“Tracing the Theme Repetition at the End of a Pop Song to Herman’s Hermits (Something Your Grand Pappy Already Knows, Probably)”

I just noticed something about Green Day just I think yesterday when I was thinking about it: their new album (Revolution Radio, which I guess is like a year old now) is actually DEPRESSING, of all things. I mean sure, Billie Joe Armstrong had always said things like “When masturbation’s lost its fun you’re fu**ing lonely” and “She said it’s lack of sex that’s bringin’ me down”, but I dunno, maybe I was always just too blazed while listening to them to care or something, or maybe like a true sadist I actually take pleasure in other people’s misfortune, until it becomes on such a large scale as this apocalyptic new stuff [1].
You know what? “Oh Love” is my favorite song by Green Day. That’s only the second song, then, in their catalogue, which I can think of that institutes a repetition of a song’s main theme at the end, the way the Beatles “I Feel Fine” did, initially within their catalogue, but only after, you guessed it, Herman’s Hermits on “I’m into Something Good.” The other instance of Green Day doing this I can think of off the top of my head is the sugary-crisp “Worry Rock” off of Nimrod, an album Billie Joe must have gone on a serious Beatles trip before writing, along with the sublime surf rock of “Last Ride in.” Weezer attempted to cover this song, failing miserably. Here we see, then, how Weezer is obviously influenced by Green Day (a fact which should have been obvious from the lyrics to “El Scorcho,” but you’d be surprised how dense people are sometimes in giving credit where credit is due), along with the fact of Weezer’s using this own repetition mechanism in “Photograph.” The Green Album is great. I’ll leave it to you to put the pieces together as to why.
.
[1] Somewhere in between there lies of course the songs like “X-Kid,” “Rusty James” and “A Little Boy Named Train” from the Uno/Dos/Tre catchiness trifecta of a couple of years ago, to each of which which I tragically and unfortunately related all too well.

36 thoughts on ““Tracing the Theme Repetition at the End of a Pop Song to Herman’s Hermits (Something Your Grand Pappy Already Knows, Probably)”

Leave a Comment