AT THE LIBRARY
Billie Joe wrote this song about a girl he thought was ugly, but he thought she would go out with him. He saw her at the library and asked her out but got rejected because she already had a boyfriend.
DON'T LEAVE ME
This song is about somebody important in Billie Joe's life who left him.
I WAS THERE
John Kriftmeyer (Al Sobrante) wrote this song about being in the band, his past memories, and how he regrets going away.
DISAPPEARING BOY
Billie Joe wrote this song when he was younger about how lonely he was and how he felt invisible to everyone.
GREEN DAY
This song is about starting to appriciate the little things in life. A "green day" is a day spent doing nothing but pot.
GOING TO PASALAQUA
Billie wrote this song about another girl named Jennifer who he was falling for.
AND/OR....
Pasalaqua is a funeral home in Rodeo, California.
16
This song is about being 16 and facing the fact that your going to have to grow up and face life.
ROAD TO ACCEPTANCE
This song is Billie Joe wanting to be accepted by people and not be an outcast. AND/OR....
It's about how much he wants unity for everyone, regardless of appearance (ie. skin color, style, ect.).
THE JUDGE'S DAUGHTER
This song is about wanting to find the perfect girl.
PAPER LANTERNS
Self explanitory. Lyric: "I'm understanding now that we are only friends. To this day I'm asking why I still think about you."
WHY DO YOU WANT HIM?
Billie's wondering why his mom wants her boyfriend. Why Do You Want Him? was the first song Billie Joe ever wrote at the age of 12.
409 IN YOUR COFFEEMAKER
This song is about day dreaming.
AND/OR....
When Billie was younger he put 409 in his teacher's coffee.
KNOWLEDGE
Green Day's cover of Operation Ivy's song, Knowledge.
1,000 HOURS
Billie Joe was thinking about a girl he knew.
DRY ICE
This is about how sometimes you can't get the opposite sex out of your head.
ONLY OF YOU
The meaning of Only of You is similar to that of Dry Ice.
THE ONE I WANT
A love song. Plain and simple.
I WANT TO BE ALONE
Just like the title says, this song is about just wanting to be left alone.
2,000 LIGHT YEARS AWAY
Billie Joe wrote this song about having to be away from Adrienne for so long, and how much he misses her. Billie wrote this song the first time he kissed Adrienne.
ONE FOR THE RAZORBACKS
This song is about a girl from the AK named Juliet, whom they met (NOT as in Romeo & Juliet).
WELCOME TO PARADISE
This song was how it was like living in a house in Berkeley with Mike and other members of the punk community. (also appears on Dookie) "It's about West Oakland, living in a warehouse with a lot of people, a bunch of artists and musicians, punks and whatever just lived all up and down, bums and junkies and thugs and gang members and stuff that just lived in that area. It's no place you want to walk around at night, but it's a neat warehouse whee you can play basketball and stuff." - Billie Joe
CHRISTIE ROAD
Christie Road is a place where Billie Joe and his friends used to go and get high. "This song [Christie Road] is about wanting to be alone for awhile." - Billie Joe
PRIVATE ALE
Billie wrote this song for Adrienne, because he wanted her to like him.
DOMINATED LOVE SLAVE
Tre's infamous song about whips, chains, and other kinds of kinky bondage.
ONE OF MY LIES
This song is about questioning if there is a heaven or a hell. Billie is wondering whether this life is all just a bunch of lies.
AND/OR....
Living a dishonest life.
80
Billie Joe wrote this song about his wife, Adrienne. The title comes from her nickname, Adie. (ie: 80 sounds like Adie)
ANDROID
This song is about wondering what you will be like when you grow up.
NO ONE KNOWS
This song is about Billie Joe being forced to grow up too fast.
WHO WROTE HOLDEN CAULFIELD?
This song is about the character Holden Caulfield from J.D. Salinger's classic book, The Catcher in the Rye. Billie Joe was assigned to read it in school, but of course, he didn't read it. Later on in life, he actually did read it, and he related to the main character in the sense that he was also an outcast like Billie.
WORDS I MIGHT HAVE ATE
This song is about taking responsibility for your actions.
SWEET CHILDREN
Also Green Day's first band name, Sweet Children was the first song Billie and Mike wrote together. It's ultimatly about how bad kids get blamed for everything.
BEST THING IN TOWN
This song is about a girl Billie Joe thinks is the best thing in town.
STRANGELAND
May be based on a movie or book. Life can be strange sometimes.
MY GENERATION
This song is a cover of the classic by The Who.
