So why's it called "Holiday"? We're on holiday from taking responsibility?

So why's it called "Holiday"? We're on holiday from taking responsibility?

this song is green day's best song ever! awesome lyrics, awesome sounding tune! "Can I get another Amen?-AMEN!!" green day rules the rock and roll world!

um.
mistake in the lyrics.
it said in the CD booklet that the line: "Just cuz we're on holiday"
is actually
"Just cuz we're outlaws YEAH!"
billie just blends in the last 2 words, but it's in the booklet.

Lol this song rocks, my only complaint is its gone so mainstream people just say they love it because its one of the few greenday songs they play on the radio, besides american idiot and wake me up when september ends. lol In fact i went to the green day american idiot tour 2005 2 days ago and he said "This next song's a big FUCK YOU to george w bush, this next one's called holiday!!" ^^ i agree bush isnt clearly bright and has poor motives and is somewhat... completely a bad president. But perhaps I am just a brainwashed kid of the anti-government media. I don't know, but authority has never been of importance to me anywho. Good song good sound and rock on billie joe!

abc123t, the way i see the interpretatioin of "a flag wrapped around a score of men" would be refering to, the amount of soldiers going back to america in body bags.. when a soldier is buried they have a flag on the casket hence the use of "flag Wrapped around"

it always annoyed me when people got the lyric wrong, like the person who submitted these lyrics did: "It's not a way that's meant for me. Just cause. Just cuz we're on holiday". it's meant to be "it's not the way that's meant for me. just cause, just cause, because we're outlaws yeah!" *t3h p0u+*

just thought I'd add my thoughts on a particular line some have asked about...

"And bleed
The company lost the war today"

a "company" is a military term... a 'battalion' is an army unit usually consisting of a headquarters and three or more 'companies'... companies are futher divided into platoons... which are futher dived into squads.

This might make that lyric make a little more sense.

---

truely great song.

I can't believe I managed to sit my ass through reading all of the comments to this song (took me about an hour), but I'm sure glad I did, because I want to add some of my points in to the song. If you don't want to read a very long rant, my advice: skip this.

Ok, first of all, I'm in agreeance with the anti-war theme. It seems definate that Armstrong sees the current war in Iraq as something in close relation to that of the end of the world. It is arguable that the war being fought has had massive implications and consequences with the rest of the world and has elevated beyond that of the 9/11 attacks. Coming from Australia, I've witnessed the spate of suicide bombings all over the world, from the London Bombings to the two Bali Bombings (almost at least one year after one another).

Now if indeed the bombings are all related back to the same religious group that were responsible for the 9/11 attacks, then without a doubt we are seeing the makings of a World War 3. It may or may not hold massive implications for a certain religious sect or group, but from all the evidence that has been amassed, all the recent bombings and "terrorist" activities have in some way or another been tied back to Muslim extremists. How this group can go about destroying life or "infidels" for the praise of their own religion is beyond me.

Having said this, I am neutral to the whole Iraq war. Yes, the war was started to get back at Osama Bin Laden for 9/11, but eventually, all interest was lost and moved onto Iraq. So we start in Afghanistan and move onto the bigger problems in Iraq, am I right? Sounds like a hell of a transition to me... Either way, the war is claiming to eliminate the threat of global terror, which seems highly inachievable. Excuse me if you've read this far and understand nothing, it's 1:38am here and I'm tired as hell, so much of this would seem somewhat contradictory. I'll be amazed if it's even understandable.

So my idea of holiday is that the current war is the end of the world. We've screwed up big time. First of all, the first few lines show us an exaggerated comparison of the war to the state of the world. The Iraq War = Armageddon. Because this war has started, the rest of the world has come to suffer due to the alliances and enemies that have been made through the war's course. Taking a look at Australia, we are alligned very closely to USA, and because of this, we seem to be a very possible target for a future attack. If the Bali Bombings were anything to go by, they would have been a warning to us. Furthermore, the second half of the first verse comments on the futility of protesting. Even with the largest known protesting of the war in history, it had still gone ahead. The company (protestors) lost the war (trying to get their soldiers back home).

The chorus seems to sing to me that we are stuck in this war for the rest of our lives. There's no way we can get out of it, we'll just have to put up with the lies upon lies that we are fed through the media. This is what our life is going to be like, and "holiday" could be related to the fact that this is what life will be, life will be revolved around war, so we will just live around it. War will be our newfound means of getting away from it all. War will be just another day.

The second verse gives me the idea of propaganda -- the feeling that if we don't participate in this war we will suffer from it. The protestor crossing the line is the man who realises that the war is the only way that anything can be achieved. In this, we also get a sense of loss. I do agree with Infy1 with the use of the flag, and I think it has more to do with silencing the critics and giving the families of deceased soldiers false pride. We get all this talk of a soldier being a "national hero"... A more practical term would be an expenditure, because the American army loses a number of men in the war each day, and there doesn't seem to have been any momentum shift within the war.

As for the bridge, I just get the feeling of powermongers exerting their authority over smaller nations. If you're not with the superpowers of the world, you're against them, take the case of America in retaliation to Al Qaeda. Because they attacked America on their native soil, America retaliated and so those who don't agree with their policies of peace are killed.

