The Story behind American Idiot: (Source: http://qwats.tripod.com/id4.html) (There's also a really good article about the album on Wikipedia.)
American Idiot was written to tell a story (a "punk rock opera"). The title of the album in itself, and it's art, explains of what's to come. There's much confusion to actually what this album and all of its songs mean, and it's questioned to what it could mean. I'm following, basically, with my own outlook, and from information from the band.
DEFINITIONS IN THE STORY:
J./JOS/the Idiot of America: The Jesus of Suburbia
Tunny: Random person met on the street who Jimmy befriends
The Underbelly: JOS/Jimmy's group of friends
Mom and Brad: JOS' parents. The way that JOS refers to his father as Brad, could mean that is father is gone and Brad is a stepfather, which would explain why he's calling him by name.
AMERICAN IDIOT
The title track of the album. Basically, there's a confused, disoriented, angsty kid wrapped around a world of misconception and he has nowhere to go and feels hopeless and miserable. So this kid, the Jesus of Suburbia, is just crying out an anthem for the world to hear, screaming miserably "Don't wanna be an American Idiot..." He sees that he's stuck in this 'redneck agenda' and there's not a damn thing he can do to change it.
JESUS OF SUBURBIA (CITY OF THE DAMNED, I DON'T CARE, DEARLY BELOVED, TALES OF ANOTHER BROKEN HOME)
Everyone on the album has their own track. Jesus of Suburbia basically introduces us to the Jesus of Suburbia, how he was brought up in rage, and love, his atmosphere, friends, and basic general information. Part I, JOS, is just an introduction. "I'm the son of rage and love, the Jesus of Suburbia..."...Part II, City of The Damned, is just a crying out for help, hating his town, his city, and his overall miserable life that he lives. Part III, I Don't Care, is properly named and is about just that. JOS' apathetic screams of pain and how he just doesn't fucking care about anything anymore. Part IV, Dearly Beloved, is JOS asking if what he's feeling is natural, how he can get out, and if anyone can understand...Tales Of Another Broken Home, Part V, is basically the end of the anthem. JOS is fed up, fucked up, and just decides to quit town and quit the life that he's living. "I don't feel any shame, I won't apologize. When there ain't NOWHERE you can go. RUNNING AWAY from pain, when you feel victimized, tales from another broken home"...and he just leaves.
HOLIDAY
So JOS has just left town and he's living his life on the streets (Hear the sound of the falling rain...). He's speaking outloud and acting in vein , but it seems like he's talking himself into the fact that running away was the right thing to do. Explaining his reasons of discontent to himself. He still feels alone, and shunned from society, but it seems he feels a little more self-confidence, and happiness out on the road. It is also remotely political with the whole "Zeig heil..." thing, but it's basically just JOS yelling out and expressing his own dead beliefs onto the world. Like screaming into mid air. Also, to go 'on holiday' is said to be like, a vacation. So this is basically like an escape, a runaway. This leads us into Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
JOS is out alone, on the cold streets, nothing to do, nowhere to go. The happiness has worn off and he walks alone. Everyone's asleep, no one can hear him, no one cares, and he just walks...
ARE WE THE WAITING?
Still, alone, living it rough. JOS plays tricks in his mind, and you can see his slowly losing his sanity. He even starts to not believe who he is anymore. He's not the king of his local 711 out on the streets, where no one knows who he is...he's not the Jesus of Suburbia anymore. He's just...there.
Now is where the controversy starts. The album picks up into an angry, purely amazing, anthem about the ever-so-lovely St. Jimmy. Now, people have said, and this sounds pretty true, that the JOS is just pushed over the edge, turned into this new fuck you punkfuck named St. Jimmy. Basically, pushed off of the deep end into schizophrenia. Green Day, actually has stated, that JOS meets this kid, St. Jimmy, on the street somewhere, but that's questionable. I'll leave the interpretation up to you.
