In a House With Unlocked Doors… Part Eighteen

In a House With Unlocked Doors… Part Eighteen

The Major Label Debut

By Sharon Mitchell

The band moved on from Lookout! and signed to Warners Reprise in late 1993, and in February 1994, they released their first album on a major label – Dookie. It was originally going to be called Liquid Dookie – a term for baby poop – but they thought that was just a little bit too disgusting and went with the shorter title.

The biggest difference between the Lookout! and Reprise releases is that the band were now releasing proper singles.

They were mainly on cd, although the odd track was also available on cassette and even on vinyl, and that is a collector’s dream – or sometimes, a nightmare.

The album release hit a minor complication, as the band used an image of Ernie from Sesame Street on the back cover, which was quickly removed from the American release because of copyright issues, although he still appears on the UK version.

I have several versions of this album, from Japan, the US (without Ernie!), and Europe, and a demo vinyl, recorded without All By Myself, a green limited edition, plus multiple colours of vinyl and the 2009 re-release. I also found a copy of Dookie Demos, a recording of some of the songs that ended up on the album in two different keys, along with a few tracks that didn’t,  I was surprised to find that one of those tracks was Haushinka – which didn’t get onto an album until Nimrod, in 1997.

The debut major label album featured one track that had previously appeared on Lookout! – Welcome to Paradise, re-recorded for Dookie, and released as a single on cd, cassette and ten inch green vinyl record. Basket Case, Longview, She and When I Come Around were also singles, although She was a really hard one to find. I only got that late last year and it is the most expensive single in my collection (so far!).

And of course, now the band were making videos to support the singles, which were played both on the radio and on music television channels. Basket Case is still my favourite, probably because not only was it the first song of theirs that I ever heard, but this became the first Green Day video I saw, too. I found out that the whole thing was filmed in black and white with the colour added afterwards, that the main idea for the video was Billie’s, and that Tre’s father makes an appearance in it as one of the staff.

Another video for Dookie was Longview, which was filmed at the squat on Ashby Avenue. In 2011, we found the actual house, and it was a hugely emotional moment. My house is called Longview, and so much of Dookie was written in that basement. Part of the video for When I Come Around was filmed at Powell Street BART station, and when we were there, we went on a hunt for the telephone that gets knocked off the wall. For both of these videos, a lot of the ideas came from Billie again. For example, he wanted a monkey in Longview, and he got one!

The most recent Dookie-related item in my collection is the Converse shoe, which was created to commemorate the album’s 20th birthday in early 2014, although they are on sale now. I love the fact that they have included the album track list on the tongue of each shoe. They are great to wear, but I want to keep them looking as pretty as they are now.

Perhaps I should buy two pairs.