East Jesus Nowhere
Released On
East Jesus Nowhere (single) [2009]
Billie Joe Armstrong
Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, Tré Cool
Studio 880
Ocean Way Recording
Costa Mesa Studios
Jet Studios
Ocean Way Recording
Costa Mesa Studios
Jet Studios
Butch Vig, Green Day
162
2009-04-07
2014-03-03
Staple (80-100%)
Regular (50-79%)
Sporadic (20-49%)
Rare (1-19%)
Inactive (0%)
Performance Probability
0%
Odds of being played at the next showDoubtful
(Calculated from the last 100 shows)!For songs debuted recently, the percentage is calculated against total shows performed since the song's debut date rather than the full 100-show window.
Song Notes
In an interview with Kerrang, Billie told of how he came up with the line: "Join the choir we will be singing / In the church of wishful thinking." The singer explained that he was driving in Wisconsin, alongside his wife Adrienne and her brother when he saw a chapel called The Church Of Divine Hope.
Armstrong said: "We'd been driving a while and we were rambling and laughing. I was looking at it deliriously and I thought, 'Oh my God, that's like calling it the Church of Wishful Thinking.' We started laughing hysterically, so I wrote it down and it ended up being in 'East Jesus.'"
It's about the never-ending hypocrisy of religion, all those snake-oil-salesman types, and that subliminal thing of threatening people and ripping away their individuality.
I went to a Baptist church when I was, like, 14, and they basically said, 'If you do not accept Jesus Christ into your life, you're going to burn for eternity.' I was this 14-year-old kid, and I was scared shitless. But then you start to realize, they're all hypocrites. These kids there would be saying things like, 'If you're not paying attention right now, that's Satan taking your mind away.' It was evil. And me, I have ADHD, so I'm there thinking about a million things.
I mean, God forbid that you might be sitting in church thinking, 'God, I'd really like to fuck that girl.' You know, 'Satan, get out of my brain.'
Billie Joe Armstrong (The Sunday Times)
Armstrong said: "We'd been driving a while and we were rambling and laughing. I was looking at it deliriously and I thought, 'Oh my God, that's like calling it the Church of Wishful Thinking.' We started laughing hysterically, so I wrote it down and it ended up being in 'East Jesus.'"
It's about the never-ending hypocrisy of religion, all those snake-oil-salesman types, and that subliminal thing of threatening people and ripping away their individuality.
I went to a Baptist church when I was, like, 14, and they basically said, 'If you do not accept Jesus Christ into your life, you're going to burn for eternity.' I was this 14-year-old kid, and I was scared shitless. But then you start to realize, they're all hypocrites. These kids there would be saying things like, 'If you're not paying attention right now, that's Satan taking your mind away.' It was evil. And me, I have ADHD, so I'm there thinking about a million things.
I mean, God forbid that you might be sitting in church thinking, 'God, I'd really like to fuck that girl.' You know, 'Satan, get out of my brain.'
Billie Joe Armstrong (The Sunday Times)
Lyrics
Raise your hands now to testify
Your confession will be crucified
You're a sacrificial suicide
Like a dog that's been sodomized, well
(Stand up!) All the white boys
(Sit down!) And the black girls
(Stand up!) You're the soldiers
(Sit down!) Of the new world
Put your faith in a miracle
And it's non-denominational
Join the choir, we'll be singing
In the church of wishful thinking
A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the faith fanatics
Oh, bless me, Lord, for I have sinned
It's been a lifetime since I last confessed
I threw my crutches in "the river of a shadow of doubt"
And I'll be dressed up in my Sunday best
Say a prayer for the family
Drop a coin for humanity
Ain't this uniform so flattering?
I never asked you a goddamn thing!
A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the faith fanatics
Don't test me
Second-guess me
Protest me
You will disappear
I want to know who's allowed to breed
All the dogs who never learned to read
The missionary politicians
And the cops of the new religion!
A fire burns today
Of blasphemy and genocide
The sirens of decay
Will infiltrate the inside
Yeah!