Extraordinary Girl
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"Extraordinary Girl" | ||
---|---|---|
Song by Green Day | ||
from the album American Idiot | ||
Released | 21 September 2004 | |
Recorded | 23 February 2003-January 2004 | |
Genre | Punk rock, Pop Punk | |
Length | 3:33 | |
Label | Reprise | |
Writer(s) | Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool, and Mike Dirnt | |
Producer(s) | Rob Cavallo and Green Day | |
American Idiot track listing | ||
She's a Rebel (8) |
"Extraordinary Girl" (9) |
Letterbomb (10) |
"Extraordinary Girl" is the 9th track of the Green Day album American Idiot. It is 3 minutes and thirty-three seconds in duration.
The song is about the character in Green Day's rock opera album American Idiot. It is a continuation of the description Jesus Of Suburbia's feelings for Whatsername but we begin to see cracks in their relationship 'she gets so sick of crying'.
The unusual percussion instruments in the song's intro (bongo drums in particular), combined with the electric sitar that joins it eight measures later, give the song a Middle Eastern feel until a standard drum kit and electric guitar take over where the sitar and bongos leave off. This introductory segment is evocative of The Beatles' music circa 1966, when John Lennon and Paul McCartney introduced increasingly exotic instruments into the repertoire of rock.
Extraordinary Girl is in the key of A; the aforementioned intro is taken at 112 bpm which segues into the song proper at 142 bpm.
Jesus of Suburbia meets Whatsername in the song She's a Rebel and they begin dating. As Jesus falls thoroughly in love with her, he is torn between living the way she does and the way St. Jimmy, his alter-ego wants him to. As later seen in "Letterbomb," Whatsername wants him to fight for the city, whereas Saint Jimmy doesn't care. In the CD case lyric book, part of the song is written in Whatsername's handwriting, mainly the part of the song that describes "him".