Six reasons why Green Day’s 'Dookie' is a masterpiece 30 years on
Their third album really shot Green Day into the spotlight
Released 30 years ago, on 1st February 1994, Green Day’s third album ‘Dookie’ is an album that’s still held in a reverential high regard. And rightly so - packed with Green Day songs that will last longer than any of us ever will, this is an album that set a standard for pop punk to aspire.
Named after the results of some virulent bowel movements, Green Day – singer-guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt and drummer Tré Cool – still dip into its contents to the delight of their millions of fans. To celebrate almost three decades of the record, Kerrang! Radio looks back at why ‘Dookie’ is still a masterpiece...
1) 'Dookie' took punk overground in the US
While the first wave of punk had originated in the States in the mid-70s, it made nowhere near the impact that it did in the UK. Indeed, there was nothing resembling Sex Pistols’ confrontational interview with Bill Grundy that propelled punk into the living rooms of the nation and for moral guardians to get their knickers in a twist. As evidenced by the likes of Black Flag, 80s US punk was as a distinctly underground affair.
Taking its cues from British punk rock, ‘Dookie’ was a more melodic affair that stormed the US charts in a way that no one could have predicted, and, in the process, became one of the biggest-selling rock albums of the 1990s. More importantly, it propelled punk rock – then a minority interest in the US – into the mainstream. Things would never be the same again.
2) It didn’t just open doors for other punk bands, it blew them off
Green Day were hardly the first punk band to have emerged from southern California but it’s questionable whether the likes of blink-182, The Offspring and Rancid would’ve reached their individual levels of success were it not for ‘Dookie’. This is the album that truly broke out of its environment and into a wider world, all the while blazing a trail for others to follow.
3) It doesn’t sound dated
True, ‘Dookie’ is very much a product of the 90s but it hasn’t dated in the way so many of Green Day’s contemporaries have. This is partly down to Rob Cavallo’s sympathetic production that ensures that Green Day eschew the thin sound that characterised so much punk up until that point and embrace a greater degree of warmth.
But more than that, the album's concerns of boredom, anxiety and sexual frustration continue to reach out to subsequent generations of rock fans.
4) ‘Dookie’ is all-killer, no-filler
Such is the potency and high quality of ‘Dookie’ that the album sounds more like a ‘Greatest Hits’ collection. Indeed, five of the album’s 14 tracks – that’ll be ‘Longview’, ‘Basket Case’, ‘Welcome To Paradise’, ‘When I Come Around’ and ‘She’ – were released as singles but it’s arguable that the rest of them could’ve made it too (well, the ones lyrically clean enough!).
5) The album cover art for 'Dookie' is iconic
Illustrated by fellow East Bay punk Richie Bucher, ‘Dookie’’s artwork has become one of the most instantly recognisable album covers of all time. Depicting an airborne bombing raid on Berkeley’s Telegraph Avenue, the picture is packed with a number of Easter eggs, including an appearance by AC/DC’s Angus Young and the mysterious female figure who adorns Black Sabbath’s eponymous debut album.
6) It gets welcomed like an old friend
Playing a characteristically epic headline set at the 2013 Reading and Leeds festivals, Green Day elected to play ‘Dookie’ in its entirety. The scenes of pandemonium that greeted the album served to underline the degree of love and affection that’s directed at this classic album. Unlike the rest of us, ‘Dookie’ will never get old.
A guide to Green Day's studio albums:
Green Day - 39/Smooth (1990)
Green Day's debut album 39/Smooth was released on 13th April 1990 via Lookout Records. The only album to feature original drummer John Kiffmeyer, the album sold 3,000 copies in its first year, however, with the success of Dookie in 1994 sales quickly skyrocketed to 55,000. No official singles were released from the album and the ominous artwork was created by Jesse Michaels of short-lived Berkeley ska punks Operation Ivy.
Green Day - Kerplunk (1991)
Unleashed on 17th December 1991 via Lookout Records, testament to Green Day's growing word-of-mouth popularity the album sold 10,000 units on its first day. Featuring an early version of 'Welcome To Paradise', Kerplunk has continued to grow in popularity over the decades and has sold more than 4,000,000 copies worldwide making it one of the best-selling independently released albums of all time. The cartoon artwork of a young woman with a gun and a boy with a gunshot wound on the back was banned by some. Kerplunk is the first record to boast Tré Cool on drums.
Green Day - Dookie (1994)
Green Day's first major label release on Reprise Records helped propel Green Day and into the mainstream psyche and has sold more than 20million units globally including 10million in Green Day's native US. Spawning the colossal singles 'Longview', 'Basket Case', 'Welcome to Paradise', 'When I Come Around' and 'She', the Rob Cavallo opus was also met with blanket critical acclaim and is now regarded as one of the finest punk albums of all time. Just like Kerplunk, the seminal artwork created by East Bay punk Richie Bucher was critiqued by some for featuring bombs being dropped on buildings.
Green Day - Insomniac (1995)
Exploring much darker thematic realms and embracing heavier sounds, 'Insomniac' was warmly received by critics but failed to reach the commercial heights of 'Dookie'. Four songs were released from the record - 'Geek Stink Breath', 'Brain Stew / Jaded', 'Stuck with Me', and 'Walking Contradiction' – and, to date, it has sold more than 2million copies in the US and 300,000 in the UK. The striking artwork is a piece called God Told Me to Skin You Alive (a reference to the Dead Kennedys song 'I Kill Children') by collage artist Winston Smith.
