Basket Case (song)
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| Single by Green Day | ||||||||
| from the album Dookie | ||||||||
| Released | November 29, 1994 | |||||||
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| Length | 3:01 | |||||||
| Label | Reprise | |||||||
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"Basket Case" is a song by the American punk rock band Green Day. It is the seventh track and third single from their third studio album, Dookie (1994). The song spent five weeks at the top of the Modern Rock Tracks chart.
Green Day vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong said "Basket Case" is about his struggle with anxiety; before he was diagnosed with a panic disorder years afterward, he thought he was going crazy. Armstrong commented that at the time, "The only way I could know what the hell was going on was to write a song about it."
"Basket Case" was one of the songs producer Rob Cavallo heard when he received Green Day's demo tape. He ended up signing the band to Reprise Records in mid-1993. Green Day and Cavallo recorded the version of "Basket Case" released on the trio's major label debut Dookie between September and October 1993 at Fantasy Studios in Berkeley, California.
"Basket Case", like the other songs on Dookie, was performed on instruments tuned down to the pitch of E-flat. The introductory verse features only Armstrong and his guitar. During the middle of the first chorus the rest of the band joins in, with Tré Cool adding fast tom fills and explosive transitions and Mike Dirnt adding a bass line that is reminiscent of the vocal melody. In the third verse, "Basket Case" references soliciting a male prostitute; Armstrong noted that "I wanted to challenge myself and whoever the listener might be. It's also looking at the world and saying, 'It's not as black and white as you think. This isn't your grandfather's prostitute – or maybe it was.'"
"Basket Case" was the third single released from Dookie, following "Longview" and "Welcome to Paradise". "Basket Case" peaked at number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart, a position it maintained for five weeks. In 1995, "Basket Case" garnered a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group category.
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