Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt wrote the lyrics to this song about a slum in Oakland where they lived together for a while as teenagers - they had a band at the time called Sweet Children. Armstrong explained: "It's about West Oakland, living in a warehouse with a lot of people, a bunch of artists and musicians, punks and whatever just lived all up and down, bums and junkies and thugs and gang members and stuff that just lived in that area. It's no place you want to walk around at night, but it's a neat warehouse where you can play basketball and stuff."
The video was compiled from footage shot when Green Day performed the song at the San Francisco club Slim's on February 1, 1994 - the same day Dookie was released. As shown in the video, the crowd of about 500 went absolutely nuts. Green Day would soon be playing to much larger crowds that showed a similar enthusiasm.
This was first released on Green Day's 1992 Kerplunk LP on Lookout! Records. When the band signed to the major label Reprise Records and cut the album Dookie, they re-recorded the song and included it on the album. It was one of 2 old Green Day songs they recorded during the Dookie sessions - they also re-recorded "409 In Your Coffeemaker" which originally appeared on their first EP, 39 Smooth. That song did not make it onto Dookie but was released on the international "Basket Case" single.
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