Song of the Week: "Christian's Inferno"
This week's Song of the Week is the incredibly dark Christian's Inferno off Green Day's 2009 album 21st Century Breakdown. The song is one that often pops up on peoples' 'least favourite Green Day songs' list, so it was chosen as SotW to see why exactly that is.
The title of Christian's Inferno gives us somewhat of a hint as to what exactly is going on with the character Christian at this point in the album. 'Inferno' in Italian means 'hell', and the title is (I'm assuming) a reference to 'Dante's Inferno' - the first part of the 14th century Roman poem, Divine Comedy, which follows Dante's entrance into, and journey through the nine circles of hell, and 'describes the recognition and rejection of sin' (thanks, Wikipedia). It seems then, that this song is describing Christian's breakdown; his decent into his own hell. Musically, Christian's Inferno is noticeably different to the rest of 21st Century Breakdown; it's really very dark and echoed, and Billie's voice is distorted and somewhat distant, especially in the verse - it's as if it's coming from the very depths of Christian's mind. Really, Christian's Inferno wouldn't be out of place on a Network album - it's got that same distorted, dark feeling reminiscent of Money Money 2020 or Hammer of the Gods.
In the May 2009 Rolling Stone magazine, Billie briefly talked about the darkness in Christian's Inferno:
(video credit: mrsnoo86)
Lyrics to the song can be found here, and this is Christian's Inferno's Song of the Week thread, where you'll find a greater song-analysis and some member discussion. Feel free to stop by and post your opinion, or nominate next week's song.
The title of Christian's Inferno gives us somewhat of a hint as to what exactly is going on with the character Christian at this point in the album. 'Inferno' in Italian means 'hell', and the title is (I'm assuming) a reference to 'Dante's Inferno' - the first part of the 14th century Roman poem, Divine Comedy, which follows Dante's entrance into, and journey through the nine circles of hell, and 'describes the recognition and rejection of sin' (thanks, Wikipedia). It seems then, that this song is describing Christian's breakdown; his decent into his own hell. Musically, Christian's Inferno is noticeably different to the rest of 21st Century Breakdown; it's really very dark and echoed, and Billie's voice is distorted and somewhat distant, especially in the verse - it's as if it's coming from the very depths of Christian's mind. Really, Christian's Inferno wouldn't be out of place on a Network album - it's got that same distorted, dark feeling reminiscent of Money Money 2020 or Hammer of the Gods.
In the May 2009 Rolling Stone magazine, Billie briefly talked about the darkness in Christian's Inferno:
"'I look at Christian and Gloria, and it's me. Gloria is one side: this person trying to hold on to this sense of belief, still trying to do good. Whereas Christian is deep into his own demons and victimising himself over that... Sometimes I feel like I'm protecting my kids from myself. I'll write a song like Christian's Inferno or East Jesus Nowhere and fear they will look at the lyrics. Even Adrienne will look at them and go, "is Dad feeling OK?".'
'Sometimes I feel insecure - I want to make sure Christian's Inferno isn't going on in this house. I don't think he understands everything that's going on in there. He just knows it rocks hard. But in the next few years [Armstrong acknowledges with a slight shiver] he's definitely going to do some investigating.'"
This week's video is a live performance of Christian's Inferno from the Fox Theatre show in Oakland in 2009. 'Sometimes I feel insecure - I want to make sure Christian's Inferno isn't going on in this house. I don't think he understands everything that's going on in there. He just knows it rocks hard. But in the next few years [Armstrong acknowledges with a slight shiver] he's definitely going to do some investigating.'"
(video credit: mrsnoo86)
Lyrics to the song can be found here, and this is Christian's Inferno's Song of the Week thread, where you'll find a greater song-analysis and some member discussion. Feel free to stop by and post your opinion, or nominate next week's song.
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