Song of the Week Boulevard of Broken Dreams

[pasalaska]

Thanks to popular demand...

This week’s Song of the Week is the super-duper majorly massively huge hit Boulevard of Broken Dreams, track 4 and the second single released off the equally super-duper majorly massively huge hit album, American Idiot, released in 2004. Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the song that can be credited with making American Idiot such a massive success, and really pulling Green Day back into the mainstream. It charted extremely well in many countries, even making number 1 in a number of Billboard charts including the Pop 100 and the Hot Modern Rock Tracks. The song also won the 2006 Grammy for ‘Record of the Year’.

Let’s take a look at the song in terms of the American Idiot story-line. Boulevard of Broken Dreams transitions in at the end of track 3, Holiday, the big-city binge that the Jesus of Suburbia goes on after he leaves Jingle Town; where Holiday was the self-righteous, fast-paced, loud and pulsing party, Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the hangover, and the stark realisation that the party can’t last forever. The Jesus of Suburbia is left all alone at night in the city, with nothing but his shadow to keep him company – he’s slowly starting to show the mental cracks that will eventually lead to his dual personality, Saint Jimmy, emerging; “I'm walking down the line that divides me somewhere in my mind, on the borderline of the edge and where I walk alone”. Really, there’s not a whole lot to be read into the lyrics of Boulevard of Broken Dreams as it’s a relatively simple and straight-forward song.

Here’s an interesting little quote from Billie in a Kerrang interview about Boulevard of Broken Dreams:

"It's about being in New York and the title was nicked from a James Dean poster, where he's walking through New York City with his overcoat on. It's about feeling alone, and trying to take power from it, I guess. Thematically it just seemed to fit in with what we were doing for the new album, with all the characters and things like that."

This is the poster Billie mentioned:

The music video for Boulevard of Broken Dreams also deserves a quick mention, considering it won 6 MTV Video Music Awards, including Video of the Year and Best Direction. All of American Idiot’s music videos were directed by (in)famous music video director Sam Bayer, and Boulevard of Broken Dreams is one of my favourites. I love its contrast to the hilarious, colour-saturated and fast-paced Holiday video which precedes it. The video’s original film was scratched, scribbled on and burned to give it its gritty, cheap look, which just ads to the ‘hangover’ of the song. It also features treadmills, a hobo-fire, tumbleweed and a vulture named Ethel.

Rather than just feature the Boulevard of Broken Dreams video on its own, I thought it’d be more interesting to show the transition between Holiday (the song and video) into Boulevard of Broken Dreams, seeing as they were shot together, and they’re a continuous part of the American Idiot story.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeQQF5uaa08

Lyrics:

I walk a lonely road

The only one that I have ever known

Don't know where it goes

But it's home to me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street

On the boulevard of broken dreams

Where the city sleeps

And I'm the only one and I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk a

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

Til then I walk alone

I'm walking down the line

That divides me somewhere in my mind

On the borderline of the edge

And where I walk alone

Read between the lines of what's

Fucked up and everything's alright

Check my vital signs to know I'm still alive

And I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk a

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

Til then I walk alone

I walk alone

I walk a

I walk this empty street

On the boulevard of broken dreams

Where the city sleeps

And I'm the only one and I walk a

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me

My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating

Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me

Til then I walk alone

*********************************************************************************************************

You can nominate songs for discussion as Song of the Week in the SotW Nominations and Archive thread, which contains links to each previous Song of the Week in its first post.

[Malleus]

I really love this song. It was the song that got me really into American Idiot and made me a bigger fan of the band. Before I heard this song, I only listened to Dookie and Insomniac so I was excited to hear something different. Classic GD song, one of the best. Noel Gallager is also a big bitch.

[pasalaska]

Yeah, this song (and video) must have created millions of new Green Day fans. I know I used to watch Video Hits on Saturday mornings when the video was still circulating, trying to catch it. I just loved it so much. As soon as Holiday came out, I was completely and utterly lost to the Green Day cause

[Liam]

Yeah, this song (and video) must have created millions of new Green Day fans. I know I used to watch Video Hits on Saturday mornings when the video was still circulating, trying to catch it. I just loved it so much. As soon as Holiday came out, I was completely and utterly lost to the Green Day cause

Oh god I use to do that to, its a shame Video Hits got cancelled I remember one time when I was 10 I stayed up till 11:30pm (big deal for me back than) to watch a Video Hits special on Green Day (it was when the Sydney and Melbourne concerts got announced) and when this song played I got so ridiculously excited I woke my dad up

[lizziebix]

VH1 has this song as #47 in their Top 100 songs of the first decade of the 2000's. Just saw it this morning. Good timing.

Love this song. Really made me fall in love with Green Day all over again. I remember digging out our old cd's and relistening to everything all over again.

[pasalaska]

Oh god I use to do that to, its a shame Video Hits got cancelled I remember one time when I was 10 I stayed up till 11:30pm (big deal for me back than) to watch a Video Hits special on Green Day (it was when the Sydney and Melbourne concerts got announced) and when this song played I got so ridiculously excited I woke my dad up

I watched that too! Bloody Axle said that Al Sobrante was the drummer for GD I was all 'YOU WHAAAAAA!?'

