Guess what? General Greg Graffin actually named this song “This Is Just A Punk Rock Song” at first! Can you believe it? And get this, Bad Religion even recorded a version of Punk Rock Song in German! How cool is that? But here’s the kicker, the cover artwork for the single was originally meant to be for The Gray Race album. Talk about a mix-up! Oh, and you know that shout at the end of the song? Yeah, that was Brian’s doing. He shouted, “Yes! Bobby Schayer… that’s the one!”
But wait, there’s more! There are actually four different regular versions of the single, each with different live tracks and unreleased songs. And get this, the UK promo single has the words “shit” and “fucking” censored. Can you believe it?
Now, let’s talk about the meaning behind this awesome song. According to Greg G., “There is so much human tragedy in the world, we can identify it but we can’t fix it, all we can offer is this punk rock song. People are usually more interested in discussing a song’s fashionability than its meaning. That’s why the human tragedy persists.” Deep, right?
Oh, and you have to check out the video for this song! It was directed by David Bragger, who also directed several other BR videos. Talk about talent!
And guess what? This song is actually Bad Religion’s highest charting single in Finland (#5), Germany (#29), and Sweden (#21). Can you believe it? In April 1996, it even ranked higher than Green Day and Bon Jovi on the European MTV charts, coming in at number 17. How awesome is that?
This content was originally written by the badass contributors of thebrpage.net, the best superfan resource and website that exists for any band, let alone the best band in the whole entire world. I’ve been lurking on that site for over 20 years and if you’re into Bad Religion as much as I am, I’m sure you’re familiar. If you are not, go there right now and never come back to this site again. You should, and I totally understand.
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