Green Day: Wake me Up When September Ends Meaning

Song Released: 2005

Wake me Up When September Ends Lyrics

Summer has come and passed
The innocent can never last
wake me up when september ends

Like my fathers come to pass
seven years has gone so fast
wake me up when september ends

Here comes the rain again
falling from the stars
drenched...

1. MyNameIsSt.Jimmy

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   Nov 15th 2005 !⃝

   OMG! It's not Billy Joe nor Billy Joel! Billy Joel is another singer! Geeze people. IT'S BILLIE JOE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD! If you are going to do one of these interpretations, at least do it right!
   
   Anyways, this song is about Billie Joe's father dying, and how he's dealt with it and not dealt with it. He died somewhere near Sept. 21 and also, it could be about 9/11. It refers to everything that happened!
   
   One more thing, for all you weirdo people who think his father died this year, go back to where you came from. Andy Armstrong died when Billie Joe was only 10 years old.
2. anonymous

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   Nov 13th 2005 !⃝

   This song is about Billie Joe's Dad who died of cancer when Billie was only 10 years old. (in September of 1982) The Wake Me Up When September Ends part comes from the painful memories that return in the month of his father's pass (obviously September) and Billie just wants to sleep through the month, wake up and the whole thing was just a horrible dream. The video is about 9/11 so that people can relate to it (some people just want to wake up and realize it was a bad dream too).
3. anonymous

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   Nov 11th 2005 !⃝

   In my opinion this song is not only about an isolated fact. The author associates September with painful facts such as his father death, the terrorist attack in New York and probably other facts of his personal life. The month of September in the romantic literature is also associated to sadness, pain, darkness and death as Summer finishes in the Northern Hemisphere, representing the end of life's cicle and the darkness of the sky in contradition to the inocence, brightness and happiness of Spring and Summer. Also the number of the track is 11. Probably there is also a meaning behind that as a tribute to the victims of the terrorist massacre of September 11, 2001. To strenghten the meaning of the song, it was released a live version of this song dedicated to the victims of Hurricane Katrina that even though it didnt happen exactly in September it was quite near.
4. anonymous

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   Nov 8th 2005 !⃝

   Yeh this song is about losing his dad and the pain that he still feels. I can relate to this - my father passed away in February this year, and being 21 I've been able to deal with it better than if I was 10 (he was ten). It would have been really hard - and the lyrics express it perfectly. You feel his pain.
   
   There isn't a day that goes past without me thinking of my dad, and I'm sure he is the same. He probably wanted to express those feelings for ages and now choose to do it as a song on his album.
   
   Great Stuff.
5. anonymous

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   Nov 6th 2005 !⃝

   Billie Joe did write the song "Wake Me Up When September Ends" about his father who died of cancer in September of 1982, but the album is supposed to be a rock opera. The song was written about his father but it is supposed to imply a feeling of loss. In the album, it comes after "Letterbomb." On this track, Jesus of Suburbia finds out that none of his friends or girl friend like him anymore. Now the Saint Jimmy or Jesus of Suburbia character has lost all of his friends and girl friend. He left home to find something better but now, he's lost everything he came there for is gone. What he had been was innocent but his innocence didn't last. His "friends" broke him down and now he's just "dead" inside.
6. anonymous

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   Nov 5th 2005 !⃝

   Thats the great thing about music and lyrics, you can interpet anything and everything. The lyrics are so open and healing that it can transfer to any sad situation. This song helps heal the soul, and I am sure that's what it did for him. GREAT SONG!
7. cherryxbliss

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   Nov 4th 2005 !⃝

   I was wondering why some of the kids at school were looking at me funny when I said "Poor Billie's dad" when this song came on the radio during detention. They are the moron's who think it's about 9/11 and wars.
   
   The song itself has nothing to do with war. For the individual, it can embody all the feelings of war, but that's not what the actual song is about.
8. anonymous

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   Nov 2nd 2005 !⃝

   I agree that there are multiple interpretations, but video's interpretation of the song hits close to home for me because my boyfriend left for the military this September, and this song embodies all of the feeling I have inside.
9. anonymous

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   Oct 23rd 2005 !⃝

   Green Day wrote the song about Billie Joe's dad dying, it has been 20 years since his dad passed away.
   Like it says in the song, my father's come to pass, 20 years has gone so fast.
10. cmthompson

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    Oct 10th 2005 !⃝

    JOS is alone again. Lost his friends, the only girl he ever loved, he's out of home, out of job, and back where he started, sad and alone on the streets. He describes himself as innocent, or at least he was, and he just didn't last. They broke him down, and he's just dead inside. This is also, on a more personal note, a side song about Billie Joe's late father, who died years ago (September 1982), when Billie Joe was 10. Both explanations apply.
11. anonymous

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    Oct 5th 2005 !⃝

    Haven't you guys seen the video? I don't know exactly what the meaning is behind it or why they wrote it, but it's about a young couple in love and the guy signs up for the army.
    
    It hits kinda close to home for me because my boyfriend of five months just signed up for the Army National Guard as active infantry.

    This interpretation has been marked as poor. view anyway
12. anonymous

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    Oct 3rd 2005 !⃝

    There's no right or wrong way to interpret music. A good writer will leave it open ended so lots of people can find answers to their problems and troubles in the writers music. Green Day did an extraordinary job in doing this with American idiot where anyone can relate to the characters or the songs in the album. Music is the key to the soul and thats what its all about.
13. anonymous

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    Sep 15th 2005 !⃝

    Contrary to popular belief, this song is not about 9/11
    
    This song is the first time that Billie Joe has written about the death of his father, who died in September of 1982 (when Billie was 10 years old)
    
    This is the one song that veers off the story line that is American Idiot...it can however, be tied in with JOS mourning the loss of Whatsername...either way it is a song about the parting with a loved one...which can relate to Billies story, the music video, the American Idiot story line, or 9/11
14. anonymous

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    Aug 31st 2005 !⃝

    This song is about Billie's father's passing and how he deals with it twenty years later. Even though it has nothing in common with the rest of the record, he felt putting this song on the record was a way of expressing his feelings.
15. Snipedcky

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    Aug 29th 2005 !⃝

    This song has nothing to do with 9/11 (I can understand why people think it is, because of the reference to September).
    
    The song is actually about Billy Joe Armstrong's Father, whom he lost to Cancer many years ago. The lyrics "like my fathers come to pass seven years has gone so fast wake me up when september ends" are a good example of this. If you have watched VH2's Story Tellers with Green Day, Billy Joe says that this song is about his Father.
    
    I'm not sure why the video is about War, but I guess people can relate to the song more that way.

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