Blasphemy & Genocide: Unpopular Green Day Opinions, Part 2

[UNICORN VOMIT]

6 minutes ago, Kaddi. said:

Regarding that, what exactly does that rain and roses line mean? Maybe it's a stupid question, but I've been wondering about it.

2 minutes ago, Scattered Wreck said:

I have to disagree on this line.  I love Still Breathing, but this line is just so personal to Billie that I think it works so well.  His mother pretty much checked out after his fathers death and I look at that line as a real, personal reference to himself.   

& god I relate to that line 

[Kaddi.]

8 minutes ago, Tinkle said:

His head is held up high & he is not buried under a rose bush ☺️

Oh, really that literal. I thought it was some kind of saying or a metaphor I didn't quite get.

[Chin for a Day]

19 minutes ago, Kaddi. said:

Regarding that, what exactly does that rain and roses line mean? Maybe it's a stupid question, but I've been wondering about it.

Usually when someone dies, at least here, at the funeral service, they will pile all the flowers someone sent on top of the casket before it is buried.  So basically that line means he is not dead.  His head is above the rain and roses, not below them  

[iltrenta]

2 hours ago, Jane Lannister said:

I agree about Still Breathing. He uses way too many cliches for it to feel personal. It has so many lines I've heard before that it feels prefabricated, like dozens of popsongs that are written this way. I think many fans feel so connected to it because we know the story and read all the recent heartwrenching interviews. Many people were touched by it and that might have helped them relate to the song. I wonder how relatable and meaningful it is for people who aren't into Green Day the way we are. Regardless, I still like SB. 

I have to disagree a little on Troubled Times. The lyrics sounded falsely deep to me at first but now I think the power of this song is in its simplicity. I'm still like "oh dear" at some of the lines of this song but I actually don't mine the line "we live in trouble times" - I love how abruptly the chorus ends and goes into the instrumental. I just like the music on this song a lot. 

I get that, but in Troubled Times simplicity has degenerated into banality imo. I mean if you want to make a social commentary about terroristic attacks the worst thing you could do is saying that history is repeated when it's not learned, it's as unoriginal as you can be.

Yeah the music is ok, I think I'll search for a cover in Korean just to listen to the instrumental part without being distracted by the lyrics.

[Hermione]

4 hours ago, iltrenta said:

Still Breathing is disappointing, I was expecting much more from the rehab song. I get why people say it's relatable, okay, but this doesn't mean it's well written. It's not like I was expecting overly-complicated lines or some oscure Rimbaud reference by the way, Bj has written excellent songs without needing any of that.

I'm like a soldier coming home for the first time

I'm like a mother barely keeping it together

In my opinion those lines are terribly cheap, a cheap wink. A song isn't automatically good just because of the theme and what it means for the author and the listeners.

Same thing for Troubled Times, falsely deep lyrics with an empty chorus:

We. Live. In. Troubled. Times.

"I'm like a son that was raised without a father/I'm like a mother barely keeping it together" is literally describing his own family and childhood. I think it's one of the most brutally raw and personal lines he's ever written.

I do kind of agree with the Troubled Times complaint though. It's not so much that he just says "we live in troubled times", but that afterwards there's this long gap with just an "ahh-ahh" before he repeats it which really emphasizes the fact that it's all he says  

[solongfromthestars]

I love Too Dumb To Die! Might be my second favourite on RevRad. I didn't like the intro at first but it's grown on me and I just love that verse about his dad.

Still Breathing isn't Billie's most complex lyrical venture, but I don't really feel it's cliched or impersonal. Some of the lines can come across as cliches depending on how you look at it, but the way he sings it, gradually building up to him screaming the chorus, rescues them for me. As well as relating to his own life I think the comparisons to others (soldier, single mother, junkie, etc) reflect well what he said about "how we're all intertwined". When it was released and everyone was inspired to share their personal struggles with strangers around the world, I really felt that. All the stories were different and the people sharing them were all totally different people, but it showed that as he said, we are all intertwined.

I may well be biased because it hit me so hard on a personal level, but "my head's above the rain and roses / making my way to you" are definitely my favourite lines from the album.

[stories and songs]

I realize that the sound of Still Breathing is similar to other pop-rock songs. But I don't agree that it's generic in any way. A Green Day song has never felt so emotional and personal before (except Somewhere Now and Forever Now—god, I love this album). Maybe looking at it objectively and just reading the lyrics I'd find it cliched. Maybe. But it's impossible for me to be objective about this song. Listening to it? Holy shit. There is such an indescribable amount of passion in how it is sung. There are moments throughout where it doesn't even sound like Billie because he's practically screaming it, and it's beautiful. As @Hermione said, the "I'm like a son that was raised without a father/I'm like a mother barely keeping it together" line is so raw and real. I'd add that "I've been running all my life just to find a home that's for the restless/and the truth that's in the message" is equally revealing, and "Are you scared to death to live?" really ties in well to Forever Now ("Standing at the edge of the world is giving me the chills...") I'm so emotionally wrapped up in this song that I couldn't possibly think of it as a typical rock ballad. When you take it a step beyond what it means to Billie and look at how it binds people who have been through all sorts of struggles and are proud to have come out on the other side, you find a pretty special song.

