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I tend to keep the volume on my speakers pretty low at work; I only turn them up when the air conditioning kicks on. Normally that's not a problem, except for when it turns back off and you're blasting Dominated Love Slave to the whole office.

CNN is on TV and I'm not really paying attention .... they are talking about the Green Bay packers though and every time they say the word I look up like some kind of conditioned dog

Of all the iconic shows they've played, those first Trilogy gigs (Tiki Bar, Austin, etc) are the ones I most wish I'd been at. They looked like so much fun and were probably the only times they'll play some of those Trilogy songs. Especially Echoplex, that was probably the closest they'll get to my dream setlist. When I was in Austin I went to find the club that used to be Red 7 That is probably an unpopular opinion or at least would have been when the Trilogy hate was at its worst. When I was 13 I got so upset by others' interpretations of 21st Century Breakdown, because Gloria was my idol and they had her doing all these shitty things and breaking up with Christian No way of interpreting music is bad or invalid, but I agree with Hermione that some kind of interpretation is necessary because Billie will never explain exactly what he means, and even if he does, we can't know exactly how he feels without knowing him personally; so we're still interpreting his feelings in our own ways. That's not to say there's anything wrong with being interested only in the original meaning, or not wanting to hear others' interpretations (there isn't anything wrong with that at all), just that I think that is a form of interpretation too. He explained what we've been discussing really well with Still Breathing: “To me, Still Breathing is about survival; about surviving some kind of hardship. That hardship could be a childhood memory, or else it could be drugs, or it could be someone who just came home from Afghanistan, say. It’s just about trying to find that common ground where you can survive with people. It’s a song about resilience.” (source) “I don’t wanna be selfish. I’d rather write something where my eyes are forward, not so much internal. I hope it makes people happy and creates a difference in some way, just by people recognizing themselves in the song.” (source) He achieved that too I think - I remember us all sharing our own personal stories about why the song resonated with us when it came out and it really allowed a lot of total strangers to find that "common ground where you can survive with people".

I agree with so much that's been said and one of the things I most admire about Billie's lyrics are how you can listen to the songs and enjoy them without giving them any thought OR listen to the lyrics and take them at face value OR dive deeper in and make more of them, your interpretation may or may not be the same as Billie's and that's fine. What really gets me though is how much he conveys so quickly, e.g. the example @LaughingClock quotes above, I just think that's amazing. I also find his lyrics touching at times and very relatable and think he really lays himself out in some. I also can't really explain why I feel such a connection to what he writes without saying that he just understands humans really well, I could hardly be less like him but they really get to me. Last thing, there are times we hear a song and it just hits us, for whatever reason it means something to you that bears no relation to the song and it's generally accepted meaning, and that's ok too 👌

He doesn't explain every song or every line of every song though, so interpretation is necessary. I think you look at it in a very simplistic way. Hearing different people's interpretations isn't just about how they feel about it or how they interpret it differently. It's also about simply working out what the meaning is and every possible facet of that meaning, beyond what's immediately obvious or the parts Billie has happened to explain. He also sometimes writes lyrics that are supposed to have multiple meanings or ambiguous meanings that deliberately leave room for individual interpretation. The beauty of art/lyrics is that not everything about them is always black and white and spelled out for you. I'm all about getting to Billie's intended meaning as well but imo hearing different interpretations only helps with and enriches that. Unless someone's going to say they don't believe him when he explicitly says what a song's about . But I don't see that happening very often.

