Green Day's Ten Best

Recently, I have rediscovered Green Day as one of my favorite bands. Listening to Dookie and American Idiot next to each other jars me somewhat; while the former remains a solid album, the complexity and depth of the latter overwhelms the earlier effort. Even so, Green Day's first album produced some great music. In between, of course, Green Day turned out some big hits, and listening to the progression gives some insight into the band's development - musically, philosophically, artistically. Listening to entire Green Day albums - and reading the lyrics while doing so - provides insights and ideas that can strike deep chords in the listener.

This article, of course, is about individual songs rather than albums. Thus, I attempt to point to the points on Green Day's albums that give the best glimpses, the most powerfully representative moments, in the band's repertoire. With that driving criterion in mind, and in order of chronology and place on album, I present Green Day's ten best songs.

1. "Chump" (Dookie)

This song, from its first lines, epitomizes blame without a defined object of blame, rage that, while powerfully real, has no focal point. "I don't know you/But, I think I hate you." Green Day's music drives, the beat pounds with no subtlety at all - which, for this particular theme, is the only way the music could make sense with the song. We like to think anger makes sense, that it exists only when someone or something brings it out of us. This song, to me, plays in the uncomfortable places where anger simply arises, from our own frustrations or limitations.

2. "Longview" (Dookie)

"Longview" follows "Chump" with a drop in stridency, and a nod to the boredom that leads to slipping into the ultimate individual pursuit. Brilliant in young male wit, surprising in depth, Green Day's homage to masturbation as response to lack of motivation to do anything else struck a chord with teenage boys everywhere, and provided an important answer for all of us: "Some say 'Quit or I'll go blind'/ But it's just a myth."

3. "Basket Case" (Dookie)