And I distinctly remember staying up till about 1am when the Jesus Of Suburbia debuted on rage.

[raven052]

I was actually just listening to this, maybe a little under an hour ago? It's one of my go-to's when I'm feeling down, and, I dunno, it may sound kinda strange but, even though there's not a whole lot of positive in this song, it kinda cheers me up. Maybe in just the whole 'you're not alone, in feeling alone' feeling I get from it (if that makes any sense). I have always loved the line "my shallow heart's the only thing that beating", and, actually, so many other lines besides.

Also, I always found the video stunning, and clever. I still remember back when it was first being showed, I really marvelled at it, the way it looked, the way the film kinda jumps. Love the bit near the end where Billie holds his hand up to the camera, I think it's a great visual. And after that, where you see him, arms out. Whole thing though, stunning.

Can't say for if it was this song that got me into them, all I know is it certainly contributed

[Liam]

I watched that too! Bloody Axle said that Al Sobrante was the drummer for GD I was all 'YOU WHAAAAAA!?'

And I distinctly remember staying up till about 1am when the Jesus Of Suburbia debuted on rage.

That was when I very first got into Green Day so anything he said wrong I didn't realise back than, it actually introduced me to Redundant. I still have the special on VHS somewhere so I hope it isn't ruined I got so annoyed when they said "GREEN DAY IS TOURING!" but they didn't say Brisbane (little did I know they had been here earlier that year)

[Mar]

Of course, due to it being overplayed so much, it's the AI song I listen to the least. That doesn't mean it's any less awesome, though.

[lizziebix]

Of course, due to it being overplayed so much, it's the AI song I listen to the least. That doesn't mean it's any less awesome, though.

Actually this is the one song I will NEVER skip on my iPod when it pops up. In fact sometimes I just have to listen to it a couple of times!

[gloria123]

this is a great song (when i first got into green day and heard this song i couldn't believe it was them because i heard in on some crappy radio station about a year before)

but i feel that it went the way of 21 guns where it just got so over played and i felt that the whole world knew it so it lost its special-ness. but when i do put it on, in my own it does sound great and i love the music video

[DoodleBob]

Ok, not my favorite song off of American Idiot, but I will admit it was the song that made me know who Green Day was.

Without this song, I might not be on this fourm right now.

I like how it's somewhat slow, but it has that dark feel to it. It's also relatable because we all have those days where we feel like we're alone. Where we wish "someone out there will find us". I actually like everything about the song, I guess it's just to overplayed for me to call it my favorite.

My favorite line is:

"Read between the lines of what's fucked up and everything's alright."

I just think that line represents what you see, and what really is. For example, something could be really wrong with me, but you could never know because I could never show it. You'd have to "read between the lines" to find out that inside I'm fucked up.

BOBD is also the second song I learned on guitar.

[whatsername]

One of my fav songs that i listen to alot, never cared how overplayed it was on radio/tv. Video is awesome!

[KilljoyFromDetroit]

What can i say, this is the first green day song i heard.

[justcause]

Beautiful song - dark, powerful song, full of unspoken depths, stoney-bleak and anguished, bleeding dust. Emotion puddles like the spattering of rain in this desert-place, the barest drops of mercy - no pity in the words, no point in pity because this is the road, the only place. Now it's empty, and clear, and true - bare-bones of a riverbed, etched with a force that's beyond what anyone can see.

Walking song, brooding song - walking on thunder, every step a quake from this epicenter-of-the-earth, Jesus of Suburbia, catastrophic baby, end of the world, natural disaster, chosen one, but

here is far from glory - here is a tight little place of survival. It's ironic that this is called 'the hangover song', because nothing could be more sober - this alone-place that summons up the vital signs, the fundamentals in this shadowland of misgiving.

Walking song walks the lines, twin-stranded, goes from the obvious lonely of the path to the acute place of somewhere-in-my-mind, the borderline of the edge, the utterly alone place - this song sees that place and regards it and accepts it, cold and brave -

and this is where this song hits hardest, all the more so because it's so matter-of-fact in stating this constant fight for self that goes on, in between the lines. There's no overt drama to the words - not the real-life visuals of songs like Worry Rock - yet it casts its shadow over all the songs, creating their context.

Sometime in the AI era, I made a thread asking people what place they saw when they listened to this song - everyone saw something different. What do you see?

[in_your_face]

A song that made me a Green Day fan. A song i won't forget in my whole entire life.

[Whatsername1911]

Funny story.

Back when I was 11, I first heard this song on the radio. I thought it was above and beyond anything I had ever heard come out of my boombox. It was like, magic being poured into my ears. I don't even know. But I never knew who sang it. One night I was listening to my sweet cd player (with radio!) in the car on the way to a soccer game. BOBD came on, just as I had to take my headphones out and go warmup on the field. But I just HAD to listen to the rest of the song, and then maybe figure out who sang it. So I pretended I had to poop and ran into the bathroom. I ran into a stall and set my cd player on top of the toilet holder thing. But my arm got caught in my headphones and I accidentally whipped my cd player down and it smashed to pieces on the ground. Yah.

