Time to Put Billy in a Home?
You know that decision that children have to make about when to put their parents into a nursing home? It’s a tough one to make, no doubt. And while this little piece of writing will not be discussing when is the right time to put your parents in a home, we will be talking about something similar: When should a band hang up the guitars? Specifically, when will Green Day hang ’em up?
Now don’t get me wrong - Green Day is one of my all-time favorite 90s bands. I will repeat that, one of my all-time favorite 90s bands. Not 00’s, and certainly not ’10 and beyond. I mean really, at what point does a bunch of 40 year old “Punk” Rockers (let’s be honest, Green Day hasn’t been “Punk” since the very early 90s) stop being a Rocking-good-time and start to be a little creepy? And let’s face it, it’s not like Green Day is coming up with anything all that groundbreaking or new nowadays. Essentially they play 4 chord songs for nearly all their albums. I will admit, American Idiot had a slight change of pace, but even that got old.
So obviously, this whole Green Day thing has created competing thoughts in my head.
A) Who cares how old they are or how unoriginal and mundane their music has gotten, they are having fun doing something they love to do. To each their own.
B) Enough is enough. You’re going to a home!
Yes, I have listened to a couple songs off their new album (¡Uno!), and I must say I am less than impressed, and that’s putting it nicely. Really, isn’t this supposed to be the time where they amicably split and become all soft and squishy and start a solo career? Billy, you’re 40 years old. Your original audience has grown up, gotten married, had kids and now you are playing music for their kids. That is super creepy. And obviously this is just my humble opinion, but it doesn’t really look like you’re making music for the sake of being creative and making music. It looks like you want to make more money.
Let’s be honest here, you’ve been doing this for 25 years or so, right? Don’t you have enough money? If this was really about the art and the music, why not just give it away now? Why not start your own label? Have you really spent all your money on weed? Again… 40 years old. You could do a solo album and you know that at least the first one would sell. The second one might not, but the first one would pique everyone’s interest and you’d make tons of money doing something less creepy than being 40 years old and hanging out with a bunch of teenagers. Just sayin’.
Well that’s my opinion. What do you think? Is it time to take Billy et al. and put them in a home or should they continue on doing what they’re doing? Am I being overly critical and cynical?
Let me know in the comments.
