working on your inspiration, I think the music kind of suffers a little bit, sometimes. Sometimes I’ll just get a very general idea about the kind of song I want to write. And I’ll just sort of store it in the back of my mind and see what comes out. It can come out in five decades.

Are there many songs you start that you don’t finish?

Yes. And I’ll just wait for the right time and the right place for it. There are some songs I finish but then I think it’s not right for the record we’re working on. There’s a couple of songs like that off of Nimrod. “Time of My Life” had been written a couple of years before.

Whoah where did you find this!! Writing is a lot he says... Sometimes your in the mood to write but have nothing.. then there are times where you think of everything... and then there are times when you think of something and then a couple years later you make into a masterpiece (*hint* Time of Your Life haha)

[desertrose]

Quotes from AP Magazine June 2000 about writing the album Warning

So how did Armstrong manage to reinvigorate his songwriting?

" I made a concious effort not to write. No writing, period. I just decided to experience life. I hung out with family and friends and just gathered experiences and thoughts. I wanted my writing to go through my life, instead of my life going through my writing. It was either that or I was going to to crazy, and all of these songs were just going to be about going crazy. But then i wrote "Warning" and it was just a natural thing. That's when I started realizing that that's what I wanted to go for. The songs just wrote themselves, and the writing process was wonderful."

"Lyrically, I think this album is groud breaking for me. It's got a lot of focus, and it's just looking for truth. And there is truth, you just gotta dig for it, because ther's so much bullshit. But you gotta find things in your life the you enjoy. Why do you want to live your life just hating things?"

Billie Joe talkes through a few of the works in progress that make up Green Day's tentatively titled new album "Warning"

"Warning"

I don't know if it's political commentary, because I'm not much of a politician, but the lyrics are taken from warning labels. There are always these warning labels that tell you "don't cross these lines"-"don't do this"-and "don't do that". It can become really suffocating. I hate being told what I can and can't do. If they keep making laws, pretty soon we're not going to be doing anything, and all of us are going to be ordering groceries over the internet.

"Fashion Victim"

Tre was wearing this t-shirt that said "VERSACE, FASHION VICTIM #1" and it had these bullet holes on it. Not to say that it was good he was shot... but I just started coming up with these lyrics about fashion victims and how the media exploites them. You're supposed to have the perfect body to fit these perfect clothes and you go into these stores and there are these clothes that were designed for 11 year old Japanese girls. It's where our society is at--especially as far as our kids fall victim to--"This is what you are supposed to look like" It's been part of our society the whole time, but now I think it's escalated. Like these fashion models are donating their eggs for $20,000 a pop so you can make these perfect human beings. To me, that's sort of parallel to Hitlers' perfect society.

"Blood, Sex and Booze"

Blood, Sex and Booze is metaphorically about someone being beaten by a dominatrix. But it's really about someone who's being self-destructive and distorting, being self-destructive by using it for pleasure. I have no problem with people doing that, but the lines have become so blurred.

"Minority"

Minority is about being an individual. It's like you have to sift through the darkness to your place and being the individual that you want to your entire life.

"Deadbeat Holiday"

This song is like crying out for some kind of hope-to not give up, which is pretty heavy. It's not about a specific holiday, but there's one line it--"Christmas lights in the middle of August"--which is...I like that line.

"Macy's Day Parade"

It's another song about how you feel marketed-to your whole life. There are all these subliminal message to tell you to maintain you lifestyle. There's one line in the song that goes "What's my consolation prize? Economy size dreams of hope"

"Hold On'

Some of the lyrics are about being individual and trusting your instincts. Quit intellectualizing about it, just go on your gut. I realized this pretty recently, but all I ever wanted to with my band was reach the potential that I think we had. That's what basically I think people shoud do--go with your guts, and try to reach their potential. There's one line in the song that goes "When you've lost all hope and excuses/And the cheapskates and losers/There's nothing left to hold on to/You've got to hold onto yourself"

[desertrose]

[desertrose]

I was watching this "She" video and saw that Billie Joe referenced "Amanda" in it.

At 1:22 he says "She moved away from San Diego and She ended up in Berkeley, Ca and right now she's so mad, she's fucking screaming"

In an interview with VH1 he talked about writing "She"

VH1: How much of Dookie is a love letter to your wife Adrienne?

