Sometimes, a song doesn’t need a chorus because the face-melting, hammer-of-the-gods guitar riff is the hook. Green Day’s “Brain Stew” aims straight for the skull and might be why Billie Joe Armstrong can’t get no satisfaction.
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The East Bay trio released their fourth album Insomniac in 1995 and defined Generation X youth malaise and ’90s angst. They took a hit for being punk-rock sellouts, but that ridiculous construct hasn’t aged well. It doesn’t matter how you take your punk rock—neat, on the rocks, or in Kool-Aid—Green Day is a massive band led by a songwriting giant, Billie Joe Armstrong.
I Can’t Sleep
Armstrong initially called the song “Insomniac,” and his lack of sleep left his brain feeling like a stew. He became a first-time father in 1995 and struggled with sleeplessness. Any parent will tell you the phrase “slept like a baby” is a sick joke from the childcare gods.
I’m having trouble trying to sleep
I’m counting sheep but running out
As time ticks by
And still, I try
No rest for cross-tops in my mind
The more you try to sleep or force sleep, the wider awake you feel. Stress and fear compound with the night, even when the rational mind repeats to the sleepless zombie that whatever it is keeping you up won’t be solved at 3 a.m. On my own, here we go.
My eyes feel like they’re gonna bleed
Dried up and bulging out my skull
My mouth is dry
My face is numb
F–ked up and spun out in my room
Sarcasm and wit are Armstrong’s regular tools and his songwriting threaded future generations of power-pop music. Avril Lavigne and Olivia Rodrigo are his angsty descendants.
Selling Out
Pop-punk might seem like an oxymoron, but in the ’90s, suburban malls filled with stores like Hot Topic selling studded belts, black eyeliner, instant hair dye, and band merch.
Sex Pistols thought about marketing, and if you thought they didn’t care about press remember “God Save the Queen” wasn’t released during the queen’s Silver Jubilee by accident. The Clash wrote songs as catchy as phony Beatlemania, and regardless of how it all began, CBGB and Ramones t-shirts covered the backs of teenagers sharing dubbed cassettes of Kerplunk!
Duff McKagan from Guns N’ Roses wore a Ramones shirt, and the singer of his band swam with dolphins in their videos. The point is punk was pop way before Green Day dominated MTV.
They began their career on Lookout! Records before signing to the major label, Reprise. But early anti-establishment fans revolted: Judas! The Berkeley punk rock club 924 Gilman—the scene they emerged from—banned them after signing with Reprise.
Green Day’s juvenile humor reached the masses with their 1994 major label debut, Dookie. Mike Dirnt’s bass line on “Longview” is as memorable as any Jimmy Page guitar riff, and when Armstrong bit his lip and closed his eyes, millions of boys wanking their way through puberty found a hero. Summer festivals were full of kids pogoing wildly to beats by drummer Tré Cool.
Stoner Punk
The band’s name is slang for spending the day smoking weed, and instead of “selling out,” maybe they just tired of starving. It’s not like Armstrong sanitized his song lyrics for the masses. And Green Day wasn’t the only indie-turned-major label band singing about anxiety, boredom, and disillusionment with the Boomer’s idealized American dream. Major labels descended on underground bands, infuriating the scenes’ fans clinging to punk nostalgia.
Speaking of America, following the 9/11 tragedy, Clear Channel included “Brain Stew” on its list of inappropriate song titles for disc jockeys to avoid. America collectively panicked, and Armstrong’s song about insomnia somehow triggered radio executives. Scapegoating is as old as herding goats, and the practice continues with hysterical book bans currently in the headlines.
Green Day’s music became more politically focused heading into the 2004 U.S. presidential election. They released the punk-rock opera American Idiot in 2004, creating one of the biggest-selling albums of the decade. Thematically, it’s a long way from Dookie or Insomniac, but feelings of isolation remain. “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” opens with the line: I walk a lonely road / The only one that I have ever known.
Vital Signs
Of course, Green Day didn’t sell out; they wrote great songs. Think of how many kids started a band with their friends or asked their parents for a guitar after Dookie. In the band’s youth, they connected with kids their age and younger who, through their music, realized they weren’t alone.
Schools, malls, and punk rock warehouses all over the country were full of awkward insecurity, where kids tried to figure out relationships, sexuality, and life in general under the roof of parents who pretended that everything was OK when it wasn’t.
Having trouble sleeping? You’re not alone.
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