Michael's Number Ones: "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day

DATE	WEEKS
January 22, 2005	1

The idea of a punk band performing a ballad should be incongruous. It doesn't make sense. Punk is aggressive and confrontational. It's the exact opposite of the feather-light fare you'd hear on an adult contemporary station.

But that never mattered to Green Day. I guess Green Day never truly fit into the label of punk rock, if their excommunication from 924 Gilman is any indication. One of the stereotypes of punk rock I've never understood is that because you're ostensibly on the margins of society, the music you make shouldn't be accessible to the masses. That's bullshit. I mean, who wouldn't have wanted to be the Ramones or The Clash? "Blitzkrieg Bop" has been played at almost every New York Yankees game I've been to. And "London Calling" has been played in so many movies with scenes in London that's it's become a lame cliche.

By the time American Idiot was released in 2004, Green Day already had a cultural touchstone with a ballad. In 1998, prior to the series finale of Seinfeld, Green Day's song "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)" was used in a clip show honoring the sitcom. "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" didn't hit that same nerve in pop culture, and it's not my favorite Green Day song by any stretch. But there's a reason it went on to become their biggest hit by far: it's a really fucking good song.

After the demos for Green Day's tentative album Cigarettes and Valentines were stolen, the band regrouped and decided to start from scratch. Billie Joe Armstrong went to New York City and rented an apartment in the East Village where he would try and write some songs. One of the songs that came out of that time in New York was "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". Armstrong was feeling lonely and isolated during his time in New York, and decided to channel that feeling into his songwriting. That's some real shit there. I've lived in Brooklyn since 2020, and while there's no place I'd rather live, when you don't have many friends within subway distance, it's a daunting feeling. I think I've channeled it regularly into my photography, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't give that feeling up at the drop of a hat.

The title "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is taken from a 1985 painting by Gottfried Heinwein, and it's an homage to Edward Hopper's iconic painting "Nighthawks". The figures in the diner are replaced in Heinwein's painting by James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe, and Elvis Presley, all of whom died far younger than they should have. There's a separate painting Heinwein made a few years earlier of James Dean depicting him walking alone in Times Square that's also called "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". That's where the "I walk a lonely road" lyric comes from.

Armstrong is hammering home his loneliness in this song. "I walk a lonely road/the only one that I have ever known/don't know where it goes/but it's home to me and I walk alone." I've always believed there's a tension to living in New York, a city that is both the global center of capitalism and a magnet for misfits and rebels who don't quite feel accepted in whatever bumfuck town they came from. Even though I grew up in Queens, I lived in Richmond Hill, which is about as close to a suburb as you can find in New York outside of Staten Island. I feel like I relate closer to the misfits than the capitalists.

I guess I should talk about the concept behind American Idiot for a minute. It's essentially a coming of age story for a character named Jesus of Suburbia, who lives in a lower middle class suburb during the 2000s. He leaves for the city where he encounters St. Jimmy, a punk who believes in rebellion, and Whatsername, who becomes Jesus of Suburbia's girlfriend and is motivated by peace and ethics.

In "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", Jesus of Suburbia is facing the reality of living in the city and the hedonism he experienced when he first arrived. He realizes that even though this place is what he's always wanted from a home, he's still walking down that line that divides him somewhere in his mind. He wants someone to read between the lines of what's fucked up and everything's alright. And he realizes that people in the city can't see that any better than people in his hometown.

I was living in Bremerton, Washington when I first heard "Boulevard". The lyrics certainly felt profound to me, even at 18. At the time, I lost contact with all my friends from Queens, as well as my friends from high school. I knew no one outside of my stepmother's family. This song connected with me deeper than I probably realized.

Intentionally or not, Green Day used the same chord progression that Oasis used in their signature 1995 hit "Wonderwall". As far as I'm concerned, "Wonderwall" is one of the greatest songs ever written. It's a song about finding someone to save you from yourself, and fits nicely within the themes "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" deals with. But once Noel Gallagher heard the song, he was pissed off, being quoted as saying, "they should have the decency to wait until I am dead [before stealing my songs]".

The instruments in "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" feel restrained, as if there's a tension beneath the surface that is being repressed in the harsh light of morning. It gets released in the chorus, but it still feels out of place. Jesus of Suburbia realizes his new surroundings still can't let him be himself, and he doesn't know where to turn to.

"Boulevard of Broken Dreams" easily stood out to Green Day fans when it was released in 2004. On my chart, it snuck it for a week at #1 before The Killers' "Mr. Brightside" came back for the second half of its monster run at the top. It spent 34 weeks on my top 40, which would have been the most for a Green Day song until another American Idiot track blew it out of the water. We'll get to that one soon enough.

Nationally, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" easily became Green Day's biggest hit. It spent 16 weeks at #1 on the alternative chart, twice as much as any other #1 song Green Day have had before or since. It became their only #1 on the Pop Airplay chart, and got as high as #2 on the Hot 100. For better or worse, it's fair to say it's Green Day's signature song.

Many artists would've had serious trouble following up a song like "Boulevard of Broken Dreams", but American Idiot was speaking to something in the national psyche. They weren't going to fade away easily after releasing their biggest hit. And I certainly wasn't getting tired of them. We'll see Green Day back here very soon.

EXTRAS

Remember how I said that "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" used the same chord progression as "Wonderwall"? Well, Los Angeles DJ and producer Ben Gill, who goes by Party Ben, noticed this and created a mashup of the two songs called "Boulevard of Broken Songs" that got some radio play around the same time as "Boulevard of Broken Dreams". Here it is.

("Boulevard of Broken Songs" peaked at #29 on my chart. Eminem's "Sing for the Moment", which is also incorporated into the mashup, peaked at #19.)

Here's the scene from a 2009 episode of The Office where Rainn Wilson and Ed Helms sing "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" during a Christmas party.

Here's the cover Welsh pop-punk band Neck Deep contributed to a Kerrang! magazine tribute album to American Idiot.

And here's the cover English singer-songwriter Myles Smith performed earlier this year for the BBC.