Green Day Songs - Wake Me Up When September Ends Lyrics

Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends

Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends Lyrics and Youtube Music Videos

Album: American Idiot
Released: 2004

Wake Me Up When September Ends Lyrics

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake Me Up When September Ends

Like my fathers come to pass
Seven years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Ring out the bells again
Like we did when spring began
Wake me up when September ends

Here comes the rain again
Falling from the stars
Drenched in my pain again
Becoming who we are

As my memory rests
But never forgets what I lost
Wake me up when September ends

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
Wake me up when September ends

Like my father's come to pass
Twenty years has gone so fast
Wake me up when September ends
Wake me up when September ends
Wake me up when September ends

Writer/s: ARMSTRONG, BILLIE JOE / COOL, TRE / DIRNT, MIKE
Publisher: Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.
Lyrics licensed and provided by LyricFind

Wake Me Up When September Ends

Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote this song about his father, who died of cancer on September 1, 1982. At his father's funeral, Billie cried, ran home and locked himself in his room. When his mother got home and knocked on the door to Billie's room, Billie simply said, "Wake me up when September ends," hence the title.

The line "seven years has gone so fast" is a reference to how Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt's band Sweet Children (which would morph into Green Day), was formed seven years after Armstrong's father died.

"20 years has gone so fast" represents the time from his father's death to when Billie Joe wrote the song.

This was originally slated for Green Day's 2002 compilation album Shenanigans, but Billie Joe didn't feel that he was in an emotional state to record it, so the song was held back and used on American Idiot. (thanks, Clark - Baltimore, MD)

The video was directed by Samuel Bayer, who directed Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. Jamie Bell and Evan Rachel Wood starred in the video, which isn't about Armstrong's father, but more a reflection on the mood in American after the September 11 attacks. In an interview with MTV, Bayer said this video was "hands down the greatest thing I've ever done." (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

According to VH1's Pop-Up Video, all the explosions in the clip were real. One effects guy even had to dodge a rocket when it flew through the window where he was stationed.