Green Day, “Coming Clean” | LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶

In the 32^nd edition of LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 (2022), we highlight the song, “Coming Clean” performed by Green Day.

BBring on the B-O-P-Z, like #SLAYYY! LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 is a column t that embraces, highlights, and celebrates singles and tracks by LGBTQIA musicians.  On LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶we provide background info and insight into the respective musician(s), as well as analyze + go gaga over the bops being served up.  Furthermore, when the music dictates deeper, more transcendent discussion, we ensure the point is articulated to the fullest.  All styles of music are welcome and the BOPZ can be classics or brand-spanking new. So, without further ado, in the 32^nd edition of LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 (2022), we highlight 🎵 “Coming Clean” performed by 🎙 Green Day.

Theme & Lyrics ✍

“I’ve found out what it takes to be a man,” 🎙 Billie Joe Armstrong sings in the chorus of 🎵 “Coming Clean”, a short but meaningful gem from 💿 Dookie.  Dookie, of course, is the major label debut studio album by eventual, 🏆 Grammy-winning rock band, 🎙 Green Day (their third project overall).  On the song at hand, Armstrong reflects on coming out – he is bisexual.  The brief chorus continues, “Well, Mom and Dad’ll never understand.” That’s so often true, sadly.

Those lyrics from the chorus are significant, even if they pass by quickly in this song, which runs a little more than one minute and a half.  Coming out, particularly from the male perspective, isn’t viewed as manly.  However, because it takes courage to come out, Armstrong needs to come clean about who he is.  Because he is ‘manning up’ and being brave, that’s the true definition of being a man as opposed to what how some of society defines masculinity.  Of course, there are more notable lyrics beyond the chorus, with Armstrong asserting in the first verse he was “Seventeen and strung out on confusion.” In the second, he speaks about secrets, asserting, “Skeletons come to life in my closet.” The closet, of course, can be a toxic place when it comes to hiding sexual identity.  The third verse represents resolution for Armstrong, who proudly asserts, “I finally figured out myself for the first time.”

Final Thoughts 💭

🎵 “Coming Clean” is brief, but it is not only important to the Green Day catalog but also the LGBTQ+ catalog. Sure, Armstrong is married to a woman (shortly after coming clean) and has children, but, it’s courageous, especially back in the mid-1990s, that he and Green Day penned such a personal and progressive song about coming out.  It still resonates approaching 30 years later.

🎙 Green Day • 💿 Dookie  • 🏷 Reprise • 🗓 1994

Green Day, “Coming Clean”: LGBTQ Bopz 🌈🎶 No. 32 (2022) [📷: Alexandra_Koch, Anna Shvets, Brent Faulkner, Kurious, The Musical Hype, Pexels, Pixabay, Reprise]