But that's true for about every song he's written. I just wrote a long post about how everything Billie writes is really his interpretation even when it's something extraordinarily political. In pretty much all Green Day songs, they are written from the vantage point of Billie (even when it's a different character like St. Jimmy). Only so often when necessary during the opera years did he write from others vatage point and even then, they were still him sometimes. Jimmy vs JOS. Still Breathing was written about Billie and the fact that he survived rehab. The Nows are both written specifically about his drug and alcohol issues as well (as are songs like Brain Stew, Burnout, Geek Stink Breath, Sex Drugs and Violence, Christie Road) and so many more but that doesn't mean that a firefighter who is retiring and survived a dangerous career can't relate to the same emotion. Stories vary massively differently from person to person but there are only so many emotions and therefore they are relatable sometimes even though they were not written with THAT PERSON (whomever) in mind. If you consider Billie a poet (and I do) he would be offended to know that his pros (lyrics) are not interpretable because all great works of art USUALLY are. Also Billie likes to play with words as much as similies, metaphors and hyperbole. A great line from FN "My name is Billie and I'm freaking out". --- were talking about our character from the onset. He's on drugs...12 steppers say "my name is X and I'm an alcoholic" .... Also we know he's not happy with it. Not bad for one line. Also in the revolution resolution of FN when he says "I'm not standing in line no more, I'll put it off another day" on the surface sounds like he will procrastinate but at the end of the song he's really concluding that he will no longer procrastinate and he will PUT IT OFF ANOTHER DAY, as in not today. Such a great phrase as you have to really dissect the narrative to figure that out. Also with "Dull" and "Full" on The Nows but that is just something that I thought was dull on both occasions until I saw it live and realized he said "full" in FN and that completely changed the book end and it made much more sense. With just a single letter. Only Billie.

To add to my irritation at Last Ride In, today I was listening to GD on shuffle, rocking out to Stuart and the Ave, then LRI comes on afterwards and completely ruins the mood.

Yeah, it's Billie. They worked on it together along with guys from other East Bay bands. Penelope mentions working on it at the studio Billie had in his house. There's info on it in Gimme Something Better, but unfortunately the page pertaining to the song isn't public on Amazon so I couldn't cut and paste or link. I highly recommend the book to anyone who hasn't read it.

The eternal youth stems from fresh meat of his young fans obvs

^the tag line on modern drummer is kinda creepy "forever young and hungry" Tre's gonna fuckin eat me

Let them enjoy some good tunes

Same.

Reminds me of the opening line of SN: “I’m running late to somewhere now, that I don’t want to be.” Considering the next few lines, I immediately took that to be a 12 step meeting and it probably is, but when he’s spoken about it in interviews, he’s said he loves that one line because it’s so relatable. It can be the dentist or anything, everyone has felt that way. So again, different circumstances, but universal emotions. Good stuff. If Still Breathing didn’t ascribe universal emotions to different situations, It wouldn’t have resonated with so many people and maybe wouldn’t have been the hit it became. And I actually didn’t make the connection between “My name is Billie and I’m freaking out” and “My name is x and I’m an alcoholic”. That’s pretty good. He said it was the most honest line he’s ever written and I didn’t fully understand why until now.

I love how he says "kind" at 0:51:

Exactly - if this were the reason, I think Pat would have quit sometime around 2012 and not in 2017 when he's at his tamest, I mean come on If 2017-Billie were too "diva" for Pat, I doubt he'd find a job with ANY OTHER artist in the business

He absolutely still humps the floor.

Troubled times is my favorite song off of rev rad. I love the entire record. Outlaws is the only song I can skip.

Both shows I went too, the crowd was really into both SB and FN. SB still chokes me up everytime I hear it.

I don't know about the rest of the world, but on this forum, it seems that my fave songs off RevRad are everyone else's least faves, and my least faves are everyone else's faves. Like, I really really like Troubled Times, RevRad, BOTW, OW and Youngblood and I've loved them ever since I first heard the album, but they all seem to be quite unpopular on this site. Also, I'm not a huge fan of Forever Now (unless its live), Somewhere Now, or Still Breathing, but most people on here seem to love them.

