21CB came out two or three weeks before I graduated high school, so there's a lot of fond memories tied up in that one for me as well.
American Idiot came out right smack dab in the middle of high school for me and aslo happened to be at the time when I was teaching myself guitar. So knowing Green Day was considered “easy” to play, I used guitar tabs for that album to basically help me learn how to play guitar. It’s one of those rare “doesn’t have a bad song on it” albums (though I don’t care much for Letterbomb a lot, and Are We The Waiting is probably my least favorite/listened to over time), and it just came out at a perfect time in my life. I wish they would have released Whatsername as a single. I think like every other suburban working class/paycheck to paycheck white kid, I felt like I WAS JoS and this was the chaos I was living through and etc etc etc. I feel like the five year wait for 21CB really killed the momentum of me being super into Green Day. I was older and almost out of those “formative years” for music, and while the songs were good, it also felt like a “okay this is good but I have a better version of this already with American Idiot”. If I heard 21CB first, or if it had come out in 2006 or maybe 2007, I might have been more attached to it. It also was still very obviously influenced by the Bush year feelings and meanwhile was released 4 months into the Obama presidency when everyone was still feeling pretty good about the political situation of our new govt and worries were more centered on the Great Recession and getting out of that vs. the aftermath of 9/11 and the lies about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suddenly we were talking about stimulus packages and health care bills and there was optimism of having a govt we could trust to help us again. It was just a strange time for that album to release in hah.
Without a doubt. That was the first song off of AI that reconfigured the way I thought as a young adult, compared to when I listened to that album as a kid. It’s such a great album because it recontextualizes so well. When I was 12 it was about disaffection, and when I was 20, it was about leaving home. When I was 25 it was about coming back home and not feeling the same anymore. And that’s the song that has remained constant.
Whatsername is SO good, i agree that and shes a rebel should've been put to radio instead of broken dreams and September, the radio by me killed those songs for me, they played the title track and holiday a lot but i can listen to those songs, the other two i just can't anymore, so in hindsight maybe its good those songs i like didnt get murdered by the radio as well haha
what if they never got released to radio is what i meant ya dingbat. obviously we know now they did well.
re-read it dumbass, it makes perfect sense 'Whatsername is SO good, i agree that and shes a rebel SHOULD'VE been put to radio INSTEAD of broken dreams and September, the radio by me killed those songs for me" how do you not understand that? its a WHAT IF siuation.
I know I’ve said it in a different thread, but “Whatshername” might be one of the healthiest breakup songs, especially in that era of pop-punk. There’s no blaming the other person or being derogatory. They had something, they went their different ways, the person still comes up in their mind and it’s like “Oh well. It didn’t work out. Wonder where they are. We had a great time.”
yeah, a very realistic view of the “one who got away”. Always loved the bridge…”the regrets are useless in my mind, she’s in my head, I must confess”….basically feels like the song lyric equivalent of the deep sigh that you give when you randomly play through that teen/young romance in your head haha
I've got a better discussion topic: why do people that are owned transform into corncobs? Science demands an answer.
Letterbomb has always been my favourite off that album too. was very unsurprised when I found out it was started in the Warning sessions, that tracks
I do think "Whatshername" could've kept that album's momentum going another few months. They clearly picked the right singles for that record but I still sometimes go "if Taylor Swift can get a 5-year-old song to #1..."
American Idiot is my favorite album of all time and every song is perfect to my ears. Whatsername makes me emotional every time I hear it, especially the crescendo when the guitars and drums get loud halfway through The ending starting with "And in the darkest night" gets me every time