Green Day - 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours

To most, Green Day are simply the band that sang “Don’t wanna be an American Idiot”, having forgotten the rest of the song. However, the minds of all their fans will instantly fly over to Oakland, CA to find three thirty-something punks: Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt and Tré Cool.

But it was not always so. Green Day formed over 20 years ago, back in 1987, when teenage Mike and Billie Joe discovered a shared love for music; needing a drummer, they recruited not Tré Cool, but John Kiffmeyer. The result was Green Day’s first album: ‘39/Smooth’ (later renamed ‘1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours’) in 1990. The album is a far cry from their latest epic rock opera ‘21^st Century Breakdown’, but nonetheless brimming with potential and raw energy, a frequent in any Green Day album.

Billie Joe, it seems, has always been a master of his music. Every single one of the 19 songs on this album is written and played with such dexterity, rarely seen in a band’s debut album. Many of the songs focus around girls – a core factor of any teenage writer’s songs – and some, for example ‘Disappearing Boy’, suggest a previous heartache of Armstrong’s: a possible lost girlfriend, or a space in his life that he fills with music. With Armstrong’s guitar playing only just really starting out it is surprising to see a fair few riffs and solos in this album, such as in ‘Dry Ice’, but the good old three chord punk template stands strong, and is present in every song. It’s the simplicity of Billie Joe’s chords that draws the listener to search between the chords, and be rewarded with the discovery of Mike Dirnt’s excellent bass lines.

Mr Dirnt (a.k.a. Mr. Pritchard) has been one of Billie Joe’s best friends since high school (both age 14) and has always shared his passion for punk and classic rock. His bass playing in this album is a fine example of his passion for bass: he militantly keeps the tone of the songs alive with well timed notes, and his tendency to fly off on tangents of his own adds in that little something extra to many songs. However, bass is not Dirnt’s only forte. This album is the first example of what he also excels in: backup vocals. His ability to harmonise flawlessly with Billie Joe’s voice has been one of his many talents throughout his entire career. In ‘Going To Pasalaqua’s pre-chorus, Mike works effortlessly with Billie, and produces a solid sound which would be revered even by the greats.

Dirnt may be a natural time keeper but he has nothing on their ever elusive drummer. He is notoriously absent from many information sites online, but was regardless as extremely important member of the band, It’s hard to imagine Green Day without the crazy guy at the back pulling faces, but throughout this album John Kiffmeyer (Al Sobrante) proves he can easily equal Tré Cool. The open handed drummer quite easily matches the pace of Billie and Mike, with a mysterious similarity in style to Mr Cool (For drummers: Kiffmeyer often utilises the quarter note 4/4 rock shuffle, a personal favourite of Tre Cool’s who uses it in songs like Basket Case and American Idiot). However, like Mike, Kiffmeyer brought something else to the band (something incredibly useful). John used his contacts within the music industry to push the group out into the open, a gift which lived on even after his departure. Another of his contributions is the lyrics for the song ‘I Was There’, a fairly deep song about sentimentality. When John left the band to further his education (becoming one of the few in Green Day to go past high school) a huge gap was left in his wake. It was expertly filled, however, by Tre Cool, who helped bring about ‘Kerplunk!’ and every other album to come (but that’s another review(s)). The only question is, wherever John Kiffmeyer happens to be now, does he regret leaving the band?

‘1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours’ shows definite contrasts to later albums. It’s quite a way away from ‘Dookie’, Green Day’s first real success, despite there being only a four year difference between the two albums. The difference is mostly due to the sound quality: ‘Dookie’ is a lot more refined in sound and a lot tighter in terms of timing and playing, whereas this album has a certain grainy sound to it and can be a tad sloppy at times. When compared to ‘American Idiot’ this album is simply blown out of the water, to be left flopping on the shore wondering how it’ll ever grow to such a size as that. But this is, in fact, a very good thing, as hindsight shows us how far Green Day has come; having started out playing in punk squats in California, they have gone on to conquer the world.

Listening to this album can provoke a real sense of nostalgia, listening to a young Green Day as they whack out song after song about girls and heartache and knowing that they become bigger than they could possibly imagine. This album was the world’s first glimpse at a soon-to-be one of the biggest punk rock bands ever, and although it is often overlooked in favour of their more recent conquests, it is well deserving of a place in any fan’s iTunes library.

I mean, any album that can be bought for just over a fiver is well worth at least a listen to…

- article by Alex