10 Bands That Ripped Off Themselves
5. Stop When the Red Lights Flash - Green Day
Most Green Day fans have come to grips with the fact that the Uno Dos and Tré trilogy was a bit of a misfire. While not every track on those were full-blown stinkers or anything, even Billie Joe Armstrong himself has stated that the rollout seemed like a bit too much too soon. Though many Green Day fans had their fair share of catchy tunes, it gets a little dicey when you end up cribbing from your greatest album.
On the surface, Stop When the Red Lights Flash sounds like a decent Green Day rocker, with a catchy guitar line and a vocal that matches it with the punchy chorus of "I'll make you surrender." However, the real problem here is when you realize that you've actually heard that guitar line before. While the tempo has sped up by a little bit, the central riff of this song is a direct rip from one of the transitional sections of their opus Homecoming off of American Idiot.
Billie Joe may have subconsciously borrowed the melody from one of his other songs, but the fact that one of the bridge parts from one great song is good enough to be another Green Day song unto itself was bound to raise a few eyebrows. Despite having some pretty interesting moments, songs like this are why the trilogy feels like Green Day on easy mode.