Blasphemy & Genocide: Unpopular Green Day Opinions, Part 2

[pouty bitch]

2 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

They're my least favorite parts of the video that's for sure, but that's mainly because I will prefer staring at Billie for three and a half minutes over just about anything 

Yes, and that too.

[Hermione]

20 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

Probably because he was determined that the song would have a universal message and not just be all about him. So many people connect with the song for their own personal reasons I think they just wanted the video to illustrate that.

I agree but I think it's unnecessarily heavy handed and dilutes the impact of the video. It would've been more interesting and unique if they'd been bold enough to just use the band part, people could get that the message could also apply to other people without it being spelled out.

[pacejunkie punk]

1 minute ago, Hermione said:

I agree but I think it's unnecessarily heavy handed and dilutes the impact of the video. It would've been more interesting and unique if they'd been bold enough to just use the band part, people could get that the message could also apply to other people without it being spelled out.

He's already so revealing in his lyrics, you think he gets self conscious when he thinks things are too much about him?

[Beerjeezus]

1 hour ago, Kuromignonne said:

I love the SB video, for the emotion in it, for the way we see Billie and everything he does in it, and the fact there aren't playing the song all three together, Billie being alone and only joining them at the end, I love that. On the other hand, I don't like the fact other characters are in the video, I think (despite the lyrics: I'm like..., I'm like....) that they are unnecessary; at least, they didn't have to often be so literal a drawing of the lyrics - or to put it another way, I would have preferred these lyrics not to have necessarily been subject to a personalisation, outside of Billie. I would have liked to see a little bit how Billie personally relates to these comparisons, since they are his, if the camera had stayed focused on him.

As for the RevRad video, it's of course very different, I love it too but less I think than the Still Breathing one, because I love too much what I see of Billie in this one, so for now the SB music video is probably my favorite.   

I agree. I think most of the characters seem horribly clichéd, especially combined with the lyrics. It would feel a lot more genuine withought them.

[Hermione]

2 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

He's already so revealing in his lyrics, you think he gets self conscious when he thinks things are too much about him?

Yeah possibly, although I'd guess it was more the director's choice since GD generally seem to leave it to them and not have much creative input themselves.

Still I'm really impressed that they acted an emotional scene in the video even if it isn't the whole thing. I love it when music acts do that instead of just playing the song and getting actors in for the acting part.

[Beerjeezus]

1 minute ago, pacejunkie punk said:

He's already so revealing in his lyrics, you think he gets self conscious when he thinks things are too much about him?

this is actually a very good point. It seems that he likes to make his songs not about himself. That's what the use of characters seems to be. He writes a song and then presents it as a song about a character. It's understandable - he's quite honest in his writing and some of that stuff just aren't things most people would like to tell about themselves. 

When he explains his lyrics, he often says something very generic. I remember I watched an interview in which he was talking about 21CB songs, and I must admit I was curious about what he'd say about RHS. He let Mike answer and Mike said it's about how pharmacutical industry uses advertising to brainwash people to buy meds. I'm not saying it's not a plausible explanation of the lyrics, it's just an example of how Billie/the band make songs less personal.

[pacejunkie punk]

4 minutes ago, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

this is actually a very good point. It seems that he likes to make his songs not about himself. That's what the use of characters seems to be. He writes a song and then presents it as a song about a character. It's understandable - he's quite honest in his writing and some of that stuff just aren't things most people would like to tell about themselves. 

When he explains his lyrics, he often says something very generic. I remember I watched an interview in which he was talking about 21CB songs, and I must admit I was curious about what he'd say about RHS. He let Mike answer and Mike said it's about how pharmacutical industry uses advertising to brainwash people to buy meds. I'm not saying it's not a plausible explanation of the lyrics, it's just an example of how Billie/the band make songs less personal.

He's definitely coy about it, but there are times when he's claimed songs were not about himself and then other times when he absolutely admits that they are.  He's done that with Basket Case for example.  And he'll hide behind characters in AI (which he never denied was about himself) and also 21CB which he later was like, yeah Christian and Gloria are both me, it's all about me actually.  There's no use denying it anymore.  It was refreshing to see him finally throw that facade off in RevRad and be more direct and truthful about it.

