GreenDay - Wake Me Up When September Ends [associated video - 21 Guns]

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InfiniteSky49
June 19, 2009

Wake Me Up When September Ends" is the fourth single from Green Day's seventh studio album, American Idiot. Released on June 13, 2005, the single peaked at number six in the United States, becoming Green Day's second Top 10 single. It also peaked at number eight in Canada and the UK, while making number thirteen in Australia. The song is well known for its music video, which paints an intimate portrait of a wartime situation.

There once was much debate about what the song was about, one of the most common initial beliefs being that it is about the events of 9/11. In the liner notes, the song is dated September 10, and it is track 11 on the album. However, Billie Joe Armstrong has confirmed to the public that the song was written as a memorial anthem about his father, a jazz musician and minor league baseball catcher, who died of esophageal cancer when Armstrong was only ten years old.

In this ballad, Armstrong revisits his painful childhood and thinks about the day he lost his innocence when his father died. Like many faced with such a traumatic event, he never truly recovered, and he can't believe that twenty years have passed since that September day. As Armstrong associates pain with the month September, he would rather not deal with anything related to the month, prompting him to sing, As my memory rests/but never forgets what I lost/Wake me up when September ends

Music video

The video clip of the song features the story of a teenage couple, played by Jamie Bell and Evan Rachel Wood.

The video strays from the original meaning of the song and instead focuses on the teenage couple as the boyfriend promises never to leave his girlfriend. Later in a lengthy sequence, the girlfriend confronts him about something he did (open-ended), repeatedly yelling, "How could you do this to me?" Although the audience's initial assumption may be that he was unfaithful, subsequent scenes reveal that he in fact enlisted in the United States Marine Corps without her knowledge. The video then shows the boyfriend in battle in Iraq being ambushed by insurgents. The war scene cuts out with the boyfriend taking cover after being separated from his squad in the ambush. It cuts back to the girlfriend again, where she is crying. Since the war scene suddenly cuts out, the viewer is left to think about what might have happened. This video adds to the American Idiot anti-war sentiment of the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Like the rest of the videos from the album American Idiot, Samuel Bayer was the director. The video features Green Day's support guitarist, Jason White.

The song eventually became a tribute song to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and sound bytes were added from various news coverages to the song. A live version of the song, recorded on September 3, 2005, at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts was released soon after and dedicated to the hurricane's victims.

This is the second time Jason White has appeared in a Green Day video, first appearing in "When I Come Around", ten years earlier.

The video debuted first in the United Kingdom, and in the United States several weeks later, during which time it was speculated that the heavily anti-war video would not be allowed to air at all in the U.S.
- Wikipedia

LYRICS:

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when September ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends

summer has come and passed
the innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

ring out the bells again
like we did when spring began
wake me up when September ends

here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched in my pain again
becoming who we are

as my memory rests
but never forgets what I lost
wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when September ends

like my fathers come to pass
twenty years has gone so fast
wake me up when September ends
wake me up when September ends
wake me up when September ends

Category: Music

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falisha723 (1 hour ago) Show Hide

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So sad but u r so cute

1starz4ever6 (3 hours ago) Show Hide

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you rock!!!!! =[

kovuthelionking (3 hours ago)

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sakurafever6 (5 hours ago) Show Hide

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This is such a sad and beautiful song..

KIRBYGUY1 (5 hours ago) Show Hide

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This song always turns me on.

rammsteinnut47 (5 hours ago) Show Hide

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a good song with an even better video, a salute to the boys over seas.

JamesBlonde91 (6 hours ago) Show Hide

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they must be my neighbors. i live in pennsylvania and thats excactly what PA looks like with the mountians and all.

fanoframs81 (6 hours ago) Show Hide

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Best music video ever, and best song ever

claireandsamanthabby (6 hours ago) Show Hide

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wow, this has to be the best & most depressing thing ever. Like the last part when she is on the bleachers gave me goose bumps.

Diaasa (7 hours ago)

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GreenDay - Wake Me Up When September Ends [associated video - 21 Guns]

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