Today’s the Macy’s Day parade[1]This track featured as the finale to Green Day’s tepidly received 2000 album Warning, and again on their 2001 Greatest Hits CD International Superhits! That collection was later superseded by … Continue reading
The night of the living dead[2]Allusion to the 1978 zombie flick Dawn of the Dead (the sequel to 1968’s Night of the Living Dead), which famously takes place at a mall, and has ever since served as a pretty on-the-nose metaphor … Continue reading is on its way
With a credit report for duty call
It’s a lifetime guarantee
Stuffed in a coffin, ten percent more free
Red-light special at the mausoleum[3]This song is an artifact from a brief period when Billie Joe Armstrong was clearly trying to transition into acoustic singer-songwriter mode (as he indeed has always been at heart), perhaps to … Continue reading
Give me something that I need[4]“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19
Satisfaction guaranteed to you
What’s the consolation prize?[5]Compared to the riches of Eternity, everything else we’re breaking out backs for in this life are only playing for second place–the consolation prize.
Economy sized dreams of hope
When I was a kid[6]“When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11; in the explicit context … Continue reading I thought
I wanted all the things that I haven’t got
Oh, but I learned the hardest way
Then I realized what it took
To tell the difference between thieves and crooks[7]A thief simply takes what isn’t theirs; a crook tries to trick you into thinking you aren’t being robbed at all. The second, of course, is more coercive, and therefore far worse. Hence why Christ … Continue reading
Lesson learned to me and you
Give me something that I need[8]“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust … Continue reading
Satisfaction guaranteed
‘Cause I’m thinking ’bout a brand new hope[9]“Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which … Continue reading
The one I’ve never known
‘Cause now I know it’s all that I wanted[10]“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Mathew … Continue reading
What’s the consolation prize?
Economy-sized dreams of hope
Give me something that I need[11]29 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not … Continue reading
Satisfaction guaranteed
‘Cause I’m thinking ’bout a brand new hope
The one I’ve never known and where it goes
And I’m thinking ’bout the only road
The one I’ve never known and where it goes
And I’m thinking ’bout a brand new hope
The one I’ve never known
‘Cause now I know it’s all that I wanted[12]Happy Thanksgiving, by the way.
References
| ↑1 | This track featured as the finale to Green Day’s tepidly received 2000 album Warning, and again on their 2001 Greatest Hits CD International Superhits! That collection was later superseded by Greatest Hits: God’s Favorite Band in 2017, in order to account for how American Idiot had briefly revived their career with a second slew of massive radio hits in the mid-2000s. “Macy’s Day Parade” did not appear on the second collection. |
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| ↑2 | Allusion to the 1978 zombie flick Dawn of the Dead (the sequel to 1968’s Night of the Living Dead), which famously takes place at a mall, and has ever since served as a pretty on-the-nose metaphor for how mindless consumption makes mindless zombies of us all. But then, given how repeatedly the scriptures warn against the soul-deadening pursuit of riches, this admonition against consumerism sadly remains evergreen. |
| ↑3 | This song is an artifact from a brief period when Billie Joe Armstrong was clearly trying to transition into acoustic singer-songwriter mode (as he indeed has always been at heart), perhaps to capitalize on the then-recent popularity of 1997’s “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life),” but also perhaps because he thought he’d finally aged out of being a teenaged Punk Rocker. Little did he know that he’d revert back to rigid three-chord Punk only four short years later for American Idiot—then spend the rest of his life trying to recapture that second lightning in a bottle, thus keeping him in a permanent state of arrested adolescence. There’s almost something tragic in how his greatest comeback album resulted in his greatest stunted growth. But then, all of our greatest strengths are simultaneously our greatest weaknesses; perhaps that is partly what the Savior meant when he said the first shall be last and the last shall be first, and the abased shall be exalted. |
| ↑4 | “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19 |
| ↑5 | Compared to the riches of Eternity, everything else we’re breaking out backs for in this life are only playing for second place–the consolation prize. |
| ↑6 | “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” 1 Corinthians 13:11; in the explicit context of the chapter itself, to be childish is to be selfish (the same point Armstrong makes in this verse here), whereas to become a man means to be charitable and loving to all. |
| ↑7 | A thief simply takes what isn’t theirs; a crook tries to trick you into thinking you aren’t being robbed at all. The second, of course, is more coercive, and therefore far worse. Hence why Christ was willing to call Mathew the thieving Publican to be an Apostle, but called the self-righteous Pharisees hypocrites. |
| ↑8 | “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” Mathew 6:19-21; this of course is the opposite of what we’re trained to do on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, when the Macy’s Day Parade tries to drive us all back to the mall for gluttoned consumption after our single day of sincere, soul-healing gratitude. |
| ↑9 | “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God.” Ether 12:4 |
| ↑10 | “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.” Mathew 13:45-46 |
| ↑11 | 29 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? 31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? 32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. 33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. -Matt. 6:29-34; as also endorsed by 3 Nephi 13:29-34 |
| ↑12 | Happy Thanksgiving, by the way. |