Jesus of Suburbia vs Homecoming - Which 9-minutes song do you prefer?

[frunsi]

like a rat does cheese

[lepetitpote]

Jesus of Suburbia, marginally.

[Guest]

JOS is the best song GD has ever written, period. Homecoming's in the discussion, but nothing tops JOS for me.

[Undómiel]

JOS is the best song GD has ever written, period. Homecoming's in the discussion, but nothing tops JOS for me.

This.

[Ritz]

Love both the songs but JOS is like the best ever. The emotions that run through he whole song is just awesome. Nothing can top that for me.

Homecoming is exceptionally good too. I love the 1st part and the Death of St. Jimmy part. But I'll go with JOS anyday.

[Pixus]

Homecoming is like ya know, the story of my life. So yeah. I'd go with Homecoming.

But, I love Jesus of Suburbia too. This is not easy, man.

[Seanz25]

Homecoming any single day. All though JOS is very good.

[StuckWithInsomnia]

I used to love Jesus Of Suburbia, but I've listened to it to many times. Favorite section is City of the Damned.

My vote went to Homecoming, favorite section is "The world is spinning around" but apparently thats not an actual section.

[A_Eulogy86xx]

Homecoming

Jesus of Suburbia is a very good song and I love it, they're both masterpieces but im going with Homecoming, Homecoming is just perfect, such a cool song, it sums up American Idiot's story very well and has those parts where Mike and Tré sing, the whole band, it's just awesome. Very dificult to choose between them.

[Guest DisapppearingBoy]

JoS - love the lyrics over homecoming.

[Vanilla Shake]

Homecoming wins this one for me. First off, there's the transition between it and Whatsername (my favorite track off AI), not to mention the two different vibes of the songs. Homecoming, while broken down into a bunch of different songs all in one, for the most part retains a bit more of an optimistic overall sound, which as others have said could be interpreted as a bit of a celebration of the band. Whatsername is the sort of sadness that follows Jesus of Suburbia's return home. He misses this girl who's had a hand in flipping his world completely upside down and is reminiscing on her departure with some bitterness as well, something that I feel is touched upon in Homecoming with Mike's lyrics for Nobody Likes You; "Left me here alone, and I should've stayed home. After ten cups of coffee I'm thinking, where'd you go?" Something about this makes the combination of the two songs and their spots at the end of the album all the more powerful to me.

And of course, there are the parallels between Homecoming and Jesus of Suburbia itself. In JoS, he's fed up with living in this cesspit of a town surrounded by what he feels to be complete bullshit in terms of both the people in his life and the way he's living his life, feelings that many of us as teenagers have felt when finally grown in the environments that have molded us into who and what we are. So of course, the logical solution is to simply cut off all ties and move to a whole new town with a whole new way, which kicks us off into the events of the rest of the album. But as we all know, he runs into his demons head on during his time in the city, as well as the bitch who breaks his heart, which leaves him wondering if he should have even left home in the first place. While Homecoming is obviously his return home, I think they reconnect on that issue of whether or not he should've ever left in Whatsername, with the words "Forgetting you but not the time". I liken that to pretty much thinking "I'm going to try and erase you from my memory, but not the good times I had and the lessons I've learned during my time away". This probably speaks volumes to me as I'm currently dealing with the same sort of thing whenever my ex re-enters my mind.

Musically, both tracks are tight and are similarly structured. But there is quite a bit more anger in Jesus of Suburbia, sans Dearly Beloved. He's angry at the world at this point in the story, and while he's still very much pissed off during Homecoming (perhaps even more so after some of the events of the album), I feel he's not particularly angry at the world alone anymore. Instead it seems to me that he's directing his hatred more towards 'St. Jimmy' and Whatsername, the ones who had a direct impact on him and his life in the city. His coming home isn't "fuck this entire town and everyone in it" this time, it's more like "fuck YOU and what YOU'VE done to me, I'm going back home", and is his, in my eyes, redemption song.

And of course, there's the fact that both Mike and Tre get to sing lead vocals during the parts of the song they wrote themselves. Something that's very fitting for the song and the celebration vibe it has going for it. Their respective parts along with the amazingly beautiful We're Coming Home Again to close out the song and the its overall position as the penultimate track on the album and what it does for the ending of our anti-hero's journey in terms of the story and its ending with Whatsername make this the better of the two epic beasts in my honest opinion.

[HumanPate86]

Homecoming!

[joeysturkeyhead]

homecoming.

[Todd]

If anybody hasn't, go on youtube and listen to Homecoming instrumental, extracted from Rockband. It gives you a whole new listen to the song. Or do the one that's just vocals. Beautiful

[LifeStream]

Homecoming, no doubt. My second favourite Green Day song ever

May I ask what is your most favourite Green Day song?

[BringMoreKnives]

Homecoming.

[tubbyfox]

I thought I loved them equally, but I have had Homecoming set as my ringtone for years and have never tired of it, so therefore I must love it more. Also, it has the best intro in the history of music.

[Crimpshrine]

JoS!!!

[DannyDirnt]

JoS is the favourite, but actually I prefer Homecoming. I have always preferred it.

[Suwonist]

Had it not been for the "we're coming home again" part I would have definitely chose Homecoming. It's just a tad bit too long.

[ThibautDookie]

Homecoming !

I love the part when Tré sings and you can hear Billie saying Don't wanna be an American Idiot.

This part is my favorite !

[TheGrouch33]

I honestly can't make this decision. I love them both so much, and both have sections that I don't care for as much as the rest of the song ("I Don't Care" - bit angry/repetitive compared to the rest of the song, and "Nobody Likes You," because I don't think Mike is a very good singer), but I probably like JoS a tad bit more because of City of the Damned. So hard though.

I think Homecoming is actually a better, more interesting and cohesive song, but I prefer JOS. But Homecoming has a better ending to it, fucking epic. As soon as he starts in with the "I started fucking running as soon..." I'm just in heaven.

I think its pretty much the opposite Jesus Of Suburbia is much more cohesive, Homecoming is all over the place but in strange way...still like it though

[DecanoLP]

May I ask what is your most favourite Green Day song?

Sure. Who Wrote Holden Caulfield

[Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap]

Homecoming. It's awesome. Jealous of anyone who got to see this live, I've watched them play it at Storytellers/FUSE Comp'd so many times, it is so much more fun than Jesus of Suburbia and they look like they enjoy playing it a lot more. Jesus of Suburbia is teen angst and Homecoming is massive, concept album classic rock that starts of with an undertone of the St. Jimmy cynicism, and ends up in something approaching optimism, relief to be back.

Then on record the guitar tone at the start is fucking quality. The mix of band members singing different parts, Tre's "rock n roll cliches" part is a highlight, the riff Billie-Joe plays immediately after that is one of my favourites, there's also the fact that I listened to this album when I went on holiday to America in 2004 and particularly remember playing Homecoming as we went home.

[Nemo.]

It's really hard to decide but i give my vote JoS. The "City of the Damned." part is so emotional and it means so much for me.