3 - Dookie

So now here's Dookie. A&R guys are taking the trio out to dinner, Disneyland, begging for the money this thing will bring anyone who touches it. It's all done and in their heads and fingers, Green Day isn't pitching ideas to anyone, they've been playing whatever songs they wrote yesterday to fans screaming "when can i give you all of my money?" It's just a question of who's tolerable enough to talk to on a daily basis. They didn't just sign to whoever, they went with Frank Sinatra's Reprise because they liked Rob Cavallo's actual work with the Muffs. They wanted to sound like the Sex Pistols or Black Flag, and they had it remixed until they liked it.

They were the darlings of Gilman, and the punk scene in general. They may be dumb, but they weren't stupid enough to think they could ever go back after they signed page 12, and initialed here, and here. We started out as punk, sure we miss our old friends, but we want to be a mainstream popular rock band. Hate all you want, that's our goal. I believe it was Freddy Mercury who said "get on your bikes and ride!"

As far as i'm concerned, they were always alternative rock, it just took two albums to get good at it. All the songs are personal stories, but they tap into something everyone can relate to; boredom, confusion, anger, stepdads you hate for no actual reason, girls who were cool then dumped you, etc.

The real shift in this album is the realization that you just don't know how to feel about it anymore. That's the difference. If the first two albums sound naive and juvenile (they certainly do to me), it's because they are too tied up, they are closed little stories; here's what it is, here's how i feel about it because that's the way i'm supposed to feel about it, nothing to question, life is a book and i have no say in any of it. Dookie, though, says here's how i feel, do you feel that way too? Am i making it up?

Yeah, we do. No, you're not.

By the way, this is punk. These are 60s pop songs about not at all 60s subject matter played loud and fast and distorted and yelled out at the universe asking why or how could anyone enjoy all this confusingly stupid stuff we do to each other and ourselves. There's no answer for that one, it's not any better today, is it?

The real reason the "real punks" didn't like it is because it wasn't political anymore. There's no fight, we're not growing up, we're just burning out. Nobody else cares, why should i?

Is it selling out to describe how you feel when the people who also feel that way aren't achieving that same level of success? Or, is it that making a lot of money doesn't change any of that stuff, it just let's you peter pan your way around it? Or, does being likable make it appear like you're exploiting your own scene? They haven't actually said anything nasty about anyone. Were they just mad that Green Day wasn't looking for an excuse to not be awesome?

I feel like a loser.

You're not a real loser, screw you, you can't hang out in our clubhouse anymore.

I'm so confused. I give up, this is awesome.

4 - Insomniac