Do you have the time to listen to me whine
About nothing and everything all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Or am I just stoned

I went to a shrink
To analyze my dreams
She says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down
I went to a whore
He said my life's a bore
So quit my whining cause it's bringing her down

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
A ya-ya-ya

Grasping to control
So I better hold on

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It all keeps adding up
I think I'm cracking up
Am I just paranoid?
Or am I just stoned?



Lyrics submitted by kevin

Track duration: 03:02

"Basket Case" as written by James Jeffries, Mark Cole

Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


Basket Case song meanings
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271 Comments

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  • +1
    General Comment:A song about the casing used inside baskets. The singer is well known for lyrics which drop interior decorating tips.
    Flag shamone12on December 19, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I think I once heard this was about how Billie reacted to the death of his father.

    Could someone please explain how the title fits in to it though please?
    Flag manic4manicson August 22, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:I love how people are trying so hard to label what is and isn't punk, this completely undermining what punk is meant to be: raw, rebellious, expression and fighting a system you don't believe in, and doing your own thing no matter what others say. Green Day is rebellious. American Idiot was about how wrong our system is. A lot of people say American Idiot is when they became alt rock, but I disagree. American Idiot was not my favorite album but it was very much punk. It was an album that not only took shots at our screwed up system, but also expressed the story of suburbian kids that most of us can relate to in someway. And their early albums were all about growing up, adolescence, angst, and learning to be yourself.
    Flag BasketCase86on November 07, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Green Day is pop-punk, Sex Pistols/The Clash/The Damned etc, are punk rock, (early) Bad Religion/Agnostic Front/Adolescents/Black Flag/etc are hardcore punk. It's not just "punk" and "not punk", there are different sub-genres. What makes a song a punk song is its quick pace, progressions, and general theme of rebellion/disillusion/anti-social tendencies/etc.

    This song is about being young, restless, and stressed out.

    One thing that makes it so good is that it takes its chord progression from Johann Pachelbel's "Canon".
    Flag Drevenanton September 18, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is a bit of an adaptation of "The Catcher in the Rye," about a sort of teenage confusion in life likened to the unfamiliar feelings of beeing high.
    Flag americafuckyeahon December 26, 2010   Link
  • -1
    General Comment:Early Green Day is post-punk, now they're just mainstream alt-rock. Boo. I miss the early Green Day.
    Flag NeverXMindon November 18, 2010   Link
  • -3
    General Comment:I LOVE GREEN DAY PLUS THE LEAD SINGER IS,,,,,HOTTTTTT!!!! LOL

    LOVE THE HARMONICA PART TOO!!! GREAT SONGS AND I 2 BELIEVE THEY ARE PUNK &NOT ALTERNATIVE U NIMROD!!! HEHE!!!
    Flag Ladeda66on October 15, 2010   Link
  • +4
    General Comment:Being helpless or incapable of functioning normally due to overwhelming stress or anxiety, going into a trance like state of mind during this and talking about insignificant and significant topics all mixed together into a psychotic rant. Making a big deal out of nothing and sensationalizing it anxiously.

    Scaring and tricking yourself due to paranoia, and if you do this enough times you will form schizophrenia and can literally go insane. Many people when they smoke Marijuana feel paranoid, but if it isn't drug induced maybe the irony is drugs would help this condition?

    As for the verse "I went to a shrink, To analyze my dreams. She says it's lack of sex that's bringing me down. I went to a whore, He said my life's a bore, And quit my whining cause it's bringing her down." I think the whore is both the he and she, as in a cross dresser because of the way he say's "He said my life's a bore" sounds like something a gay or cross dressing person would say. (Not to be stereotypical, just honest).

    So obviously this song is about paranoia and panic attacks, and is really well worded and due to the great description we can see inside the mind of such a subject.

    As for whether Green Day is punk or not? I guess I would say they are Alternative Rock, that's how I've always seen them but I really try not to put labels on music I like. It's not the image that should attract you, it's the music. Why brand yourself? Be an individual, be original.
    Flagged AbsentMindedon July 19, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:funny f**king song
    Flag yzarkon June 21, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Whether Green Day are punk or altern rock is a massive wank of an argument. Proves how shitty and closed minded the punk scene has become. The Clash, one of the greatest punk bands to pick up instruments, had stopped releasing traditional punk songs (loud and 3 chords) by 1978, but the music they played was still undoubtably punk (Listen to Clampdown for example). If they were around today, all the so called 'punks' would call them sell-outs and altern. rock or whatever.

    Fuck that.

    You wanna be a punk? Don't be a snob and reject someone because their Ramones t-shirt says 'Marky' instead of 'Tommy'. It's the attitude that matters, not the pissy details. Either Green Day are self indulgent sell out fucks, saying shit to sell records and fighting an establishment which they are signed up members of or they are good, with strength in their convictions and an attitude which the isolated members of Western youth can relate to. That's the propper punk rock argument. Leave 'punk' and 'altern rock' tag arguments to 'real' music fans, ones that like Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd (pretentious pricks, exactly what punks are becoming).
    Flag WolfeToneon April 24, 2010   Link

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