#SLS ~ Soda Pop and Ritalin

Thanks to Jim Adams, for hosting Song Lyric Sunday. All the instructions, official rules, and future topics can be found at Jim’s site, along with all kinds of great content. Why not create your own post? It’s a great way to discover new music.

The topic this week is Make/Fix and the song I’ve chosen actually has both of those words in the lyrics. The song is Jesus Of Suburbia by Green Day. It was written by Billie Joe Armstrong (lead vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, vocals). The song is on their seventh studio album, American Idiot, which was released September 21, 2004. The band calls the album a “punk rock opera”.

Originally they had been working on an album to be titled Cigarettes And Valentines, but their master tapes were stolen. They decided to start from scratch and American Idiot was the result.

Wiki tells us: It has sold over 16 million copies worldwide, making it the second best-selling album for the band and one of the best-selling albums of the decade. It was later certified 6× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America in 2013. The album spawned five successful singles: “American Idiot“, “Holiday“, “Wake Me Up When September Ends“, “Jesus of Suburbia” and the Grammy Award for Record of the Year winner “Boulevard of Broken Dreams“.

American Idiot was very well received critically. It was nominated for Album of the Year and won the Award for Best Rock Album at the 2005 Grammy Awards. It was also nominated for Best Album at the Europe Music Awards and the Billboard Music Awards, winning the former. Its success inspired a Broadway musical, a documentary and a planned feature film adaptation. It is considered a defining rock album of the decade and one of the greatest albums of all time, as it has appeared in several lists of the best albums; in 2012, Rolling Stone placed it at 225 on their list of the “500 Greatest Albums of All Time“, and again in 2020, at 248.

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On a personal note, I love this song… the entire album, actually. It just catches me with the opening lyrics, and I can relate to a lot of the feelings… it reminds me of my teens. Both of my daughters and I are all big Green Day fans and we’ve seen them several times. We have tickets to see them again in July, at an outdoor show.

[Part 1]

I’m the son of rage and love
The Jesus of Suburbia
From the bible of none of the above
On a steady diet of
Soda pop and Ritalin
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
At least the ones I got away with

And there’s nothing wrong with me
This is how I’m supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don’t believe in me

Get my television fix
Sitting on my crucifix
The living room or my private womb
While the Moms and Brads are away
To fall in love and fall in debt
To alcohol and cigarettes
And Mary Jane
To keep me insane,
Doing someone else’s cocaine

And there’s nothing wrong with me
This is how I’m supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don’t believe in me

[Part 2: City Of The Damned]

At the center of the Earth
In the parking lot
Of the 7-11 where I was taught
The motto was just a lie
It says home is where your heart is
But what a shame
‘Cause everyone’s heart
Doesn’t beat the same
It’s beating out of time

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to care

I read the graffiti
In the bathroom stall
Like the holy scriptures of a shopping mall
And so it seemed to confess
It didn’t say much
But it only confirmed that
The center of the earth
Is the end of the world
And I could really care less

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to care

[Part 3: I Don’t Care]

I don’t care if you don’t
I don’t care if you don’t
I don’t care if you don’t care
[4x]

I don’t care

Everyone is so full of shit
Born and raised by hypocrites
Hearts recycled but never saved
From the cradle to the grave
We are the kids of war and peace
From Anaheim to the middle east
We are the stories and disciples
Of the Jesus of suburbia

Land of make believe
And it don’t believe in me
Land of make believe
And it don’t believe
And I don’t care!
I don’t care!
I don’t care!
I don’t care!
I don’t care!

[Part 4: Dearly Beloved]

Dearly beloved are you listening?
I can’t remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented or am I disturbed?
The space that’s in between insane and insecure

Oh, therapy, can you please fill the void?
Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed?
Nobody’s perfect and I stand accused
For lack of a better word, and that’s my best excuse

[Part 5: Tales Of Another Broken Home]

To live and not to breathe
Is to die in tragedy
To run, to run away
To find what you believe

And I leave behind
This hurricane of fucking lies

I lost my faith to this
This town that don’t exist
So I run, I run away
To the lights of masochists

And I leave behind
This hurricane of fucking lies
And I walked this line
A million and one fucking times
But not this time

I don’t feel any shame, I won’t apologize
When there ain’t nowhere you can go
Running away from pain when you’ve been victimized
Tales from another broken home

You’re leaving…
You’re leaving…
You’re leaving…
Ah you’re leaving home…

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Are you a fan of Green Day? I know the song is a little long, but I think the band did a great job of telling the story in a little over nine minutes. Thanks for reading.

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