Sweet Children (song)

This article is about the first song from the Sweet Children EP. For information about the EP itself, see "Sweet Children (EP)".

Sweet Children
Written by:	Billie Joe Armstrong
Song length:	2:41
Album:	Sweet Children (1990) Kerplunk (CD/cassette) (1992)
Chronology
Previous song:	"Words I Might Have Ate"
Next song:	"Best Thing in Town"

"Sweet Children" is the first song on the EP of the same name. It was later included on CD and cassette releases of Kerplunk, as the 13th track and the first bonus track.

Green Day's band name used to be "Sweet Children", and this song was written during that time, with drummer Al Sobrante.

Song meaning

This song is about losing your innocence when you grow up. Girls start hanging out with the "wrong" kind of guys, who lie to get what they want from the girls. The girls start dating these "wrong" guys and lose their purity, or innocence. These "wrong" guys may seem popular and look like the future is all theirs, but in the end of the song one of them kills a man, the worst thing one can do in life, and has to run away from everything, completely destroying the life he had. Alternatively, this last verse could be about the guy finally getting the girl in his bed, having sex with her and then bailing out. This small story shows that you better stick around the good and calm friends instead of letting yourself drift away towards the big-mouthed bad guys. If you do so, you'll end up just fine in the end. The title of the song refers to the fact that all potential evil-doers were once "sweet children".

Lyrics

Main article: Sweet Children/lyrics