Murder City
Murder City Lyrics
Desperate, but not hopeless
I feel so useless in the murder city
Desperate, but not helpless
The clock strikes midnight in the murder city
[Verse 1]
I'm wide awake after the riots
This demonstration of our anguish
This empty laughter has no reason
Like a bottle of your favorite poison
We are the last call, and we're so pathetic
[Chorus]
Desperate, but not hopeless
I feel so useless in the murder city
Desperate, but not helpless
The clock strikes midnight in the murder city
[Guitar Solo]
[Verse 2]
Christian's cryin' in the bathroom
And I just want to bum a cigarette
We've come so far, we've been so wasted
It's written all over our faces
We are the last call, and we're so pathetic
Desperate, but not hopeless
I feel so useless in the murder city
Desperate, but not helpless
The clock strikes midnight in the murder city
Desperate, but not hopeless
I feel so useless in the murder city
Desperate, but not helpless
The clock strikes midnight in the
About
On several 21st Century Breakdown tracks, including this one, frontman Billie Joe Armstrong sings higher than on previous albums. He told Billboard magazine:
Even on our harder rock numbers, like ‘Murder City,’ I was doing it a little bit of falsetto. There are two different kinds of falsetto people can do. One is the irritating kind, and then there’s the other kind, where it sounds like it’s an appropriate thing for the song.
Whilst most of the songs on 21st Century Breakdown were penned by Armstrong in the final period of Bush’s second term, this was the one track on the album to be written after Obama’s election to the presidency.
Q&A
Find answers to frequently asked questions about the song and explore its deeper meaning
Billie Joe: This was the last song written for the record. Me and Mike and Tre were in downtown Oakland and we went out to have drinks. It was right after these demonstrations happened. This kid was shot by a cop.
Mike: While handcuffed.
Billie Joe: While handcuffed. We were walking in, I’m wide awake after the riot. We weren’t there for the riot, but it was right after. So it was kind of like picturesque and you see these sort of blowing newspapers around and I remember it being particularly windy that night. And you kinda felt like there was a, I don’t know, like a ghost or something like that. But we were out, we were out just getting fucked up, we were getting hammered, so it was this kind of strange contradiction going on, you know. That song gets stuck in my head more than the other songs do.
– via Blunt Magazine
- 9.Peacemaker
- 11.Murder City
- 15.The Static Age
- 16.21 Guns
- 18.See the Light
- 21.That’s All Right
