That comes in the form of a certain lyric, where Billie sings that we're 'pedophiles' for the American dream. Uh... ok.
I'm not entirely sure which way he intends us to take that line. Is he trying to say the American dream is childish, so it would be creepy to be so invested in it? If so, it doesn't make much sense. That particular deviance isn't necessarily for things that are childish, since there are plenty of people into role play of various degrees I don't want to imagine who are as repulsed by what the term actually means as everyone else. Or does he mean it in the sense that wanting the American dream is just as disgusting a thought and urge? That doesn't seem to make any more sense, since I don't see how you can possibly equate wanting better for your life with the worst of humanity.
What I think is happening here is that Billie has completely lost the plot, and is as obsessed as his choice of terminology with getting Green Day back into the limelight. They cratered their appeal with the trilogy, couldn't regain their footing with "Revolution Radio", and then put a puking unicorn on the cover of their last album. Put this into that timeline, and they're now, in wrestling parlance, playing for the cheap heat. They make an album everyone thinks is one of the worst things they've ever heard? Well, at least they're talking about Green Day! Throw in a word you know will be controversial? Green Day is back in the news, baby! The greatest fans in the world reside in (insert your city)!
Or perhaps this is all a ploy to distract us from the fact the band doesn't have anything left in the tank. After all, this song is repetitive, trite, and about as deep as a paper cut. To think that this is the song from their upcoming album they thought was the best introduction to this new era of the band is rather shocking. If this is the song they think is going to make people love them again, if this is the song that defines their mission on this record, we're standing as witnesses as Green Day keeps failing to escape the gravity of the black hole their career has been morphing into.
What I think is true is simply that we gave Green Day far too much credit after "American Idiot" came out. That record was so successful, we forgot it was a complete accident, and that we created a story that never existed. Green Day was backed into a corner when the record they actually made was 'stolen' (there are theories out there they knew it was terrible and scrapped it on their own), so they never wanted to make their magnum opus. It's also not the political rebellion we talked ourselves into treating it as. The record is a teenage Lifetime movie set to music, with one bad, George Bush is like a Nazi, reference thrown in. Oh, and it's also not entirely a true concept album if one of the songs abandons the characters and story to talk about an episode from your own life and emotions. Minor gripe, but still true.
I am as guilty as anyone of giving Green Day too much due for that album's status as perhaps the defining album of my/our generation (I'm still taking suggestions for what else in the '95-08-ish time-frame would beat it out), and every year since has made me doubt Green Day ever more.
Maybe we should have questioned more at the time whether a band that started out singing about masturbating could really evolve into having something deep and important to say. I'm leaning toward that being a heavy "no".
Not only is the political commentary of this new song below the level of an Econ 101 class, but the entirety of the lyrics of the song look like it was dashed off in five minutes. That's not to say a good song can't be written that quickly, but if there was thought put into these words, it slipped right out through the holes in the logic.
Let's look back, though. On "Holiday", the political commentary was certainly more astute, but written in just as ham-handed a manner. Not only was there that Nazi reference I already mentioned, but Billie just had to throw the word 'fags' in there as well. Not only did that put a word into a song released as a single that couldn't get played on the radio, but it undercut the whole point of the song. It was seemingly about the war in Iraq, and then is suddenly about anti-LGBTQ policy. Huh?
But we can go back even further. When "Minority" came out on their best record (yes, "Warning" is their best record), it was no better. Calling out the 'Moral Majority' was a fitting target for a punk song, but then he threw in the line, "One nation under dog". I know it was supposed to be a snotty joke, but when one of the things that group believed was that everything but 'good Christian values' would lead to a world filled with bestiality, giving people who don't understand sarcasm an opening to accuse you of animal worship was self-defeating. The song's only belief was in being a contrarian. Standing up for a view that might be in the minority is fine, and can be noble, but wanting to be in the minority doesn't even make sense. If you, for instance, believe in equality and justice for people of all stripes, why would you want that position to be the minority? Look, it was a song written around a pun, and I'm sure Billie never bothered to think about any of the implications. That's the problem. I've written songs around puns too, but mine weren't trying to say anything important that could get lost in translation.
I would like to think that in thirty years, Green Day may have matured or gotten a bit more intelligent. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be the case. If you're going to be political and talk about weighty subjects, you have to at least know what it is you stand for. Ranting for the sake of ranting doesn't accomplish anything, and I'm not sure Green Day actually has a belief system other than doing whatever it takes to make people think they're still punks.
At my age, let alone their age, it's just sad to watch Peter Pan slapping on a bunch of eye-liner to hide the fact that he didn't grow up, but he did get old.
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