“Basket Case” was Green Day‘s second hit single and their international breakthrough, as it was their only Top 10 hit in the UK in the ’90s. Infamously, it’s about experiencing confusion due to panic attacks but was treated as salacious by some because a word was censored on American radio and there was controversy around the words “whore,” the bleeped word, and “stoned” in the lyrics.
mad/no/mad is another pseudonym of Barry Gottlieb aka the internet humorist Mad Dog. It’s his folk singer persona which he uses to cover famous songs on occasion.
Instead of the aggressive, palm-muted strumming of the original, his cover opens with a sort of country shuffle on rhythm guitar. Gottlieb speaks the lyrics as if he’s doing a talking blues and the pace is a gentle one. His delivery is just the tiniest bit campy, as if he’s willing to let on that this might not be the most serious he’s ever been, but you have to think about it.
The arrangement is actually quite elaborate, with multiple guitars – acoustic, bass, electric – plus drums, keyboards, keyboards subbing in for horns, various percussion, what sounds like a plucked fiddle, backing vocals and maybe even a choir. But it’s all used pretty subtly – Gottlieb’s voice is always front and center – and despite all the instruments the feel is still very much of a folk song, albeit maybe a little closer to chamber folk than traditional folk.
It’s a fun version of a song that was once controversial among parents and media and is now in the Library of Congress.
