The Bad Penny (beta)

In the wake of the attacks on September 11, 2001, radio station conglomerate Clear Channel Communications banned a slew of unlikely songs from the airwaves, including Simon & Garfunkel‘s “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” John Lennon‘s “Imagine,” Led Zeppelin‘s “Stairway to Heaven,” and many more. Another band that fell victim to the reactionary crackdown on free speech during a terrifying time in America was Green Day and their song “Brain Stew.”

The spirit of punk rock is to scream truth to power, no matter what the cost. Bands of that ilk tend to gravitate to the underground and indie record labels, where they can fully exercise their creative freedom and execute their vision without fear of corporate interference. Green Day is one of the rare – and undeniably most popular – punk-rock bands that, despite their fearless and sometimes controversial outspokenness, have spent the majority of their career on a major label (the Warner Bros. Records-owned Reprise).