American Idiot (working title) TV-14 DLV

[Takashi]

A while ago I was looking for a topic to write a new story and Green Day's American Idiot came to mind. I know it's been made into a stage play I just wanted to try this and see what I came up with. I just listened to the record and tried to wrote what I thought it all ment and this is what I have so far, please read and tell me if you think the same or think something compleatly different.

American Idiot

American Idiot
A nation under an idiot leader controled by the media. America hates fags and is ran by red necks. Country is ran by propaganda which is driving it's citizans to extream paranoya.

Jesus of Suburbia
A boy with a father full of rage and a mother full of love. Boy doesn't feel loved so he searches for answers thriving on soda and ritalin. Falling in love and in debt he looks to alcohol cigarettes and pot. Living in his own world of make believe were no one belives in him. Meeting up with his friends at the local 7-11 were he has learned all of his life leasons he reads the writing on the walls as if they were holy scripters with the answers to his questions. Studing the walls he sets his eyes on this:

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

Takeing a rusty razor he cuts his hand and leaves a bloody handprint on the wall as to leave a signature. Taking that as his new name he packs up his things and leaves the town for which he has no feeling for off to find the answers to his questions.

Holiday
Leaving his small town behind he soon finds himself in a big city of which he finds impressive for being in a small town all his life. Walking around the city taking in all the sights and doing some partying alone the way he finds himself at a rally and comes face to face with what America is really as oposed to what he learned in his small town. Joining in the croud he looks at the stage above him.

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!

The boy decides to follow this groups teachings in hopes that he may find the true amongst the hollow lies.

Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
After a night of partying the boy finds himself alone in a dark ally and continues his journey to find true and his sence of perpuse in the world. Believing that no one loves him he thinks to himself.

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's home to me and I walk alone

My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me
'Til then I walk alone

Are We The Waiting?
One night sitting on a hill the boy looks up to the sky and wonders if he will ever find what he is looking for. With a heart of pain and sorrow he looks up at the Heavans for answers, watching the stars as they shoot through the sky he things to himself.

"What the fuck am I doing? The Jesus of Suburbia was a lie."

Feeling the anger rage inside of him he cries out to the city.

"It was a lie! It was a fucking lie!"

Angerly he pounds the dirt then tired and face down in the dirt he says to himself.

"Rage and love, the story of my life."

He opened up his last bottle of booze taking long heavy drinks thinking of all that has happend to him in the last few days and the past out shortly after finishing the bottle.

St. Jimmy
"Hey! Get the fuck up!"

The boy awakes to see a figure standing infrount of him, once his eyes adjusted to the light he see's it's a guy of about 17 wearing dark blue jeans, combat boots and a black shirt with the sleeves torn off.

"Who the hell are you?"

The guy smiled and said
"You can call me St. Jimmy, I run an gang called the "Forty Thieves" and your in our taratory shithead."

"I don't give a fuck who you are your nothing compared to me."

"Is that a fact?"

Jimmy lunged at the boy and started to beat the hell out of him. After several minutes of pounding the boy's face into the dirt Jimmy gets up and looks at the boy smiling.

I really hate to say it but I told you so
So shut your mouth before I shoot you down ol' boy
Welcome to the club and give me some blood
And the resident leader at the lost and found.

Give Me Novacaine
Knocked out by Jimmy the boy dreams of back home and sense of his childhood run thought his mind like an old movie real, including the first time he laied his eyes on the holy writing on the wall at the local 7/11 and the first time he lit up a joint, letting the embrace of the smoke take over him and for that moment nothing else mattered, not the broken home, not his continues battle to servive, nothing. He had found peace for the first time since he last saw his father all those years ago. Waking up several hours later he wakes up on the side of the road just like he had been after the beating. He continued to walk on his path to try and find the answers.

Drain the pressure from the swelling
the sensation's overwhelming
Gvie me a long kiss goodnight
and everything will be alright
TEll me what I won't feel a thing
So give me novacaine

She's a Rebel
As he walked he thought back to his childhood and a real bitch he had to put up with. A perfect saint to all the adults but when the weren't around you better watch your ass. Unforchentaly for him as time went on she started to take a shine to him. Always following him around, always right there ready with a fresh new insault or a bag of fire ants to dump on him. He could never figure her out until that one day when he realized "She's just like me..."

