It’s the third Thursday of May and with it comes another theme for Hive Open Mic Week. This week’s theme is ‘Memory’ and here’s a guitar cover of the song ‘Good Riddance (Time of your life)’ by American Rock Band - Green Day. This song is quite different from their usual sound as a band and also one of their most popular tracks.
Facts about the song
- It was written by Billie Joe Armstrong about his girlfriend who moved to Ecuador, with him naming the song ‘Good Riddance’ to show his anger towards her.
- The strings section was recorded within 30 minutes by producer Rob Cavallo while the band was sent away to play foosball in another room
- Green Day won their first MTV Video Music Award for Best Alternative Video for this song and were also nominated for Viewer’s choice.
- The Song was a hit at Prom Dances, mainly because of the lyrics. Graduating seniors interpreted the song as nostalgic and were reflective of their time in high school. The song went on to be listed as one of the 20 Best Graduation Songs Of the 20 years (1995-2015) by Rolling Stone.
Here's the link to the original song if you haven’t heard it yet
Song 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 it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
So take the photographs
And still frames 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 all the while
It's something unpredictable
But in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
It's something unpredictable
But in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
It's something unpredictable
But in the end it's right
I hope you had the time of your life
I managed to find a ‘Only Vocals and Violin’ track on Youtube, so I added the guitar parts and bass on my own. The song is pretty easy and straight-forward to learn as the chords only revolve around G/C/D and Em.
I first heard this song when I was in school and it just brings back all the memories of that time.
We all have songs that remind us of a particular time/ period. Some good and some not so good memories.
Never the less, it’s important to cherish them for what you achieved, enjoyed or what you learnt and move on and not let them hold you back from making more memories.
Here’s the Youtube Link to my cover and I hope you like it -
▶️ 3Speak
As you say later, we have to "cherish" them after some time, as all of the circumstances we had to go through make an experience for life if we know to learn for them.
Thank you for explaining about the song and the background track. I see you worked to put together different tracks that you recorded, nice! :)