Probably to remind people they are still breathing! xD

That's funny actually because my dad just texted me yesterday saying that they are playing "that breathing song by Green Day" at his gym. I wonder if it's because it is a popular song, or because....you know....people are working out and they are breathing and all that

These performers rocked the stage in Central Park at the #GlobalCitizen Festival #GCFest #GreenDay

I agree with you, but I think you misunderstood. I was referring to when people try to change the original meaning of a song. I'm totally fine with people relating to a song even if they have different situations, because I do it too. Sorry if I didn't make sense, my head is not working out today.

Haha at least im not the only one. Who knows how many lyrics I ruined during the concert I went to. I love the lyric videos, I remember being disappointed that one of the lyrics was not better than what I thought it actually was when they came out.

When Billie says a song is important or comes from a very special place for him, I think it's a safe bet that that song comes from a special place for him. It's his own damn words on his music. That would be like saying Wake Me Up When September Ends is about the coming of the fall season, when he's openly talked about the song being about his father passing away. Personally, I don't care what other fans interpret from the music, I care about what Billie has to say about the music he is writing. That's totally cool, everyone has a right to listen to music how they want. I guess I'm just different. I don't want my own interpretations on music, I don't listen to music and try to put my own interpretations on it so that it will mean something to me. The musician's own interpretation/meaning behind the song is what I generally connect with.

I'm always interested in Billie's interpretation of his own songs, but I'm the one listening to the song, consuming the music, and so I can apply whatever interpretation I want. It's like other forms of media - TV shows, movies, books. A lot of the time it means nothing to you until you can interpret it in a way that does mean something to you. Also, I'm just gonna leave this here:

I would have loved to have been at those small pre-trilogy shows. It looked so much fun & the trilogy songs sound great live.

I don't think it's unpopular to be uninterested in others' interpretations of Billie's writing... I've seen fans get called many unpleasant things over the years for sharing their own interpretations It's fine if people aren't interested but there's still nothing wrong with discussing them, if someone isn't bothered they don't have to read them. I'm interested in both the original meanings of songs and my own and others' interpretations. I think Billie intends a lot of his work to be open to interpretation considering how he talked about Still Breathing being open to everyone and JOS as mentioned above. It's one of the many reasons Green Day are so accessible to so many people.

9 hrs · Members of Green Day had been very satisfied with my work on @Spotify - Green Day project. After the project, they had contacted me through Warner Music, a requested a limited edition poster work that would be distributed during their 3 concert American tour. It was a marvelous experience for me to work directly with the group. I couldn't wait for the concerts to end in order to share my work with public. Here are the posters I designed with Milk Gallery & Design Store for Chicago, Oakland, Pasadena concerts. Enjoy

I've always fangirled over how his sings 'We are the vultures, the dirtiest kind' on that song It's like "we are the VUL-tuurreess, the dirtiest kind."

Quality Reverend.

For me personally, I connect with the songs that Billie puts a lot of himself into. It's the ones that cut deep in his soul that resonate with me. But that's just me, that's how I take music. I want the musicians raw emotions, not what I take out of them. Which is why a song like Jesus of Suburbia is so special to me.

FN is the closer of the first set. The entire tour for the most part, JOS had been their first encore closer after American Idiot and is insanely more popular than any other song live. The second encore song is always supposed to be what Billie or whomever thinks is the biggest crowd pleaser and I don't know what shows you're going to but JOS is always mayhem. I feel like this is The Twilight Zone. No doubt that FN is one of their greatest songs and definitely one of, if not the best from RevRad but JOS is still getting second encore playing after being on the discography for 13-14 years. At the end of the day, it's all subjective. Someone loves KFAD the most, just not me. I wouldn't quite put FN on par with JOS and I say that with FN being one of my personal favorite songs of all time and I've seen them both live enough times to have my opinion but it's fine that you think different but you can't really argue crowd response and it's always MASSIVE for JOS although it is too for FN but again second encore song is always supposed to be the strongest perceived song (generally and especially for GD). I have been to and if I looked could find more but FN people love for sure but I wouldn't put it on JOS level just yet. I don't think that it's that unpopular and TBH although he does right lyrics that are interpretable, he usually does have an exact meaning. Especially a lot of the songs on RevRad have been discussed ad nauseam but many of them, in fact most, at least the idea of the song has an exact meaning and wanting to know it is fine. Keep in mind that many poets write with their own agenda but pueposefully leave it open for interpretation. It's a skill to do that and one that he posesses quite well.