Anywayssss I eventually discovered GD because of this. I feel like I've come so far since then.

[QueenOfSuburbia]

This song got me into Green Day. I didn't really knew them before they released it. And now I know ALL of their songs, saw the band live twice, and I don't know how I could live without their music!!

[ChuckTaylors]

I love this song and can even play it on guitar. Only thing that bothers be about it is that one of my friends who doesn't really like Green Day (she apperently went through a "green day phase" but now hates them....she'd not a very good friend for that reason :-P) only likes this song. Also, there are some people who only know or knew this Green Day song and none of their others. But I love the music, the lyrics, and all around I just love the way the song sounds.

[BJA TC MD]

Amazing song. Always gets in my head when I'm walking alone.

Also, on tv there is this guy who claims to be Jesus and I think he was singing this song!! It was on the show Sunday Night. Correct me if I'm wrong. I think that's what he was singing. It had something to do with and I'm the only one and I walk alone I think. He sang slow and weird.

Also a guy in my class last year was singing this for some reason an he didn't know the words so I corrected him

And I remember watching the vid for this when I was 7.

A lot of memories because of this song

Oh and the first chord progression I played on guitar was this song.

[WestboundSign!]

When I first saw that Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the new song of the week, I was wondering why it hasn't had this part earlier.

I can't really express what I feel for this song, I'm just able to say that I love it. I really do.

It was my all time favorite song for a really, really long time because it might have been the first song I knew after Basket Case.

Every time I'm down and I listen to this song then, I feel like I'm not that alone at all. It just goes deeper than many other songs do, I think.

This also was the first song I've ever learned on the guitar. Seems like I'm not the only one

Amazing introduction, Aska. As always!

[ANJI]

YES! I love this song...my fav so far! This is the song that got me into Green Day.

It felt so special when i heard it live twice

[in_your_face]

One hell o' a song! And that too, belongs to a ground breaking album.

[fiercecircus]

When i first heard this song, i was like, "oh man, what is this..." It was kind of a stark contrast to the song American Idiot, and basically everything else they'd ever put out. Like, what is this slow moody shit? Also, a big part of me wanted to correct him when he said "I walk alone..." and add in "I WALK A CROOKED TWISTING PATH, THAT SEEMS TO BE LEADING NOWHERE..."(Pinhead Gunpowder- believe the song is called "i walk alone" and it's on Goodbye Ellston Ave.)

But whatever. Then a month or so later (it took some time for AI to sink in on me, i only listened here and there to parts i really liked at first) I'm spending a weekend working at the Northampton, MA Popfest, but i can't afford a room, so i'm driving back and forth from New Haven to Northampton every night for 3 days. Long drive. Long late nights. By myself. And i have been kind of depressed lately because a lot of shit is going on in my life, some really bad shit had recently happened to a best friend of mine, and i am normally prone to depressive episodes anyways (which of course, just magnifies everything bad that's happening.) So i make a tape copy of the album (OLD CAR NO CD PLAYER! LOL!) and for many many hours, it is just me, the road, my trusty VW golf, and American Idiot.

And that's when i converted. I listened over and over and over again. And finally i heard *it*. I don't know what i mean by that, except that all the pieces of American Idiot finally fit together. I saw the story in my head. I started putting pictures to the story in my mind- what the characters would look like, how the story plays out. I very much made a movie to the rock opera in my mind. (and that's how my arm tattoos came to be- these two angel creatures. Nobody knows they're green day tattoos, but in my mind, they are characters in the story.)

Anyways, Boulevard of Broken Dreams really hit me. I felt like i was walking that path alone, that fucking "lonely road" of depression, alone, wishing that "someone up there will find me". It finally put words and music to the loneliness and emptiness a depressed person feels.

The total and complete "wall of noise" at the end, where it just sounds like it's spiraling down to it's ending... is just amazing. It's what it would sound like if the world was falling down around you. It completely surrounds you and sucks you in like a vortex. It sends chills through my body. When i am not in an episode of depression, it reminds me of what it feels like. And when i am in an episode- it is therapeutic.

Anyways, i can remember coming home one night and that song was playing as i pulled up to my building. I just sat and listened to it, alone in my little VW Golf on the side of the road, bawling my eyes out. THAT SONG is what depression feels like. Somebody finally figured out how to explain it and personify it and make it real for other people to understand. Thanks Guys.

(I always knew that there were GD songs that had a slant of depression/anxiety to them, and they were therapeutic for me, but this one is just the pinnacle of that. Whatever Billie went through emotionally to bring him to write this song, i can not imagine. I do not wish that kind of pain on anyone. But i am sorry and it is good to know that other people feel the same pain that i do, even if that doesn't make the pain go away.)

[TheJesusOfSuburbiaIsALie]

The first Green Day I ever heard! This song is so amazing! I'm gald it's SoTW!