Midway through the brilliant film version of High Fidelity, indie pop snob Dick hits on a customer who asks about a new Green Day record by referring her to, in his opinion, Green Day's two biggest influences – Stiff Little Fingers and The Clash. The Stiff Little Fingers influence has always been evident, but The Clash was a little more distant. Maybe the makers of High Fidelity were prophets.
Seriously now, what is up with all of this Clash/etc. nostalgia of late? First, Rancid put out Life Won't Wait, the best record The Clash never released. Then Joe Strummer himself put together a band and recorded a new record (on Tim Armstrong of Rancid's Hellcat Records). Then MxPx delivered The Ever Passing Moment, an obvious and acknowledged shout-out to Elvis Costello. Now Green Day subdues their boyish immaturity and charming snottiness on Warning, Billie Joe and company's newest release, to create one of the most intriguing rip-off records of this year. And it doesn't just rip-off The Clash and Elvis Costello, either. Dylan, Springsteen, James Brown, Lennon, and polka all get their turns as well. Hell, even Jackson Browne gets a reference. Yes, you read that right. Here's another one: there is no distortion on the record until track 11 (the first single, "Minority"), then it's barely there at all, and after that song there is no more fuzz. Green Day without distortion immediately conjures up bad memories of "Time of Your Life," perhaps the worst alterna-rock single of '97. But here's the especially odd part – this time, the Green Day-sans-distortion-rip-off-album proposition is a good thing.
"Blood, Sex, and Booze" sounds like it came right off of London Calling, which is absolutely fine. Wait, let me explain. Even if Green Day is doing nothing entirely original or exciting, they have placed their heads clearly in rock and roll history books. If nothing else, they'll expose the MTV punks to something so much better than Blink-182 that, hopefully, some of them will even be smart enough to try out The Clash, or Elvis Costello, or Stiff Little Fingers, and find out what they've always been missing. Maybe not, but anytime a band steps outside of its self-made clichés, and tries out something new (at least to them), they get points for the attempt. So even though the five-minute-long "Misery" lacks the know-how to make its polka-ish musical stylings and narrative Tom Waits-y lyrics work, the boys express a growth in both musical and lyrical maturity with the song, which contains Farfisa organs, mandolin, and accordions. At one point, Armstrong's vocals almost sound like Mike Ness (Social Distortion), which is a nice change from his pseudo-Brit accent, which is significantly toned down on Warning.
So what if "Castaway" contains references to Dylan ("Desolation Row"), James Brown ("Night Train"), Springsteen ("Stealin' Cars"), and Jackson Browne ("Boulevard")? So what if "Macy's Day Parade" shares the same rhythm and chord progression as Lennon's version of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" until the two-chord chorus? So what if "Hold On" sounds a helluva lot like a Bob Dylan tune, but more upbeat? So what if "Waiting" sounds a whole lot like a bunch of Elvis Costello songs, and the opening melody line copies Petula Clark's "Downtown?" All pop music is like this, and whether Armstrong has done it intentionally or not, he has created a record of good songs, some of which have already been written, in part or full. It still isn't complete…Armstrong has a bit to grow in his newfound role as pop songwriter. But it is a start, and it's a lot of fun to listen to.
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