Wake Me Up When September Ends

=Wake Me Up When September Ends=

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to: navigation, search{| class="metadata plainlinks ambox ambox-content" "Wake Me Up When September Ends" is a song by American rock band Green Day. It was released as the fourth single from their seventh album, American Idiot. 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. "Wake Me Up When September Ends" had sold 1,652,000 copies as of May 2010, and was the second highest selling single in the U.S. from American Idiot, behind only the multi-platinum "Boulevard of Broken Dreams".[1] {| class="toc" id="toc"
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Contents
[hide]*1 Meaning
 * 2 Music video
 * 3 Track listing
 * 4 Chart positions
 * 5 References
 * }

[edit] Meaning
There was once much debate regarding the meaning of this song, one of the most common initial beliefs being that it was 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 clarified that the song was written as a memorial to his father, a jazz musician and truck driver, who died of esophageal cancer September 10, 1982 when Armstrong was only 10 years old.[2] [dead link] In the live DVD Bullet in a Bible, Billie Joe started crying during the performance of the song. Billie stated, "I tried to fight it, but singing that song on stage and having 60,000 people singing it right back at you, it was just too overwhelming."[citation needed]

[edit] Music video
Like the majority of the videos from the album American Idiot, Samuel Bayer was the director. The video features Green Day's support guitarist, Jason White. This is the second time Jason White has appeared in a Green Day video, first appearing in "When I Come Around", ten years earlier but not as a band member.

The video focuses on a very loving teenage couple (played by Jamie Bell and Evan Rachel Wood) as the boyfriend promises never to leave his girlfriend. Later, they argue when the boyfriend enlists in the United States Marine Corps. The boyfriend interprets his actions as a way to show her that he loves her so much that he would put his life on the line to keep her safe; the girlfriend, however, is heartbroken, as he broke his vow to never leave her, and terrified at the thought of him being killed in war. The video then shows the boyfriend in battle in Iraq being ambushed by insurgents. This scene is intercut with scenes of the girlfriend tearfully mourning in a quiet field. The video ends on this juxtaposition, emphasizing the pain and heartache of losing loved ones due to the war.

This video adds to the American Idiot anti-war sentiment of the U.S. occupation of Iraq. 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 Foxborough, Massachusetts was released soon after and dedicated to the hurricane's victims. The song was performed live with U2 guitarist The Edge in the pregame show of the Monday Night Football game between the New Orleans Saints and the Atlanta Falcons; it was the first game played in the Superdome in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina.

[edit] Track listing
7" picture disc