Lyrics for Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) as interpreted by IllusoryFreedom

Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) Lyrics
Another turning point
A fork stuck in the road

Time grabs you by the wrist
directs you where to go
So make the best of this test
and don't ask why
It's not a question
But a lesson learned in time

It's something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time
of your life

So take the photographs
and stillframes in your mind
Hang it on a shelf
in good health and good time

Tattoos of memories
and dead skin on trial
for what it's worth
it was worth alll the while

It's something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time
of your life

It's something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time
of your life

It's something unpredictable
But in the end is right
I hope you had the time
of your life

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Sandwich-Masta
08-20-2007

Rated 0 
Uh, Cousin fe fe--what the hell is your problem? I mean, was it really necessary for you to say that? Seriously...

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weasleylovechild
08-22-2007

Rated 0 
cousin fe fe get a life and stop posting shit all over this site. and wow, ur going to retaliate with "im going to ass rape u bitch"
great, thanks

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TS
08-24-2007

Rated 0 
ok...first off..even though I really only like old greenday...they did NOT sell out...American idiot was HUGE...bulivard, american idiot and holiday were so over played, and that is really what killed it...I liked bulivard the first 10 I heard it but by the end of that day, I was getting tired of it, but I do love this song, (it was the ending song for seinfeld) but I love how it is saying even with all the mistakes, I hope you had the time of your life, peace

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Dazed_&_Confuzed
09-23-2007

Rated 0 
tenclub07....
It's obvious that the song's about someone that you can't stand and you want them out of your life.
....
just no.
my god.
its about looking back on all the memorys of your youth and knowing how great a fucking run you had and just hoping everyone else did/does too.
and cousin fe fe. yea thats awesome really.mock people who lost someone to suicide. yea . karma says your going to be hit by an eighteen wheeler soon so good luck with that.

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heeheeasquirrel
09-23-2007

Rated 0 
Okay so you know how in the beginning of this song the short intro is repeated twice before it starts? Does anyone know why? And there's like a sound after the second one, sounds like "five" or "f**k" but I really don't know. Can anyone tell me, cause it's really random and I wanna know why they did it.

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Yoshü
10-11-2007

Rated 0 
Billie fucks up the Intro twice, both times strumming the G instead of the B String, they probably found it funny not to cut it out^^

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bham0792
10-16-2007

Rated 0 
well iv listened to this song for years now great song never really affected me tho. but now im getting ready to leave for college in another state, and now its really hitting me hard, how im going to miss my friends and family, especially my little bro hes only 7. and this song is really hitting me right now how hard this is going to be.

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Breakingbenjaminfan
11-01-2007

Rated 0 
i love this song. it saying about if you wanna go your separate way and if you then i hope you remember the best time we had together in life then. i can do a better explaination then this if you don't get what i meant by this then.

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lovelife
11-22-2007

Rated 0 
ahh. i love this song. it was the first actual song i ever learnt to play on guitar.

idn bout other ppl but i think this song is one that wen its on the radio or sumthing, u kinda have to stop, and listen. like i dont think its much of a background song, it has far too much meaning. but thats just me :)


quick question tho:
although i luv the song. im really quite confused as to wat its about.ive read all the above comments but cant exactly get the grasp.
wat is this 'it' that is constently repeated thruout the song?

--IT's not a question
--IT's something unpredictable
--but in the end IT's right.
--Hang IT on a shelf
--For what IT's worth

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corndogggy
11-28-2007

Rated 0 
I saw this explanation awhile back on another site and it makes alot of sense to me, I'll paraphrase in my own words: Basically he was dating this girl and they were pretty serious, but then she gets a wild hair to move to somewhere like Central America and study and/or work, so they are breaking up. He is struggling with this decision, and is partially angry, hence the title "Good Riddance", but also realizes that all he can do is wish her well, let her go without animosity so he can look back on the memories they made together fondly instead of with sickening anger, and just say to himself "it was worth all the while", or in other words, it wasn't wasted time. But yes, it's a breakup song, and the author has mixed feelings about the situation, and this song is his resolution declaration. The first verse is explaining metaphorically that he is at a point in his life where him and the girl has to make some serious choices. The second verse/part is after the decision has been made and he's explaining to this girl that he has no hard feelings, that they should cherish the time they had together and remember it fondly, and that she should go and follow her dreams and "have the time of your life".

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SomeCallItLove
12-01-2007

Rated 0 
This song was alwas played in my middle and high school around prom to prevent students from drinking. I never really understood how that was supposed to work; except that it was a sad sounf=ding song and they played it to pictures of drunk driving crashes. But the words do not really point there. They say that "It's something unpredictable, But in the end is right." A car crash is "unpredictable", but I don't think that it could be "right".
To me this song was about how some things in life are meant to be and you cannot change that, but that you can change how you feel along and how you remember the journey. It is about relizing that what happened was a good thing even if it did not seem like it at the time. Try to remember the times with fondness and take them with you and hope that others do the same.

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TomDeLonge
12-05-2007

Rated 0 
This song is about a girl Billie Joe was in a deep relationship with, but then she left him. The song is really bitter and sarcastic, he was really broken up after their relationship ended.

But it's music, so it can be interpreted any way you want.

