The Green Day Demo Tracks From "Dookie" Might Be The Best Thing You've Heard All Month
Stereogum - Somehow, in a development that defies reason, Green Day’s brilliant, juvenile pop-punk blockbuster Dookie will reach its 30th anniversary early next year. The band is celebrating the way formerly young rock stars often do: with a box set.
Out at the end of September, the 6xLP, 4xCD Dookie deluxe will include two distinct collections of demos, 4-Track Demos and Cassette Demos. You also get an EP’s worth of outtakes and full live recordings of two shows, the band’s Woodstock ’94 set and a previously unreleased Barcelona concert recording from June 5, 1994. UPDATE: And you get liner notes by the great Bob Mehr.
Today they’ve graced us with the full 10-song 4-Track Demos disc, in case you’re wondering what Dookie would sound like if it was an actual punk record. (I’m just playing, Billie Joe!) The “Basket Case” lyrics were quite different. Listen below and check out the tracklist, which acknowledges the existence of secret track “All By Myself,” for shame.
I never in a million years thought Dookie could possibly sound any better. It was the first CD I bought with my own money as a kid that I had to hide from my mom because I knew if she saw the cover, or heard the swear words on some of the songs, she would snap it in two. Green Day was so fucking badass back then they were an hourly fixture on MTV. No joke you couldn't go an hour without seeing them plugged on MTV, either in a video, in an interview, with Kurt Loder talking about them on MTV news cut-ins, or a commercial for their wildly successful album. And for good reason, this album was a monster. Everybody owned it. Every disc-man had it in it. Every 6-cd-changer Emerson cd deck had it loaded in it. There were like 5 or 6 singles off it playing on the radio. And that had music videos shot for it. They milked this bitch dry.
Or so we thought.
Leave it to Billy Joe and the boys to be sitting on this goldmine for 30 years and squelch every rumor during that time that it existed.
Last week the 30th anniversary of Dookie occurred and they graced us with this blessing- the demo track recordings from 31 years ago.
Listen to that "Basket Case" demo and tell me that's not wild.
These are all completely different songs.
I mean, seriously, listen to those. And look at what's dropping in September.
If you're a die-hard Green Day fan this is like Christmas times ten.
TRACKLIST:
Vinyl Box (6 LPs):
LP 1: Dookie
LP 2: Dookie Demos
LP 3: Dookie Outtakes
LP 4: Live At Woodstock (1994)
LP 5 & 6: Live In Barcelona (June 5 ’94)
CD Box (4 CDs):
CD 1: Dookie
CD 2: Dookie Demos & Outtakes
CD 3: Live At Woodstock (1994)
CD 4: Live In Barcelona (June 5 ’94)
Dookie:
01 “Burnout”
02 “Having A Blast”
03 “Chump”
04 “Longview”
05 “Welcome To Paradise”
06 “Pulling Teeth”
07 “Basket Case”
08 “She”
09 “Sassafras Roots”
10 “When I Come Around”
11 “Coming Clean”
12 “Emenius Sleepus”
13 “In The End”
14 “F.O.D.”
15 “All By Myself”
Dookie 4-Track Demos:
01 “Burnout”
02 “Chump”
03 “Pulling Teeth”
04 “Basket Case”
05 “She”
06 “Sassafras Roots”
07 “When I Come Around”
08 “In The End”
09 “F.O.D.”
10 “When It’s Time”
Dookie Cassette Demos:
01 “When I Come Around”
02 “Basket Case”
03 “Longview”
04 “Burn Out”
05 “Haushinka”
06 “J.A.R.”
07 “Having A Blast”
Dookie Outtakes:
01 “Christie Rd.”
02 “409 In Your Coffeemaker”
03 “J.A.R.”
04 “On The Wagon”
05 “Tired Of Waiting For You”
06 “Walking The Dog (demo)”
Live At Woodstock (1994):
01 “Welcome to Paradise (live)”
02 “One Of My Lies (live)”
03 “Chump (live)”
04 “Longview (live)”
05 “Basket Case (live)”
06 “When I Come Around (live)”
07 “Burnout (live)”
08 “F.O.D. (live)”
09 “Paper Lanterns (live)”
10 “Shit Show (live)”
Live In Barcelona (June 5 ’94)
01 “Welcome to Paradise (live)”
02 “One of My Lies (live)”
03 “Chump (live)”
04 “Longview (live)”
05 “Burnout (live)”
06 “Only Of You (live)”
07 “When I Come Around (live)”
08 “2000 Light Years Away (live)”
09 “Going To Pasalacqua (live)”
10 “Knowledge (live)”
11 “Basket Case (live)”
12 “Paper Lanterns (live)”
13 “Road To Acceptance”
14 “Dominated Love Slave (live)”
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15 “F.O.D. (live)”
16 “Christie Rd. (live)”
17 “Disappearing Boy (live)”
Dookie 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition is out 9/29 on Reprise.
p.s.- not sure if everybody's seen this, but over the covid lock down, when Weezer's Rivers Cuomo played "Good Riddance" in his living room was an amazing cover. we talked about this all on Backstage this morning -