Murder City

Album: 21st Century Breakdown (2009)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • 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.

Comments: 5

  • Sc from Anchorage, AkYeah, it was about the BART shooting :( Billie, Mike, and Tre were there right after it happened, they had no clue what was going on at first.
  • Teresa from Benicia, CaAlso I think this has a bit to do with the BART shooting on New Years Eve... He said something to that effect at the San Jose concert. It was a scary big deal here in the Bay Area
  • Emily from Dudley, United Kingdomgrate song i love it
  • James from Indianapolis, InGreat song. Love the album. I got all the songs on my MP3 as soon as I was able to
  • Michael from Tucson, AzStupid politics, great song.
see more comments

Editor's Picks

Grateful Dead Characters

Grateful Dead CharactersMusic Quiz

Many unusual folks appear in Grateful Dead songs. Can you identify them?

Mike Love of The Beach Boys

Mike Love of The Beach BoysSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer/lyricist of The Beach Boys talks about coming up with the words for "Good Vibrations," "Fun, Fun, Fun," "Kokomo" and other classic songs.

Gary Brooker of Procol Harum

Gary Brooker of Procol HarumSongwriter Interviews

The lead singer and pianist for Procol Harum, Gary talks about finding the musical ideas to match the words.

Richard Marx

Richard MarxSongwriter Interviews

Richard explains how Joe Walsh kickstarted his career, and why he chose Hazard, Nebraska for a hit.

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin Popoff

Rush: Album by Album - A Conversation With Martin PopoffSong Writing

A talk with Martin Popoff about his latest book on Rush and how he assessed the thousands of albums he reviewed.

George Harrison

George HarrisonFact or Fiction

Did Eric Clapton really steal George's wife? What's the George Harrison-Monty Python connection? Set the record straight with our Fact or Fiction quiz.