This review is part of a series looking back at significant albums on their anniversaries. Through the benefit of hindsight we will be viewing the album not just as it was released, but how it stands the test of time, as well as its place in the band’s discography and the genre in general.
Reprise Records – 1 Feb 1994
Give the Dookie its due.
I know it’s not cool to give Green Day their due. It’s actually pretty looked down upon, which is so damned weird. Dookie is the second most important rock album of the 90’s, and there’s not even much room for debate. The record changed the landscape in a way few albums could ever hope to do. Yeah, they chose the paycheck over Gilman, or that’s the way some took it… but their release of Dookie also kicked off a mainstream punk rock revolution with effects still seen now, three decades later.
And Jesus H Christ, better or worse as it may be… the album kicked a whole god damned aesthetic, am I right? The Spring of 94, I saw so many of my fellow 7th graders transform their wardrobe from Zach Morris to Keith Morris. (No, I didn’t know who Keith Morris was in 94, but c’mon, it was clever wordplay… self-high-five!) This is the album that launched a million spiked bracelets.
I don’t think we really need to break down the track list, except to say that the Berkeley trio managed to craft the most delectable hooks and sophomoric lyrics to hypnotize pubescent teens like myself. Pardon me while I get a bit personal… but “Longview” spoke to me like nothing on the radio should speak to a 12-year-old adolescent wracked with the Catholic guilt of my overactive libido and lack of an outlet. I’d probably have spent my whole day air-guitaring along if not for the constant fatigue in my right arm (sorry, mom). The album hit all the notes for greasy, hormonal jerk-off artist like myself, from the misdirected aggression of “Having A Blast,” the inexplicable and unavoidable distancing of friendships dissected on “Emenius Sleepus,” and of course, the what the fuck is wrong with me, self-examination of “Basket Case.”
And the artwork! It was like Where’s Waldo met Beavis and Butthead with a dash of Clerks slackerism. It all came together and just got the mood for the time and specifically for the 10-15 year-olds of that time, and I think that relatability and commercial achievement is the reason we saw so much great (and not-so-great) music find success in the punk scene from 98-08.
Without Dookie, there is likely no Warped Tour, at least at the level Warped reached. Without Dookie there is no Blink-182, and certainly not at the level to which we know them now. No Sum-41, no New Found Glory, no Fall Out Boy and none of the bands those acts influenced (Hot Mulligan, The Wonder Years, et. al.) And I know at first glance the next thing I say may feel like a stretch, but there’d no Weezer either, as their pop-sensibilities with guitars would’ve been overlooked in the pre-pop punk revolution.
Sure, grizzled punks will have some bullshit complaints about selling out the scene as if The Sex Pistols were anything more than a major label boy band put together by a capitalist to shill for his boutique. The whole ideology is flawed and fickle. Somewhere, somehow, the spirit of ‘77 got co-opted and convinced you couldn’t be a real punk if you could afford to eat, and Green Day came right on time to get caught up in those hardline stances. In spite of the whole “You’re not punk and I’m telling everyone” gatekeeping of cannibalizing fans who didn’t want to grow their own scene, Green Day changed the landscape. Plenty of band’s fell under the weight of the major-label machinery, but Green Day did not.
The three-piece had every right to turn their back on the scene that had turned their backs on them, instead they plugged right along. Somehow they coped with the vitriol they had spit at them and managed to come out more punk because of it. Its not really what one thinks of when they think of punk, but MTV performances, New Year’s Rockin’ Eve appearances, Broadway Theater shows, concept albums, bad albums (I see you Revolution Radio), duets with Norah Jones and covers of covers by Tiffany do more to thumb their noses at the established norms than any of the money-hoarding, pro-MAGA bootlicking John Lydon has been engaging in recently.
Because when it all comes around, keeping the scene alive and relevant in the public eye is more punk and does more for the community than the anti-success crews could ever hope to be. And Green Day have elevated, maintained and influenced the scene for 30 plus years now… and there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight.
Bad Dad (occasionally called Ed) has been on the periphery of the punk and punk-adjacent scene for over twenty years. While many contributors to this site have musical experience and talent, Ed’s musical claim to fame comes from his time in arguably the most punk rock Blockbuster Video district in NJ where he worked alongside members of Blanks 77, Best Hit TV and Brian Fallon. He is more than just an awful father to his 2 daughters, he is also a dreadful husband, a subpar writer, a terrible dresser and has a severe deficiency in all things talent… but hey, at least he’s self-aware, amirite?
Check out the pathetic attempts at photography on his insta at https://www.instagram.com/bad_dad_photography/
