Cigarettes and Valentines (partially found Green Day album; 2003)

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Green Day Band Image.jpg

A photo of the band.

Status: Partially Found

Cigarettes and Valentines is an unreleased album by pop-punk band Green Day, recorded in 2003. Meant to be a follow-up to their 2000 album Warning, the band claims that the master recordings were stolen close to the conclusion of production.[1] Instead of re-recording the album; the band decided to move on and create something different, resulting in American Idiot. The band eventually considered this "a blessing in disguise," saying that Cigarettes and Valentines wasn't "maximum Green Day." [2][3]

Availability

Bassist Mike Dirnt admitted that backups had been made of the masters but claimed that they "just [weren't] the same as the originals," and the band ended up doing nothing with them. There was speculation that the copies had been reworked into Money Money 2020, an album released by The Network, but lead vocalist/guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong denied any connection between the two projects.

In a 2016 interview, the band elaborated on the status of the album. While the rough mixes were eventually recovered, Armstrong claimed that the album was "pretty much in the vault right now" and, apart from a handful of songs such as the titular Cigarettes and Valentines, said it was unlikely that they would officially release the album. According to Dirnt, the band tends to "look forward rather than reaching back." [4]

On March 8th, 2019, film director and friend of the band John Roecker posted a picture of a reference CD of American Idiot B-Sides that was made for the band and for internal use within the record label. It is likely that some of these songs may have been recorded during the Cigarettes and Valentines sessions, as it includes four of the five confirmed songs and one song that had long been rumored to be on the album.

The five songs confirmed to have been on the album are "Cigarettes and Valentines," "Too Much Too Soon," "Waste Away," "Sleepyhead," and "Dropout."[5] "Too Much Too Soon" was confirmed to be on the album by Billie Joe during a radio interview in 2010; however, there are no circulating recordings of the interview. It was rumoured that a song called "Walk Away" was on the album as well. For a period of time, that was considered debunked by DJ Rosstar, who interviewed Mike Dirnt, when he admitted that he meant to say "Waste Away" but misspoke and said, "Walk Away." However, when the band released "Walk Away" on their 2012 album Tre, it only re-fueled the rumor. "Too Much Too Soon" saw an official release as a b-side on the "American Idiot" single in 2004, and a live recording of "Cigarettes and Valentines" was released on the album Awesome as Fuck in 2011.

Confirmed Songs

Song Title Studio Version
Cigarettes and Valentines Partially Found
Too Much Too Soon Found
Waste Away Lost
Sleepyhead Lost
Dropout Lost

Gallery

"Cigarettes and Valentines" live performance.

"Too Much Too Soon"

ObscureMediaTV's video on the subject.

All Things Lost's video on the subject.

References