Green Day Lyrics

Green Day lyrics offer richness in imagery, imagination and rebellion against the status quo. Starting with underground hit, Kerplunk!, and following with Dookie, Insomniac, Nimrod, Warning:, and their latest album, American Idiot, Green Day lyrically, has stayed true to their punk rock style, though musically they have developed into more of a rock and even pop band.

Besides Kerplunk!, Dookie was the band’s first big seller at 10 million copies and the Green Day lyrics of more interest can be found in the hit single “When I Come Around”. The protagonist in these lyrics is being honest and admitting to his lover that he’s only interested in a sexual relationship with her and that this may not be what she wants.

In the album Insomniac, there are a couple of Green Day lyrics of interest in their songs, “Geek Stink Breath” and “Walking Contradiction”. In “Geek Stink Breath” there is an interesting line that tells the theme of the song, “I’m blowing off steam with methamphetamine” where the singer tells of the self-destructive path he’s taking by using drugs. In “Walking Contradiction”, the protagonist is internally conflicted when observing the world around him. In this set of Green Day lyrics, there is a particularly insightful line in “I’m a smart ass but I’m playing dumb.”

The American Idiot album has been billed as a “punk rock opera” that centers around the character of “Jesus of Suburbia”. The lyrics to “Jesus of Suburbia” are a particular biting denouncement of the middle class white American status quo. One of the most cutting of these well-written lyrics is “While the moms and brads are away / To fall in love and fall in debt.”

The Green Day lyrics in “American Idiot” rage against the current political machine in Washington D. C. and the media that supports the less than desirable status quo. The American idiot referred to in this song are the conservative ones currently in power and the millions in the supporting ‘redneck’ base. This song is a wonderful rebellious romp against idealological opposites.

In Green Day’s most successful single to date and the one garnering them one of their three Grammy Awards, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is also one of the band’s most lyrically successful songs as well. Written by lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is a wonderfully depressing letdown in the travel of Jesus of Suburbia.

In this set of Green Day lyrics, two lines are of particular interest because of the imagery they invoke and depth of meaning. The first lyric “My shadow’s the only one that walks beside me / My shallow heart’s the only thing that’s beating” implies there is another hear that is not real in the character that is nonetheless supporting life to the character.

The second line of the lyrics containing exceptional imagery is “I’m walking down the line / That divides me somewhere in my mind” reveals a conflict that the protagonist must solve or else be rescued from in order to survive.

Green Day lyrics are unique in the style in which they are written, the imagery and the message they get across in a rebellious, yet poetic fashion.