21st Century Breakdown
Before The Lobotomy
Song Meaning
Billie Joe Armstrong (Q Magazine, 2009): "It's about how self-destructive behaviour can overshadow parts of your ambition: there's this shiny red button you want to push."
Billie Joe Armstrong (Guitar World, 2009): "I got [Before the Lobotomy] from a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle. The article was about a guy who'd written a book about how he'd gotten a lobotomy because his dad thought he was too hyperactive. He was a problem child, so his father made him get a lobotomy. So the title of the article was 'Before the Lobotomy.' Or maybe that was the title of the book. I don't remember now. And the song could be about the dumbing down of society, but it all comes from personal experience, you know! Dumbing yourself with drugs and alcohol. Overdoing it."
Billie Joe Armstrong (Guitar World, 2009): "I got [Before the Lobotomy] from a headline in the San Francisco Chronicle. The article was about a guy who'd written a book about how he'd gotten a lobotomy because his dad thought he was too hyperactive. He was a problem child, so his father made him get a lobotomy. So the title of the article was 'Before the Lobotomy.' Or maybe that was the title of the book. I don't remember now. And the song could be about the dumbing down of society, but it all comes from personal experience, you know! Dumbing yourself with drugs and alcohol. Overdoing it."
Have your own interpretation of "Before The Lobotomy"? Leave a comment below.
Lyrics
Dreaming
I am only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
I can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
Life before the lobotomy
Christian sang the eulogy
Sign my love a lost memory
From the end of the century
Well it's enough to make you sick
To cast a stone and throw a brick
When the sky is falling down
It burned your dreams into the ground
Christian's lesson is what he's been sold
We are normal and self-controlled
Remember to learn to forget
Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes
Well I'm not stoned
I'm just fucked up
I got so high I can't stand up
I'm not cursed cause I've been blessed
I'm not in love cause I'm a mess
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
The brutality of reality
Is the freedom that keeps me from
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
i can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
I am only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
I can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
Life before the lobotomy
Christian sang the eulogy
Sign my love a lost memory
From the end of the century
Well it's enough to make you sick
To cast a stone and throw a brick
When the sky is falling down
It burned your dreams into the ground
Christian's lesson is what he's been sold
We are normal and self-controlled
Remember to learn to forget
Whiskey shots and cheap cigarettes
Well I'm not stoned
I'm just fucked up
I got so high I can't stand up
I'm not cursed cause I've been blessed
I'm not in love cause I'm a mess
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
Like refugees
We're lost like refugees
The brutality of reality
Is the freedom that keeps me from
Dreaming
I was only dreaming
Of another place and time
Where my family's from.
Singing
i can hear them singing.
When the rain had washed away
All these scattered dreams
Dying
Everyone's reminded
Hearts are washed in misery
Drenched in gasoline
Laughter
There is no more laughter
Songs of yesterday
Now live in the underground
Live History
Live History
- Total Plays
- 72 times / #81 most played
- Most Recent
- November 19, 2013 San Francisco, CA
- Earliest Known
- April 7, 2009 San Francisco, CA
18 tracks
More From 21st Century Breakdown
1
Song of the Century
2
21st Century Breakdown
3
Know Your Enemy
4
¡Viva La Gloria!
5
Before The Lobotomy
6
Christian's Inferno
7
Last Night On Earth
8
East Jesus Nowhere
9
Peacemaker
10
Last Of The American Girls
11
Murder City
12
¿Viva La Gloria? (Little Girl)
13
Restless Heart Syndrome
14
Horseshoes And Handgrenades
15
The Static Age
16
21 Guns
17
American Eulogy
18
See The Light
Comments
Song Comments