A Track Trinity || Neurotic Nihilism III.2

Originally written during the Nimrod time period and titled Black Eyeliner, change of phrase and it became the third track on their next and sixth studio album Warning, Church On Sunday was rechristened. 

Catchy as it is, at least in my opinion the demo from the Nimrod era is better than the concluded track; but what it evolved into fit the theme and jive of Warning whereas Black Eyeliner would not— it went from a ballad type entity in the same vein as that of Wilhelm Fink or Brutal love, to the energy found on later songs on the album like Fashion Victim or Waiting. 

“Bloodshot deadbeat and lack of sleep/ Making your bleed tears down your face/ Leaving traces of mistakes…”

Some slight deviations, depending on time and place in the two songs. Respectively it’s the same hook. Where Black Eyeliner’s verse was reworked into Church On Sunday, Kill Your Friends by frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s side project The Longshot took it and rewrote it for the chorus. 

Expressed in an its own new light each iteration is a form of longing. As established on the album, it is more of an optimistic delivery, even, “if you live with me I’ll die for you and this compromise,” however cynically, “‘trust’ is a dirty word that comes from such a liar,” yet even within that so long as there’s a hint of some mutual faith there’s as the closing song of the album Macy’s Day Parade says, a, “sized dream of hope.” Stripped to its demo, the imbued variation of this longing is that of Saudade, a more melancholically melodic nostalgia for something so seemingly in sight— grasp— but ultimately forever beyond the time of day. Kill Your Friends is what would seem to be a similar case within this as Grimes’ song ‘My Name Is Dark’ is:

“Heaven’s making rent

 There’s a vacancy for me and all my friends

 The end of days are on their way

 Who needs eulogies?

 When you’ve got your loved ones 

 And everyone’s depressed

 Party in the morgue tonight

 Everything’s gonna be alright

 And we’ll be singing…”

In other words as stated a few lines later in the lyrics of this (as of currently final) iteration: “Fuck the world, it’s judgement day.” Affirming this confirmation bias with a hint of permeating mortality salience throughout. Long story short, it forms a Trinity within the genus of the sonic endeavors of Billie Joe Armstrong, and encapsulates a different aspect of condition that makes sense to neurotic nihilism for all the aforementioned reasons here.

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This is actually a small bit from a larger, still being written breakdown of Warning, the We Are Chaos of Green Day.