The Kerplunk! CD includes a story, "My Adventure with Green Day: By Laurie L." Click here to read the story. The name "Laurie L." is based on Lookout Records! owner, Lawrence Livermore.
BURNOUT
A song about doing drugs.
AND/OR....
This song is about apathy and not caring what happens to you.
AND/OR....
This song is about someone who has been put through a lot of shit and finally can't take anymore.
HAVING A BLAST
This song is about terrorism.
AND/OR....
Having everything in your life go wrong and then you just stop caring and what once meant someting now means nothing.
CHUMP
This song was written for the boyfriend of this girl that Billie Joe likes. He never even met the guy.
LONGVIEW
This song is about being bored and pretty much hating life because it's the same thing every day with nothing to do. "It's about boredom and masturbation and smoking dope." - Billie Joe
WELCOME TO PARADISE
This song was how it was like living in a house in Berkely with Mike and other members of the punk community. (also appears on Kerplunk!) "It's about West Oakland, living in a warehouse with a lot of people, a bunch of artists and musicians, punks and whatever just lived all up and down, bums and junkies and thugs and gang members and stuff that just lived in that area. It's no place you want to walk around at night, but it's a neat warehouse whee you can play basketball and stuff." - Billie Joe
PULLING TEETH
Billie Joe wrote this song about the time Mike and Anastasia (Mike's ex wife) were having a pillow fight and Mike accidentally broke both his arms. Billie and Mike laughed him all the way to the hospital. I also heard they took the song title from Metallica's song "Anasthesia Pulling Teeth".
BASKETCASE
Self explanitory, this song is about someone who is pananiod. Billie Joe suffers from panic disorder too, so that has some contribution to the song. "The only way I knew how to deal with it was to write a song about it." - Billie Joe
SHE
This song is about a girl and trying to find out who she really is. She wants to be herself but her parents and society don't let her be that person.
AND/OR....
This letter was a response to a letter Billie recieved from an ex-girlfriend.
AND/OR....
About Billie taking critism from his girlfriend.
AND/OR....
Based on a peom a girl gave Billie.
SASSAFRASS ROOTS
Sassafrass Roots is about being in a relationship that neither person really wants to be in and so you're both pretty much wasting your time.
WHEN I COME AROUND
This is a love sick song, when you take some space during an argument to calm down.
AND/OR....
Whoever has a reputation, good or bad, you'll know where they'll be, no matter what.
COMING CLEAN
This song is about somebody coming out of the closet for the first time. Billie talking about how he might be bi-sexual.
EMENIUS SLEEPUS
This song is about somebody you haven't seen in a long time and when you do see that person, he or she has completely changed. Mike wrote this song.
IN THE END
"That song is about my mother's husband, it's not really about a girl, or like anyone directly related to me in a relationship. In the End's about my mother." - Billie Joe
F.O.D. ( FUCK OFF & DIE )
This song is about hating someone who backstabbed him.
ALL BY MYSELF
Written and sung by Tre Cool, this song is about being loneliness and masturbation.
ARMATAGE SHANKS
This song, like Basketcase, is about Billie Joe's panic disorder.
BRAT
This song is about a rich kid who can't wait for his parents to die so he can get their money.
STUCK WITH ME
It's been said that this song is about someone being underapprieciated. When Green Day was recording songs for Insomniac, they were trying to think of an appropriate name for the song Stuck With Me. The band recorded the song now called "Do Da Da" around the same time, and that song was originally called "Stuck With Me", because those words actually appear in that song. But, there was a studio mix-up, and someone labeled the third track on Insomniac "Stuck With Me". When the band discovered the error, they felt the name was appropriate for the song and kept it. Later, they decided to release the real "Stuck With Me" as a b-side, so they gave it the nonsensical name "Do Da Da".
GEEK STINK BREATH
This song is about drugs. Billie saw so many people get addicted and let drugs rule their life.
NO PRIDE
This song is about somebody who has no self esteem or no pride in themselves.
BAB'S ULUVA WHO?
Billie Joe wrote this song when he was doped up with sugar.
AND/OR....
Billie stole the title of this song after watching Saturday Night Live. It was a skit called “Bab’s Uvula Who?” which had Chevy Chase ivolved in it.
AND/OR....
About not being able to do anything right.
86
This song is about the underground scene and being kicked out of it, because when you leave, you can never go back. This particular song is about Billie being the one getting kicked out. Everyone from the local punk scene threatened them after they got back from touring Dookie. Kids would spit, insult, threaten to beat up, and one girl wrote on a wall at Gillman "Billie Joe Must Die". Billie begins to question himself.
