Green Day lashes out at Wal-Mart policy

Associated Depressed ^ | 5/21 | NEKESA MUMBI MOODY

[GSWarrior]

NEW YORK (AP) — Green Day has the most popular CD in the country, but you won't be able to find it at your local Wal-Mart.

The band says the giant superstore chain refused to stock its latest CD, "21st Century Breakdown," because Wal-Mart wanted the album edited for language and content, and they refused.

"Wal-Mart's become the biggest retail outlet in the country, but they won't carry our record because they wanted us to censor it," frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a recent interview.

Guitarist Mike Dirnt said: "As the biggest record store in the America, they should probably have an obligation to sell people the correct art."

[GSWarrior]

What do you guys think of this version of Good Riddance?

[Wyatt's Torch]

I absolutely loved American Idiot. Fantastic record despite not agreeing at all with the message/politics. 21st Centruy Breakdown is good but not as good as American Idiot.That being said, everyone knows Wal-Mart’s policy of not selling explicit lyric records. Armstrong is just spitting into the wind with his comments.

[thefactor]

'time of your life' was written to express the band turning its back on it's original punk fans.

when green day began getting mainstream radio play, their fans began to call them sell-outs.

green day basically said 'f off!' and wrote that song as a goodbye to their original punk roots.

so i laud green day for that. they do make great music, imho. although 'american idiot' was a bit over the top politically for me even though it is pure genius. gotta look up the lyrics for their latest opus.

[a fool in paradise]

When push came to shove, Joe Strummer would back down on the political rhetoric. Read Lester Bangs’ lengthy roadtrip interviews with them. Joe wasn’t a debater. And he faked lower class background “roots” for cred.

[TheOldLady]

"Never shop at WalMart. The stores are too filthy for my tastes."

Gee, that's a shame. We have a wonderful WalMart that is immaculate and well stocked. The people are friendly and call regulars by name. It's sad that yours isn't kept up as well and you're forced to overpay for groceries and housewares.

[chris_bdba]

If Walmart doesn’t want to carry your CD they do have that right. IMHO Green Day had one good CD the first one, every one after that sounds like the same thing done over and over.

[Caramelgal]

I’m not a big Green Day fan although I did like “Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)” and the song and video “Warning”.

As far as Wal-Mart, or any other retailer for that matter, I think they have every right to refuse to sell any product they don’t want to sell. If Wal-Mart thinks the lyrics or content of Green Day’s latest release is inappropriate, then they shouldn’t sell it, period.

But on the other hand I can understand why a lot of musicians don’t like Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart uses its large retail market share and muscle to try to dictate to musicians what edits they have to make in order to get their CD’s sold there. IIRC, Wal-Mart has done the same to some movie DVD’s.

If I’m going to buy a CD, I want it as recorded, not as edited by some suit at Wal-Mart, which is, aside from a lousy selection, another reason I wouldn’t buy music there. (And no, I’m not likely to buy Green Day’s latest album – I self edit that which I don’t like ;),)

Billy Joe Armstrong has no problem with radio editing the content of his songs.

Radio edits fall under the FCC and I think it is for the most part, stupid too. Most radio stations barely bleep out or mask the offensive words in such a way that anyone can figure out the words. Again, either they should not play it all, or play it as recorded.

[txroadkill]

That's awesome, I like the song, it's actually the only Green Day song I've ever listened to without turning it off.

It also had something to do with him coming to terms with his father's death that he took really hard and I know affected him all though high school and top of that, our Jr year a popular classmates that everyone knew and liked a lot was murdered by another classmate. It was eventually ruled an accident and the guy was convicted of man slaughter. Every one knew it wasn't an accident and we all were really devistated by the light sentence.

Also, our Sophomore year our class president was killed in a car accident, by our senor year we were all just hoping to get out without anybody else dying. A lot of that emotion is tied up in that song.

I knew Billy the best and honestly he was a really nice guy back then.