Extraordinary Girl
On the surface we were two very different people but unterneather all that we were the same; two nobodies wanting to belong in this world and have someone who cared about our existance. We both spent our nights crying ourselfs to sleep. That all changed one day at school. We ended up running into eachother and something fell out of her note book, a note. I quicly picked it up and stashed it in my pocket and read it during class. I confrounted her later at lunch.

"Is this really the way you feel?" I asked her all she did was look at me with a blank stair and then nod her head. I sat across from her and started to tell her everything I had been going through and that's when she got the message; We were the same and eventually fell in love.

Letter Bomb
Nobody likes you, everyone left you, their all out without you having fun.
After a few months the relationship failed and she ended up leaving me a note saying it wasn't going to work out and that she needed to leave this town and find her own path.

Wake Me Up When September Ends
Continueing on his path he remebers his father and how he died on an oil refinery fire when he was only 10 and the hardships he had to face with going through his early teens without a father figure in his life.

Homecoming
Boy comes to terms with what has happend to him on his journey and what has happend in his life and decides to return home to try and set things right but once he returns home he finds a newspaper with the headline reading:

THE DEATH OF ST. JIMMY

The boy is happy to see that Jimmy finaly got what's coming to him but is soomewhat sadded at the fact that he feels they shared a commen goal, to find out who you are and where you fit into the world.

East 12th St
Nobody Likes You!
Rock and Roll Girlfriend
Where coming home again

Whatshername
Remebering his first love.

[Thallis]

American Idiot was such an awful album...

[Takashi]

Originally Posted by Thallis

American Idiot was such an awful album...

Thanks...

[CuteGaachan]

Originally Posted by Thallis

American Idiot was such an awful album...

...

I can't even say anything.

I know you have a right to an opinion and blah blah blah, but i'm flexxing my right to disagree.

[Dawes]

Originally Posted by Thallis

American Idiot was such an awful album...

Concept albums are never normally accepted by the public, which is a goddamned shame.

Cyberpunk by Billy Idol was an album based on a story reminiscent of William Gibson's Neuromancer. This is an amazing album that doesn't fit the rest of Idol's discography, and it's my favorite one.

1. Outside was a concept album put forth by David Bowie that proposed a murder mystery through its music to the listener, which they were then free to examine in order to find out who the killer actually was.

American Idiot, in this case, was likely -- in my opinion -- the most accurate representation of a rock opera that our generation is going to see. I never expected it from Green Day, and I loved every moment of the album. I think it's inspiring that the original poster had the willingness to let this album speak to him and help him bring forth his own creative ideas.

I don't mean to preach about how one's to listen to music, but concept albums require a bit deeper inspection than just listening and rocking out. To me, they're the pinnacle of a listening experience. They require the audience to look further into the lyrics, the structures, and the themes to draw forth a more symbolic message. If that's not your thing, then that's cool, but it clearly spoke to the original poster.

[Slang]

Originally Posted by Dawes

Concept albums are never normally accepted by the public, which is a goddamned shame.

Cyberpunk by Billy Idol was an album based on a story reminiscent of William Gibson's Neuromancer. This is an amazing album that doesn't fit the rest of Idol's discography, and it's my favorite one.

1. Outside was a concept album put forth by David Bowie that proposed a murder mystery through its music to the listener, which they were then free to examine in order to find out who the killer actually was.

American Idiot, in this case, was likely -- in my opinion -- the most accurate representation of a rock opera that our generation is going to see. I never expected it from Green Day, and I loved every moment of the album. I think it's inspiring that the original poster had the willingness to let this album speak to him and help him bring forth his own creative ideas.

I don't mean to preach about how one's to listen to music, but concept albums require a bit deeper inspection than just listening and rocking out. To me, they're the pinnacle of a listening experience. They require the audience to look further into the lyrics, the structures, and the themes to draw forth a more symbolic message. If that's not your thing, then that's cool, but it clearly spoke to the original poster.