AND/OR....
A Billie Joe interview from 1996 stated that 86 is infact about one night stands. Billie (the writer) has slept with a woman and the next day she's coming calling on him saying she loves him. He's saying "you left your identity here along with your respect, you'll never find them now. So get lost and make room for the next woman to come along."
PANIC SONG
This song is about what Mike was experiencing when he has panic attacks. Billie Joe co-wrote the song.
STUART AND THE AVE
This song is about a girl Billie Joe liked but then he realized he didn't really like her. The corner of Stuart and the Ave. is the corner of Stuart Street and Telegraph Avenue in Berkley, California.
BRAIN STEW
Billie wrote this song way back in 1995 or so when his son, Joey, was a baby. Joey was up crying all night, so Billie didn't get any sleep. He wrote this song about how he felt. "Brain Stew" is also the nickname of James Washburn, a longtime friend of the band.
JADED
This is a song about being stoned/jaded.
WESTBOUND SIGN
This song is about Adrienne moving from her family/friends to be with Billie Joe. "It's about a girl leaving home to live in the city, which is based on my wife." - Billie Joe
TIGHTWAD HILL
This song is about a place where people would go to see football games for free, sell pot, and get high.
WALKING CONTRADICTION
This song is about bands selling out once they become big.
NICE GUYS FINISH LAST
Self explanitory, the nice guy gets the shitty end of the stick.
HITCHIN' A RIDE
This song tells a story of sex and drugs while your world is crashing down.
THE GROUCH
This song is about what Billie Joe doesn't want to grow up and be like. It is also said that Billie wrote this song after he had a fight with Adrienne.
AND/OR....
The Grouch was generally about feeling older than you really are. After the Insomniac era, and Billie was tired as hell and just felt older then he really was.
REDUNDANT
Classic love song. Billie can't begin to explain his love in words for what he feels for Adrienne. Or this song could be about how repetative being famous is.
AND/OR....
He's talking about how things are redundant, making him sick, making him hate things, and feeling like he's lost in a circle. This happens frequently in relationships when people have been together for a long time. Their love is there, but it is redundant. Eventually, saying "I love you" is not enough because it gets routine, and you don't know what to say.
SCATTERED
Billie offering up all he can to his wife trying to gain her affection.
ALL THE TIME
This song is about trying to quit something like drugs or alcohol.
WORRY ROCK
Sorta like Scattered.
PLATYPUS ( I HATE YOU )
This song is about a person who gets pleasure out of seeing others in pain. Billie Joe wrote this about a magazine writer who trashed them after Dookie came out, during Kerplunk! He loved them they we’re and would always be the best no matter what…but then he acted like an asshole, Billie decided to release on nimrod instead of insomniac because he felt it show him they’ve grown…but he died before the album came out. (from Green Day > UK)
UPTIGHT
This song is about a suicidal person who hates his life.
LAST RIDE IN
An instrumental song written during a soundcheck.
JINX
Jinx is about a girl who liked Billie.
HAUSHINKA
Billie met a girl named Haushinka in Japan a long time ago. He remembers her in this song.
WALKING ALONE
Puttings yourself in the position where you just want to be along.
REJECT
About the parent who's kid received Insomniac for a present from his grandma on his 8th birthday. The parent wrote a letter to Billie Joe objecting to the lyrics and saying that it wasn't music. The letter can be viewed here and Billie's response here.
TAKE BACK
A song about not being able to forgive someone for what they did to him.
KING FOR A DAY
This song is about a boy dressing up in woman's clothes.
GOOD RIDDANCE ( TIME OF YOUR LIFE )
This song is about looking back on your life and seeing how you spent it.
AND/OR....
I've heard (from an interview) that this is a song about being drunk.
AND/OR....
This song was how Green Day said goodbye to their punk pals who turned their backs on them after they became big.
PROSTHETIC HEAD
This song is about somebody who lives their life as somebody else. "[In Hollywood]there were these big inflatable head's, that's when I thought of the name for that tune" – Billie Joe
WARNING
This song is about how rules are made to be broken. You live your own life, you make your own choices. "You gotta make your own decisions and choices. It's not so much about what to think, it's just to think. Question everything." - Mike
BLOOD, SEX, AND BOOZE
This song is about kinky stuff. A lot like "Dominated Love Slave".
