Uploaded February 2017 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
"Longview" is the debut single by the American punk rock band Green Day. It is the fourth track on the band's third album, Dookie and was released as the lead single. The song was the band's first single to top the Modern Rock chart in the U.S. The music video for this song received heavy airplay on MTV and is largely credited for breaking Green Day into mainstream popularity.
The song describes intense boredom. Lyrically, the song is about a day spent sitting around the house, doing absolutely nothing of importance, masturbating, and smoking marijuana until the days are no longer fun. The song captured the attention of many youth at the time with its overt allusions to masturbation. Bassist Mike Dirnt has stated that the famous bass line intro to this song was written one night while he was high on LSD, and what remains on the album is what he and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong could recall in the morning. At most shows in the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour, Billie Joe picked a random audience member to sing the song or play the song on electric guitar onstage.
The song is named after the city of Longview, Washington, where it was first performed in 1992. The band had already written the song prior to arriving in the city.
In 1995, Green Day received four Grammy Award nominations, including Best Hard Rock Performance for "Longview". The band won Best Alternative Music Performance for Dookie. The song was ranked at number 3 on the list of the Best Singles of 1994 by Rolling Stone.
The song can also be found on their 2001 greatest hits collection International Superhits!, and a live performance can be found on the Bullet in a Bible CD and DVD.
"Longview" is the debut single by the American punk rock band Green Day. It is the fourth track on the band's third album, Dookie and was released as the lead single. The song was the band's first single to top the Modern Rock chart in the U.S. The music video for this song received heavy airplay on MTV and is largely credited for breaking Green Day into mainstream popularity.
The song describes intense boredom. Lyrically, the song is about a day spent sitting around the house, doing absolutely nothing of importance, masturbating, and smoking marijuana until the days are no longer fun. The song captured the attention of many youth at the time with its overt allusions to masturbation. Bassist Mike Dirnt has stated that the famous bass line intro to this song was written one night while he was high on LSD, and what remains on the album is what he and lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong could recall in the morning. At most shows in the 21st Century Breakdown World Tour, Billie Joe picked a random audience member to sing the song or play the song on electric guitar onstage.
The song is named after the city of Longview, Washington, where it was first performed in 1992. The band had already written the song prior to arriving in the city.
In 1995, Green Day received four Grammy Award nominations, including Best Hard Rock Performance for "Longview". The band won Best Alternative Music Performance for Dookie. The song was ranked at number 3 on the list of the Best Singles of 1994 by Rolling Stone.
The song can also be found on their 2001 greatest hits collection International Superhits!, and a live performance can be found on the Bullet in a Bible CD and DVD.