Green Day - Nimrod (1997)
Released on 14th October 1997, 'Nimrod' was easily Green Day's most eclectic record to date featuring elements of folk, surf rock and ska alongside Green Day's trademark punk sound. Poignant acoustic song 'Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)' has become one of Green Day's defining songs from their three-decade career. 'Hitchin' A Ride', 'Redundant' and 'Nice Guys Finish Last' were also released as singles. 'Nimrod' has sold 2.1million copies Stateside and has achieved Platinum status here.
Green Day - Warning (2000)
Green Day's first album since 'Kerplunk' not to be produced by Rob Cavallo (who instead served as executive producer), 'Warning' took its lead from its predecessor 'Nimrod' and fused folk and acoustic elements with Green Day's trademark pop-punk sound. Featuring the solid singles 'Minority', 'Warning' and 'Waiting', Billie Joe, Mike and Tré's first album of the new millennium was met by a reasonably positive response from music critics yet it was a relative flop commercially; it was their first album on a major imprint Stateside not to hit Platinum status. However, this could be due to the fact it was leaked on (the now defunct) Napster weeks ahead of its release.
Green Day - American Idiot (2004)
Not just one of Green Day's landmark career moments but arguably one of the greatest rock albums of the noughties, the punk rock opera is an ambitious concept album following the exploits Jesus of Suburbia, a lower-middle-class American adolescent anti-hero. Reflecting the turbulent post 9/11 times, the album explores themes of disillusionment and dissent and nowhere is this more evident than on the rip-roaring and thematically weighty lead single and album title track 'American Idiot'. Rightfully lavished with praise by critics and scooping multiple awards (including the coveted Grammy Award for Best Rock Album), the album has to date sold more than 16million units globally.
Green Day - 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
Joining forces with Nirvana 'Nevermind' producer Butch Vig, just like 'American Idiot' Green Day's eighth studio album '21st Century Breakdown' was a rock opera that Billie Joe Armstrong describes as being a "snapshot of the era in which we live as we question and try to make sense of the selfish manipulation going on around us, whether it be the government, religion, media or frankly any form of authority". The band won their second Best Rock Album gong at The Grammys for the record and it boasted the singles 'Know Your Enemy', '21 Guns', 'East Jesus Nowhere', '21st Century Breakdown' and 'Last of the American 'Girls'. The artwork has drawn parallels to Banksy stencil that adorned Blur's 'Think Tank' six years earlier.
Green Day - ¡Uno! (2012)
The first of a trio of albums unleashed in a three-month period, ¡Uno! was the inaugural release to feature guitar from Green Day's fourth member Jason White before his departure in 2016. Recorded from February to June 2012 at Jingletown Studios in Oakland, California and released in September of that year, the album was preceded by the singles 'Oh Love', 'Kill The DJ' and 'Let Yourself Go'. Explaining why they released three albums, Billie Joe Armstrong enthused: ""We are at the most prolific and creative time in our lives... This is the best music we've ever written, and the songs just keep coming. Instead of making one album, we are making a three-album trilogy. Every song has the power and energy that represents Green Day on all emotional levels." The album was emblazoned with Billie Joe Armstrong's face with neon pink crosses over his eyes.
Green Day - ¡Dos! (2012)
Released two months after ¡Uno! in November 2012, ¡Dos! explored a more garage rock sound (more akin to their side project Foxboro Hot Tubs) in contrast to its power punk pop predecessor. Featuring the solitary single 'Stray Heart', the 13-track received generally warm reviews but failed to match the commercial success of ¡Uno! entering the UK chart at no.10 and becoming the first release since 'Dookie' not to sell sell 100,000 copies in its first week in America. Mike Dirnt graced the cover.
Green Day - ¡Tré! (2012)
Released to the world in December 2012, in keeping with the divergent sounds of '¡Uno!' and '¡Dos!', '¡Tré!' explored different musical realms. Embracing epic stadium rock and featuring occasional orchestral flourishes, Billie Joe Armstrong claims '¡Tré!' is the most ambitious album of the trilogy. The least commercially successful album of the three, '¡Tré!' dented the charts at a lowly 31 in the UK. Featuring the titular drummer Tré Cool on the cover, it's Green Day's last album as a quartet before Jason White returned to his touring member role four years later.
Green Day - Revolution Radio (2016)
Produced by Green Day themselves and recorded in Oakland, 'Revolution Radio' is a blitz of angst-ridden anthems with lyrical themes that address the complexities and uncertainties of modern-day existence. Billie Joe Armstrong said at the time of its release: "Of course the world has lost its collective mind… and me, Mike and Tré are lost souls too. Revolution Radio is a movement for lost souls to come together… dance together… sing together... and most of all, find each other. That's what the spirit of Green Day has been about since day one." The eye-catching artwork features a burning 80s boombox stereo. Green Day's most successful album in seven years, Revolution Radio peaked at number one in the UK.
Green Day - 'Father of All'...' (2020)
Produced by Butch Walker, Green Day's 13th studio album, 'Father of All…', was is released on Friday 7th February 2020 via Reprise Records. Featuring the singles 'Father of All…', 'Fire, Ready, Aim' and 'Oh Yeah!' and 'Meet Me On The Roof', it's Green Day's shortest studio album yet clocking in at just 26 minutes and 16 seconds.
NOW WATCH: Green Day play 'Green Day Or Nay?' on Kerrang! Radio
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Our complete guide to all of Green Day's albums
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