CHURCH ON SUNDAY
This song is about the time Billie Joe saved his marriage. "It's a song about when you're in a long term relationship with somebody, you have to keep reinventing it, and it takes a lot of compromise." - Billie Joe
FASHION VICTIM
This song is about today's fashion and how people spend all their money just to fit in.
CASTAWAY
Castaway is about Billie Joe's experiments in songwriting on Warning. There are references to Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen in it, two of his biggest influences on the record. And he is a castaway because he knew a lot of his old punk rock friends might hate him for making the album.
MISERY
This song is about the story of a couple of people from San Francisco California. Billie said he got the name 'Mr Whirly' from a song by the Replacements "Watching Disney movies will change you. A tune like Misery sounds like it could have come straight out of Aladdin." - Billie Joe
DEADBEAT HOLIDAY
This song is about not letting stuff get to you and just keep doing what your doing.
HOLD ON
This is song is about living life even though you're alone. Billie wrote this song for a friend.
JACKASS
This song has been rumored to be about blink-182. Green Day has said that they liked blink, but they never have admitted to liking their music. If you think about it, the song does kinda sound like it was written about blink-182.
WAITING
This song is about getting something that you have waited a long time for.
MINORITY
This song is about being an individual and finding the person you want to be. "Minority is about being an individual. It's like you have to sift through the darkness to find your place and be that individual you want to be your entire life." - Billie Joe
MACY'S DAY PARADE
Billie's commentary on commercialism, and how people want materialistic things all the time. The song explains that wants something, but it's not material, all he wants is to have hope in his life. "It's sort of about the lies and deceptions that you have growing up and how you have to find your own way around." - Billie Joe
MARIA
I think Maria is about a rebellious girl who runs away from her problems.
POPROCKS & COKE
This song is about being there for someone, even through tough times.
SUFFOCATE
Suffocate is how alcohol and drugs and cigarettes are destructive and addictive. You get that from 'slipped into a coma again.' This said that he must have tried to quit before, and 'where's my organ donor lend a hand' shows that he will physically suffocate.
AND/OR....
Suffocate is about a guy who has just totally given up on everything and is waiting patiently for the end. It's a reflection of how life gets us down, and in a sense, it's about suicide.
DESENSITIZED
This song was written about the Internet.
YOU LIED
This is about someone who he can tell they are lying, because their story is streched and unbelievable. They don't have a good excuse, and it is obvious they are lying.
OUTSIDER
Outsider is a Ramones' cover. It was also featured on A Tribute to the Ramones.
DON'T WANNA FALL IN LOVE
This song is about not wanting to fall in love, because he doesn't want to answer to anyone.
ESPIONAGE
Instrumental song used in the movie Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who Shagged Me (on the soundtrack) and also in the trailer for Scooby Doo the movie.
SCUMBAG
Scumbag is about someone is an overall bad person. Mike and Billie wrote it together.
I WANT TO BE ON TV
Probably about how stupid and materialist some celebrities are.
AND/OR....
I've heard that this song is a cover by Fang.
AND/OR....
It means just wanted to be heard and to get some attention.
TIRED OF WAITING
Green Day's cover of a classic Kinks song. This song appeared in the Howard Stern: Private Parts movie.
SICK OF ME
Sounds like 2 people are in a relationship and they want to end it, but they just haven't gotten around to it yet.
ROTTING
This song is about not wantin to deal with all the pain and suffering on earth and just wishing that u could throw it all away.
AND/OR....
Rotting is about someone who is dying and how he wants it to be when he takes his final breath.
DO DA DA
When Green Day was recording songs for Insomniac, they were trying to think of an appropriate name for the song Stuck With Me. The band recorded the song now called "Do Da Da" around the same time, and that song was originally called "Stuck With Me", because those words actually appear in that song. But, there was a studio mix-up, and someone labeled the third track on Insomniac "Stuck With Me". When the band discovered the error, they felt the name was appropriate for the song and kept it. Later, they decided to release the real "Stuck With Me" as a b-side, so they gave it the nonsensical name "Do Da Da".
ON THE WAGON
On the wagon is a typical Billie Joe song. It describes that he is in love with a girl (it is possible that he means Adrienne 'cause it's written about this time). He always say sweet things to her but in another way he just does shit. And so his best excuse is that he is so confused "'cause it's been so long since I've been in love!" "on the wagon" is just a metaphor for love.
AND/OR....
This song is about masturbation.
AND/OR....
This song is about being in alcoholic.
HA HA YOU'RE DEAD
Mike wrote this song. It's about a person that has hurt many people.