People liked The Wall though, and personally, I dig Crack the Skye and The Downward Spiral. But whatever. People didn't generally hate American Idiot - it totally took Green Day from well known punk alternative group to superstar "we get to hang out with Bono" group. Pretty sure the public digs it, and really, what's not to love about the simplicity of their music or tie-over-thirst rebel attitudes?

Anyways, yay for your expression. I'm no fan of the group, but hey, this doesn't seem like too bad of an idea. Pretty sure they're making or play of it anyways. Few spelling mistakes and such, but it happens. I think it'd be sweeter if you actually wrote your story out though. It's cool to see your thoughts on a synopsis, but it seems like I'm reading your quick musings over the CD instead of a story. Maybe that's what you're aiming for, I don't know, but I think it would be swell if you wrote it out or something.

[Takashi]

Originally Posted by Slang

Anyways, yay for your expression. I'm no fan of the group, but hey, this doesn't seem like too bad of an idea. Pretty sure they're making or play of it anyways. Few spelling mistakes and such, but it happens. I think it'd be sweeter if you actually wrote your story out though. It's cool to see your thoughts on a synopsis, but it seems like I'm reading your quick musings over the CD instead of a story. Maybe that's what you're aiming for, I don't know, but I think it would be swell if you wrote it out or something.

I'm going to write it out eventualy. I just hit some writers brock on Homecoming and just wanted to post my notes to see what people thought and maybe say "yeah I get that too" or "I don't know what you were thinking, it doesn't mean that it means this..." I was also hoping for people to listen to Homecoming and tell me what they see.

[Thallis]

Originally Posted by Dawes

Concept albums are never normally accepted by the public, which is a goddamned shame.

Cyberpunk by Billy Idol was an album based on a story reminiscent of William Gibson's Neuromancer. This is an amazing album that doesn't fit the rest of Idol's discography, and it's my favorite one.

1. Outside was a concept album put forth by David Bowie that proposed a murder mystery through its music to the listener, which they were then free to examine in order to find out who the killer actually was.

American Idiot, in this case, was likely -- in my opinion -- the most accurate representation of a rock opera that our generation is going to see. I never expected it from Green Day, and I loved every moment of the album. I think it's inspiring that the original poster had the willingness to let this album speak to him and help him bring forth his own creative ideas.

I don't mean to preach about how one's to listen to music, but concept albums require a bit deeper inspection than just listening and rocking out. To me, they're the pinnacle of a listening experience. They require the audience to look further into the lyrics, the structures, and the themes to draw forth a more symbolic message. If that's not your thing, then that's cool, but it clearly spoke to the original poster.

I respect concept albums (I love Tommy, the Wall, Quadrophrenia, etc), but the album itself is not up to par with the old Green Day. I also tend to take future implications into account on albums (One of the reasons I think the Black Album ranks up with St. Anger on horridness of Metallica), and they were very negative with this. Green Day, to put it simply, sold out. They gave themselves a complete makeover for it, one to add to the "political statement" that really makes the album so bad. Green Day was best when they took the rebel punk route, not the political bickering.

[Dawes]

Respectfully noted. But how can we assume this whole idea of Green Day having "sold out"? If there's one term I hate, it's that. Why? We'd all do it.

Yet, one must admit that Green Day is getting older, and their focuses change. While the "rebel punk route" is one that was fun for them, how long can that kind of image be kept up? You grow; your ideas change; your desires to let your music speak for more about yourself come out. They wrote that album at a time when tons of people felt the need to publicize their political ideals. Simply speaking, these aren't the same band members that wrote the older tunes they're popular for.

Bands change. Ideas synthesize. American Idiot was their way of doing it, and the passion with which they did it is admirable enough for me to have accepted those changes and like them even more for the new sound they developed.

At least it felt better than Warning.

[Chillhouse]

Yo, hold on, I'm confused. All these years I thought St. Jimmy was the kid from the small town. He proclaimed himself Jesus of Suburbia, the savior of other punks like him, then left his town for The City. If that's the case, in St Jimmy and Give me Novacaine he's actually beating the shit out of himself.

Maybe I just interpreted wrong.

Which is something. I identified deeply with this album during my punk days.