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Dookie (Green Day) - Feb 1, 1994

So, I wanted to start with this because, in a time honored tradition of punk teens dating back to 1994, the very first album I bought with my own money was a copy of Dookie. It was exciting even though I’d heard some of the songs before - my dad used to play Basket Case a lot, and the very first song I taught myself on my guitar was When I Come Around. I picked up the guitar after I bought the album, so that’s technically getting ahead of myself, but whatever.

Burnout: A fun fact about me is that I dropped out of college! So I’m a lot more into this song now that I was in the seventh grade. 

Having A Blast: This is a song about a suicide bomber. I actually own this album on cassette tape and the cassette lyric sheet has a bundle of dynamite drawn next to the lyrics. Pretty cool. I definitely listened to this song on loop a lot when I was in freshman year which is definitely a symptom of some kind of metal problem.

Chump: Another classic generic angry punk song. Good for when you want something to project your anger onto, you know? Tre Cool kills it as always on the drums. There’s also an insane instrumental in this song that I literally always forget about. It’s really good though and it fades perfectly into Longview.

Longview: So, this is a song about jerking it. The bassline is what this song is most known for, it’s very acid-forward. It’s one of those songs where the bassline is more instantly recognizable than the guitar part. My cassette tape is actually fucked up and makes the first 30 seconds of this song sound like an anxiety attack but I think that adds to the experience. 

Welcome To Paradise: It’s frequently incorrectly claimed that Dookie is Green Day’s first album but that’s not true. Before Dookie was released on Warner Bros, Green Day released two albums with now-defunct record label Lookout! Records. (Author’s note: Larry Livermore has a really cool autobiography called How To Ru(i)n a Record Label. Check it out! I thought it was pretty rad.) Anyways, their first two albums featured covers. (Their debut 39/Smooth featured a cover of another East Bay band, Operation Ivy, and their second album Kerplunk had a Who cover.) This song is technically a self-cover, as it’s a re-recording of a song off of Kerplunk. I think that’s kinda neat. The actual song is solid, I really like the guitar line. It’s about the shitty house the band shared, and it’s I think fun to have songs that are about some very base and grounded reality, as much as I like songs about stuff like The Abstract Concept Of Anger.

Pulling Teeth: This is a song about BDSM. It is one of many songs that Green Day has about BDSM. They’re all very fun if you think songs about BDSM are fun. Again, Mr. Cool on the drums. Fucked up how into him I was in middle school. I didn’t even have a crush on him, I had, like - gender envy. Fucked up. 

Basket Case: This is another personal favorite and also another song where my cassette tape is fucked up and makes the song sound like a panic attack. I think it works for this one. I remember being obsessed with the pronouns for the prostitute changing mid-line and none of my straight friends understanding why. Which is funny because there’s literally a song on this album about being bisexual. My dad used to play this song a ton when I was younger but he like. Edited the lyrics on account of my being small. So I was very surprised the first time I heard the actual song. 

She: Another angry punk song that is WONDERFUL if you are in middle school and very very mad all the time because of your undiagnosed mental illnesses. It’s nice to have a song you can just freak the fuck out to sometimes, you know?

Sassafras Roots: This song is romantic but, like, in a scumbag way, you know? It’s romantic in the way that sharing a joint and a flask in a public bathroom is romantic.  

When I Come Around: This is the first song I ever taught myself on guitar and it’s still the chord progression I use to get the feel of a six-string. I don’t think that it ever won’t be, you know? Also again I had SO much gender envy for BJA in the music video for this song it was unreal.

Coming Clean: The aforementioned bisexuality song! I used to think it was funny seeing people call Billie Joe Armstrong an “ally” for touring with Pansy Division. It’s still pretty funny if you can pretend not to be mad about people ignoring the fact that he’s not straight just because he’s married to a woman. I’ve always been very into the line “I’ve found out what it takes to be a man” because so often gay and bi men are treated like we are less male due to our attraction to other men, so hearing it phrased as something affirming like “what it takes to be a man” was very empowering to me as a bisexual teenager. Armstrong does a similar thing in a song on a different album, King For A Day, which is about crossdressing and has the line “just wait til all the guys get a load of me,” taking the idea that male femininity should be a shameful secret and instead making it a bragging point for himself.

Emenius Sleepus: Okay, this is maybe lame or whatever, but I think that “I think you’re sick and I wanna go home” is a genuinely brilliant line. This is the only song on the album whose lyrics weren’t written by Armstrong. The lyrics are actually credited to bassist Mike Dirnt. The song is about meeting a childhood friend and being disgusted by the way they turned out. It’s a really good song. In The End: Another sort of spiteful song with not a lot of lyrical substance; it seems like a few of these songs were intentionally vague? I’d love to know why. Then, “vague semi-directionless anger” is like, basically the biggest theme in punk rock, especially the 90s punk revival. 

F.O.D.: This song actually starts very soft and builds into a more traditional punk revival piece. I love that shit, I love songs like this that start with just a guitar and a singer and get into a full band piece halfway through, I think it’s SO fun.

All By Myself: So this is a secret track on this album that I literally. Always forget about. It’s definitely a song that a bunch of a shithead 20 year olds would put out as a joke. The song is Tre Cool on an acoustic guitar talking about jerking off to someone in their bedroom. You can hear his bandmates laughing in the background. Very punk rock.

I’m realizing now how much of this album is just angry songs. It’s a little funny when you think about how often Green Day was mocked for putting out corny love songs. Not that I don’t love corny love songs. I also love Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice on early Green Day albums. The whiny 20-something carries through VERY strong which is super fun. I might be motivated by nostalgia, honestly, but I do really get why this album had so much sticking power and how it helped Green Day break through from the underground Bay Area punk scene into like - movie soundtracks and shit. It’s a really solid piece of art from three talented musicians.