Ask just about anyone to name the biggest punk rock band of the past 30 years, and they’ll likely agree that band is Green Day, with their string of crossover hits, arena-packing tours, and an estimated 85 million records sold worldwide.

But this lofty stature was anything but preordained when three young street urchins named Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals, guitar), Mike Dirnt (bass, backing vocals) and John Kiffmeyer (drums) stumbled into Art of Ears Studio, in Hayward, California, to capture their debut album, 39/Smooth, in the waning days of 1989.

To be exact, it took 22 hours, between 4:30 pm on December 29th, 1989 and midnight on January 2nd, 1990, as Green Day proudly stated on 39/Smooth’s rear sleeve, and if you’re in the market for a rare first pressing, be sure to check the sleeve for the original Lookout! Records P.O. Box address in Laytonville, CA.

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Of course, never in a million years could the members of Green Day have dreamed that these early, limited pressings would one day fetch hundreds of dollars on Discogs (look for the ultra-rare see-through green vinyl, just 800 copies), nor even that their third album, released four years later and featuring new drummer Tré Cool, would catapult them to stardom, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves …

Formed in the East Bay, in 1987, Green Day (originally called Sweet Children) partook of the area’s self-supporting punk rock scene, which established a central hub in a non-profit, volunteer-run club at 924 Gilman Street, in Berkeley; there, the band members cut their teeth alongside fellow DYI hopefuls such as J Church, Crimpshine, Spazz, Neurosis (then still a hardcore proposition), Operation Ivy (later to evolve into Rancid), and many others.

In an interview with NPR’s Fresh Air in 2010, Armstrong recalled of this formative period, “I had a place called Gilman Street, it was a punk-rock club up in Berkeley, and I was just introduced to a lot of new ideas. I think that was my escape.”

And, like other Gilman Street regulars, Green Day (whose moniker, if you hadn’t already guessed, referenced their passion for pot) eventually hooked up with Lookout! Records, whose ties to the East Bay punk community were inextricably tied to the same club.

Label founder Larry Livermore described it as follows in an interview with Kerrang! Magazine: “There wasn’t a lot [involved in] joining Lookout! in those days. All of us were outcasts that nobody took seriously. Green Day were so young at the time that the idea of being on a record didn’t really compute with them. So when I said, ‘I want to make a record with you guys,’ Billie Joe’s answer was, ‘Er, yeah, okay.’ And that’s all there was to it. Nobody else was interested in putting out records by them.”

The Debut of 39/Smooth

Released with zero fanfare, on April, Friday the 13th, 1990, 39/Smooth was an intentionally raw, rambunctious (read: barely produced), yet infectious 31-minute blast of punk rock – owing much of its three-chord economy to the Ramones.

But excepting a strange fascination with arpeggios, songs like “I Was There” “Disappearing Boy” and “Rest” were all unmistakably Green Day – as were Billie Joe’s already recognizable vocal sneers and crunchy power chords, as well as Dirnt’s hyperactive bass and harmony singing (keep in mind, both were just 17).

And three standout songs, in particular: “Green Day,” “Going to Pasalacqua” and “16,” with its trademarked staccatos, were very much test-runs for Dookie’s multi-platinum formula: hard-driving, spunky, melodic, and converting fans fast!

Sure enough: even before the release of 1991’s sophomore set Kerplunk, 39/Smooth was already out of print, so Lookout! Banked on the growing interest in compact discs by repackaging Green Day’s debut with the Slappy and 1,000 Hours EPs, plus the outtake, “I Want to Be Alone,” onto an “enhanced” collection renamed 1,039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours.

Then, Dookie’s massive success in 1994 sent tens of thousands of fans scurrying into stores in search of more Green Day product, so, today, 39/Smooth is one of just three Lookout! releases that eventually sold over a million copies, proving that even the biggest punk rock band in the world, had to start somewhere.



