Greenday Cowards

While flipping through the channels today, I managed to catch about ten minutes of Live 8. For now I'll save the comments about the road to hell being paved with good intentions and instead will focus on one of the three songs that I was able to see performed.

Greenday has an interesting sound, but I found myself hoping that they would perform the song they sang (see lyrics below) at a benefit for firefighters and policemen in lower Manhattan instead of lecturing us with it from the Brandenburg Gate.

American Idiot

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new mania.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue.

Don't wanna be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's going out to idiot America.

Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Where everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
For that's enough to argue


While watching Greenday I was immediately struck by two things. First, was the irony of that band calling Americans idiots at the gate where Americans had the biggest hand in "tear(ing) down that wall" and freeing Eastern Europe. I wondered how many eastern Europeans reveled in the performance, if any. I doubt any did. It has been less than fifteen years since the wall came down and I don't think that is enough time for an oppressed people to assimilate into the self-loathing culture of old, socialist Europe.

The second thing that struck me was how, in probably their biggest moment with their largest audience, they chose that song to sing from the bosom of American-bashing Europe. I know that is their current single, but they have many other songs. Most of the artists at Live 8 were only given the chance to sing one or two songs (except for Sir Paul). They could have avoided that one.

As I said above, I would love to be there to see them sing that song at a benefit concert for firemen and policemen at the site of the World Trade Center. But, we all know they are too cowardly for that.