The first verse of the song describes the neglected veterans retuning home for war6. It's well known that, although US spends nearly half of it's budget on military, little care is given for veterans.
"Faith and Misery"9 of the second verse refers to the fact George Bush was a bible thumper - he's christian but not christian-like. Even to this day, the Republican party of the US likes to comes across as religious to pander to the church goers, and get votes, but are completely neglecting the fact that Jesus would've opposed blindly invading countries. I'm not 100% sure of my explanation here, so correct me if you think I'm wrong.
In the chorus, Green Day is urging Americans to not buy into the lies of politicians and media12. It's also well known that the Bush Administration lied to the whole world on justifying the need to invade Iraq. The song was released in 2004, a year later the invasion, and at the time, many believed in the actions of the Bush Administration, only to later find out that they were lied to.
Analysis of few other lines:
"The representative from California has the floor"31- Green Day is from California, so this reference is understandable. "The representative" refers to the body of the US Congress, who has power to declare and cease wars.
"Sieg Heil to the president Gasman"33 - reference to Nazi salute and Hitler. Green Day is comparing the Bush Administration to the Nazis. Fair comparison? I dunno....
"Bombs away is your punishment"34- refers to bombing people "you" ( meaning Bush ) don't agree with. What's so true of this statement is that John McCain was asked in 2008 about his plans for Iran, and he said, "bomb, bomb, bomb."
Green Day released a video to promote the song. I don't really understand the content of it. Th color green is prominent in the video; maybe a reference to Green Day... Am I the only one who think that nobody has mastered the art of music videos just yet, maybe with the except of Micheal Jackson?
- Say, hey!
- Hear the sound of the falling rain
- Coming down like an Armageddon flame (Hey!)
- The shame
- The ones who died without a name
- Hear the dogs howling out of key
- To a hymn called "Faith and Misery" (Hey!)
- And bleed, the company lost the war today
- I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
- This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
- On holiday
- Hear the drum pounding out of time
- Another protester has crossed the line (Hey!)
- To find, the money's on the other side
- Can I get another Amen? (Amen!)
- There's a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!)
- A gag, a plastic bag on a monument
- I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
- This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
- On holiday
- (Hey!)
- (Say, hey!)
- "The representative from California has the floor"
- Sieg Heil to the president Gasman
- Bombs away is your punishment
- Pulverize the Eiffel towers
- Who criticize your government
- Bang bang goes the broken glass and
- Kill all the fags that don't agree
- Trials by fire, setting fire
- Is not a way that's meant for me
- Just cause (hey, hey, hey), just cause, because we're outlaws yeah!
- I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
- This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
- I beg to dream and differ from the hollow lies
- This is the dawning of the rest of our lives
- This is our lives on holiday
Good analysis, with a couple of comments:
ReplyDelete1) I think you're reading a bit too much into the second verse. It seems fairly straightforward -- blind faith in corporatism and nationalism leads to warfare and bloodshed, for no gain.
2) The title of the song and its integration in the chorus merits some analysis. We can't be sure why GD called this song "Holiday" and used that refrain which seems to be upbeat, but we can guess that it's meant to be ironic for one reason or another. I have two possible interpretations. First, it could build on the theme you propose about the GWB administration and how they urged people to go on with their lives, and carried on their war while the people at home remained largely disconnected from it and unaffected by it, except if they personally knew someone who was deployed. Another explanation is that with all the deceit and plutocracy dominating all corners of the power base, the little guy is left with nothing meaningful to do, and perhaps out of work entirely ... on permanent holiday, either literally or figuratively. This seems to reflect GD's general attitude and so strikes me as the more likely explanation. I've seen another analysis that suggests it implies the end of the world entirely ... that we'll all be on permanent holiday in that great resort in the sky if this continues. For all we know, GD means all three or none of these, but it's interesting to speculate. It's a great protest song for the Millennials and Gen X.
I agree with your first idea...that while we are in war, with our men and women in service, it's as if they are far away and forgotten. We are on a holiday of sorts, not really thinking of them.
DeleteHow many if us even realize there are still soldiers in Korea and Vietnam? We are on holiday, not even thinking of them.
I realize this is an old post, but I woke up this morning with "Holiday" in my mind, and it made me cry to think of the state our nation is in.
"Bang, bang" goes the broken glass and
ReplyDeleteKill all the fags that don't agree
Trials by fire, setting fire
Is not a way that's meant for me
What does this mean though? Like are they saying no to burning fags? I'm confused.
Hitler and the Nazis killed homosexuals or deported them. BJA is comparing their treatment to the treatment of homosexuals by the Bush administration, and more broadly, the GOP and the conservative political movement. And he's drawing a connection between that and the people who were shunned and shushed for speaking out against the wars in the early 2000's.
ReplyDelete"The representative from California has the floor" seems to be more of a reference to Arnold Schwarzenegger who was Governor at the time.
ReplyDelete"Sieg Heil to the president Gasman" - Is a Hitler reference but also references that the Bush family are in the oil business.
"There's a flag wrapped around a score of men (Hey!) A gag, a plastic bag on a monument" - This was actually things that happened during protests in DC in the early 2000's over the war. I can't remember which monument it was specifically anymore, I remember pictures of it, I think it was Jefferson, but I could be wrong. There are many monuments in DC.
"Another protester has crossed the line (Hey!)To find, the money's on the other side"- Not a 100% but I believe this was about how actors or groups, like the Dixie Chicks would come out against the war and be pretty much instantly cancelled, which was pretty messed up then and now.
"Pulverize the Eiffel towers/ Who criticize your government" -I'm sure we all know that this is a reference to France's criticism of the war and how Americans reacted by basically attempting to cancel France. Remember "Freedom Fries"? I think we all do. And if you don't know what I'm talking about you HAVE to look it up.
"Bombs away is your punishment" - Because Iraq wasn't complying, we bombed them.
"Bang, bang" goes the broken glass and/ Kill all the fags that don't agree/ Trials by fire, setting fire/ Is not a way that's meant for me" - Kristalnacht reference. Fag was a popular insult then to try to denigrate people. It was really, really awful. It wasn't as commonly used in the 90's but had a huge pick-up in the 2000's young Millennial crowd and just took over. The second lines have more to do with the fact that we were basically doing trials by fire for Iraq, for people in general, rather than really trying to do things in a just way and either the singer is saying they don't support that or the Representative is saying they won't be the person who will be tried by fire even though they will totally do it to others.
Lastly "Just cause" is extremely similar to "Just cause" )pronounced like someone has a cause they believe in) which was Bush's justification for the Iraq War, that it was a Just Cause.
If you were old enough at the time this song was loaded with references to what was happening around the Iraq War. I give them lots of credit for it.
For those not in the know, I recommend doing some research from that time period, its actually pretty scary and you can see how things evolved into some of the stuff happening today.
Thanks for this, i am writing an essay for my english exam on holiday, and love that analysis :)
Deletei wish i can upvote this one
Delete