FEATURE:
Welcome to Paradise
Billie Joe Armstrong at Fifty: His Best Green Day and Solo Songs
___________
BECAUSE Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong…
IN THIS PHOTO: Green Day’s Mike Dirnt, Billie Joe Armstrong and Tré Cool/PHOTO CREDIT: Nigel Crane/Redfern
is fifty on 17th February, I felt it was only right to compile a playlist of the best Green Day songs (in addition to a few solo ones). The lead of a hugely influential Pop-Punk/Post-Punk band, they formed in 1987. It is amazing to think of their longevity! One of my favourite bands, I am going to salute Armstrong with a playlist. Before then, AllMusic provide some useful and informative biography:
“Billie Joe Armstrong (guitar, vocals) received slings and arrows from obstinate punk fans when his band Green Day leapt from the underground and onto MTV in 1994.
Born on February 17, 1972, in Berkeley, California, Armstrong is the youngest of six children; his father died from lung cancer when he was only ten. He formed Sweet Children in 1987 with bassist Mike Dirnt. The group's name became Green Day in 1989, and Al Sobrante (drums) joined the band, eventually replaced by Tre Cool. Green Day's first two albums, 39/Smooth and Kerplunk!, solidified their place in the Southern California punk scene of the early '90s. However, when 1994's Dookie was released on a major label and sold more than eight million copies, Green Day were accused of selling out. Armstrong married his girlfriend Adrienne Nesser in June 1994; nearly a year later, their first child, Joseph Marciano, was born.
With each Green Day album, Armstrong continued to ignore the criticisms of the group's early fans as the band proceeded to strengthen their status within the mainstream, culminating in 2004's American Idiot, a rock opera that became a surprise international success, a multi-platinum Grammy winner, and the best-reviewed album of the band's career. Outside of Green Day, Armstrong teamed with jazz singer and pianist Norah Jones in a project to re-create the classic 1958 Everly Brothers album Songs Our Daddy Taught Us. Recorded in nine days with bassist Tim Luntzel and drummer Dan Rieser, Foreverly was released in 2013.
Armstrong busied himself with Green Day during the back half of the 2010s, releasing Revolution Radio in 2016 and Father of All… in 2020. Once the band's touring plans for 2020 were scrapped due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Armstrong began an online covers project called No Fun Mondays where he debuted a new tune at the beginning of each week. The covers were assembled as the No Fun Mondays album in November 2020”.
One of Green Day’s best albums, Nimrod, is twenty-five later this year. Seeing as they have also been together thirty-five years, I hope there are celebrations and special gigs planned. Because Billie Joe Armstrong is such a loved and awesome songwriter and musician, here are tracks that show him…
AT his best.