Longview (3:58)

“Longview” is the first major-label single released by punkrock band Green Day, from their hit 1994 album, Dookie. The song was the band’s first #1 on the Modern Rock chart, in a career that contained many chart-toppers on this chart. The music video for this song received intense airplay on MTV, which is largely credited for breaking Green Day into mainstream popularity. The lyrics describe intense boredom and are about a day spent sitting around the house, doing absolutely nothing of importance, masturbating until it is no longer fun, having no job, and no life. The song captured the attention of many youth at the time with its overt allusions to masturbation. Bassist Mike Dirnt has stated that the famous bass line intro to this song was written one night while he was high on acid, and what remains on the album is what he and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong could recall in the morning.

Concept

“It’s about boredom, masturbation and smoking dope.” - Billie Joe Armstrong

“I guess it was just living in the suburbs in a sort of shit town where you can’t even pull in a good radio station. I was living in Rodeo, California, about 20 minutes outside of Oakland. There was nothing to do there, and it was a real boring place.” - Billie Joe Armstrong in an interview in Guitar Legends magazine, May 2005.