the MARZONYEAH shuffle - "Waiting" by Green Day
MarzonYEAH playlist on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3bmmlB4
CHORD PROGRESSIONS
Key of Ab Major
Verses: Ab - Db - Bbm - Db [I - IV - ii - IV]
Chorus: Fm - C7/E - Eb - Bb [vi - III - V - II]
Bridge: Db - Ab; Eb [IV - I; V]
MY LISTENING EXPERIENCE(S)
12th birthday party + gift. I peaked in 2005.
It was probably the “American Idiot” music video airing on MTV that first exposed me to Green Day back in late 2004. I don’t think I bought the American Idiot album, but ripped the CD to my iTunes so I could listen to it on my iPod Photo(!). From then on, I was obsessed with the soaring power chords and distortion that made little angsty me love rock so much more. This was the first band that made playing rock guitar so much more accessible, and Billie Joe Armstrong and I even shared the same vocal range! I went on to purchase their International Superhits! compilation album to get a taste of the rest of Green Day’s discography before diving deep and buying each of their pre-American Idiot albums. “Waiting” was the standout amongst the rest.
The song had 500+ plays on my iTunes (before switching computers kept metadata like that…) and was the go-to choice for the inevitable “hey Alex, what songs do you know?” question back in middle school. When this song came up on the shuffle, I remembered every single word, chord and solo note, along with memories of lugging my guitar around at Chaparral Middle School, hoping that a cute girl would ask me to play a song for them - “HEY, DOES GREEN DAY WORK FOR YOU?” would have been the answer, though, in retrospect, maybe I should have learned other songs and been more open to pop music! I was a little music-snob!
THE SONG
“Waiting” is a simple, easy-going song that just makes me happy. The verse’s chords are just so powerfully joyful that I had to use it in the chorus of “Lights”! Green Day was never known for using complex chord progressions or instrumentation, as they opted to stick to distorted power chords backed by simple, effective bass lines and drum fills (see the bafflingly simple fill, if you can call it that, at ~0:51 that I would NEVER ALLOW on one of my songs). Again, they’re kind of an entry-level band, in terms of instrumentation.
But overall, the band’s brash and f-you attitude and willingness to talk about mental health when they burst on the scene still sticks with them to this day. This song came out around 7 years after their breakout album, Dookie, and still keeps that original, loud sound. The chorus is the only place in the song really where it dips its toes into the pool of complex chords (my favorite place to swim) with the second chord, the C7/E, which is simplified when played here in power chords (i.e. a chord played with the root+5th+octave notes). Billie Joe gets a little tricky rhythmically during the bridge, though, as he quick changes chords (see specifically at 1:31) and I still can’t figure out the best way to play those that fast.
Definitely playing “Waiting” in this.
Guitar solos were relatively rare for the band, but this was one of the first I heard from Green Day that really stuck out to me (starts at 1:51). It matches the verse vocal melody for a bit, then begins its arpeggiation (essentially - playing each note of a chord) into the chorus. And the chorus section of the solo (1:56) was where I truly fell in love with the song. It’s pretty much just arpeggiated chords, but comes out of nowhere - we’re not used to hearing 2 distinct guitars played at the same time in a Green Day song, sorry if I’m not thinking of another right now; and the range of its notes conjures a nostalgic feeling within me.
After another bridge, the song goes back into chill mode, before blasting out a final verse. (I could never correctly time the re-entrance around 2:37 when playing alone.)
CLOSING THOUGHTS
“Waiting” is a short, sweet and lovely song where Billie Joe sings optimistically, contrary to much of Green Day’s discography. They keep the simplicity in the music, yet it still is so infectious because of that and the melodies. Even though I fell off / grew out of Green Day after high school, this song will always stick with me, especially with how much it stuck with me in my middle school years.
ABOUT THE MARZONYEAH SHUFFLE
It’s crazy how music can trigger memories, old feelings, and dormant, everlasting emotions. I recently (manually, painstakingly) ported over my “MarzonYEAH!” playlist, basically my master playlist made up of songs that I loved over the years and still love, from my local iTunes library to my Spotify account, and shuffling this playlist brought me back to those moments in my life that I discovered them, or memories of listening to them. For this series, I plan to write at least twice a month, chosen by pressing Shuffle on the playlist. Each post would be about my experience with the songs and a little analysis with a cover to accompany the post. I’m not going to talk too much about lyrics, since, weirdly, that isn’t what I listen for in a song. I’m into chord progressions, melodies, basically whatever the musicians are doing that makes me conjure up some sort of emotion. Lyrics don’t always do that at first listen, but I will be sure to talk about it if they do. (You can find lyrical analysis on the Genius pages, so I’ll defer to those.) I’ll try to break down these little features into sections as best I can! I highly encourage you to listen to the song on repeat while reading this!