[Beerjeezus]

31 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

He's definitely coy about it, but there are times when he's claimed songs were not about himself and then other times when he absolutely admits that they are.  He's done that with Basket Case for example.  And he'll hide behind characters in AI (which he never denied was about himself) and also 21CB which he later was like, yeah Christian and Gloria are both me, it's all about me actually.  There's no use denying it anymore.  It was refreshing to see him finally throw that facade off in RevRad and be more direct and truthful about it.

Yes, however, I think it's not a bad thing that he's avoided talking about himself. It's good that he lets the songs speak for themselves so everyone can have their own interpretation. It's much better than being the guy who always sings and talks about himself. He got rid of the characters, but his writing is usually still abstract enough that it's not just about him (most of the "personal" revrad songs are rather abstract) or they're not so clearly about him that you'd notice if you didn't know what to look for. 

[pacejunkie punk]

1 minute ago, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

Yes, however, I think it's not a bad think that he's avoided talking about himself. It's good that he lets the songs speak for themselves so everyone can have their own interpretation. It's much better than being the guy who always sings and talks about himself. He got rid of the characters, but his writing is usually still abstract enough that it's not just about him (most of the "personal" revrad songs are rather abstract) or they're not so clearly about him that you'd notice if you didn't know what to look for. 

That's another good point, I've seen discussions before about the perceived change in quality in his lyrics from the past to now.  But if he's not hiding behind a character, he's hiding behind more abstract lyrics because you're right otherwise it would just be a straight up memoir and too introspective.  So maybe that's why it seems like his words are more oblique now.

[Beerjeezus]

20 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

That's another good point, I've seen discussions before about the perceived change in quality in his lyrics from the past to now.  But if he's not hiding behind a character, he's hiding behind more abstract lyrics because you're right otherwise it would just be a straight up memoir and too introspective.  So maybe that's why it seems like his words are more oblique now.

Yes, the abstraction seems to be a way to make the songs less directly personal. It's an artistic choice as well, of course, but I can't help thinking that he takes advantage of being less blunt. Some poetry use words as their meanings but as a means to invoke some emotion and that's what he often seems to be going for, but there usually is a theme that you can follow.

[Christian's Inferno!]

I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but I've been listening to Demolicious quite a lot recently and thinking about it now, I think it's probably the best GD album since 21CB. Lately, RevRad just hasn't been interesting me much recently, it's not been an album I've been coming back that much right now compared to when it was released, and I think the trilogy demos are better than the studio versions of the songs.

None of the demos of Demolicious are worse than the studio version. Some of them are pretty much on par with the studio version but quite a few of them are much better than their studio version. The intro on Baby Eyes alone makes it better than the Dos version (that bass!), 99 Revolutions demo is better, Angel Blue is better, Carpe Diem, Sex Drugs & Violence, Stay the Night, Nuclear Family. I think the only ones that aren't better are Ashley, Stray Heart, Oh Love and Missing You. Although the change of lyrics on Oh Love and Let Yourself Go does annoy me cause I think they're dumb lyrics and the absence of some lyrics on Ashley annoy me.

[pouty bitch]

15 hours ago, MysticManiac said:

I'm not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but I've been listening to Demolicious quite a lot recently and thinking about it now, I think it's probably the best GD album since 21CB. Lately, RevRad just hasn't been interesting me much recently, it's not been an album I've been coming back that much right now compared to when it was released, and I think the trilogy demos are better than the studio versions of the songs.

None of the demos of Demolicious are worse than the studio version. Some of them are pretty much on par with the studio version but quite a few of them are much better than their studio version. The intro on Baby Eyes alone makes it better than the Dos version (that bass!), 99 Revolutions demo is better, Angel Blue is better, Carpe Diem, Sex Drugs & Violence, Stay the Night, Nuclear Family. I think the only ones that aren't better are Ashley, Stray Heart, Oh Love and Missing You. Although the change of lyrics on Oh Love and Let Yourself Go does annoy me cause I think they're dumb lyrics and the absence of some lyrics on Ashley annoy me.

