Green Day American Idiot

I'd heard certain songs from it on the radio but it was only last weekend that I finally bought the album. This is truly one of the best albums to appear in years. I've been finding an excuse to drive all week just so I can blast it in the car.
From first to last the songs are excellent, with highlights being the title song, Holiday, Blvd of Broken Dreams, We Are the Waiting, and Extraordinary Girl. I'm glad GD is getting some recognition for this album-they really deserve it.

I bought the album when it first came out. I think it's an EXCELLENT recording.....

Many Americans are American Hating a-holes.....and I don't think that it's about hating America IMO.......

I agree that just because they are voicing their opinion does not make them Anti-American ****. I actually have some friends that have hung out with these guys, and my friends say they're really nice, down-to-earth people.
Frankly, I'm a little tired of hearing people **** and moan about people being Anti-American just because they express some unrest or are unhappy with the current administration. That view is rather limited and short sighted.
The world is a **** up place right now, and I'm more than happy to hear someone comment on that than pretend everything is ok and all well and good (like aforementioned administration).
Look at so many of the kids growing up today, or the spineless, beaurocratic attidute most organizations have adopted to protect themselves from the litigiousness of our society. Not to mention the state of our education, our economy, our health care, the ever increasing cost of living, coupled with the corporate mind-set that people should work themselves just shy of death for as little money as will trap them into staying.... Is it really Anti-American to criticize the elements of society that we're unhappy with? Last time I checked, that was the whole point of being American.

I picked this up yesterday.

WOW, was I ever shocked! Very good album to say the least. Starts off with a bang with track #1, the title track.

I'll dig into it more in the coming days.

Thanks for the recomendation guys!


Be careful....don't make this thread go into the HOS for being too political.


John

Don't mean to start a debate or divert from a discussion on the quality of the music. It just really bothers me when people let their politics prevent them from recognizing quality music when they hear it.

Originally posted by gregure
Don't mean to start a debate or divert from a discussion on the quality of the music. It just really bothers me when people let their politics prevent them from recognizing quality music when they hear it.

I guess it means nothing that I was a green day fan since Kerplunk came out (years and that genre has since passed me by). I have a real problem with musicians mixing politics into their music and I guess that's my right. It's also the right of the drug addled rockers to go out and make albums bashing the country they live in and feed off of in the name of their immature and assbackwards way of showing disdain for our commander in chief....all the while not realizing that in a time of war it's really best to keep your hippie **** traps shut for the sake of our troops.

Didn't say they don't have the right, but I do have the right to criticize the speech of others. Freedom works BOTH ways. I wish people could learn to respect that because I don't really see what the problem is.

Read some of the Zines that Billy Joe has been involved in (Cometbus Omnibus) and please tell me he's not an America hating assclown. I respect the mans music, not his politics. When the 2 get mixed I instantly get turned away no matter how good the music might be and quite frankly the power chord wonders that Green Day are get old after a while. Not really my style anymore, but I respect it for what it is.

So to end my rant....let's just say I love music pretty much more than anything else on this earth besides my family and close friends. I've been a musician by hobby for the last 13 years and pretty much all of my free time is devoted to music. I wouldn't have said what I said without thinking about it, but it does suprise me how political it got because someone actually responded to their stupid album title and called this album out for what it is.

If you can get past all of the political stuff you're a better man than I, but hey....I didn't start the thread.

Blah blah blah, I will check it out.

Yet Korea has nukes and Africans are killing each other, but the Middle East, that's where the future of humanity lies? Why don't we focus on the real threats here, like those who actually have the technology to harm us for real?
Let's face it, the largest offensive these Arab zealots have arranged is a well planned plane heist using...box cutters!!!??? Pretty low tech. They've taken more American lives as a result of our invasion than they could ever have hoped for in any single "terrorist" attack. Support the troops, hell yes. But blindly back those in power just because we're afraid of it affecting the troups? No way. I want the troops home, and if that isn't supporting them, I don't know what is.

This whole "support the troops" thing comes from a paranoid fear of a repeat of Viet Nam. A fear that objections to the morality and justification of the war will be projected onto the troops in a negative way, robbing them of the support and respect they need to heal from some of the horrors of war. Well, I think it's obvious at this point that no one wants a repeat of that time period, and that most people do support the troops. Americans have gotten a bit smarter about that, in my opinion, and have the ability to dichotomize the troops from those who ordered the attacks in the first place. When someone objects to Bush or Chaney, they are standing up for their beliefs, and criticizing the decisions that led to war. I have not witnessed a great deal of people saying the soldiers are horrible people for carrying out the orders. As much as people can be gasbags on whichever side of the issue they stand, I think people deep down don't expect the soldiers to just stand up and say no. Most intelligent people don't really desire Anarchy. That would be a much less desireable situation than anything else we've seen.
Long story short, the troops are doing fine. Stop equating unrest at home with military bashing. The protestors aren't blaming them. They're blaming the administration.
Plus, the media has been nothing but supportive of the troops as well, playing up the welcome home ceremonies, and garnering support by paying tribute to those who fell in action. The whole paradigm has shifted-don't protest against the troops, protest against the government.