II.
Dookie
by Green Day
While this is my favorite album, of all time, this get’s #2, as the album above I feel has a slightly better track listing and theme.
Ok, technicalities out of the way:
Dookie is the album that shook my world and being. Good or bad—I like to think it’s mostly good—but on the cusp of teenager-dom (maybe this should be: teenager-dumb, as I was heading to junior high when I first heard this) this album had questions that mirrored my own growing pain questions.
The inevitable onset of teenage angst was somewhat subdued by this record too. This probably made my parents somewhat happy. I did however keep things inside to bubble…eh, who knows the correct way to handle things…ok, never mind, we know these things, but who can execute all of that…really?
Anyway, my favorite songs by and far are:
Having A Blast
,
Basket Case
,
When I Come Around
, and
Coming Clean
. But overall, it’s a SOLID offering of self-analyzing love, and confusion over what we are supposed to be, who we
think
we are, and who we really are and who we will end up being.
A few excerpts:
1). Burnout: “
Apathy has rained on me
”, “
I’m not growing up, I’m just burning out, and I’ve stepped in line to walk amongst the dead
”
2). Having a Blast: “
Do you ever think back, to another time? Does it bring you so down that you thought you lost your mind?
”
3). Chump (this song became most poignant in 2009): “
I don’t know you, but I think I hate you. You’re the reason for my misery. Strange how you’ve become my biggest enemy and I’ve never even seen your face. Well, maybe it’s just jealousy, mixing up with a violent mind a circumstance that doesn’t make much sense. Or, maybe I’m just dumb.
”
4). Longview: “
Peel me off this Velcro seat, and get me moving. I sure as hell can’t do it by myself.
”
5). Welcome to Paradise: “
Dear Mother can you hear me laughing!
”
7). Basket Case: The entire song…It’s my favorite. One of my theme songs!
8). She: The entire song. Also a theme song!
10). When I Come Around: “
I’m a loser and a user, and I don’t need no accuser, to try and flag me down because I know you’re right
”
This album changed my life. It’s my favorite of all-time, but my favorite band of all-time. Dookie was my perspective changer.
Up until that point I had been trying, REALLY trying to like R&B and other music, that—up until I first heard Billie Joe sing; “
Do you have the time, to listen to me whine?
” —I had never even realized I felt I NEEDED to fit in to some concept that race was not only my defining element, but also the guide by whom I could choose the things I liked. It was that moment, at a 6
th
grade “promotion” (from elementary to junior high) party that I thought: “why am I trying to fit this mold? I like this way better than Toni Braxton!” (I brought my mom’s Toni Braxton CD to said party, because I didn’t own any of my own music, or own any of me).
Maybe that’s it too.
Dookie is where I first took ownership of me. As stated previously, I first heard it on the cusp of teenager beginnings, and so its timing was perfection. When I listen to it, I think in part I get nostalgic. I feel like it’s taking me back, but at the same time, the ideas on the album became more important, because I understand the words more, or the words change
for
me
, because it’s something I feel I need to hear, and it always applies.