I agree with pretty much everything in your second paragraph, especially the part about the bass intro on Baby Eyes. There are some songs where I prefer the Trilogy version, but the majority of songs are better on Demolicious, imo.

As for Demolicious being better than RevRad, it really depends on how I'm feeling. Sometimes I'm in a RevRad mood and I'll be totally worshipping that album, other times I don't really care for it much.

[pacejunkie punk]

I love Shenanigans but I don’t listen to it often enough because I forget it exists. Billie has an old tweet where he says he wishes Suffocate and Densitized had been on Nimrod and I agree. They would have made great substitutes for Last Ride In and Take Back can you imagine?  

[pouty bitch]

7 minutes ago, pacejunkie punk said:

I love Shenanigans but I don’t listen to it often enough because I forget it exists. Billie has an old tweet where he says he wishes Suffocate and Densitized had been on Nimrod and I agree. They would have made great substitutes for Last Ride In and Take Back can you imagine?  

I would absolutely love any song from Shenanigans to replace LRI, but no way in hell could I replace Take Back. TB is in my top 20 GD songs and the only song on Shenanigans that comes close to it is Ha Ha You're Dead, imo.

[jengd]

Just to go back to the discussion about Billie’s lyrics for a minute, I think he writes differently at different times, sometimes very directly, others more obscurely, sometimes very personally, others more generally but I think he does all very well, and even when it’s personal, he still makes them relatable.  It appears that he often writes when alone, he has said he often comes up with lyrics walking on his own, so I guess there will be many moods and factors affecting his writing.  

Somebody said a page back about him maybe feeling too self-conscious when it came to making a video of a very personal song and that is a really good point.  My first thought when I saw the b/w pic from Sara’s IG with the plane, was that Billie didn’t look all that comfortable with it, I wonder if he still can’t quite believe the level of success etc and sometimes needs to draw back a little, almost as if he is protecting himself.  I know there is also the great photo of all three of them obviously having fun with it, I think it appears sometimes that Mike and Tre bring him out of himself so he can enjoy it all.  His introspective periods may mean “get ready for another nude photo coming shirtly” - complex character I feel.  I could be talking bollocks of course 

[pacejunkie punk]

I think he’s enjoying it all now, at least it seems like he’s trying really hard to.  Although I know in one interview from 21CB period he said if he could go back to his earlier self he would tell himself to enjoy it all more. He may be talking about his 90’s period when it was all making him pretty depressed. He regrets that now. Age will do that, it will make you start to appreciate things and wish you had done that more in your youth.

[Stefano Bras]

This thread pisses me off.

[jengd]

13 minutes ago, Stefano Bras said:

This thread pisses me off.

Valid point but don’t read it if you don’t like it.

[Stefano Bras]

13 minutes ago, jengd said:

Valid point but don’t read it if you don’t like it.

Well... I had to read it to get an opinion from it, didn't I?

[Beerjeezus]

1 hour ago, Stefano Bras said:

This thread pisses me off.

I am pretty sure it's pissed almost everyone off at least once

[jengd]

1 hour ago, Stefano Bras said:

Well... I had to read it to get an opinion from it, didn't I?

Yes, but you don’t need to revisit it if you don’t want to, your choice.

[Montclare]

Popular opinion- yes, Suffocate should have been on Nimrod.  Unpopular opinion- I wouldn't use it to replace LRI; I'd replace Haushinka.  Only song on Nimrod I could never get into.

[Beerjeezus]

6 minutes ago, Montclare said:

Popular opinion- yes, Suffocate should have been on Nimrod.  Unpopular opinion- I wouldn't use it to replace LRI; I'd replace Haushinka.  Only song on Nimrod I could never get into.

You must be the only one here who agrees with me on this - I don't understand the hype about Haushinka. 

[pacejunkie punk]

10 minutes ago, Billie Joe Armstrong said:

You must be the only one here who agrees with me on this - I don't understand the hype about Haushinka. 

It’s not my favorite but I don’t dislike it. It’s just there.

[Stefano Bras]

1 hour ago, jengd said:

Yes, but you don’t need to revisit it if you don’t want to, your choice.

Sorry if that came off as passive agressive, my point was that this thread pisses me off but I still enjoy it.