ST. JIMMY
Fast, upbeat, so effing hardcore. St. Jimmy...the patron saint of the denial. Tough, rough, not afraid to kill. The run of the mill punkkid times 70. The hardest, baddest mother fucker around. He's lived his life on the streets, knows all, sees all. Lies, and pretty cocky to boot. He can actually be seen as a foil to JOS, who's totally innocent and callow going into this thing.
GIVE ME NOVACAINE
JOS meets Jimmy and becomes close with him. They do drugs together, hang around together and JOS depends on Jimmy to keep him sane, without knowing anyone else. Give Me Novacaine is basically his experimentation with drugs, and how Jimmy introduces him to drugs to ease the pain of everyday life.
SHE'S A REBEL
While on the streets, Jimmy and JOS meet a rebel girl named Whatsername. As described in She's A Rebel, she's holding on JOS' heart like a hand grenade. For JOS, it's love at first sight. It's a basic introduction to the girl, and a new twist in JOS' heart strings. New feelings, new mindset, new atmosphere.
EXTRAORDINARY GIRL
Again, about Whatsername. JOS' feelings for her, what he thinks of her, etc...
LETTERBOMB
After getting close with Whatsername, there is an eventual breakup. The beginning "Nobody likes you, everyone left you..."...is Whatsername taunting JOS, and writing him a goodbye letter. She explains that JOS doesn't care enough, and that he isn't who he thinks he is. "You're not the Jesus of Suburbia. The St. Jimmy is a figment of, your father's rage and your mother's love, that's made the idiot america"...she's explaining that JOS has turned into what he's always hated and she leaves him. "Well she said I can't take this place, I'm leaving you behind. She said I can't take this town I'm leaving you tonight..."
WAKE ME UP WHEN SEPTEMBER ENDS
JOS is alone again. Lost his friends, the only girl he ever loved, he's out of home, out of job, and back where he started, sad and alone on the streets. He describes himself as innocent, or at least he was, and he just didn't last. They broke him down, and he's just dead inside. This is also, on a more personal note, a side song about Billie Joe's late father, who died years ago (September 1982), when Billie Joe was 10. Both explanations apply.
HOMECOMING (THE DEATH OF ST. JIMMY, EAST 12TH ST., NOBODY LIKES YOU, ROCK 'N' ROLL GIRLFRIEND)
JOS has nothing left to do. He's been on the streets. He stands alone again. So where else to go? Home. Part I, the Death of St. Jimmy. He's leaving the streets, he's going back, he's leaving Jimmy behind. He realizes that turning away wasn't the answer, and he's gained nothing from it except knowledge that life is no better in a different atmosphere. He hoped for too much, and got nothing in return. St. Jimmy kills himself, in a sense, in JOS' mind he's gone. Still, there's no one who cares, and nobody cares. Part II, East 12th St, tells us that JOS met and accepted conformity, got a job, and is just in his own world as people move around him. He'd rather be out and around with 'the underbelly', his friends. He feels trapped. Alone, and again, must get away. "This lifelike dream ain't for me"...Part III, Nobody Likes You. He's still depressed about losing Whatsername, as he waits for her to return, but no luck. All of his dreams at this point are shot to hell, as her voice still pounds in his head "NOBODY LIKES YOU, EVERYONE LEFT YOU..." Part IV, Rock 'N Roll Girlfriend, in the inlay, is shown as a postcard from "Tunny"...who seems to be another person JOS met while on the streets. Tunny explains that he's living it up where he is, and the rebel life he leads, while JOS is rotting with his dead end job, in his dead end life. Part V, We're Coming Home Again, is JOS accepting things. He's coming to the realization of everything and everyone, and is just accepting it. He comes home. It's left on a confusing note. He's not sure if he's happy or sad, he's just home, living, and he just...is.
WHATSERNAME
After being home, and just living in normality, he still regrets losing Whatsername. It's been so long, he can't even remember her name. He wonders what happened to her, and can only remember. All he has is his memories of her. The album ends with him still trying to forget "If my memory serves me right, I'll never turn back time, forgetting you, but not the time."...He doesn't regret living his life on the streets, using it as a learning experience, but still tries to forget Whatsername, and the pain that she put him through, and vice versa.
