What does Boulevard of Broken Dreams mean?

Green Day: Boulevard of Broken Dreams Meaning

Album cover for Boulevard of Broken Dreams album cover

Song Released: 2004


Boulevard of Broken Dreams Lyrics

I walk a lonely road
The only one that I have ever known
Don't know where it goes
But it's only me and I walk alone

I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
Where the city sleeps
and I'm the only one and I walk...

  1. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Apr 3rd 2012 !⃝

    i think it is about a guy who has no friends nobody to love him and he can't find anyone who doesn't hate him so he just is lonely and wants to die

  2. Danny Ben-Israel
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    Nov 5th 2011 !⃝

    I know this song has a double meaning: one about the Jesus of Suburbia's hangover and one about being alone but they can be put together so I'm gonna do that

    I walk a lonely road
    The only one that I have ever known
    Don't know where it goes
    But it's home to me and I walk alone

    So far, The Jesus of Suburbia is all alone and he doesn't know where it will lead him but he's been alone his whole life

    I walk this empty street
    On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
    Where the city sleeps
    And I'm the only one and I walk alone

    Where the Jesus of Suburbia is, his dreams got shattered there, and no one notices him

    My shadow's the only one that walks beside me
    My shallow heart's the only thing that's beating
    Sometimes, I wish someone out there will find me
    Til then I walk alone

    The Jesus of Suburbia is saying that he's all alone and he wishes someone would help him, the guitar getting louder on the chorus and outro means he's really pissed off unlike in the verses

    I'm walking down the line
    That divides me somewhere in my mind
    On the borderline
    Of the edge and where I walk alone

    The Jesus of Suburbia is in danger of going insane because the loneliness is maddening him

    Read between the lines
    Of what's fucked up and everything's alright
    Check my vital signs
    To know I'm still alive and I walk alone

    No one is helping the Jesus of Suburbia's problems because he seems alright on the outside, but if they looked further they'd find that he is really mentally fucked up,
    and he isn't really alive, his vital signs are alive but he doesn't feel alive

    This song doesn't say how he's all alone,
    so you can apply many different interpretations there, he could be all alone for the reasons the Jesus of Suburbia was: a hangover, he could also have been fucked by the government, I can relate to this song too, I like to sing this song and other songs a lot and I love to rock out, and the kids at my school are assholes, so I'm a social outcast.

    Best band ever, best album ever, best song ever, GREEN DAY WILL ROCK ON FOREVER

  3. anonymous
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    Sep 4th 2011 !⃝

    This song can be interpreted in many different ways. In the story of the American Idiot album, Boulevard of Broken Dreams is the Jesus of Suburbia's hangover after the party in holiday. He realises that he's all alone. He's not really alive. He doesn't know where he's going. But aside from that, this song has other meanings. It could be a hangover like in the story. It could be about always being alone. It could be political and it's saying how the government's fucking up and ruining people's lives. And finally, it could be about being an atheist. I also want to say that this is my favorite song ever, it's on my favorite album ever, and it's by my favorite band ever!

  4. anonymous
    click a star to vote
    Jun 25th 2011 !⃝

    I think this a song about a typical man and he is just trying to find someone and to fit into society but he is constantly rejected. The first lyric " I walk this empty street," i think it is saying that this guy is walking through a street alone with the pain of rejection while everyone around him is just having a fun time with their friends. This is just my guess

  5. Anthony J. LoSardo
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    Apr 6th 2011 !⃝

    I think this song is about the prospect of a life without a god; the idea that existence is nothing more than what we see here on Earth. The subject's loneliness comes not from lack of human compassion, friendship, or love, but from the idea that there is nothing beyond the natural world. He struggles with the concept of a divine plan or omniscient being because it is tough to have faith in something simply on what is said by other, perhaps religious, people, when scientific advances continually do not support creationism. "Read between the lines" is an allusion to the Bible. Armstrong is ingenious in his reference here because he expresses that one must look past written word to see the truth - the Bible is essentially a book of stories. Subtly, he is asking the listener to look past the words in the song and see his beyond-hopeless undertones on a larger, more philosophical, scale. "...a lonely road, the only one I've ever known" represents the path his life has taken that has led him to his atheistic beliefs, and it is the only one he has ever known because all he has even been exposed to has been the natural world, nothing supernatural, like Heaven. Therefore, this is all he has ever been able to base his opinions and beliefs on. Nearly every lyric in the song lends itself well to my interpretation on close inspection.

  6. anonymous
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    Mar 10th 2011 !⃝

    to me the song not only tells us of St. Jimmy running away (album story) but in our own personal stories, it is relating to the fact that every person at some point in their life is searching for someone or something, with nothing but their shadow walking next to them.

  7. anonymous
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    Feb 24th 2011 !⃝

    I think it is about someone who is lost in this world and is trying to find out who he is.

  8. anonymous
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    Jan 18th 2011 !⃝

    It's about a guy who hates (and I mean HATES) to be alone. Ironically enough, it's the only life he knew.

  9. the_49_60
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    Sep 21st 2010 !⃝

    This song is not only a cry or call for another person, it is his mind's path/actions. "Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me." He does want someone else in his life but it is not an obsession as much as it is a mere want, since it says "Sometimes." All of this song is trying to make the reader or listener see though his perspective. "I'm walking down the line that divides me somewhere in my mind" this is the way he thinks, or his perspective. "Read between the lines" and "Check my vital lines" are telling you to look into him and see things from his view. He wants someone to see who he is "know that I am alive and I walk alone." This song says that he wants someone to see things his way, alone and isolated due to his choose, explained when it says "When (or where I am not sure what it says but none the less) the city sleeps and I'm the only one" people are every where and you actually have try and be dedicated just be alone, due to the massive amount of people on Earth. The song also says he does, at least a little bit, does feel comfortable being alone which implies that he is content with it "But it's home to me."

  10. anonymous
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    Aug 1st 2010 !⃝

    Theme is that individuality leads to loneliness till hopefully you can find someone like you.till then you have to walk alone.emphasis is on the loneliness and what it does to you.the secondary theme is the dream which our songwriter went for(hence lonely) as in contrast to the people in the "boulevard of broken dreams" who sleep peacefully.he wants to get to his dream..has worked enough for it..cant bear the loneliness sometimes..reached borderline madness..wishes someone was there who can share this lonely walk.till then....

  11. 2fast4u2c
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    Apr 6th 2010 !⃝

    He's singing about when all his dreams were crushed and this was in the time period of when his dad died which lead him down this road.

  12. alone13
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    Sep 30th 2009 !⃝

    this song is just like me i think this song is talking about being alone and lost and wishing someone would notice or care or save them. and you want someone to find you but you cant find help.

  13. greendayfreak90
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    Aug 6th 2009 !⃝

    The song follows Jesus of Suburbia...and is pretty much about him; A dark, lonely, misinterpreted outcast looking for someone like him. Hence: "I walk a lonely road, the only one that I have ever known...Sometimes I wish someone out there will find me, till then I walk alone" And hes pretty much finding out who he really is, hence "I'm walking down the line, that divides me somewhere in my mind"

  14. anonymous
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    May 10th 2009 !⃝

    It does follow the Jesus of Subarbia story, but it is very open to interpertation.

    For example, I can actually apply this song to my entire life. Which is really depressing.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
  15. MattONeill
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    Feb 15th 2009 !⃝

    This song is about a guy in pain (Billy Joe Armstrong) and he is about being lonely and wants to find someone else like him and he cant, and he is saying he need someone like him.




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