American Idiot was written to tell a story (a "punk rock opera"). The title of the album in itself, and it's art, explains of what's to come. There's much confusion to actually what this album and all of its songs mean, and it's questioned to what it could mean. I'm following, basically, with my own outlook, and from information from the band.
DEFINITIONS IN THE STORY:
J./JOS/the Idiot of America: The Jesus of Suburbia
Tunny: Random person met on the street who Jimmy befriends
The Underbelly: JOS/Jimmy's group of friends
Mom and Brad: JOS' parents. The way that JOS refers to his father as Brad, could mean that is father is gone and Brad is a stepfather, which would explain why he's calling him by name.
AMERICAN IDIOT
The title track of the album. Basically, there's a confused, disoriented, angsty kid wrapped around a world of misconception and he has nowhere to go and feels hopeless and miserable. So this kid, the Jesus of Suburbia, is just crying out an anthem for the world to hear, screaming miserably "Don't wanna be an American Idiot..." He sees that he's stuck in this 'redneck agenda' and there's not a damn thing he can do to change it.
JESUS OF SUBURBIA (CITY OF THE DAMNED, I DON'T CARE, DEARLY BELOVED, TALES OF ANOTHER BROKEN HOME)
Everyone on the album has their own track. Jesus of Suburbia basically introduces us to the Jesus of Suburbia, how he was brought up in rage, and love, his atmosphere, friends, and basic general information. Part I, JOS, is just an introduction. "I'm the son of rage and love, the Jesus of Suburbia..."...Part II, City of The Damned, is just a crying out for help, hating his town, his city, and his overall miserable life that he lives. Part III, I Don't Care, is properly named and is about just that. JOS' apathetic screams of pain and how he just doesn't fucking care about anything anymore. Part IV, Dearly Beloved, is JOS asking if what he's feeling is natural, how he can get out, and if anyone can understand...Tales Of Another Broken Home, Part V, is basically the end of the anthem. JOS is fed up, fucked up, and just decides to quit town and quit the life that he's living. "I don't feel any shame, I won't apologize. When there ain't NOWHERE you can go. RUNNING AWAY from pain, when you feel victimized, tales from another broken home"...and he just leaves.
HOLIDAY
So JOS has just left town and he's living his life on the streets (Hear the sound of the falling rain...). He's speaking outloud and acting in vein :P, but it seems like he's talking himself into the fact that running away was the right thing to do. Explaining his reasons of discontent to himself. He still feels alone, and shunned from society, but it seems he feels a little more self-confidence, and happiness out on the road. It is also remotely political with the whole "Zeig heil..." thing, but it's basically just JOS yelling out and expressing his own dead beliefs onto the world. Like screaming into mid air. Also, to go 'on holiday' is said to be like, a vacation. So this is basically like an escape, a runaway. This leads us into Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
JOS is out alone, on the cold streets, nothing to do, nowhere to go. The happiness has worn off and he walks alone. Everyone's asleep, no one can hear him, no one cares, and he just walks...
ARE WE THE WAITING?
Still, alone, living it rough. JOS plays tricks in his mind, and you can see his slowly losing his sanity. He even starts to not believe who he is anymore. He's not the king of his local 711 out on the streets, where no one knows who he is...he's not the Jesus of Suburbia anymore. He's just...there.
Now is where the controversy starts. The album picks up into an angry, purely amazing, anthem about the ever-so-lovely St. Jimmy. Now, people have said, and this sounds pretty true, that the JOS is just pushed over the edge, turned into this new fuck you punkfuck named St. Jimmy. Basically, pushed off of the deep end into schizophrenia. Green Day, actually has stated, that JOS meets this kid, St. Jimmy, on the street somewhere, but that's questionable. I'll leave the interpretation up to you.
ST. JIMMY
Fast, upbeat, so effing hardcore. St. Jimmy...the patron saint of the denial. Tough, rough, not afraid to kill. The run of the mill punkkid times 70. The hardest, baddest mother fucker around. He's lived his life on the streets, knows all, sees all. Lies, and pretty cocky to boot. He can actually be seen as a foil to JOS, who's totally innocent and callow going into this thing.
GIVE ME NOVACAINE
JOS meets Jimmy and becomes close with him. They do drugs together, hang around together and JOS depends on Jimmy to keep him sane, without knowing anyone else. Give Me Novacaine is basically his experimentation with drugs, and how Jimmy introduces him to drugs to ease the pain of everyday life.
