(Track from album, “¡Dos!”)
Well, its been almost a week...a long time for me! I thought I'd come back with, firstly, a new song, and, secondly, an epic one...
When you take bands like Green Day, it would be boring to just review one of their classic neo-punk songs; everybody knows "American Idiot" and even the slightly-too-familiar pop sound of "21 Guns" fit the classic Green day template of brash, post punk chart appeal. Every now and then, a gem appears on an album, something different, something...well, odd. 1997's "Nimrod" had the bizarre "King For A Day", a tale of childhood transvestite fantasies, and 2000's "Warning" had "Misery" - Christ, the thing opened with a synthesiser...ok, but so what - so Green Day are quirky...and?
Well, they can be downright odd like on those tracks, and they can be awesome odd (normally, when it comes down to the acoustic tracks). "Warning"'s "Macy's Day Parade" is one of my favourite tracks from this band because its just so different and out there, all of the emotion of a classic punk song left in lace just without the brashness.
Well its the same here, though the brashness has evolved somewhat to commerciality (some say, to the point of selling out). The raw punk remains, and a pure but rough sounding melody accompanies the damaged tone of lead singer Armstrong, who, in light of recent events regarding his substance addiction treatment, sounds more tainted than ever before.
"Amy" is his lament to the late Amy Winehouse, similarly a drug abuser, though infamous and prolific. Aside from the, now more poignant, overtone, the track achieves a lot, both in closing the middle 'at the party' section of this pop-punk triptych, but also as a classic Green Day track with a great sound, great writing, and brilliant lyrics.
The guitar is sharp, but sounds so from-the-heart and genuine, matching perfectly the emotive tone of the lyrics. Written since the subject's death and having never met her, Armstrong's tribute to Winehouse is beautiful, original and littered with morbid poetry; the wonderful outsider proposal, 'do you want to be a friend of mine?' hints at a similarity in damaged personalities, but also in ageing musical talent; Green Day aren't jumped up little kids anymore, and Winehouse was beyond her time, in voice and subject matter - the connection seems almost too obvious...Other lyrical points are just as touching and beautiful, especially ones like 'is your heart singing out of tune?' and 'dirty records from another time'...'27, gone without a trace'...its very childish in its shyness and courtesy but equally adult in its dark undertone of unhappiness and shared miserablism.
The guitar track is simple; no guitar, bass or keyboard accompaniment; this emphasises somewhat the personal nature of the track. The guitar line itself is delicate, detailed and reminiscent in its raw quality of track by Essex crooner Billy Bragg, but also it in its intricacy, of British guitar legends Johnny Marr of The Smiths and Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Its a great piece of songwriting, catchy in a way, and, with the imposed effects and low quality of the recording, similar in tone to some bluesy tracks, the very genre the Amy of the sing was famous for.
Genre is another aspect of interest; Winehouse was a blues singer primarily, and, though she had the voice of an accomplished vocalist years beyond her actual age, her image, tattooed, drinking and constantly in and out of rehab battling drug addiction, was punk to the very core, and this, no doubt, appeared to Armstrong, a now 40 year old rocker, washing up somewhat on the banks of musical retirement. Is it not perhaps then, even more tragic that, these on-the-edge punk rockers outlived a 27 year-old jazz singer?
That said, outlived is an interesting term; Green Day's last two albums have been badly received - and I mean badly. Its slated to be the biggest sellout since Dylan at Newport in '65, and some fear, with Armstrong's drug addiction problems at their peak in combination with the age of the band, who started life as kids in a garage in 1986, that it could be the end of the road for Cali-punk's heroes.
We hope it isn't, but either way, "Amy" is a beautiful testament to the fragility and brevity of winsome pulchritude, on and off of the music scene...
★★★★★
Versions of "Amy"
Album Version – 3:25