AllMusic regards Kerplunk as the "perfect dry run" for the band's later mainstream appeal, saying it contains "both more variety and more flat-out smashes than previous releases had shown." [15] Pitchfork Media states "All in all, it's a magnitude better than its predecessor and only a hair behind the follow up." [6] That’s another part of the story that’s worth talking about: Kerplunk sold 50,000 copies by the end of 1992, making it by far the biggest release Lookout! Records had ever produced. Despite including a letter of loyalty to Lookout on their debut 39/Smooth, the band released they had hit a ceiling with the independent label. Upon their signing to Reprise Records, Green Day were excommunicated from their roots: barred from Gillman, shunned by hometown friends, and viciously insulted in fan zines proclaiming them as the worst thing a ’90s band could be – sell outs. We really wanted to make our records sound like us, but a bigger version of it,” Armstrong said in 2006. “We’d seen what had happened to so many other bands before. Throughout the Eighties, if a punk band signed to a major label, it always seemed like they compromised their sound, and we didn’t want to do that”.

Krovatin, Chris. "Green Day's Kerplunk! Is An Unspoiled '90s Punk Gem". Kerrang! . Retrieved August 15, 2021. The narrator in this song expresses his fear of growing up and turning into someone who has to plan out everything they do. He sees that his friends are ageing and realizes that this will inevitably happen to him too. He doesn't express a certain opinion - he simply looks at both sides of the problem and tries to figure out what to do. He's saying that he doesn't want to live a planned out life, but wants to stay spontaneous and have fun for as long as he can. Yet, he's saying that sometimes he unintentionally hurts people with who he is, and that makes him wonder whether he should somehow change, have a plan for life, grow up. He's wondering whether what he's doing with his life is right.The interlude comes in with the author admitting he actually likes feeling love despite the pain he gets since its been so long already ( I do not mind if this goes on, Cause now it seems I'm too far gone). The song ends by stating how the two end up as a couple ( 80 please keep taking me away).

In this song, the narrator is admitting the mistakes he's made in a relationship with someone he really loved. He confesses that this was "something real" that he could have had, but he lost it and it was solely his own fault. He has the best memories about the girl he loved and he regrets that he didn't try hard enough to keep what they had together, but now it's too late and all he can do is "take the pain". Revisiting the band’s attitude towards their craft as young upstarts, he added: “But when it came to music, they were Very Serious Indeed. I was working with a lot of young bands in those days, and one thing I constantly struggled with was getting musicians to strike the right balance between having fun and making the most of their musical abilities. Originally released on December 17, 1991, Green Day’s second studio album, Kerplunk, was the first to feature drummer Tré Cool. Completing the band’s lineup and rhythm section along with Mike Dirnt, AllMusic praised the pair, saying thatStegall, Tim (2021-01-18). "THESE 15 ALBUMS FROM 1991 LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR PUNK AS WE KNOW IT". Alternative Press . Retrieved 2021-12-08. The song was inspired by Armstrong's relationship with Adrienne Nesser, his future wife, who at that time lived in Minnesota, while he lived in California. Obviously, being so far away from her made him miss her a lot, and 2,000 Light Years Away is one of the songs that he wrote to express his feelings towards her. The number 2,000 is probably based on the actual distance between the lovers (it's also mentioned in another song about Armstrong's wife - Westbound Sign: "is tragedy 2,000 miles away?") - the actual location between their hometowns is a lot less than 2,000 miles*, but the author roughly approximated the distance because obviously, when you are apart from someone you love, it seems like they are worlds away, even if it's just a few hundred miles. First came the name change: Green Day. Then came their nearly weekly shows at 924 Gillman Street, the straight edge all ages refuge that birthed influential acts like The Lookouts and Operation Ivy. Green Day even managed to swipe The Lookouts drummer, an excitable and unpredictable ball of energy who went by the name Tre Cool. By the time they stumbled into the Art of Ears studio in San Francisco to record their second full length on Lookout! Records, they had a (slightly) increased budget, a solid year of touring behind them, and a whole slate of new songs written by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong. Ranking: Every Green Day Album from Worst to Best". Consequence of Sound. 2016-10-07. Archived from the original on 2017-12-16 . Retrieved 2017-07-13. This is a song about missing someone you love, thinking about them all the time and dreaming of being next to them again.

I always thought that this song was about him going off to college. He’s left his home and moved off to college and he is unsure of himself and his new surroundings. The whole slums thing is about how most parents think that college housing is slums but the teenagers see it as paradise. I dunno, that’s just what i always thought he was talking about.” All these realizations lead the narrator to another serious question, and that is whether there is a God, whether there is someone or something that actually knows the answers to eternal questions. Like so many others he was praying at night because he'd been told that this was the right thing to do. Now he's reached the time when he starts questioning whether he believes in that himself - so far he has no answers. And he's wondering if he's just been lying to himself all along. Light Years Away" (music written by Green Day, Jesse Michaels, Pete Rypins and Dave "E.C." Henwood) Hours, 1990’s Slappy EP, and 1991’s 39/Smooth LP were bundled together on CD as (duh) 1991’s 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. It’s raw stuff, but even at this point Green Day’s records were at least halfway decently recorded, unlike most of their peers’ tin-can-and-twine set-ups. And songs like “At the Library” were downright hummable, always important when you’re trying to make pop music—especially out of only a few chords in a formally restrictive setting. Of course, on a label that at the time included household names Plaid Retina and Sewer Trout, early Green Day were bound to shine, but if they had broken up after 1,039, they’d be remembered—if at all—as perhaps the slightly less emo cousin to early Jawbreaker, or maybe the musically less accomplished Crimpshrine. Green Day will be coming to the UK and Europe next year to fulfil the rest of their Hella Mega Tour dates with Fall Out Boy and Weezer after the tour was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. You can see the remaining dates below.

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Mike had this beautiful bass line he wanted to turn into a song. I wrote lyrics for it. Song is No One Knows." In this song, the narrator is wondering what will happen to him when he grows older. He starts off with thinking about an old man he saw - he sees that his man didn't succeed in life and realizes that this can happen to anyone. He wonders what this man was dreaming of when he was younger. Everyone has dreams of a great future, but it doesn't mean those dreams will come true - in fact, you might end up "wearing woman's shoes and being crazy" like this old man. Some call it slums, some call it nice" - it's only slums when you look at it from a distance. But when you live and breathe it - it becomes nice because it is your home. Not your parents' home, but one of your own - and it's Paradise.