Billie Joe: There really weren't any songs about her at that time. A lot of the songs are about this girl from San Diego, who went to Cal Berkeley. Adrienne and I weren't going out at the time. We lost contact with each other for about a year. She got engaged to a guy in Minneapolis. Then I got involved with this other girl. I lived in the basement in Berkeley with all these guys from the East Bay and she lived upstairs in the apartment. We ended up having this year-long relationship. The song "She" was about her.

VH1: How did you come to write it?

Billie Joe: She gave me this poem about this empowering woman, which I think is called "She." I wrote the song as an answer back to her. My now ex-girlfriend is also on the songs "Sassafras Roots" and "Chump."

[melissawebster]

Thanks for the info! Just more proof of how personal his songs are to him, and how inspiration can come from anything.

[farley drexel hatcher]

I know this was posted on GDA but think it's worth posting here, too. In relation to the Amanda songs, it's Adrienne's reponse:

"gdkid2010 writes: "How do you feel about Billie continuing to write songs about Amanda? She has been apart of almost every Green Day album."

I don't find it odd that billie joe writes about Amanda. She was a good friend, as well as an old girl friend. There will always be people who make an impact in our lives.. who we feel a connection of some kind with. Thats a beautiful part of friendships. Those experiences make us who we are. As an artist, he writes from the heart.. from experience. I would never want him to censor himself or his experience. That wouldn't be fair or real. "

[VisionsofGreenDay115]

?A song i still have trouble understanding today is East Jesus Nowhere... can anyone help me understand the meaning?

[Wingman]

East Jesus Nowhere is them being fed up with religion billie said he wrote the lyrics after seeing his friends kid baptized and just thought about how the church was manipulating people in his eyes.

[melissawebster]

?A song i still have trouble understanding today is East Jesus Nowhere... can anyone help me understand the meaning?

To me East Jesus Nowhere is about mocking American Christian Churches and their intimate relationship with conservative politics, and throwing the hypocrisy in their faces. It's also an unapologetic declaration that he's opting out and choosing not to be a believer. And then there's the raw contempt in the lyrics "Don't test me. Second guess me. Or you will disappear" which is about the Church's smack-down on any kind of dissent or doubt from their parishoners (sp?) and the Church's (and conservative politics for that matter) demand for absolute blind obedience.

The entire album is a condemnation of religion and the damage it does in regard to war and unrest, as well as the hypocrisy. And also in the way religion breeds ignorance and extremism. This song is the reason 21st Century Breakdown is my favorite album and why I became a rabid Green Day fan. Great topic!

[She is Amanda]

which songs are about Amanda? (im kind of obsessed with that because thats my name)

I know She, Sassafras Roots, Good Riddance, Whatsername, and obviously the new song Amanda, are all about Amanda, Which others???

[solongfromthestars]

I never really liked that they gave him the name Johnny. I kind of see why they felt the need to do it for the play...

I'm a bit late but I was really disappointed when I saw that he'd been named Johnny. It's a stupid thing to be disappointed about but I always thought of him as Jimmy, and St. Jimmy a false image he became with a name that just sounded more (excuse my lack of a better word) "exciting" or whatever. It's a shit word but I don't really know how to describe it.

But then at the time I was also disappointed that they'd added Will and Tunny too, because I always saw him as a bit of a loner with only vague friends. I'm not bothered now though, the way they'd adapted the musical was great and that was just one take on it. I don't think there really is an exact story. The fact that you can see the album in many different ways depending on the listener or even your mood makes it even more special.

I didn't realise I could ramble about American Idiot's storyline. Maybe I should write a personal analysis about that too, already done 21CB.

[Cym]

Maybe it's the glorification of all their songs and songwriting for me, but I'm stuck in a contradiction of wanting to know where my all-time favorite song by them came from, and also not wanting to know. Ever since the moment I heard it, "Before the Lobotomy" has become somewhat of an anthem for me, and I have a general idea of its placement in the story of 21st Century Breakdown, but I have my own relating experiences and meaning that I took from it. It seems like it would erase the images and feelings I previously associated with it if I were to find out what the song was actually written about, you know? But at the same time, I do want to know what events took place or what they were thinking about that inspired the song to come about.

Such is my dilemna with song meanings.

[beejeezee]

I'm a bit late but I was really disappointed when I saw that he'd been named Johnny. It's a stupid thing to be disappointed about but I always thought of him as Jimmy, and St. Jimmy a false image he became with a name that just sounded more (excuse my lack of a better word) "exciting" or whatever. It's a shit word but I don't really know how to describe it.

