Green Day: Basket Case Meaning

Song Released: 1994

Basket Case Lyrics

Do you have the time
to listen to me whine
About nothing and everything
all at once
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it

Sometimes I give myself the creeps
Sometimes my mind plays tricks on me
It...

1. 1TOP RATED

   #1 top rated interpretation:
   Lukehubb

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   Jan 3rd 2010 !⃝

   Well with the catcher in the rye being Billy Joe's favorite novel I think the song relates to both Billy Joe and the novels protagonist Holden Caulfield. The lyrics do you have the time to listen to me whine...all at once I think r saying how Holden Caulfield the whole novel is whining about pretty much everything being superficial/ "phony" and in the book holden sees a prostitute and decides not to have sex with her explaining I went to a whore who said my life's a bore also in the novel he starts being delusional and starts to break so ya.

2. 2TOP RATED

   #2 top rated interpretation:
   chump

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   Dec 30th 2005 !⃝

   Self explanatory, this song is about someone who is paraniod. Billie Joe suffers from panic disorder too, so that has some contribution to the song. "The only way I knew how to deal with it was to write a song about it." - Billie Joe

3. 3TOP RATED

   #3 top rated interpretation:
   MyNameIsSt.Jimmy

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   Nov 15th 2005 !⃝

   This song is about Billie Joe's panic attacks and how he had to deal with them as a teenager and young adult. And smoking pot did NOT solve it. He still has them, but not as often.
4. anonymous

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   Jan 10th 2016 !⃝

   The panic attacks and how he would smoke pot and weed. The drugs he ingested helped with his panic attacked because he was always high and/of stoned from his WAYYYYYY too much of overdose. Personally I don't care that he does it, honestly it makes him way cooler and males me love him and his music and mike and tre even MORE! the drugs help him and if he suffers from those horrible panic attacks, I'm glad that he found a cure for it. And Al the other songs they right are either from their lives or someone elses messed up lives. That or world and USA events
5. anonymous

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   Sep 15th 2014 !⃝

   It's got a hint of the Green Day-type rebelliousness, possibly undercurrents of BJA's drug abuse. In the end, it's a joke song, probably written when they were all stoned...just for a change. XD Mike, Tre and BJA were/are all druggies.

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

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   Jan 2nd 2012 !⃝

   It's about billie joes panick attacks. And for some reason stupid as fucking retards say that pot helped him solve it, when these dumbfucks don't understand that pot makes you super paranoid. So that would make it worse for him. Some people are just so fucking mentally handicapped that it makes me want to damage small children.
7. anonymous

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   Dec 11th 2010 !⃝

   Billie Joe suffers anxiety attacks by the, "Am I just paranoid" part, and the, "I'm just stoned" from smoking waaaaaaaaayyy too much weed.
8. anonymous

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   Oct 22nd 2010 !⃝

   But there's still one thing I don't understand: why is the song called "basket case" ????
   
   
   Thx
9. greendayfreak90

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   Aug 6th 2009 !⃝

   If you saw the video, you can tell that its about someone...(Billie Joe) who has a mental illness.
   Example A: "Do you have the time, to listen to me whine, about nothing and everything all at once...I am one of those, melodramatic fools, neurotic to the bone, no doubt about it"
   Example B:The video takes place at a hospital
   
   ....you do the math
10. anonymous

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    Jun 3rd 2008 !⃝

    It's pretty biographical.
    
    Billie Joe has panic attacks and paranoid shit. It's about someone with all that. It's just like how he feels spilled out in music.
    
    Whoever said pot causes most cases of schizophrenia is a fucking idiot.
11. x_lily_x

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    Oct 4th 2007 !⃝

    Well it's about mental illness anyway. The video explains it all.
12. blackparade

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    Mar 18th 2007 !⃝

    I think this song is about a guy not knowing he has mental issues but starts to figure it out (It all keeps adding up, I think I'm cracking up!) ??????
13. anonymous

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    Sep 20th 2006 !⃝

    Well for one pot is the cause of most cases of skitzophrenia (can't spell it) and so yes it could have very well have been the cause of billies fits .. I don't know much about billie's childhood but if it's true that he had these attacks before drugs then the drugs probably helped him or made them worse..More then likely helped him though...
14. anonymous

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    Aug 19th 2006 !⃝

    U don't get panic attacks from smoking pot.
15. anonymous

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    Apr 3rd 2006 !⃝

    I think it's about the depression and anxiety you feel after you quit smoking weed(if you've done it for a long time) and trying to figure out what's wrong with yourself (went to a shrink). It's how I feel right now after smoking for 2 years.
16. Avid255

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    Nov 10th 2005 !⃝

    That interpretaion below explains it, but it wasn't from smoking pot. He had panic attacks from normal things we have, smoking pot solved it.
17. anonymous

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    Oct 13th 2005 !⃝

    This song is about Billie Joe's panic attack disorder and his paranoia disorder. In the line "Am I just paranoid? Am I just stoned?" He doesn't know!! He suffers becuase of smoking too much pot. ;)

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