Wednesday, February 10, 2010

#193: Dookie- Green Day


Listened to: Vinyl


Remember Blink-182, Good Charlotte, and all those other snarky, obsessed-over bands who capitalized off of the punk revival of the 90’s? They have this album to thank. Except, unlike Blink, Green Day’s 1994 classic is good for more than just punk riffs and sophomoric lyrics, though it’s got plenty of those too.


Green Day’s rule of the airwaves was inescapable in ‘94 (as is would become again exactly 10 years later with their far more mature album, American Idiot), and while Johnny Rotten has written them off as knock-offs of the Pistols, I’m a die hard fan of both. Opening the album on “Burnout”, Green Day seemed to kick off a fast-strumming, foul mouthed revolution, saying “Grunge was cool, but let’s get a little nastier”. In an instant, gone were the bleatings of Vedder and Cobain, replaced by equally the falsetto wails of Buckley and Yorke, and the pop-punk rock of Billie Joe and company. While the most popular tracks, “Longview”, “Welcome To Paradise”, “She”, “When I Come Around”, and the anthemic “Basket Case” are the ones everyone remembers, every track on this album could be a hit.


It’s hard to separate this album from my youth. I grew up getting to hear this on cassette from my uncle when my parents weren’t around. It was the first CD I ever bought (used from $5 from Tower Records) at age 12. My drummer and I played “Basket Case” in the middle school talent show in the first band we ever had. Recently, I found it on vinyl, and listening to it on this new format, I was overcome with emotion and nostalgia. The throbbing bass, the thrashing guitar, the sinfully great cacophony on certain racks, the drums and vocals working in a violent tandem, everything on this album just works. I had the fortune of seeing Green Day in concert this summer, and it really was a brilliant experience. To have that Bowie-esque stage eccentricity mixed with the same punk spirit you hear on Dookie is a feat I hope I can one day achieve. While I hate those assholes these day who say they “…only like old Green Day” (you all knew the lyrics to American Idiot. Don’t flicking lie), you can’t fault them for loving Dookie. Hell, it’s certified diamond, and deserves every one of it’s 10,000,000 sales and then some.


-Mike


See you tomorrow for #75: Led Zeppelin II by Led Zeppelin

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