[Libertine Angel]

6 hours ago, iltrenta said:

Still Breathing is disappointing, I was expecting much more from the rehab song. I get why people say it's relatable, okay, but this doesn't mean it's well written. It's not like I was expecting overly-complicated lines or some oscure Rimbaud reference by the way, Bj has written excellent songs without needing any of that.

I'm like a soldier coming home for the first time

I'm like a mother barely keeping it together

In my opinion those lines are terribly cheap, a cheap wink. A song isn't automatically good just because of the theme and what it means for the author and the listeners.

Same thing for Troubled Times, falsely deep lyrics with an empty chorus:

We. Live. In. Troubled. Times.

Agreed, like I said when it first came out a song of personal struggles doesn't have to be all dramatic and full of recovery clichés, as far as punk songs in the same vein Stiff Little Fingers did a much better one two years ago:

 

[Chin for a Day]

18 minutes ago, Libertine Angel said:

 as far as punk songs in the same vein Stiff Little Fingers did a much better one two years ago:

 

I don't consider Still Breathing a punk song.

[Beerjeezus]

SB is as unpunk as it gets.

[Libertine Angel]

51 minutes ago, Scattered Wreck said:

I don't consider Still Breathing a punk song.

It's not, and from a guy who said he wanted to destroy pop-punk that makes it more disappointing in a way.

[Hermione]

Just now, Libertine Angel said:

It's not, and from a guy who said he wanted to destroy pop-punk that makes it more disappointing in a way.

He only meant he disliked the phrase pop punk  

Still Breathing sounded shockingly pop the first time I heard it. Although it sounds more "normal" to me now I'm used to it I like that they did something different by going for such a full on pop sound. There's also something I like about the very personal/serious lyrics being in the most modern pop sounding song they've done. Dark lyrics contrasted with a catchy pop punk sound has always been their thing but with this song they did the contrast in a new way.

[stories and songs]

Unpopular Opinion: I am SO TIRED of that tweet being brought up. 

[Hermione]

4 minutes ago, stories and songs said:

Unpopular Opinion: I am SO TIRED of that tweet being brought up. 

 He's even confirmed that's all he meant elaborating on it in Kerrang recently. Surely time for it to stop now  

[stories and songs]

@Hermione In the videoed Huff Post interview he was asked about it too, and he was like "Oh! That was just a thing I tweeted that people keep talking about for some reason" and made it seem totally ridiculous. Because it is.

[Hermione]

5 minutes ago, stories and songs said:

@Hermione In the videoed Huff Post interview he was asked about it too, and he was like "Oh! That was just a thing I tweeted that people keep talking about for some reason" and made it seem totally ridiculous. Because it is.

Haven't watched that yet, excellent  

[Libertine Angel]

21 minutes ago, Hermione said:

He only meant he disliked the phrase pop punk  

Still Breathing sounded shockingly pop the first time I heard it. Although it sounds more "normal" to me now I'm used to it I like that they did something different by going for such a full on pop sound. There's also something I like about the very personal/serious lyrics being in the most modern pop sounding song they've done. Dark lyrics contrasted with a catchy pop punk sound has always been their thing but with this song they did the contrast in a new way.

I think the fact that it's so blandly pop detracts so much from it, like it's had any edge the subject might've given it tamed and watered down.

[Thatsername]

9 hours ago, iltrenta said:

Still Breathing is disappointing, I was expecting much more from the rehab song. I get why people say it's relatable, okay, but this doesn't mean it's well written. It's not like I was expecting overly-complicated lines or some oscure Rimbaud reference by the way, Bj has written excellent songs without needing any of that.

I'm like a soldier coming home for the first time

I'm like a mother barely keeping it together

In my opinion those lines are terribly cheap, a cheap wink. A song isn't automatically good just because of the theme and what it means for the author and the listeners.

Same thing for Troubled Times, falsely deep lyrics with an empty chorus:

We. Live. In. Troubled. Times.

