Right in the middle of the Reflecting Pool, we jump in the wayback machine to cast a glance at the earliest GD had to offer.
Green Day – 1039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours – 1990 (iTunes – Amazon)
So this is early Green Day. Before Tre Cool. When John Kiffmeyer (who wrote the terrific Husker Du-ish “I Was There”) was the drummer.
The first thing you notice, after 7 Green Day albums from Dookie to Foxboro HotTubs, is that, well, these guys were really a great band from the start.
It’s weird to think of this as an 18 year old record. It predates, barely, Nevermind. But, no one was writing about the boys from Berkeley. Who have been a band for 20 years!
A lot of the tracks could be rewritten, rearranged and sound like they fell off Dookie. But let’s not forget what this is: This is a small band, barely in their 20s, trying to kick down doors with a calling card. This is a first record. An amateur outing and it’s much better than a lot of the crap you pick up at small gigs for bands just starting out.
The first 10 tracks are the album 39/Smooth. It’s a stronger attempt at relevance than I have heard on many other small punk bands’ albums of the time. And when I was reviewing for Home Theater I was deluged by tons of bands like Kiss the Clown, et al. Nothing was as strong as this. The “ballad”, Rest, with it’s multi-tracked harmonies, notwithstanding. I see what they were trying, but it doesn’t really work. It would, with a better producer. That much is obvious.
The next four tracks are from the Slappy EP. From 1990. wow. Really.
Paper Lanterns features some of the strongest vocals from Bille Joe so far. He isn’t just a feature of a punk band. He’s carrying the melody and he’s secure with it. “Why Do You Want Him” is actually the first song Armstrong wrote, when he was 14. It sounds like a boy was listening to a LOT of Husker Du. But, that’s fine, I mean, he’s fucking 14, right? In 86 punks SHOULD have been listening to a lot of Du. Candy Apple Grey, Zen Arcade, Warehouse around the corner….maybe that should be a Reflecting Pool…..I digress.
According to the Wiki, the song is written about his stepfather. Putting into motion the father issues that would pervade much of Billie Joe’s work (moms and Brads are away….). The Operation Ivy cover, “Knowledge” feels a little out of place. It would probably fit better years later on Warning.
The bottom four tracks in this set are from the ep “1000 Hours” recorded 20 years ago. Good for them. They were on to something and didn’t give up. In fact, I prefer the production on this ep to the rest of the album. I can hear the band moving into their own and they’ve only just begun. Dry Ice is much better than it deserves to be. And while, “Only of You” may be by the numbers, it features a guitar solo, that, if it is Billie Joe, makes me wish he had done more
What’s crazy is how prominent the drum fills are, I thought that was an obsession brought in with Tre Cool. I was mistaken. It has been an integral part of the Green Day since the beginning.
Grade B+ (I’m always a little forgiving with debuts. But when the players are 16 and this good, yeah, they deserve it)
A Side: I Was There, At the Library, Paper Lanterns, 1000 Hours
BlindSide: Road to Acceptance, Dry Ice
DownSide: Green Day (A pot song that is superfluous at best. But it did give them that name….), Rest, Knowledge
