Amanda

Song Meaning

"You know you have those people...like, you have a first love and all the sudden it's just like they're a 're-occurring dream.' A re-occurring dream that happens to you all the time. So, this re-occurring dream happened to me, starting with this song called 'She.' And then it kind of travelled its way into another song called ['Stuart and the Ave']. And then it travelled its way to American Idiot in a song called 'Whatsername'...but now, it's travelled out again, and I say 'Fuck it, I'm gonna name the girl. Fuck it, it's been fuckin'...19 years ago.' This song's called 'Amanda.'" -- Billie Joe describing 'Amanda' at Red7 in November 2011

"Yeah, she�s in ['Amanda'], and all the way back to a song like �Stuart and the Ave� [from Insomniac]. She�s an old friend who goes back to a long time ago�kind of like a recurring dream. She�s shown up in different songs here and there that are bitter or bittersweet [like 'Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)']. I wrote the song �Amanda� from a perspective of, �Okay, now that we�re grown-ups�� She�s got her kids and her husband, and I�ve got my family. And it�s just asking the question, �How are you? What�s life like for you? This is what I�m up to.� We had a chance to reconnect and talk a little bit. And that was that." -- Billie Joe

The song title references Billie Joe�s brief relationship with a militant feminist punk-rock girl named Amanda during the Gilman Street days. She broke up with him, and has supposedly haunted his memories ever since. The narrator appears, in some places, to be reminding himself of what broke their relationship apart. Interestingly enough, he barely says anything negative about Amanda. He blames the demise of their relationship almost solely on himself, saying that he "wasn't strong enough" to be her man. Additionally, the narrator is curious about how Amanda is doing now, which again shows the way that she still occupies his mind from time to time.