I disagree. I think the difference between a good song and a bad song is EXACTLY the fact whether you can feel that it means something to the writer and to the audience or not. At least that's my way of listening to music. Only if I can relate to the song, only if I can feel a meaning behind it which is important to the writer, and, in the best case, for me too, I can love a song. And Still Breathing offers all of that, it feels like this song was written about me, although I have a completely different past. The way he describes his feelings, which might be similar to the feelings of a junkie, a loser or a single mother or anyone else in a difficult situation, aren't clichés, they are just the truth. "As I walk out on the ledge, are you scared to death to live?" That's exactly the question you ask yourself after you've been through something as life-changing as that. And that's what I love about Billie's writing, he can use many metaphors in a great way and I love that, but sometimes he's just calling a spade a spade (can I say it like this? Looked this up in a dictionary ;p).

There has never been a GD song that hit me so hard like Still Breathing did, I need some more years to find it out, but it has potential to become my favourite GD song. That might be an unpopular opinion, but I'm in the right thread for this, right? :-D

[Hermione]

38 minutes ago, Libertine Angel said:

I think the fact that it's so blandly pop detracts so much from it, like it's had any edge the subject might've given it tamed and watered down.

Disagree there as I don't find it blandly pop. I find it interestingly pop . It's the most full on pop they've done so it feels like something new from them.

[Beerjeezus]

1 hour ago, stories and songs said:

Unpopular Opinion: I am SO TIRED of that tweet being brought up. 

I didn't even have to scroll up to look what tweet you meant.  

[Chin for a Day]

Unpopular opinion, just because it is pop doesn't mean it is bad.  Just because it is punk, doesn't mean it is good

[Beerjeezus]

1 hour ago, Libertine Angel said:

I think the fact that it's so blandly pop detracts so much from it, like it's had any edge the subject might've given it tamed and watered down.

The sampled verses don't feel like Green Day at all. Maybe that's what distracts me...However, I think it's good. I don't mind a little poppiness when it's done well. 

[solongfromthestars]

2 hours ago, stories and songs said:

In the videoed Huff Post interview he was asked about it too, and he was like "Oh! That was just a thing I tweeted that people keep talking about for some reason" and made it seem totally ridiculous. Because it is.

Oh I must see that, even better  

[iltrenta]

10 hours ago, Hermione said:

 

I do kind of agree with the Troubled Times complaint though. It's not so much that he just says "we live in troubled times", but that afterwards there's this long gap with just an "ahh-ahh" before he repeats it which really emphasizes the fact that it's all he says  

Yes if you listen closely you'll find that the ahh-ahhs actually mean "Yes, that was the actual chorus, deal with It".

8 hours ago, Libertine Angel said:

Agreed, like I said when it first came out a song of personal struggles doesn't have to be all dramatic and full of recovery clichés, as far as punk songs in the same vein Stiff Little Fingers did a much better one two years ago:

 

Exactly! I didn't know that song so thanks for posting it, it's very nice 

6 hours ago, MMwhatsername said:

I disagree. I think the difference between a good song and a bad song is EXACTLY the fact whether you can feel that it means something to the writer and to the audience or not. At least that's my way of listening to music. Only if I can relate to the song, only if I can feel a meaning behind it which is important to the writer, and, in the best case, for me too, I can love a song. And Still Breathing offers all of that, it feels like this song was written about me, although I have a completely different past. The way he describes his feelings, which might be similar to the feelings of a junkie, a loser or a single mother or anyone else in a difficult situation, aren't clichés, they are just the truth. "As I walk out on the ledge, are you scared to death to live?" That's exactly the question you ask yourself after you've been through something as life-changing as that. And that's what I love about Billie's writing, he can use many metaphors in a great way and I love that, but sometimes he's just calling a spade a spade (can I say it like this? Looked this up in a dictionary ;p).

There has never been a GD song that hit me so hard like Still Breathing did, I need some more years to find it out, but it has potential to become my favourite GD song. That might be an unpopular opinion, but I'm in the right thread for this, right? :-D

You're absolutely in the right thread. And I disagree.

I think that another factor to be taken into consideration is how a song is written (aside from the fact that songs don't necessarily need to be meaningful and there's nothing wrong with fun or light hearted songs).

It's the difference between an hypothetic bland line like "we need to figure out a way to make our relationship work because we're kinda struggling with it" and a song like Church on Sunday. If you read my line you could say "yeah my relationship is exactly like this because my partner bla bla and I totally relate to this", but my line still sucks and Church on Sunday, even if it says the same thing, is beautiful.

Edited October 21, 2016 by Second favourite son
Please remove videos from quotes

[21guns&novacaine]

31 minutes ago, Scattered Wreck said:

Unpopular opinion, just because it is pop doesn't mean it is bad.  Just because it is punk, doesn't mean it is good

Exactly. There's actually a lot of good pop bands out there, they just automatically get pushed into the stereotype world with other undesirable pop artists as soon as anyone finds out their genre. And as much as I love punk music, it's not always good haha