The album went on to produce five singles, two of which ("Holiday" and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams") shot straight up to number one.
#GREEN DAY ALTER EGO BAND FULL#
This was the first sign that Green Day were back in full force. The emotions that it provoked, both good and bad, in people around the world helped to propel the band into relevance again, and certainly paved the road for the immense success of the album as a whole.Īmerican Idiot debuted at number one on the charts on September 21, 2004. The single hit airwaves like a punch to the gut – the riff was punchy and concise, and the message was screamed out loud and clear. His envisioned ideas for not only the first single, but for the entire album's promotion (he directed the videos for each of the album's five singles).
After they explained their vision to him, Bayer immediately knew the direction in which he wanted to travel.
They took their sound to places it had never gone before, and the people who were listening to the process were far more supportive than those merely judging based on the gossip.Īs the album neared completion, the band recruited director Samuel Bayer to produce the video for the first single, "American Idiot." They knew that it had to be explosive and catch people's attention Bayer was the man for the job. The band ignored these sentiments and indulged every creative impulse while recording in LA. They thought that Green Day was history, and that the album would fail miserably. Many people who read the web-circulated rumors regarding Green Day's "new sound" in early 2004 weren't as excited as the band was. In the beginning, however, some diehard fans disagreed. Green Day managed to tell this whole story (which feels eerily like a reminiscence on a personal struggle) while also confronting the "idiots" running our nation. Whatsername is the love of his life, who he eventually loses to the evils that Jimmy introduces him to. Jimmy is JOS' alter-ego – his rebellion, his drug-dealer, his dark-side. Rebellion could be disguised as self-destruction." St. He starts dealing with what true rebellion means. He needs to get out so he leaves and goes into the city. With the title track and ending to the story under his belt, Armstrong began work on the character that is essentially the centerpiece of the story, and the poster-boy for disenfranchised youth: the "Jesus of Suburbia."Īrmstrong describes the story as "…this Jesus of Suburbia character pretty disenfranchised. He decided, in that moment, to organize the band's new songs to form a concept album that reflected all of this angst. This was Billie growing up and expressing his rage over the state of the nation.
The idea became permanent once Billie wrote "American Idiot," which was inspired by the ever-growing news coverage of the war in Iraq. However, they started taking the possibility of this format seriously after recording "Homecoming" and other songs like "Give Me Novacaine," both of which received brilliant feedback from anyone who listened. The term "rock opera" had been thrown around as early as the recording sessions for Nimrod in 1997. His idea turned out to be "Rock ‘N Roll Girlfriend." Billie had his hand at it and wrote about "Jesus filling out paper work" on "East 12th Street." All of these pieces meshed together, and formed the operatic nine-and-a-half minute song, "Homecoming." This song was only a taste of the ambition that would be displayed through American Idiot. Mike came up with "Nobody Likes You." Soon after, Tré decided to give it a shot. Instead of re-recording the stolen tracks, the band decided to sit down and write something better and more ambitious, something that would eventually become American Idiot.ĭuring one particularly long night, Billie challenged Mike to write a thirty-second song to give him something to do while he was alone in the studio. When they came back, all of the masters had been stolen, and until the 2010 North American tour, none of the tracks were ever heard by the public. They left the studio one night, leaving behind the finished tracks, which would be mastered during their next session. In November of 2003, Green Day hit the studio once more and recorded an album entitled Cigarettes and Valentines.
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