But then at the time I was also disappointed that they'd added Will and Tunny too, because I always saw him as a bit of a loner with only vague friends. I'm not bothered now though, the way they'd adapted the musical was great and that was just one take on it. I don't think there really is an exact story. The fact that you can see the album in many different ways depending on the listener or even your mood makes it even more special.

I didn't realise I could ramble about American Idiot's storyline. Maybe I should write a personal analysis about that too, already done 21CB.

Personally I always liked Will and Tunny, they added quite well to the story line. And along with the Jimmy/Johnny being a loner, he sticks with them in the beginning but the three just drift apart until it's really only Johnny and his demons.

[solongfromthestars]

Maybe it's the glorification of all their songs and songwriting for me, but I'm stuck in a contradiction of wanting to know where my all-time favorite song by them came from, and also not wanting to know. Ever since the moment I heard it, "Before the Lobotomy" has become somewhat of an anthem for me, and I have a general idea of its placement in the story of 21st Century Breakdown, but I have my own relating experiences and meaning that I took from it. It seems like it would erase the images and feelings I previously associated with it if I were to find out what the song was actually written about, you know? But at the same time, I do want to know what events took place or what they were thinking about that inspired the song to come about.

Such is my dilemna with song meanings.

Well said. I'm the same sometimes, haha.

Personally I always liked Will and Tunny, they added quite well to the story line. And along with the Jimmy/Johnny being a loner, he sticks with them in the beginning but the three just drift apart until it's really only Johnny and his demons.

Yeah when I actually saw the musical, I started to like the idea a lot, especially how they all went their separate ways and it split into three. It added a new dimension and eventually I also really liked the addition of Heather and the Extraordinary Girl. It's cool now to be able to listen to the cast album and hear a different story to the one I hear when I listen to the original album.

[desertrose]

From an old NY Times article:

Mr. Vig pushed Mr. Armstrong to finish the album’s most fragile ballad, “Restless Heart Syndrome,” which turned out to be about prescription drug dependence (and builds to a tumultuous peak like the end of the Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”). “I didn’t have the audacity to write it,” Mr. Armstrong said. “It was just all bottled in insecurity. Sometimes I think a melody asks something from you that you don’t want to necessarily face.”

An inveterate walker who enjoys “writing in his head,” Armstrong often composed the songs for 21st Century Breakdown while driving, singing in the shower, and even sitting on the toilet. And before doing a single demo or enlisting Vig, Armstrong raised the creative stakes.

“It was about taking this thing that’s like a simple version of rock and roll, but making it sound more complex, and keeping it from getting boring,” he explains. “We didn’t have to make a record like this, but I felt it was an opportunity to take American Idiot a step further. On our previous records, we were gathering experiences and allowing ourselves to write songs from exactly where we were at that moment. With this one, I really wanted to go deeper than I’ve ever gone before. This is the first time I’ve written songs at the piano, which allowed me a lot more freedom to use falsetto, and experiment with chord progressions I’ve never used before. I also wanted to hear melody—a line could be inspired by a musical or something Randy Newman would write. I love songs that are based in some tradition from the Ramones to Simon & Garfunkel to the Beatles. My DNA is finding melody.”

From a a March 2005 interview with Mike:

Question: Are the reasons why your songs touch people, why people relate to them, different today, or have those reasons not changed?

Dirnt: "I always felt the core reason our stuff relates to other people is Billie Joe has a way of tapping into his own personal politics, his own viewpoint, of his emotions. The way he describes things are very relatable. There is an honesty there."

In an interview with Alternative Press, Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong promises the group aren't resting on their laurels, and that their best work may be coming soon.

"I really like fucking with arrangements, and I always try to look at the possibilities of how you write power-pop music," says Armstrong. "I'm pushing myself to be progressive in songwriting and being a songwriter.

Tre Cool interview from May 4, 1998

"Billie Joe is a sick songwriter," he said. "He has a songwriting disease, he just writes songs like crazy. I don't know how he does it, but he does it a lot and really well.

"We were like practicing all year long and he kept bringing in songs and kept writing them on the wall till we had 40 songs up there. We recorded 30 and they're all so good, so we're like, 'What are we gonna do?' The ones we didn't use, they're B-sides, baby. Check out the European singles, they have tons of unreleased tracks and B-sides."

From VH1 Billie Joe's views on songwriting:

"My whole theory is nothing can compare to a good song, no matter how it's packaged. That's what's gonna prevail in the long run. Maybe it'll be next year, or maybe it'll be 10 years from now." -- Billie Joe Armstrong

A video with Billie Joe talking in the beginning about writing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yy1wsIEICM