"Longview" was Green Day's debut single and it hit #1 on the U.S. Alternative Songs chart and #13 on the Mainstream Rock chart. It even received four Grammy Award Nominations in 1995.
It's a song about being bored, lonely and a loser. Lead singer, Billie Joe Armstrong, told VH1 in an interview, "I was just in a creative rut. I was in-between houses sleeping on people's couches. It's a song about trying not to feel pathetic and lonely. I didn't think that masturbation was really seen from the point of view that I was looking at it. In songs like '
Turning Japanese
' it always seemed more about people pulling a pud or something. I was coming from a lonely guy's perspective: No girlfriend, no life, complete loser."
The lyric describes masturbation as a way to escape expectation and everyday life.
Bassist Mike Dirnt came up with the bassline while on an acid trip, what was actually recorded is the closest thing he could remember.
Green Day "Longview" 1994
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