I hated the part where he basically called them old and wanting to fit into the pop world. I'm glad Tre just did that interview where he made it clear that Green Day will never merge with the pop world.

I'm looking for the source of this quote

I was really excited when they brought back JOS onto the setlist and I'm still very excited every time I hear it. It never gets old for me, it's exciting for me because it's 9 minutes, making the show few longer (cause I don't want it to end at that point )

Not true. I have heard many songs more than KFAD that don't ever get anooying to me. It's great the first time and there is a tiny bit of improv I dig. I love when Freeze breaks into Careless but no, JOS is 100x better no matter how many times I hear it so I must respectfully disageee. JOB doesn't play well live? Wow. I never thought I'd here those words typed or uttered. IMHO I think it's the quintisential live song of all time and feel the same about it on the album. I don't know a single person (until now) that doesn't love it live (which is why they usually close with it because most agree). What makes it not play well live to you because excuse me for assuming but if you say it doesn't play well live, I'm assuming you don't like the live version but do the studio. That song takes the crowd on a journey through slow melodic breakdowns, pure thrash, great musicianship from a band that usually doesn't show that off much, to just a great production from a live vantage point. I've never seen an unhappy crowd after JOS so I have to ask, what don't you like about it live? FTR, I used JOS as my example before reading your response. Coincidental and a drop ironic I suppose. To each his own but not liking JOS live is a kin to not liking ice cream. When you find someone that doesn't you have to find out why?!? Lol. Waiting/St. Jimmy is another that falls into the "I don't care how many times I hear it", it's still amazing list. KFAD has made me want to stab my ears while listening to unless I'm there with a first timer in which case I enjoy it vicariously. Rock, slow break, thrash, danceable, beatiful, lyrically amazing, the pinochle of one of their best albums. Why SR? Ha

Right? Like he's running back and forth jumping up and down yelling and singing then there's me, in pain for four days after 1 single show. He is a superhero on stage! When they're on break he's probably recharging himself to 100% so that once the tour starts he can go BOING everywhere.

Same . He's pogoing up and down with his guitar on effortlessly and sprinting down the runway while still having enough breath to sing and I'm like how are you doing that when I ache all over just standing in the crowd. He's like a superhero on stage.

Not only does Billie still hump the floor, he does it while he calls my name.

I’m at the pharmacy getting a flu shot and one of the questions on the medical form is “Do you take Prednisone?” 😂 I’m sorry, I’m so bored this week everything reminds me of Green Day. 😊

Austin ain’t as weird as it used to be 😞

I had a really strange Green Day dream last night and I'm so confused. I dreamed that Billie Joe had gotten loads of new tattoos and they were all really random and weird. He had gotten the South America tour dates tattooed on his neck, Amanda's name tattooed on his wrist and a heart tattooed on his shoulder (not like a love heart, more like an image of a real life human heart). Then, on his other shoulder, he had his skin tattooed leopard print and he had his entire back, from the bottom of his neck to the top of his hips, just coloured in black. He also had these weird... I don't know what to call them. Creatures, maybe? I don't know. They were like little pink blobs with arms and they had Xs for eyes. Anyway, he had them tattooed around his hips and they were all holding hands, just like the clown tattoo on his wrist that he has in real life. I don't know what the fuck was going on in my mind last night, but I sure hope it doesn't happen again. I don't know how to deal with this shit...

TDTD - Don't cross the line because you'll scare my mother. I've just found out it's not what he sings because I saw a screenshot from the lyrics video.