Over halfway into their second, Bullet in a Bible proves that Green Day will be forever remembered for their own identity. In their first decade, Green Day’s greatest accomplishment was to bring punk music to a new audience. Armstrong and Dirnt reflect on the motivations behind it - a desire to try something new, reach a new height of expression, and as Dirnt says, “step out of Dookie‘s shadow”. Cool recalls in the Bullet in a Bible video how the band’s approach to American Idiot had a “Let’s take on the planet” vibe. Political and social reactions to a post-9/11 America fueled the record, but did not overpower it - listening is as fun as it is challenging.
“Hear the dogs howling out of key / To a hymn called ‘Faith and Misery’ (Hey!) / And bleed, the company lost the war today”, sings Armstrong in “Holiday”. It was not only more musically ambitious and complex than anything they had done, but also more intelligent. In 2004, American Idiot became Green Day’s most celebrated work yet. The next peak came in 1997 with “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)”, a ballad immortalized (at least in the U.S.) by its prominent appearance in the final episode of Seinfeld. Thanks in part to a record deal with Reprise, the album catapulted Green Day beyond their San Francisco Bay Area origins and into international notoriety. Anyone with a passing interest in punk rock of the last 15 years has heard, and likely enjoyed this 1994 release. Dookie, Green Day’s third record, needs no introduction. The band’s 16-year run has had its ups and downs, but the ups always stuck and the downs never fell too far. Bullet commemorates this success while creating a moment all its own. Their last studio effort, 2004’s American Idiot, was a grab for greatness, a punk rock opera with lofty aspirations and richer rewards - a Grammy for Best Rock Album and sales over nine million. It’s incredible to think how far they’ve come from their roots as silly street punks with three chords and a Clash record. Playing for 130,000 people over two days, Green Day have performed what must be the largest punk rock gig in history. Recorded at the National Bowl in Milton Keynes, England, in June 2005, the Bullet in a Bible CD/DVD captures Green Day at an astounding height in their career.
Superimposed at his side, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool hover above a crowd of thousands as if messiahs over water. On the back cover, an image of a larger-than-life Armstrong, dwarfing the festival stage behind him, pointing to the sky like Pete Townshend. A silhouette of lead singer and guitarist Billy Joe Armstrong poses before an arena audience that seems to extend into infinity. At first sight of the cover, it’s evident Bullet in a Bible is a new kind of Green Day album.
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