This week Mikey gets to pick the song of the week. Although this wouldn’t be his number one choice (you may get that in the future), this is a song that he really likes.

Green Day - HolidayGreen Day is an extremely successful American rock trio formed in Berkeley, California in 1987. The band consists of Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass guitar, vocals), and Tré Cool (drums, percussion). Armstrong and Dirnt had been friends since middle school and became interested in punk music after hearing the Sex Pistols. Tré Cool joined the band in 1990 when the original drummer, John Kiffmeyer, left the group to go to college. Apparently he left on bad terms as Armstrong and Dirnt only found out he left from another source.

In 1994 the group achieved huge success with their album Dookie which included three number one singles. Subsequent albums which had a change in music style were less successful and the groups popularity dropped. But in 2004, the group released their album American Idiot which reached number one on every rock chart and went multiple platinum everywhere and included five hit singles. Holiday, the prelude song to Boulevard of Broken Dreams, was released in 2005 and although it was not as big a hit as Boulevard… it still reached number one on the Alternative and Modern RockBillboard charts. Armstrong says that the song is not anti-American but anti-war and is a “big fuck you to all the politicans”. The group’s most recent album, 21st Century Breakdown was released in May of this year and reached number one on most charts.

Holiday
Say, hey!
Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
The shame
The ones who died without a name

Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called “Faith and Misery” (Hey!)
And bleed, the company lost the war today

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line (Hey!)
To find, the money’s on the other side

Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
There’s a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hey! Say, hey!
Three, four

The representative from California has the floor

Sieg Heil to the president Gasman
Bombs away is your punishment
Pulverize the Eiffel towers
Who criticize your government
Bang bang goes the broken glass and
Kill all the fags that don’t agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that’s meant for me
Just cause, just cause, because we’re outlaws yeah!

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives

This is our lives on holiday