[dennisw]

Lefties yes but “Rock The Casbah” has been a favorite of Brit troops. I liked the Clash’s rebellious attitude. Green Day had none of that. Another sign the Clash were real was their drummer being a dope addict

Clash had an album “Sandinista” which supported the commies. Oh well

[astyanax]

That was entertaining. They obviously had talent even back then. And you can definitely recognize his distinctive voice.
I’ve never been a fan, but I guess I can respect their musical talent.
Their knowledge of a free market economy, however... ;o)

[ZirconEncrustedTweezers]

“When push came to shove, Joe Strummer would back down on the political rhetoric. Read Lester Bangs’ lengthy roadtrip interviews with them. Joe wasn’t a debater. And he faked lower class background “roots” for cred.”

Apparently the Clash rather enjoyed the trappings of rock stardom too. Don’t recall if it was Bangs or not, but I remember reading about one writer for Rolling Stone getting dressed down by the Clash for showing up in a taxi to pick them up at the airport.

Still, they were a damn good band. Arguably the best to come out of the early British punk scene.

[Caramelgal]

When push came to shove, Joe Strummer would back down on the political rhetoric. Read Lester Bangs’ lengthy roadtrip interviews with them. Joe wasn’t a debater. And he faked lower class background “roots” for cred.

Ah, Lester Bangs. I used to read Creem and Rolling Stone back in the day (mid to late 70’s). Funny, I just re-watched the movie “Almost Famous” the other day – Lester Bangs is very well portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

I liked the Clash but if you want to talk about punk - The Ramones, IMO where the real deal.

Although he had his own demons and wasn’t exactly a nice guy per se, Johnny Ramone was a Republican who thanked the band's fans and blessed George W. Bush and his presidency at their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – LOL! Joey Ramone, on the other hand was his political and personal polar opposite.

There is a very good documentary about the Ramones – “End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones” that has been running on cable recently. It not only covers and has lots of good footage and interviews with the Ramones, but also documents a lot of history of CBGB’s and bands with punk roots that performed there like Blondie, The Talking Heads and Patti Smith and an interview with Joe Strummer where he credits the Ramones as being a strong influence.

[IYAS9YAS]

Walmart is the world’s largest seller of prerecorded music.

You gotta be careful, though. I bought an 80s CD for my wife for Mom's Day. I knew she liked most of the songs on the list. I had looked at several of the multi-CD packs they were selling for $9.99. Some showed the song and artist, others just showed the songs. I didn't realize it, but the entire 4-cd set of songs I wound up buying was performed by the Countdown Singers. I had my thumb over that little disclaimer when I was looking at it. Good rule to follow, if the song doesn't list the artist who performed it, look elsewhere on the CD for that tidbit of information.

[IYAS9YAS]

Frank Zappa’s kids sure forgot and endorsed him for prezident.

So did Dee Snyder from Twisted Sister.

[mysterio]

I have enough teenage angst left in me that I find Walmart's censorship policy stupid and useless.

I have enough adult in me that I can avoid Walmart if I don't like their stupid, useless policies.

[a fool in paradise]

In a world where Burger King is adverising kids meals with women shaking “square butts” while The King is teaching kids to sing about them, yet I suppose that Green Day might be surprised by a corporate decision to review content.

[AppyPappy]

IIRC American Idiot was in reference to sheeple who get all their information from the TV.

Green Day is one of the better bands out there.

[Wyatt's Torch]

IIRC American Idiot was in reference to sheeple who get all their information from the TV.

Green Day is one of the better bands out there.

Agree.

A snipet from the title track:

Don't want to be an American idiot One nation controlled by the media Information age of hysteria It's going out to idiot America

Welcome to a new kind of tension All across the alien nation Where everything isn't meant to be okay

Television dreams of tomorrow We're not the ones who're meant to follow For that's enough to argue

[PhilDragoo]

Frank Zappa's widow Gail gave Gore's campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars--then asked, "Now can we do something about his dressing like a cop?"

[kickonly88]

‘They just became more lame.’

If Johnny Ramone was alive, would he smack them with his guitar and tell them to deal with it? I would like to think so!