Jesus of Suburbia

[Guaranteed]

I'm the son of rage and love
The Jesus of suburbia
From the bible of none of the above
On a steady diet of soda pop and Ritalin
No one ever died for my sins in hell
As far as I can tell
At least the ones I got away with

And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me

Get my television fix sitting on my crucifix
The living room or my private womb
While the moms and brads are away
To fall in love and fall in debt
To alcohol and cigarettes and Mary Jane
To keep me insane and doing someone else's cocaine

And there's nothing wrong with me
This is how I'm supposed to be
In a land of make believe
That don't believe in me



At the center of the Earth
In the parking lot
Of the 7-11 were I was taught
The motto was just a lie
It says home is where your heart is
But what a shame
Cause everyone's heart
Doesn't beat the same
It's beating out of time

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to care

I read the graffiti
In the bathroom stall
Like the holy scriptures of a shopping mall
And so it seemed to confess
It didn't say much
But it only confirmed that
The center of the earth
Is the end of the world
And I could really care less

City of the dead
At the end of another lost highway
Signs misleading to nowhere
City of the damned
Lost children with dirty faces today
No one really seems to careeeeee



I don't care if you don't
I don't care if you don't
I don't care if you don't care


I don't careeeeeeeeee

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
Land of make believe
And it don't believe in me
Land of make believe
And I don't believe
And I don't care!
I don't care!



Dearly beloved are you listening?
I can't remember a word that you were saying
Are we demented or am I disturbed?
The space that's in between insane and insecure
Oh therapy, can you please fill the void?
Am I retarded or am I just overjoyed
Nobody's perfect and I stand accused
For lack of a better word, and that's my best excuse



To live and not to breathe
Is to die In tragedy
To run, to run away
To find what you believe
And I leave behind
This hurricane of fucking lies
I lost my faith to this
This town that don't exist

So I run
I run away
To the light of masochist
And I leave behind
This hurricane of fucking lies
And I walked this line
A million and one fucking times
But not this time

I don't feel any shame
I won't apologize

When there ain't nowhere you can go
Running away from pain
When you've been victimized
Tales from another broken home

You're leaving...
You're leaving...
You're leaving...
Ah you're leaving home...

[REP]

1. Currently My Favorite Song on that Album

[Guaranteed]

2. I just picked it up.

I'm blown away.

They just played nearby last night, too. My girlfriend asked two months ago if we wanted to get tickets.

I said no. I had no idea.

[hfojvt]

3. such a happy tune

does it have a good beat and can you dance to it?

"everyone is so full of sh*t"

That sounds like an excuse from someone who is full of sh*t. Sitting in a beautiful meadow under blue skies, the nihilist only sees the maggots under the nearby rotting log. How putrid the world and life are if you focus on the right things. Not only that, but let's show it to the rest of the world, rub their noses in it. That'll teach the happy SOBs. Everything and everyone is rotten, so why shouldn't I be rotten too?

Oh, the pain of a victim. In the movie "The Breakfast Club", Bender reveals that he is a victim of a mean father. Yet in an ordinary school day probably scores of his fellow students are either his victim or afraid of being his victim. I do not find his victimhood a valid excuse for being a perpetrator. He did unto others what he did not like having done to him. As he said to the prom queen "you know how sh*tty that is to do to someone ..." but he did it anyway.

[Guaranteed]

4. I would have responded exactly the way you just did

about three years ago.

Now? That isn't wallowing in self-pity. That is God's honest truth.

When you go outside, you are surrounded by the BIGGEST FUCKING HYPOCRITICAL IGNORANT PIECES OF SHIT THE WORLD HAS EVER SEEN.

And I'm not ashamed to say it. I won't apologize.

It's all just a bunch of lies.

[hfojvt]

5. Yet I am guessing that you are much younger than I

"It is all just a bunch of lies" is wrong either way. If it is true, then it is false because by being true it contradicts that "it is ALL .." I thought Meatloaf was funnier with their line "everything's a lie and that's a fact". I find the song "life is a lemon, and I want my money back" to be much funnier even as it rings true. It provides a little bit of scream therapy without encouraging young people to be nihilistic a$$holes.
To say that you are surrounded by "the biggest hypocritical ignorant ..." is both contradictory and arrogant and it seems to include me and some really smart and decent people in that sweeping condemnation. To imply that everyone else is ignorant, must mean that you are the only one who knows everything about everything. Again, it depends what you are looking at. You can see their ignorance about the things you know, but can you see the things they know about which you are ignorant?
Then there are the inherent contradictions. How can everyone be "the biggest"? How can you accuse someone of hypocrisy if they are ignorant?
Okay, am I over analyzing the hyperbole? As long as we are clear that it is hyperbole and not truth. Keeping your eyes focussed on the turds floating in the gutter does not seem inspiring to me. It seems more likely to make you part of the problem. Why not be sh*tty to others since they are all full of sh*t anyway? How can you expect me to be honest and kind and helpful when they are just facades and anyway I am a viçtim?

