Dookie (CD - 1994)

DOOKIE won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Performance. Green Day was also nominated for Best New Artist, "Basket Case" was nominated for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal, and "Longview" was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance.

Green Day couldn't have had a blockbuster without Nirvana, but Dookie wound up being nearly as revolutionary as Nevermind, sending a wave of imitators up the charts and setting the tone for the mainstream rock of the mid-'90s. Like Nevermind, this was accidental success, the sound of a promising underground group suddenly hitting its stride just as they got their first professional, big-budget, big-label production. Really, that's where the similarities end, since if Nirvana were indebted to the weirdness of indie rock, Green Day were straight-ahead punk revivalists through and through. They were products of the underground pop scene kept alive by such protagonists as All, yet what they really loved was the original punk, particularly such British punkers as the Jam and Buzzcocks. On their first couple records, they showed promise, but with Dookie, they delivered a record that found Billie Joe Armstrong bursting into full flower as a songwriter, spitting out melodic ravers that could have comfortable sat alongside Singles Going Steady, but infused with an ironic self-loathing popularized by Nirvana, whose clean sound on Nevermind is also emulated here. Where Nirvana had weight, Green Day are deliberately adolescent here, treating nearly everything as joke and having as much fun as snotty punkers should. They demonstrate a bit of depth with "When I Come Around," but that just varies the pace slightly, since the key to this is their flippant, infectious attitude -- something they maintain throughout the record, making Dookie a stellar piece of modern punk that many tried to emulate but nobody bettered. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

In the days before there was grunge or thrash, a movement called punk arose as a populist response to the conformity of corporate rock, and a return to the garage roots of the music. Punk, new wave...whatever you want to call it, the movement was quickly co-opted by the major labels and radio as the best bands quickly evaporated into the pop mainstream while the rest faded into obscurity or day jobs.

"I'm not growing up, I'm just burning out, and I stepped in line to walk amongst the dead," singer-guitarist Billy Joe screams on the opening "Burnout," enunciating a timely slacker sentiment over a decidedly punk trio track, roaring through your speakers like a freight train powered by old Ramones and Clash records. One can hear the complaints of DOOKIE articulated in a thousand smoke-filled bedrooms throughout America. On "Longview," tongue not so firmly implanted in cheek, they extend their view of slacker apathy to apply to the fading joys of masturbation, but quickly answer their own ennui with the real world complaints of "Welcome To Paradise," begging the question, is there anything out there?

On a song like "She," Green Day seemingly answers all the questions of apathy with a furious groove and lyrics that urge listeners "locked up in a world that's been planned for you" to "smash the silence with the brick of self-control." And with "Sassafrass Roots" Green Day ups the slacker ante dealt up by Beck on "Loser" by asking, "So why are you alone wasting your time, when you could be with me wasting your time...may I waste your time, too?" The humor and furious musicianship Green Day display on DOOKIE (listen to them echo "Sweet Home Alabama" on "When I Come Around") undercuts all the talk of apathy, confusion and lack of direction by providing a whaling home-grown alternative to business as usual rock. And wasn't that what punk was all about? minimize