John Rzeznik, the lead singer for the Goo Goo Dolls, has said that the song “Iris” is about a girl who he used to know. According to him, she was “the kind of girl who would light up the room just by walking in.” He wrote the song as a tribute to her memory after she died from an overdose. The lyrics are incredibly touching and reflect the joy and sadness that come with losing someone you love. If you’re ever feeling down, I highly recommend listening to “Iris.” It’s sure to make you feel better.
“Iris” is the Goo Goo Dolls’ soundtrack from the movie City of Angels, later released on Dizzy Up the Girl. “Iris” for the musical group is the most successful single.
Goo Goo Dolls is little known to Russians. It is not even clear why their best soundtrack “Iris” is not known to many in Russia. In America, he was appreciated in 1998. Then he soared to the top of the charts and immediately earned 3 Grammy nominations. The single was even included by the Rolling Stones magazine in the list of “100 Greatest Pop Songs” (39th place).
“Iris” is a kind of feature of the musical group, the single was recognized by critics. it is an indispensable component of the band’s live performances.
Song writing history «Iris» — The Goo Goo Dolls
“Iris” is a wonderful rock ballad with a colorful guitar solo (after the second verse). A piece of music was born thanks to cinema. The band recorded the soundtrack for the movie “City of Angels” with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. The characters are depicted on horseback. According to the plot of the movie, an angel falls in love with an ordinary earthly girl. But he can’t just be with her. An immortal angel must become an ordinary person. The ballad in the film begins to sound when the character played by Cage has already made his choice and, inspired, goes to his beloved. However, in the “City of Angels” the song does not sound for long, its strongest moments are not reproduced.
John Rzeznik, the songwriter and frontman of the musical group, said that when writing the song, he imagined himself as the main character of the movie and tried to realize what it would feel like to give up immortality for love. Rzeznik managed to analyze such a situation, since he created such a touching ballad.
The original demo he recorded featured a non-standard acoustic guitar setup to work out the base sound and downline of the pickup. In rehearsal, Rob Cavallo and the band’s musicians changed the composition so that almost all the strings were tuned to D, with the exception of the lowest string, which is B and gives the guitar sound. chorus effect. At the rehearsal, the musicians also prepared an intro and then added a bit of orchestration to the recording.
Cavallo, who had studied the techniques of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Page, used a three-way input via VOKS and an amplifier from an acoustic guitar and asked Rzeznik to play with a Fender light pick – this is a trivial musical method of sul ponticello. A mixing curve was created for the guitar spectrum, all mids were reduced, and colorful highs and lows were added. Almost all parts were performed on Cavallo’s “glass guitar”.
Cavallo and the musicians recorded the single at Record One Studio B (in Sherman Oaks, California. At the same time, Dr. Dre used Studio A to record his hip-hop music about the hop manufacturer. The hop producers. In the evening, after the first day of the studio, he commented, that Dean Parks was collaborating with Dr. Dre at Studio A. Cavallo asked Parks to bring some mandolin sound to the recording, but Parks cited being busy in the following months and declined. the opening mandolin part and asked Pierce to pause on the main track, playing counter-melodies.Pearce then played the guitar solo using a guitar slide at Cavallo’s request.The recording was given to composer David Campbell,imitating Pierce’s guitar playing with a sharp overdub of orchestration.
The meaning of the song «Iris» — The Goo Goo Dolls
This single is based on love, but the meaning may seem deeper. From it you can learn about the singer, his personal life and problems.
“And I would give an eternity to touch you.
Because I know that you feel me.
It shows how much he enjoys her company – he would give his whole life to touch her! He trusts that she understands him.
“You’re closest to heaven than I’ll ever be.”
It’s self-deprecating, he doesn’t believe he’s going to heaven and thinks she’s a lot better than him.
“And all I can taste is this moment.
And all I can breathe is your life.
And sooner or later it will end.
I just don’t want to miss you tonight.”
He is caught in this moment; he knows it has to end, but he wants it to last at least the night,
“And I don’t want the world to see me,
‘Cause I don’t think they’ll understand
When everything must be destroyed.
I just want you to know who I am.”
He hid from the world because he thought that everyone would judge him, but in a world where everything is broken and everything is terrible, he found her to whom he can open up, and he wants her to know who he is, because he believes that she won’t judge him
You can’t fight tears against your will.
He cries a lot, almost every night, but he doesn’t cry with her. She makes him happy.
“The moment of truth is in your lies.”
There are two possible meanings for the soundtrack:
1. Talking to her is the moment of truth in a life full of lies.
2. Even trying to lie to her, he realizes that the truth still wins.
“Yeah, you bleed just to know you’re alive.”
This is what he told her. Sometimes he feels detached from reality, numb – this is what happens when watching a movie. He inflicts whiteness on himself in order to feel alive, because even pain is better than no feelings.
“I just want you to know who I am.”
The words are repeated, convincing the listener that he wants to make her find out who he is.
This is a song about a person who has experienced or is currently suffering from depression, confused, hiding from everyone. In fact, he has a lot of problems. He has finally found someone to talk to who he feels understands him. He fell in love with a girl. This song is for her.
