American Idiot

Track listing

All tracks by Billie Joe Armstrong (lyrics) and Green Day (music), except where noted.

Related Topics:
Billie Joe Armstrong - Green Day

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• "American Idiot" - 2:54
• "Jesus Of Suburbia" - 9:08
• * I. "Jesus Of Suburbia"
• * II. "City Of The Damned"
• * III. "I Don't Care"
• * IV. "Dearly Beloved"
• * V. "Tales Of Another Broken Home"
• "Holiday" - 3:53
• "Boulevard Of Broken Dreams" - 4:21
• "Are We The Waiting" - 2:43
• "St. Jimmy" - 2:55
• "Give Me Novacaine" - 3:26
• "She's A Rebel" - 2:01
• "Extraordinary Girl" - 3:34
• "Letterbomb" - 4:06
• "Wake Me Up When September Ends" - 4:46
• "Homecoming" - 9:19
• * I. "The Death of St. Jimmy"
• * II. "East 12th St."
• * III. "Nobody Likes You" (Mike Dirnt/Green Day)
• * IV. "Rock And Roll Girlfriend" (Tre Cool/Green Day)
• * V. "We're Coming Home Again"
• "Whatsername" - 4:12

Plot

(NOTE: This is not the "official" interpretation of the album's story, as no truly "official" interpretation exists)

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American Idiot: Possibly one of Jesus of Suburbia's rebel speeches, a major nod to Pink Floyd The Wall, the song describes media coverage of the War in Iraq and the hold media has on our perception of government and world events.

Related Topics:
Pink Floyd - The Wall

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Jesus of Suburbia: The second track tells the story of Jesus of Suburbia, who lives with his negligent divorcee mother in a suburb called "Jingletown, USA". His younger years were spent "on a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin", watching television, experimenting with drugs, and loitering in front of convenience stores. He feels trapped and bored in his town and longs for escape. (I)

Related Topics:
Jingletown, USA - Ritalin

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Disillusioned with life in Jingletown and its effect on his psyche, Jesus decides to leave Jingletown for "The City".(II - V)

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Holiday: At first Jesus feels free from the rat race and political injustice he considers to plague others...

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Boulevard of Broken Dreams: ...but he later finds himself alone in spite of The City's crowd.

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Are We the Waiting: He eventually decides to radically change his personality .

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St. Jimmy: In doing so, he adopts a new moniker, "St. Jimmy", and lifestyle, that of an unpredictable, charismatic, and rebellious criminal to whom others (the Underbelly) gravitate.

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Give Me Novacaine: During this transformation, he begins doing drugs to fit in and escape the pain of his dual lifestyles of Jesus and St. Jimmy.

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She's a Rebel: Jesus meets Whatsername, a girl who fascinates him - she is a real rebel, not someone pretending to be one like he is...

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Extraordinary Girl: ...and they begin dating. As he slowly metamorphosizes into St. Jimmy, he falls thoroughly in love with her, but he is unable to give her what she deserves due to his personal insecurities.

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Letterbomb: In a letter to Jesus/Jimmy, Whatsername expresses her frustration towards him, and tells him she's leaving both him and The City.

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Wake Me Up When September Ends: A song about Billie Joe Armstrong's father, who died of cancer when he was 10 years old (on the VH1 show Storytellers, Billie Joe mentions that this song is the only song that veers from the overall plot of the album). Seeing as it has a date in the liner notes along with the other songs, and has lines such as let's ring the bells again, like we did when spring began which was a happier time in the story, the track probably has dual meanings(this could be a lament), in that Jesus/Jimmy is now alone again.

Related Topics:
Billie Joe Armstrong - Cancer - VH1

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Homecoming: Eventually Jesus decides to abandon his St. Jimmy identity, which he had been using as a crutch. In order to abandon his title, Jesus symbolically "kills" St. Jimmy in a personal kind of suicide. (I)

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Following St. Jimmy's death, Jesus gets arrested on East 12th St. (II) (East 12th Street is a real location of a police station in Oakland, California, where Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong had to fill out paperwork for his DUI in 2002) Jesus' personal life begins to fall apart (III). He decides to return to Jingletown to escape this trap... (V)

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Whatsername: ...and is left with his memories of what could have been had he stayed with Whatsername .

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In the VH1 "Storytellers", it is stated that the ending is open to interpretation, as Mike Dirnt stated. He could end up in Jingletown, in a mental institution, or in jail.

Related Topics:
VH1 - Mike Dirnt

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The singles "Shoplifter", "Too Much Too Soon", and "Governator" are billed as "non-album tracks", but are nonetheless significant to the story. Where they fit in is difficult to determine for sure. The song "Favorite Son" was originally meant to appear on American Idiot, but the band decided to release it on volume two of the Rock Against Bush compilation. It is, however, available as a bonus track in the Japanese release of American Idiot. The song Favorite Son starts with the line "He hit the ground running/At the speed of light," possibly implying that Jesus ran away from home very quickly.

Related Topics:
Shoplifter - Too Much Too Soon - Governator - Favorite Son - Rock Against Bush - Bonus track - Japanese

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Movie Adaptation

Main article: American Idiot (movie)

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Shortly after the album was released there was speculation that American Idiot might be made into a movie. VH1 quoted Armstrong as saying "We've definitely been talking about someone writing a script for it, and there's been a few different names that have been thrown at us. It sounds really exciting, but for right now it's just talk." http://www.vh1.com/news/articles/1491274/20040921/green_day.jhtm

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Later, however, it was confirmed by Billie Joe Armstrong that shooting would begin for American Idiot: The Motion Picture in 2006. A fact that Armstrong stressed was that, "We want to see how it turns out first so that it doesn't suck." http://movie.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_6004.php/Green_Day_Hit_The_Big_Screen

Related Topics:
Billie Joe Armstrong

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