Give Me Novacaine

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"Give Me Novacaine"

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	3:25
Label	Reprise
Writer(s)	Billie Joe Armstrong, Tré Cool, and Mike Dirnt
Producer(s)	Rob Cavallo and Green Day
American Idiot track listing
St. Jimmy (6)	"Give Me Novacaine" (7)	She's a Rebel (8)

"Give Me Novacaine" is a song by Green Day, the seventh track from their latest album, American Idiot. Lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong is reported as saying "My wife Adrienne told me to put this song on the record" and suggested he wasn't sure it was a good idea.

[edit] Song Information

"Give Me Novacaine" is the 7th track on Green Day's American Idiot album. It is 3 minutes and 25 seconds in duration. Its key signature is equivalent to that of St. Jimmy, but the use of the natural minor and its fourth mean it is in F-sharp minor rather than A.

On the album it is performed at an adagio of 78 bpm and is played with a capo on the fourth fret to give the chords the proper voicing.

The song's title is an allusion to Novocaine, the trade name of procaine, an anesthetic usually administered by dental health care professionals before extractions or root canals.

"Give Me Novacaine" is most likely from the point of view of Whatsername and is about her perception of St. Jimmy since references to Jimmy are heard throughout the song. Also, this song segues into "She's a Rebel", which, conversely, is a song from Jimmy's point of view and is about his perception of Whatsername. These two songs mark the beginning of their relationship. The development of their relationship occurs immediately after in Extraordinary Girl, and the climax follows in Letterbomb.

You can hear someone coughing in the second chorus. The opening drum beat closely resembles the opening drumming to "Bullet the Blue Sky" by U2 and "Little Guitars" by Van Halen.