Song of the Week: "Walking Contradiction"

This week's Song of the Week is the exceedingly clever Walking Contradiction, in celebration of the 16th birthday of Green Day's second major-label release, Insomniac. Walking Contradiction was the 4th single released off Insomniac, and reached number 21 on the Billboard Modern Rock and the Billboard Alternative Songs charts in 1996, and its music video was even nominated for the 'Best Music Video, Short Form' Grammy Award in 1997.

The thing I love most about this song is Billie's word-play in the lyrics - the way that one line will (not very surprisingly) contradict another - it's all rather clever. The lyrics also seem to be semi-autobiographical; there's certain lines in the song that, if you read them a certain way, seem to point reference to Green Day's success ("my wallet's fat and so is my head", "losers winning big on the lottery") and the controversy surrounding their signing to a major label ("the shit's so deep you can't run away", "constant refutation with myself, I'm a victim of a catch 22"). It seems that Billie's saying that he's the contradiction - making it big in the mainstream music world while still identifying with the strictly DIY, not-for-profit underground punk scene - it's like he doesn't belong in either world, hence he "aint got no right(s)".

This week's video is a live performance of Walking Contradiction from The Late Show with David Letterman filmed in 1996. It's a great performance, but the highlight has to be Billie's face at 0:57. Enjoy!


(video credit: x86Jadedx )