Green Day "Dookie" - Retrospective Review
9.1/10
Green Day’s electrifying third record, Dookie, has been met with massive critical acclaim since its 1994 release. Before Dookie, Green Day enjoyed primarily localized, underground success on the West Coast. However, following the album's release, they quickly and aggressively burst into the mainstream.
Touching on surprisingly deep lyrical elements like anxiety, loneliness, boredom, and discontent, the record resonated deeply with youthful audiences navigating life. It captured an ethos not just in punk counterculture but also in skate culture. Songs like Basket Case and When I Come Around have endured since their release, still considered among the finest rock songs of the ‘90s. To take it a step further, tracks four through ten on this album are pure ‘90s rock gold. Although Green Day's sound has evolved since 1994, delving deeper into pop-punk and power pop, Dookie was pure punk to its core, a rawness not heard since bands like Black Flag or Hüsker Dü in the ‘80s.
Green Day's take on punk rock in Dookie was an intriguing blend, mixing mainstream rock elements with punk, resulting in a sound dramatically different from the hardcore punk of the ‘80s, epitomized by groups like Circle Jerks, Dead Kennedys, and Black Flag. The closest sonic parallels to well-renowned punk releases might be traced back to the London Calling-era of The Clash (mainly the rock and punk-oriented songs like Spanish Bombs, Death or Glory, or Train in Vain, rather than the two-tone and ska tracks) or the mid-70s Ramones. Dookie was basically the bridge between the hardcore punk of the ‘80s and the pop-punk of the latter half of the ‘90s. The ‘90s saw the vast majority of its wellknown punk releases leaning towards pop-punk. In that vein, it’s nice to have a raw, punk-rock record in that era which completely nailed it, which Dookie was.
Songs like Basket Case found that perfect medium between the pop-punk which was too come and the powerful punk rock of the two decades before. The song’s uptempo, brighter guitar melody hints at the pop-punk explosion around the corner. The same can be said about She which essentially does the same. Green Day does not quite go all the way with it though, notably with Billie Joe Armstrong’s traditional, Joe Strummer-esque (The Clash) vocal style, holding the songs a bit closer to their roots. Alongside the pop-punk foreshadowing, Dookie as a whole holds some seriously catchy hooks, genuinely emotional lyrics and a level of guitar playing a tad more advanced than what most listeners may expect from punk rock.
Green Day’s collection of punk rock tracks on this record also unsuspectingly held a lot of mainstream pop and rock sensibilities, while again being genuinely punk. In 1994, it was incredibly rare for anything even remotely punk to appear on mainstream radio, but Dookie managed to have four tracks hit the American airplay charts. As with many major label debuts (at least before 2000), I’m sure Reprise Records had that intention if they were going to put all this money into some unkownn west coast punk band. Looking back retrospectively, I almost have to cringe with a thought like that, as that could have completely killed Green Day’s authenticity, but it didn’t do that at all.
As I mentioned earlier, tracks four through ten on Dookie were sheer ‘90s rock gold, but many of the deeper tracks were great too. The opening track Burnout is a powerful opener, featuring Tré Cool’s finest drum breaks. Tré’s hidden closing track All By Myself is a hilarious outro, so different from everything else on the record, its mere inclusion is astonishing and equally perfect. In the End stands as a more traditional, sub-two-minute, old-school punk-sounding track, but with top-notch, modern recording technology at its disposal. With Green Day’s move to a major label for this record, perhaps the best outcome was access to top-tier recording equipment, resulting in a well-recorded and well-mixed punk record, which was incredibly rare for punk rock.
As time has passed since 1994, Green Day has certainly evolved with the times, building upon a more pop-punk sound with later releases like American Idiot and Warning. Early pop-punk bands like Blink-182 and Sum 41 have directly cited Dookie as an influence on their sounds. The legacy of Dookie can be viewed in two ways: either as one of the first modern pop-punk records or as the accessible punk rock record that bridged the gap between old school punk rock and mid to late ‘90s pop-punk. Nevertheless, Dookie remains one of the best albums of the ‘90s and continues to stand strong. I would probably lean more towards seeing Dookie as a bridge between the new and the old (with "new" in the context of the '90s) rather than a straightforward pop-punk album, as it is quite distinct from clear-cut, pop-punk albums.
At the end of the day, genre matching is really just something music enthusiasts use to spur conversation and have fun with. What really matters is that Dookie was an incredibly impressive feat by Green Day. Songs like Basket Case, She, Longview, and When I Come Around are timeless, authentic punk classics. At a time where grunge was dominating American rock music, an album like Dookie coming along was really cool for a lot of people. Green Day has released a lot of music since their late ‘80s formation but at the end of the day, nothing tops Dookie. For a generation of young, skateboard-riding misfits, not quite fitting into society's standards, Dookie sure meant a hell of a lot.
