Song of the Week: "Basket Case"

In celebration of Dookie's upcoming 18th birthday, this week's Song of the Week is its 7th track and 3rd single, the super-hit Basket Case. The song reached the number 1 spot on the Billboard Modern Rock chart at the time of its release and stayed in that position for 5 weeks, and earned Green Day a nomination for the Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group Grammy in 1995. Basket Case is also Green Day's second most played song live of Setlist.fm's artist statistics, behind Longview.

Basket Case's popularity can partially be credited to its brilliant music video which features the band (as patients) playing in a psychedelically coloured mental hospital; the surreal colouration is thanks to the fact that the video was shot in black and white and then coloured in post-production. The setting of the video in a mental hospital reflects the lyric's exploration of the feelings experienced by Billie Joe during his anxiety attacks before he was diagnosed with a panic disorder; he felt he was going insane ("It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up", "Grasping to control, so I better hold on"). The simple-yet-catchy tune and structure of the song that's complimented by Tre's manic little fills completes Basket Case's strong appeal.

There are a plethora of live videos out there, and it was just too difficult to choose one, so instead here's the forever brilliant music video for Basket Case in all its surreal, colourful glory.


Lyrics for the song can be found here, and this is Basket Case'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.