SHE'S A REBEL
While on the streets, Jimmy and JOS meet a rebel girl named Whatsername. As described in She's A Rebel, she's holding on JOS' heart like a hand grenade. For JOS, it's love at first sight. It's a basic introduction to the girl, and a new twist in JOS' heart strings. New feelings, new mindset, new atmosphere.
EXTRAORDINARY GIRL
Again, about Whatsername. JOS' feelings for her, what he thinks of her, etc...
LETTERBOMB
After getting close with Whatsername, there is an eventual breakup. The beginning "Nobody likes you, everyone left you..."...is Whatsername taunting JOS, and writing him a goodbye letter. She explains that JOS doesn't care enough, and that he isn't who he thinks he is. "You're not the Jesus of Suburbia. The St. Jimmy is a figment of, your father's rage and your mother's love, that's made the idiot america"...she's explaining that JOS has turned into what he's always hated and she leaves him. "Well she said I can't take this place, I'm leaving you behind. She said I can't take this town I'm leaving you tonight..."
WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS
JOS is alone again. Lost his friends, the only girl he ever loved, he's out of home, out of job, and back where he started, sad and alone on the streets. He describes himself as innocent, or at least he was, and he just didn't last. They broke him down, and he's just dead inside. This is also, on a more personal note, a side song about Billie Joe's late father, who died years ago (September 1982), when Billie Joe was 10. Both explanations apply.
HOMECOMING (THE DEATH OF ST. JIMMY, EAST 12TH ST., NOBODY LIKES YOU, ROCK 'N' ROLL GIRLFRIEND)
JOS has nothing left to do. He's been on the streets. He stands alone again. So where else to go? Home. Part I, the Death of St. Jimmy. He's leaving the streets, he's going back, he's leaving Jimmy behind. He realizes that turning away wasn't the answer, and he's gained nothing from it except knowledge that life is no better in a different atmosphere. He hoped for too much, and got nothing in return. St. Jimmy kills himself, in a sense, in JOS' mind he's gone. Still, there's no one who cares, and nobody cares. Part II, East 12th St, tells us that JOS met and accepted conformity, got a job, and is just in his own world as people move around him. He'd rather be out and around with 'the underbelly', his friends. He feels trapped. Alone, and again, must get away. "This lifelike dream ain't for me"...Part III, Nobody Likes You. He's still depressed about losing Whatsername, as he waits for her to return, but no luck. All of his dreams at this point are shot to hell, as her voice still pounds in his head "NOBODY LIKES YOU, EVERYONE LEFT YOU..." Part IV, Rock 'N Roll Girlfriend, in the inlay, is shown as a postcard from "Tunny"...who seems to be another person JOS met while on the streets. Tunny explains that he's living it up where he is, and the rebel life he leads, while JOS is rotting with his dead end job, in his dead end life. Part V, We're Coming Home Again, is JOS accepting things. He's coming to the realization of everything and everyone, and is just accepting it. He comes home. It's left on a confusing note. He's not sure if he's happy or sad, he's just home, living, and he just...is.
WHATSERNAME
After being home, and just living in normality, he still regrets losing Whatsername. It's been so long, he can't even remember her name. He wonders what happened to her, and can only remember. All he has is his memories of her. The album ends with him still trying to forget "If my memory serves me right, I'll never turn back time, forgetting you, but not the time."...He doesn't regret living his life on the streets, using it as a learning experience, but still tries to forget Whatsername, and the pain that she put him through, and vice versa.
AMERICAN IDIOT'S B-SIDES:
GOVERNATOR
Written in relation to Arnold Schwarzenegger. They repeat his famous words from The Terminator, "I'll be back."
SHOPLIFTER
Living life on the streets with Jimmy, stealing things to get by.
FAVORITE SON
George Bush anthem, not really related to the story.
TOO MUCH TOO SOON
All about Whatsername. How she's so needy and JOS is getting fed up.
SIDE NOTES:
I personally believe Jimmy and JOS are the same person. Kind of Fight Clubesque, for those who have seen it. I think JOS is just pushed so far, that he turns into this new person, new mindset, etc...This explains the rage and love, the story of his life. Rage, Jimmy, love, JOS. It makes the album a lot more interesting, seeing JOS and Jimmy as the same person, but again, I'll leave the interpretation up to you.
East 12th St. of Homecoming was written by Billie Joe. East 12th St. was the place in Oakland where he had to fill out all the paperwork after he got his DUI in 2003.
Rock and Roll Girlfriend of Homecoming was written by Tre and is based on his life.
The "I" perspective is referring to GDA webmaster, Matt, whom wrote up the meanings/story for GDA.