Dookie - Green Day > Reviews > Are Green Day Coming Clean...

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Thought-provoking
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money

Advantages:	best album of the 90s
Disadvantages:	none

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Dookie is the Green Day album that gained them not only a huge following of fans, not only chart success (what for a punk band!) and for many punk purists the end of the road for Green Day. Dookie is by far their most successful album, but you can see why, this album is jam packed full of quality tracks, the even the general public would listen to!

Green Day started out as a little know Californian punk band. Once on the Lookout record label they quickly gained a large underground following. On the Lookout record label they released a couple of albums including Kerplunk! (the best name for an album ever in my opinion) and 1039/Smoothed out Slappy Hours (What? You must be thinking!). The latter album is actually two EPs one called Slappy and the other called 1000 Hours and one album 39/Smooth (If you look at all the EP names and the album name you can see how they came up with the name). Green Day signed for the corporate record company Reprise and their first album on the label Dookie, released in 1994, was a outstanding success. For this success many of their original fans abandoned them, not that this mattered to them.

~~Burnout~~
This is a song about someone who has come to the end of the road and has just about had enough and wouldn’t mind if he died as it would at least make him happy. It is funny how these songs seem happy until you actually listen to the lyrics, which are quite morbid!

~~Having a Blast~~
This song is about someone who seems to have lost all of his happiness. He has been bottling it all up for ages and he is about to crack. This leads him to want to take it out on everyone else by killing others and himself but before he does this everyone is thinking about all of the good times.

“I’m taking, all you down with me. Explosives duct taped to my spine.”

“So close your eyes. And kiss yourself goodbye. And think about the times you’ve spent and what they’ve meant.”

~~Chump~~
This song is about hating someone when you have never even meet them. Sort of like saying that seeing celebrities and saying your miserable because they have something you don’t.

~~Longview~~
This is about someone who seems to be addicted to TV and very lazy, they never go out, they don’t have a job and it is killing them. They are starting to think that their house is a prison and they can’t get out.

~~Welcome to Paradise~~
This is a new version of the original, which was on the Kerplunk album. There is not much difference between the two versions but in the style in which the song is played. This song is about leaving home and then suddenly thinking actually I don’t want to, but then later on it feels natural to do so.

~~Pulling Teath~~
This is about someones girlfriend who beats him up and then cares for him until he is better. He doesn’t want to leave her as he know that he will get hurt again, so he says he loves her.

“I better tell her I love her. Before she does it all over again. Oh god she’s killing me.”

~~Basket Case~~
This is the best selling single which was released from this album and this is the one song, which nearly everybody knows from the album. This song is about getting stoned!

~~She~~
This is a song about a girl who seems to have had her life planned out for her, possibly an arranged marriage or never being allowed out. This is starting to get to her, she has been thinking about it and finally she cracks and tells the people who are controlling her what she thinks.

~~Sassafras Roots~~
Well what ever that means I would like to know, if you do know please leave a comment… thanks. This song is about wasting your time on your own, when it would be a lot better wasting it with other people.

~~When I come Around~~
This is the other song, which everybody seems to know off of this album. This is the most mellow song on the album and it about waiting for someone to change. At the moment they use people and there is not much point forcing them to change, as it won’t work. You might as well try and find someone else.

~~Coming Clean~~
This song is about coming clean, well duh, anyway it is about getting all of your secrets out of the closets etc… It is also about wondering whether to tell, as the people will probably never understand anyway.

~~Emenius Sleepus~~
This is about coming home after a while and seeing your friends and they have changed but you don’t like it. Then you realise that they haven’t changed you have and you used to be like them and that makes you feel ill.

~~In the End~~
This is about a girl finding her perfect man, someone who will look good with her. But people know it will never last and they are trying to warn her off.

~~F.O.D~~
This in my opinion is the best song on the album. F.O.D. I think stands for Fuck of And Die, but I could be wrong, but if you listen to the song you will agree. This song seems to be about someone stuck in a rut, not going anywhere and people want to help him but he does not want any help.

~~Finally~~
The album cover is one of the best that I have ever seen. If is a large cartoon, much like a “Where’s Wally”, but a bit rude and a lot more offensive (just what we like!). On the back is a cool picture of a cround with Ernie form the Muppets (cool!). This is by far the best album by Green Day, but all of the albums are first class and should be listened to.