[Guaranteed]

7. It sounds like you're just experiencing a different America than he is.

In any case, if you're getting nitpicky then your analysis is in fact incorrect because, first off, the "it" I'm referring is the America outside my door and coming into my home through my television. I didn't say EVERYTHING is a bunch of lies, including my own statements. I referred to specific aspects of American society. And, no, I don't think I'm the only one who believes it, although apparently you disagree. There are plenty of others on DU who understand. Look here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=1774636

You disagree with that?

If you could tell me what these people "know about" to make their fascist ideas justifiable, that would be great.

He isn't telling people to be shitty to others. He's saying that he doesn't BELIEVE anymore. HE LOST HIS FAITH. He wants to leave. And you're acting like he's throwing some kind of pity party.

You're about three years behind the times, I'd say. What he's saying is angry and dead-the-fuck-on. If you're NOT angry, you're not paying attention.

[hfojvt]

11. "it" is one thing "It's all" is another

I should be about thirty years behind the times, although I am about twenty years younger than Trof, but I have been angry for at least 30 years, more about my own life than the condition of the world.

True, he does not say to be sh*tty to others, but that seems to be the logical conclusion to observing that everyone in the world, and the world is just full of sh*t. That is different from what Trof was saying that the Bush administration cannot be trusted. In that song, it seems that nobody can be trusted. "It's all" is not the same thing as "the Bush administration". "All" is pretty inclusive.

The song shows no evidence of having a specific target like that, it seems directed against life itself. The song does not say "help" as much as it does "you disgust me, fu$% you!" With "you" being everyone and everything. It also seems to endorse bad behaviour by its professed lack of remorse. Hatred and contempt for everything and a lack of shame or remorse sounds like the modus operandi of the BFEE to me. Smells like mainstream commercial nihilism to me.

[Jamastiene]

9. Sounds like you haven't gotten his point or something.

If you knew Green Day's music better and most importantly, if you know this album and the concept behind it, you'd get it. I suggest you find a web site with the lyrics to the entire album, and especially pay attention to the "American Idiot" lyrics. Those set the stage for the rest of the album and what he is talking about is the two America's we live in, i.e. the red America and the blue America. It's very straightforward if you listen to the whole album as a whole. That's the way it's intended.

I personally love the song (and the rest of the cd) in question and completely understand what it means. Maybe, it is just different tastes for different people. I don't know. Seems like any progressive would get the meaning if they knew the whole story.

[hfojvt]

12. I did not get the concept

American Idiot is good, and I like the Boulevard of Broken Dreams which I have heard and seen on SNL or some such (maybe it was Late Night instead).
I did not see anything else of value, at least lyrically and reading the whole album's lyrics did not make me see any value in JoS either. Perhaps in that regard too, I walk alone.
They do seem determined to see alot of ugliness - suicides, lonliness, betrayal, lies, heartache, idiots, insanity and apathy. Only bad things are real or worth noting. Then again, who am I to talk since I have written some thirty poems and I noticed that they seemed to have a common theme. My theme - life sucks. Maybe I have just moved on.

[huskerlaw]

6. Holiday is my current favorite...

Hear the sound of the falling rain
Coming down like an Armageddon flame
The shame
The ones who died without a name.

Hear the dogs howling out of key
To a hymn called "Faith and Misery"
And bleed, the company lost the war today.

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

Hear the drum pounding out of time
Another protester has crossed the line
To find, the money's on the other side

Can I get another Amen?
There's a flag wrapped around a score of men
A gag, a plastic bag on a monument


I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
On holiday

The representative from California has the floor
Zeig 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
It's not the way that's meant for me
Just cause, just cause, because we're outlaws yeah!

I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
This is our lives on holiday

I'm going to their concert on Sunday...totally cannot wait! :)

[jonnyblitz]

10. mine also.

:thumbsup:

[Scottie72]

8. A surprising good album!!

I was very very surprised at the album from Green Day. I picked it up last month and think it is just plan awsome. It is about time a popular band get overtly politcal!