Geek Stink Breath

"Geek Stink Breath" is about amphetamine and methamphetamine drug use, describing in unglamorous detail what it's like. A slow progression Killing my complexion And it's rotting out my teeth ... And I'm picking scabs off my face Every hour my blood is turning sour Green Day lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong wrote the song from experience, but isn't taking a stand on drug use. His songwriting style at the time was to lay bare whatever he was going through without making a judgment, so he wrote a song about being tweaked out on meth in the same way he would write about being bored ("Longview") or living in squalor ("Welcome To Paradise").

This was the first single from Insomniac, Green Day's fourth album. Their first two albums were released on the independent label Lookout, which specialized in punk bands from the Berkeley, California area. Their third album, Dookie, was issued on the major label Reprise and became one of the best-selling albums of the '90s. This put high expectations on Insomniac, which was rushed a bit to keep their momentum going. "Geek Stink Breath" did pretty well, earning significant airplay in the fall of 1995, and the next single, "Brain Stew," also made an impact, but compared to Dookie, Insomniac under performed, selling a mere 2 million copies in America as opposed to 10 million. This didn't bother the band a bit; rooted in punk rock, they didn't need an excess of money or fame to light their fire, and their hectic schedule was wearing them down. They were happy scale back a bit and let EDM have its day while pop-punk faded. With the weight of expectations lifted, they spent more time making their next album, Nimrod, which they were very happy with. Released in 1997, it also sold 2 million.

Most depictions of methamphetamine use explain the rush of euphoria that make it so appealing, but not this one: Everything described in the song is unpleasant. It probably did more to discourage drug use than any public service announcement ever could.