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Iam2shady
12-21-2007

Rated 0 
Most of you are missing the point. The song's name is Good Riddance for a reason. The song is sarcastic. It basically means "bye, good riddance. I hope I never see you again. Have the time of your life"

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courtneyobsession
12-23-2007

Rated 0 
This song is sort of like, a polite kiss-off. It's not an angry break-up song, but it's like he was dating a beautiful, amazing girl but they just stopped working out. Neither of them expected it, and things just changed. He needed to go his way, and she needed to go her way. He's telling her that for what it's worth, it was worth the while, meaning that if she cares to hear it, she really did mean a lot to him. He wants her to know that he loves her and always will, and he's talking to her like he'll never forget her. When he says take the photographs, he's telling her that he doesn't want her to forget him, he just wants her to move on and know that he's not the only person in her life that would ever love her. He wants only the best for her, and right now, that means not being with him.

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dazedandconfused91
12-23-2007

Rated 0 
probably a break up song, saying what they had was good while they had it...this song is one of the few that makes me cry

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donut134
12-25-2007

Rated 0 
this song has so many meanings you take out of this song what you want the way i look at it says have fun because life is to short look back on it and smile never forget the ones you loved or the ones who made a diference and that everone was important to you weather you knew it or not to take pictures of everything cuz one day it wont be there look back on it and smile with tears in your eyes not because your sad that everything has changed cry for the fact that you rember that day and what stupid things you did that make us who we are look at how much you have changed and how lad your are about what happend look back and think that it was A LESSON LEARNED IN TIME because you dont know how things are going to end up and thats how life entended it to be

XDonna

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kidkid
01-05-2008

Rated 0 
what pisses me off is that this song is repeatedly played at graduations. Its a breakupsong not a good time song, its supposed to be sad and i dont know about you but i was happy to get the frick out of that place, meaning highschool.
i still go with the title "good riddance" not time of your life" ...then again... that did fit the feeling of my highschool...good riddance!

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A Robot In Disguise
01-09-2008

Rated 0 
makes me cry

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carrera13
01-09-2008

Rated 0 
Yeah, I agree with kidkid.

This song is not meant for a new turning point in life.
It is about a relationship ending.

"I hope you had the time of your life"
That line kills me.
It's sad, so sad that he still wants to know if she was happy in the relationship.

This is a deep song for being so popular, and I love it.

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perhapspsychology
01-10-2008

Rated 0 
I think this song is about growing up and moving on. It reminds me of my first boyfriend in high school. He was so shallow it was almost depressing. It was like you get sooo excited to meet someone and then you realize wow. He treated me like I was the ugliest girl in the world everytime we hung out with other people. It got to the point where I almost started feeling sorry for him... The breakup was so tough because I didn't want to hurt him but I didn't have the courage to explain to him that there was a great deal more to life then the way he looked... and that is all he cared about. I did a lot of cute little things that he never understood and it frustrated me to no end... later on he messages me and I just wanted to slap him... He drove me crazy and treated me like trash but there was something about him that was really genuine... unfortunately, that side of him made a rare showing. I decided this would be our song at a concert... I don't think he understood why I picked it in the first place... Then again, since he was my first, whatever, I think about him everytime I think about having one of my books published. Someday when he is a fat loser with a bitch for a wife he'll read my book and regret not being nicer to me. Lol...

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perhapspsychology
01-10-2008

Rated 0 
I didn't really mean that. Sometimes you just think about people and it makes you mad because you never took the time to get to know them and you let yourself drown in a world of problems and shallowness. I can be just as vapid and awful as everyone else... the difference is that I try and learn from my mistakes and some people don't...

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anonymous86
02-08-2008

Rated 0 
I'm suprised this song hasn't gotten more responses, but it could be that it's so different to the usual green day style. Because the "good riddance" bit is added, this must mean a parting swipe at someone or some people. It's been said that it's a parting swipe to the old fans who turned their back on the band once they hit the big time, also a swipe at a girl who left Billie Joe and he was perhaps heartbroken by it. This song was the 1st song that I ever heard from green day, I didn't hear another song by them until american idiot. It took me ages to figure out that this is so different to their usual style, which is punk, either pop or rock (even though the band has said this is as punk as you can get). One of my favourite songs ever, this is the type of song that you can feel so many different emotions to and can play anywhere. This makes me feel sad, happy, angry, there's no song that makes me feel so many emotions. This is a song to celebrate to, to say goodbye to for the last time, to say I'm glad you're out of my life to some people, it's just awesome. Brilliant stuff from green day.

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punkiepie
02-27-2008

Rated 0 
billie broke up with his girlfriend her name was amanda.
it was unexpected and he felt that he needed to be with adrianne.
'its something unpredictable but in the end its right, i hope you had the time of your life'.
this song is quite old. it was written before nimrod was released.

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MissNeurotic
03-01-2008

Rated 0 
What? that thing above is bullshit! this has nothing to do with girls. It's about when they were rejected in the punk scene for being mainstream.

It's actually a big fuck you song.

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THERESnoRETURN
03-30-2008

Rated 0 
THANK YOU. I can't fucking believe that MissNeurotic is the only one to say this!!

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