Welcome to Paradise (3:43)

“Welcome to Paradise” is a song from Green Day’s 1992 album Kerplunk and was re-recorded for their 1994 album Dookie. It went on to be released as the second single released from Dookie, after “Longview”. The Dookie version was later included on their 2001 greatest hits album International Superhits!. The song is based on the band’s experience moving out of their parents’ houses and into an abandoned house in Oakland, CA where the band members, along with several others, lived without paying rent. The house was quite broken-down but to them it became home, and this sentiment is described in the song.

Billie Joe Armstrong said this of the song:
“ 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 where you can play basketball and stuff. ”

The opening riff of the song is reminiscent of the Ramones’ “Blitzkrieg Bop”, if one were to take the same chords but play the progression backwards using the same rhythm. The song is played with the guitar tuned a half-step down, as are all their Dookie songs.

A live version of the song can be found on the Foot in Mouth EP and the Live Tracks EP. The song is also featured in the movie Surf’s Up.


Tracklist

1. “Welcome to Paradise” - 3:45
2. “Chump (live)” - 2:44
3. “Emenius Sleepus” - 1:44

* (Track 2 recorded March 11, 1994 at Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, Florida)


Released - October 1994