I always say there’s a Green Day song for everyone, which is probably why the band has amassed such a large fanbase since its conception in 1987. Green Day has explored countless genres and sounds that afford them the enormous fan base they have accumulated today.
“Dookie” was the band’s third-ever album and first major label debut, released on Feb. 1, 1994, and. In terms of record sales alone, the album cemented Green Day as one of the best and most well-known pop-punk bands to ever exist. The most popular tracks include “Basket Case,” “When I Come Around,” and “Welcome to Paradise.”
For the band’s 30th anniversary, Green Day released a deluxe edition of the album with 65 tracks including never-heard-before songs, demos, outtakes, and multiple live sets from the ‘90s. The first 15 tracks on the deluxe release are original tracks from the 1994 album and are just as good 30 years later.
The next 17 tracks contain various four-track and cassette demos for the original “Dookie” album and later releases.
Four-track recorders, which utilize both sides of stereo cassette tape to allow four inputs to be recorded at once, were popular among independent musicians in the 1980s and 1990s because they were an accessible alternative to studio recording, especially at the height of digital development.
This four-track version of “When I Come Around” is a lot simpler than the final song released in 1994, and the tempo is much slower. With guitar as the only instrument and softer vocals from Armstrong, this version holds a different aura than the original.
The case is the same for the four-track version of “Basket Case.” The theme is entirely different, depicting a love story with a friend with lyrics “As they walked together in time / Leavin’ all the drunks behind / This wigged-out thing called love.”
This was an insane amount of welcomed emotional whiplash, especially in connection to the themes of narcotics use mentioned in the final song, “Basket Case,” but I’m happy the song evolved into what it is.
The next six tracks contain outtakes of the band goofing around during recording sessions. The wildest one is “Walking the Dog,” an upbeat blues song simply about walking a dog. It’s silly, goofy, and downright deviant.
Following the outtakes is the band’s 10-track set for the chaos of Woodstock 1994, a festival which commemorated Woodstock 1969’s 25th anniversary.
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Armstrong called the festival a “sh*t show,” which inspired one of the tracks on the album, “Sh*t Show,” and featured audio of Armstrong screaming at the 1994 crowd and throwing mud in their faces — incredibly punk — which makes me wish I existed then to witness and write about it.
“Dookie” is older than me, but it’s an album I grew up adoring. Listening to this deluxe release was incredibly nostalgic for me. I can only imagine how sentimental of an experience it was for people alive during the album’s debut.