I don't know... To me, the song, with the Iraq War tells me of the current state of the world. The indifferences of man are too great to ever have any hope of achieving any form of peace with an opposing nation. With the prospect of power comes the prospect of enemies who feel wrong-done by. And so where do we as humans fit in with all this? No matter who you are in this world, no matter what race, religion, or person you are, war's definate in life, and this is what our life has become dependant on. If this seems contradictory, confusing, a load of shit blah blah blah, feel free to comment. Keep in mind I was tired when I typed this up and most likely had no idea what I was on about. A few alcoholic beverages may or may not have helped proceedings either, but yeah... Interpretation's there from me to you.

This has the Clash written all over it, espcially the Strummer like intro of, “say, hey!” the line “Faith and Misery” could mean Religion and Lonliness, and better yet, mean that this song lies between the religious “JOS” and the lonely “BoBD”!

The title means that time just before invasion when Bush was playing golf at Camp David. I mean, really, what is up with that. Your country’s just about to terrorise a country and your’e choosing between a 9 tee or a 10 tee for your put against Tim McGraw! I mean really!

Whoever said Governor Shwarzennegar’s father was a Nazi – that just takes the icing on the cake on how far meanings for this song can go – brilliant!)

NB - The Dead Kennedys made a reference to American government to Nazi Germany with “California Uber Alles” and to Pol Pot with “Holiday in Cambodia.”

Lastly, Bush is not the new Hitler. Hitler was an intellegently evil despicable demon. Bush is just a cute puppet monkey of an american idiot. Do I have a seconder?

Bkat004 is right. Bush isn't the new Hitler, he's too stupid. Hitler was a genious. An evil genious. I hate bush and I hate Hitler, but you can't compare the two because that insults Hitler to compare him to someone as dumb as Bush

And Iiked what bigdatfaz had to say

yayaya, blah blah blah, anti-bush crap... whatever. too many people are singing about that these days.... i hear it everyday and evertime i hear it, it makes me wanna shoot them in the head

I have read several of the anti-Bush comments regarding this song and I cannot believe that some of you are smart enough to even use a computer. Comparing Bush to Hitler? Are you serious? That comment is not even worth responding to. Do any of you realize that Bush does not have the power to declare war? The war in Iraq was approved overwhelmingly by our Congress (both Republican and Democrat). That is why we have a checks and balances system built into our government. Do you also realize that we were attacked on 9/11 and that it was not us who did the attacking. Some of you sound like you support Sadam/Hitler rather than America. If America is so bad then why do you not purchase a one-way ticket elsewhere? There is not another country in the world that allows you the freedoms that you take for granted every day of your lives. I agree that this song is anti-Bush and even though I do not agree with their political perspectives I do like their music. Hopefully there will be a day where the uneducated and uninformed so-called "stars" will realize that we do not care about their opinions and just do their job which is to entertain.

i listened to this song 9 hours straight without changing the battery and without taking out the headphones....i'm hoping to go to 13 hours,thats my lucky number! plus i made a green day collage and i have the cd and i hung a poster by my bed so i can look at it at night. yes, i am crazy. my mom says i'm obsessed.

ok....next to boulavard of broken dreams....this is definatly my favourit song by green day....

ok....next to boulavard of broken dreams....this is definatly my favourit song by green day....

good song. very 'punk rock' lyrics. april fools day...perhaps a chance for the american goverment to trick it's people....i dunno! 'the shame, the ones that died without a name' what does that mean? i'm not entirely sure

This song is the meaning of the word "legend". This site really should correct the lyrics tho.

'ITS NOT ANTI AMERICAN ITS ANTI WWWWWAAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!' quote by billie joe before singing this song at milton keynes- i was there people!!!!!

This is the greatest Green Day song on the American Idiot album. One thing though.. what exactly does the title mean?

Responding mainly to Roman911, but also to several others:

Roman that is all nonsense. First, no one in congress got a chance to vote on the war. They voted on giving Bush emergency military powers in Iraq. No one believed that he would use those emergency powers to launch a war against a country that had never threatened or attacked the U.S. Most believed that the powers would be used to strike a nuclear facility if one was ever found. The idea of WAR was never mentioned in the bill that the congress approved. So it is important to understand that NO ONE IN CONGRESS EVER VOTED FOR WAR.

Second... to whatever extent congress supported ANY military action, it was primarily because they were being lied to by Bush and the right wing media (which is mainly what this song was about).

Bush was telling us that Iraq had some involvement in 9/11 (lie), that Iraq was trying to make nukes (lie), that iraq was harboring terrorists (lie... iraq hated the terrorists more than we Americans did) etc.

This is a very powerful rock song... driving and intense, and making one of the most important political points in our nations history... that our country launched an unjust an evil war against a country who's only crime was having a lot of oil... based on the lies told to us by a group of guys who own oil companies.

Its our fault, we fell for the lies. We weren't evaluating the things they were telling us, we weren't voting, we weren't screaming, we weren't watching closely enough...

We were on holiday.

Can someone tell me what was so wrong with Adolf Hitler. The holocaust was wrong and Germans were not superior, (I have no German in me just to clairfy this isn't some pro-Nazi post) but his socialist ideas would help America in these times.

I think that answering that question would stray pretty far from a discussion of the meaning of the song in question.

FINALLY!! A decent representation of the war.
But Bush is worse than Hitler. It's even predicted in the Quran that the eagle will wipe God from the lands of the East due to a slight by a son of Arabia. Nothing in the Torah mentions a German wiping out Judaeism.

Hi. I read in a magazine (Yam!), that the whole album is against bush, but more about, that, what happened since he is ruling and so on: confusion and mess. I read, that not everybody in the USA is an American Idiot. But there are some. But the biggest one for them is George W. Bush!!!