In A House With Unlocked Doors… Part twenty-five

In a House With Unlocked Doors… Part twenty-five

The Masterpiece – Act One

By Sharon Mitchell
Just where do you start with American Idiot?

In early 2004, the band had almost wrapped up a new record – the legendary Cigarettes and Valentines – when the master tapes were suddenly and mysteriously declared to have been ‘stolen’. As time has passed, it has become apparent that Green Day were not completely happy with the album and scrapped it themselves, and so far only the title track has surfaced. It is so unlikely that everything was lost in the theft, and after rehearsing the songs for the album, they would have been able to re-record it without too much trouble.

The truth is more that they felt they hadn’t stretched themselves enough – there was even a moment when Billie asked everyone if they wanted to carry on as a band, so unsure was he of their future direction – and as a result, C & V became Green Day’s ‘lost’ album.

American Idiot started with an accident, as is the way with many great things.

Billie and Tré were late for a band practice session, leaving Mike alone with a good supply of coffee and a feeling that he had been forgotten. He wrote a short, sing-song ditty – “Nobody likes you, Everyone left you, They’re all out without you, having fun…” which he sang to Billie when the guitarist eventually turned up at the studio. The idea was formed for them each to write short snippets of music and Billie joined them together – and the epic Homecoming, and later, Jesus of Suburbia (which Billie is rumored to have composed whilst out for a walk) were born – the backbone of the entire work.

The album was semi-autobiographical, and for the first time in their recording history, the songs formed a narrative, centred around distinct characters, and set in actual locations from the area in which they grew up. There is, for example, a Sheriff’s office on East 12th Street, and Jingletown is the informal name of the district in Oakland where the band’s recording studio is situated.

All three of them – Billie especially – could relate to the trio of young men from a dead-end town with dreams of glory, and although their own lives have had a far happier outcome, American Idiot explores the mistakes and misadventures that could so easily have been part of their own story.

It was always meant to be more than just a music album – the clue is in the cover artwork which declares “Green Day PRESENT American Idiot – STARRING Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tre Cool”. Within five years, the concept of a stage production was realized with a run of American Idiot – The Musical at the Berkeley Rep Theatre, later given a year’s run on Broadway, and a touring version which is going to take the show halfway around the globe in the next couple of years.

But, above all, the music from this album was incredible, and it propelled Green Day into super-stardom such as they could never have imagined.

(to be continued)