Longview (song)
Encyclopedia
"Longview" is a song and the first major-label single by the American punk rock
Punk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...

 band Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...

. It is the fourth track on the band's third album, Dookie
Dookie
Dookie is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released on February 1, 1994 through Reprise Records. It was the band's first collaboration with producer Rob Cavallo and its major record label debut. Dookie became a worldwide commercial success, peaking at number...

(1994). The song was the band's first single to top the Modern Rock
Modern rock
Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...

 chart in the U.S. The music video for this song received heavy airplay on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....

 and is largely credited for breaking Green Day into mainstream popularity.

The song describes intense boredom
Boredom
Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is without any activity or is not interested in their surroundings. The first recorded use of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, written in 1852, in which it appears six times, although the expression to be a...

. Lyrically, the song is about a day spent sitting around the house, doing absolutely nothing of importance, masturbating
Masturbation
Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...

, and smoking marijuana
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

 until the days are no longer fun. The song captured the attention of many youth at the time with its overt allusions to masturbation. Bassist Mike Dirnt
Mike Dirnt
Michael Ryan Pritchard is an American musician, best known as the bassist, backing vocalist and co-founder of the American Rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt"...

 has stated that the famous bass line intro to this song was written one night while he was high on LSD, and what remains on the album is what he and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong is an American rock musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, main songwriter and lead guitarist for the American punk rock band Green Day...

 could recall in the morning. At most shows in the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour
21st Century Breakdown World Tour
21st Century Breakdown World Tour was a concert tour by American punk trio Green Day in support of the group's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, which was released in May 2009....

, Billie Joe picked a random audience member to sing the song onstage.

In 1995, Green Day received four Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...

 nominations, including Best Hard Rock Performance
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance
The Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance was an award presented to recording artists at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, for works containing quality performances in the hard rock music genre...

 for "Longview". The band won Best Alternative Music Performance for Dookie.
Rolling Stone ranked it #3 on the list of Best Singles of 1994.

The song can also be found on their 2001 greatest hits collection International Superhits!
International Superhits!
-Track listing:-International Supervideos!:International Supervideos! was released on November 13, 2001, the same day as the compilation album, International Superhits!. It is a collection of all the band's videos from 1994 to 2001, excluding the music videos to "Welcome to Paradise", "Maria", and...

, and a live performance can be found on the Bullet in a Bible
Bullet in a Bible
-Certifications:-Personnel:* Billie Joe Armstrong – lead vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, harmonica* Mike Dirnt – bass, backing vocals* Tré Cool – drums, percussion-Additional musicians:* Jason White – lead guitar, rhythm guitar, backing vocals...

CD/DVD.

Concept

"It's about boredom
Boredom
Boredom is an emotional state experienced when an individual is without any activity or is not interested in their surroundings. The first recorded use of the word boredom is in the novel Bleak House by Charles Dickens, written in 1852, in which it appears six times, although the expression to be a...

, and smoking dope
Cannabis (drug)
Cannabis, also known as marijuana among many other names, refers to any number of preparations of the Cannabis plant intended for use as a psychoactive drug or for medicinal purposes. The English term marijuana comes from the Mexican Spanish word marihuana...

." - Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong is an American rock musician and occasional actor, best known as the lead vocalist, main songwriter and lead guitarist for the American punk rock band Green Day...



"I guess it was just living in the suburbs in a sort of shit town where you can't even pull in a good radio station. I was living in Rodeo, California
Rodeo, California
Rodeo is a census-designated place located in Contra Costa County, California on the shore of San Pablo Bay. The population was 8,679 at the 2010 census. The town is named for the livestock roundups common in the late 19th century...

, about 20 minutes outside of Oakland. There was nothing to do there, and it was a real boring place." - Billie Joe Armstrong in an interview in Guitar Legends magazine, May 2005.


"When Billie gave me a shuffle beat for Longview, I was frying on acid so hard. I was laying up against the wall with my bass lying on my lap. It just came to me. I said, "Bill, check this out. Isn't this the wackiest thing you've ever heard?" Later, it took me a long time to be able to play it, but it made sense when I was on drugs." - Mike Dirnt
Mike Dirnt
Michael Ryan Pritchard is an American musician, best known as the bassist, backing vocalist and co-founder of the American Rock band Green Day. While at school, he would play "air-bass." While pretending to pluck the strings, he made the noise, "dirnt, dirnt, dirnt"...

 in Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...

magazine, 1995.

Title

In one common theory, the title of the song "Longview" was inspired by the city Longview, Washington
Longview, Washington
Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the "Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area", which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longview's population was 36,648 at the time of the 2010 census and is the largest city in Cowlitz County...

. The band had a number of friends in the area due to its frequent performances in Portland, Oregon
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

. Often they would meet other punk bands from Longview who would open its shows. According to one concert's press agent, Jim Baltutis, Green Day performed at a Longview club, the Club Tavern, in the summer of 1992, which later inspired the title of the song. However, a number of misconceptions circulate about the title, one being that the members of the band attended Longview's R.A. Long High School, and at one of its performances they decided to name it after their "home town", though Green Day is from Berkeley, California
Berkeley, California
Berkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...

.

Another theory is that the title refers to looking at one's future. The song's protagonist does nothing but sit around, masturbating and getting high. He wonders whether he has a future at all. He realizes it's time to do something with his life, but is too lazy to even take a shower.

Initial pressing

  1. "Longview" – 3:59
  2. "Welcome to Paradise
    Welcome to Paradise
    "Welcome to Paradise" is a song by the American punk rock band Green Day. It was released as the second single from its third studio album and its major label debut, Dookie. The original version of the song was released on the band's second studio album, Kerplunk and was re-recorded for Dookie in...

    " (live)
  3. "One of My Lies" (live)

  • Live tracks recorded March 11, 1994 at Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, Florida

These live songs are also available on the live album Live Tracks

German pressing

  1. "Longview" – 3:59
  2. "Going to Pasalacqua" (live) – 4:12
  3. "F.O.D." (live) – 2:44
  4. "Christie Road" (live) – 3:49

Card sleeve

  1. "Longview" - 3:39
  2. "On the Wagon" - 2:48
  3. "F.O.D." (live) - 2:44

  • Live tracks recorded March 11, 1994 at Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, Florida

7" vinyl box set

  1. "Longview"
  2. "Welcome to Paradise"
  3. "Coming Clean"
  4. "Chump" (live from Stockholm, Sweden)
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