10 Classic Rock Music Songs That Sounded Better Stripped Down

The traditional punk rock approach to ballads is that you don’t do ballads. The ethos of punk always had a lot of emotion behind it, but that emotion usually had to do with anger at being kept down by the man or frustration with modern life. Green Day had grown into something more than just punk though, and Last Night on Earth is where Billie Joe got a little bit more intimate.

Though many fans award this kind of accolade to Wake Me Up When September Ends, 21st Century Breakdown had a much finer attention to detail behind the production, turning this simple tune about romantic devotion into one of the best Beatles tracks that none of the Beatles ever wrote. Framing the whole thing as a love letter to his old flame, Billie Joe sounds like he’s overcome with emotion on every other word, especially when he goes for falsetto in the chorus of the song about what he would do for his lover even if it means losing it all in the fire.

While Green Day aren’t really known for bringing in keyboards on a lot of their songs, having the piano take the lead for most of this song is a much smarter choice than the guitars, as Billie only plays tiny licks to push the song forward. For all the dirtiness that exists in punk music, there’s a certain purity behind Last Night on Earth, working just as well as a lullaby to a child as it would be for a long lost letter to your family back home.