#6 Brain Stew – Green Day

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This tenth track from Green Day’s fourth album, Insomniac, was supposedly written shortly after lead singer Billy Joe Armstrong and his wife had a child. The album name and the lyrics to Brain Stew both reference Armstrong’s trouble sleeping with a newborn in the house…

I'm having trouble trying to sleep
I'm counting sheep but running out
As time ticks by
And still I try
No rest for crosstops in my mind
On my own, here we go

I’m a casual fan of Green Day and would rank this song in their top ten efforts, but I have to admit a recent Fresh Air interview with Armstrong has left me a bit unsettled. The interview was great, and I really have no reason to doubt Armstrong’s punk persona. That said, Green Day’s recent foray onto Broadway seems a bit odd to me. I am all for artistic expression. And I don’t always scoff when a rocker pulls in a symphony orchestra to lay down a few tracks - even if it smacks of excess. I've come to accept that this behavior is simply what successful rock stars eventually do. But punk rock and Broadway musicals are completely at odds with one another in my book.

In Armstrong, we’re talking about a guy who use to get naked on stage so regularly that local law enforcement began waiting to arrest him in town after town if and when he disrobed. Even though their musical and the album it has been adapted from are grounded in the types of political, anti-establishment musings that are at the heart of punk, the production value of a musical alone just seems to run counter to three guys that use to tour the country in a converted bookmobile.

Ps. While listed separately as the tenth and eleventh tracks, Brain Stew was released together with the song Jaded as a single and as part of the same music video. 

PPs. According to the Urban Dictionary, the term “crosstops” from the lyrics above may refer to the “x” in the nipple of a baby bottle or amphetamines. Kind of reminds me of those Chinese characters that can mean everything from butterfly to belligerent solely based on your pronunciation. I suppose both baby bottles and speed can keep you awake...that might be where they split ways.