The two bands that helped shape Billie Joe Armstrong
From the first time he picked up a guitar, Billie Joe Armstrong was known to be a fan of all the different stripes of rock music. Whether it was the sound of The Beatles blasting out of the stereo or hearing the feral sounds of Patti Smith echo through his house, Armstrong was indebted to rock music since he was born, taking his dreams of musical grandeur to new heights when working with Green Day. Although punk is the most explicit reference point for Armstrong, two of the biggest bands in alternative history would have a more significant impact on his upbringing.
Before Armstrong was even out of diapers, he was already honing his craft as one of the most lovable singers in his local area. Learning to sing for the first time when he was four, Armstrong eventually made his vocal debut on a record called ‘Look For Love’, featuring his nasally croon over a honky-tonk piano ballad.
Once he started to develop his tastes, though, Armstrong was known to gravitate towards the sounds of hard rock. Working on playing the guitar, Armstrong would go from playing Beatles songs in his spare time to trying to parse out every kind of metal guitar riff that he could think of, even mastering the intro to Van Halen’s ‘Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love’ by ear.
Around the time Armstrong found his groove, one of his classmates, Mick Pritchard, was also getting his calling behind the bass. Affectionately named Mike Dirnt after the various bass noises he would make with his mouth during class, Armstrong and his friend would spend hours learning how to play different songs in their spare time, eventually becoming infatuated with the punk scene.
Then again, Armstrong did have another massive influence coming from the Midwest. While still indebted to the world of punk, bands like The Replacements and Hüsker Dü were playing traditional rock and roll that had the same intensity of punk with a pop flair. Even though they weren’t as catchy as someone like Ramones, head songwriters Bob Mould and Paul Westerberg would have a considerable impact on the alternative scene later in their careers, serving as the catalysts for the Seattle grunge scene to get off the ground.
Looking back on his musical foundations, Armstrong would cite both groups as instrumental in his career, saying, “I was really into Paul Westerberg and Bob Mould. Thinking back, those were probably my most influential bands. I loved Hüsker Dü. I like their later stuff more than their early stuff. I really like the way that Bob Mould’s guitar sounded”.
Even when Green Day had enough stellar tracks under their belt, Armstrong would continue to wear both bands on his sleeve, even covering Hüsker Dü’s ‘Don’t Want To Know If You Are Lonely’ during the band’s Warning era and namechecking The Replacement’s ‘Mr Whirly’ on the song ‘Misery’. Considering Mould’s track record for melody, it’s also easy to see where Armstrong took his storytelling later in his career.
Across Hüsker Dü’s opus Zen Arcade, the band created a musical kaleidoscope of different sounds fed through their distinct rock and roll lens, which Armstrong would use significantly when putting together Green Day’s ambitious side. For all of the creative ingenuity that went into Green Day’s reinvention, there’s a good chance that fans would never get an album like American Idiot if Hüsker Dü and The Replacements hadn’t come first.
