To try to top an album that had the magnitude of scope and worldwide commercial success of American Idiot would be near impossible for any rock group.
Green Day comes close with their follow-up masterpiece part deux called 21st Century Breakdown, released in May of this year. Rolling Stone magazine rated it No. 5 on its Best of 2009 List. I guess RS was never good at math—or physics? Because this album soars to the top of the class.
21stCBD continues Green Day’s Rock Opera format starring two characters: Gloria and Christian. Through their eyes we see a devastated America. I see the same devastation; that’s why I love this album.
The first single released was “Know Your Enemy.”
“Do you know your enemy?
Well, gotta know the enemy…
Silence is the enemy
Against your urgency…”
I wish more Americans screamed their heads off about the injustices permeating our society everyday. That’s the only way TPTB can hear you.
I have two favorite songs on this CD. The first is “Last of the American Girls.” It sounds like a punked out Beach Boys’ “Help Me Rhonda” combined at the end with Tom Petty’s “American Girl.” I read that Billie Joe wrote this song for his wife. To Mrs. Armstrong: I hope you don’t mind, but I’d like to borrow your song as MY THEME SONG.
If the bass line doesn’t hook you, the sing-songy melody will. The bonus feature—lyrics that speak to the essence of a free spirit:
“She’s a runaway of the establishment incorporated
She won’t cooperate, well, she’s the last of the American girls…
Like a hurricane in the heart of the devastation
She’s a natural disaster, she’s the last of the American girls…”
I saw Green Day perform in August in San Jose. Phenomenal concert—(deserves its own blog). During the show, Billie Joe lay on the stage, played his guitar, and sang a few songs, like “We Gotta Get out of this Place, by the Kinks and “Free Fallin’” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. That’s why I get a kick out of his song “Last of the American Girls” sounding a tad like Petty’s “American Girl,” (as he obviously is a fan) because the Petty song was MY THEME SONG for many years. Petty’s song goes:
“Well, she was an American girl
Raised on promises
She couldn’t help thinkin’
That there was a little more to life somewhere else
After all it was a great big world
With lots of places to run to
And if she had to die tryin’
She had one little promise she was gonna keep…”
The BEST song on 21stCBD is “21 Guns.” This song is a LOVE POEM to America.
“Do you know what’s worth fighting for?
When it’s not worth dying for?
Does it take your breath away
And you feel yourself suffocating?”
This is Billie Joe asking America if the price of war is worth it.
“Does the pain weigh out the pride?
And you look for a place to hide?
Did someone break your heart inside?
You’re in ruins.”
This is Billie Joe’s comment on the destruction America suffered at the hands of the Bush Administration.
The chorus is:
“One, 21 guns
Lay down your arms, give up the fight
One, 21 guns
Throw up your arms into the sky, you and I.”
America, here’s your 21-gun salute to the death of the old way of behaving.
America, you and I will find a better way. We, the people!
Occasionally I read between the lines… A bit of a stretch? Maybe. Maybe not. Anyway, gotta love Green Day for their passion. And love them even more for this next section of the song:
“Did you try to live on your own
When you burned down the house and home?
Did you stand too close to the fire
Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone?”
The section above is THE BEST PIECE OF MUSIC RECORDED IN 2009. If I only got to listen to these 25 or so seconds for the entire year, that would have been enough. Stirs my soul every time I hear it!
It’s a plea for America to see the error of her ways.
Repent. Rejuvenate. Rejoice, America!
See what I mean when I said in a previous blog: “Rock-n-roll matters.”
Check it out – especially from 2:50 – 3:30
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_VsJm2D2Ok&feature=related
From the Broadway cast of American Idiot: The Musical
http://www.spinner.com/2009/12/03/green-day-with-american-idiot-cast-21-guns-song-premiere
