Track Listing

1. 2000 Light Years Away
2. One For The Razorbacks
3. Welcome To Paradise
4. Christie Road
5. Private Ale
6. Dominated Love Slave
7. One Of My Lies
8. 80
9. Android
10. No One Knows
11. Who Wrote Holden Caulfield
12. Words I Might Have Ate
13. Sweet Children
14. Best Thing In Town
15. Strangeland
16. My Generation

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32115 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-01
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

CD Description
In many ways Green Day's first "proper" album--the debut 1039/SMOOTHED OUT SLAPPY HOURS was stitched together from multiple sessions and didn't feature the definitive lineup with drummer Tre Cool--KERPLUNK is an early-1990s milestone. One listen to this album makes it clear why Green Day, rather than any of their Bay Area peers, were the band that won the major-label lottery; they were simply better than the vast majority of their contemporaries. This record's version of "Welcome to Paradise", while rougher than the eventual hit single from 1994's DOOKIE, is only one of several clearly brilliant pop songs delivered with an approach that's part Buzzcocks, part Go-Go's, mixing sharply drawn neuroses and sweet pop hooks. "Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?" and the downright sweet "2000 Light Years Away", an unabashed love song to the woman who singer Billie Joe Armstrong would soon marry, are just as good. This edition also adds the four-song SWEET CHILDREN EP, which includes a brash cover of the Who's "My Generation".

Customer Reviews

Green Day's Best
Often a disappointment to newer converts of the Warning/Shenanigans style to Green Day, however Kerplunk! is one of the best albums written, a worthy accolade considering their impressive list. As an excellent prelude to Dookie and the following works, anyone with an appreciation of Green Day will enjoy this.

With a list of impressive songs, from 2000 Light Years Away, One for the Razorbacks, through Private Ale, One of My Lies and Who Wrote Holden Cauldfield, this is up there with Green Day's latter works. The headline track is undoubtedly the first version of Welcome to Paradise, whose rawer style even seems to improve upon the Dookie version. The four bonus tracks at the end are also excellent, finishing with a classic cover of The Who's 'My Generation'.

Overall, a superb album, and any fan of Green Day calling themselves that must add it to their collection.

the day of the green
right from the moment the punky '2000 light years away' first blasts itself out from your stereo, you know this is gonna be a helluva good album. and, quite frankly, you'd be right! this is an example of 'the' green day sound so many people know and love, it is quite similar to the approach on dookie, and Billie Joe Armstrong (vocals/guitar) Mike Dirnt (bass/vocals) and Tre Cool (drums) keep the punk pure on this record. whether you consider it good or bad, there are no 'time of your life's or 'macys day parade's here. the band were only 19 when they made Kerplunk! and it is amazing how good the music is at such a young age (they had already got one album (1039/smoothed out slappy hours) and a few EPs under their belt).

my personal favourite songs are '2000 light years away', 'one for the razorbacks', 'welcome to paradise' (which was so good they put it on dookie as well), 'private ale', 'one of my lies' and of course the eternally stupid and hilarious country and western-style 'dominated love slave'. not that the other tracks arent excellent.

the last four tracks ('sweet children', 'best thing in town', 'strangeland' and a great cover of the who's 'my generation') were added on to the album at a later date. they were originally recorded several years before and the sound quality is quite poor, but it still shows the even rawer punk than normal that green day started out with. of these, 'my generation' is undoubtedly the best, a great tribute to one of billie joes fave bands, the who.

overall a great album, a must for any green day fan (or any rock fan for that matter)

One Of My Lies
After the successful release of 2039 Smoothed Out Slappy Hours, Green Day recorded this outstanding album. I've been a green day fan for years, and still this album remains my favorite (closely followed by Insomniac).

Because of Green Day's success rapidly growing, Kerplunk was the last album they recorded on an independent label called Lookout before moving to Reprise where they released the album everyone loves Dookie.

Still, this album goes back to the roots of green day's success, and contains songs that they still play to this day at gigs. 2000 Light Years Away, Christie Road and Dominated Love Slave stand out as some of the best tracks to most people of this album. Welcome To Paradise was re-recorded for Dookie because of its success. But for me, the most brilliant tracks are the lower known ones. Private Ale, No One Knows and Who Wrote Holden Caulfield clearly stand out a superb tracks, but the best track off the album, and probably one of the best Green Day tracks ever, is One Of My Lies. Superb.

If your a Green Day fan, this is a must have. Buy it.

(Also... cool over of The Who's My Generation)