Way back in 2018, I wrote a review of A Boy Named Goo that was one of the worst I’d ever written. I read it a couple of years later and removed it from the site. I made a promise to myself that someday I would return to the scene of the crime and make restitution.

So why am I reviewing Dizzy Up the Girl instead? Well, after a slew of reviews for the Baby Boomers in the audience, I felt an irresistible urge to cover something from my formative years in the mid-90s, and Dizzy Up the Girl is more relevant to that sub-plot.

I have very fond memories of San Francisco in the second half of the 90s. The arts were thriving, the economy was booming, and in the last two years of the decade, unemployment fell to a thirty-year low. The bars and restaurants were packed with happy people having a good time. Dot-com businesses were hiring gamers and geeks like crazy, and Steve Jobs turned the computer industry upside down with the iMac G3 in a variety of translucent colors (I bought the lime green version to match my eyes). The internet hadn’t become a shopping mall with annoying ads popping up everywhere, and there were no influencers peddling bullshit and hate. Most of the people I knew (self included) used the web to connect with people in different parts of the world.

On a personal level, I spent a lot of time hanging out in the Castro making friends with the gay crowd in a homophobic-free environment. I also attended the Folsom Street Fair every year from age fourteen into my twenties. If you’re not familiar with the fair, here’s what it’s all about: “Folsom Street is committed to cultivating a safe, open, and inclusive environment for the kink, leather, and alternative sexuality communities while centering equity for BIPOC and LGBTQA2I+ people in our work.” In addition to the validation that came from connecting with like-minded people, I learned a lot about BDSM techniques and philosophy.

I’ll admit I was pretty naïve about things, but it felt like the whole world was “coming out” and ready to accept people for who they are, and some economists believed that the economy would continue its historic performance for years to come. Of course, the whole thing went to shit in three stages: first, the dot-com bust; second, the stolen election; and finally, 9/11. The populace went from happy campers to frightened paranoiacs in less than two years, and has never recovered from the trauma to this day. Voldemort never would have come to power in a happy America; he needed a nation full of miserable people to pull off the upset.

The music scene in the USA of the 90s was diversifying, with so-so results. Grunge had become passé by the middle of the decade, with alternative rock taking its place. Rap and Hip-Hop were becoming more popular, and pop singers came back with a vengeance. Most of the music I listened to came from Britpop, post-punk, and riot grrl bands, as American alternative rockers had, for the most part, abandoned melodic rock.

If I were to create a soundtrack EP with songs that reminded me of those good times in the City by the Bay, I would choose “Tubthumping” by Chumbawamba, “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind, and “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls. I heard those songs everywhere I went, blasting out of bars and coffee houses in the more artistic and progressive neighborhoods. I’ve already reviewed the albums containing the first two, so now it’s the Goo Goo Dolls’ turn. As noted on the 90s page, “I’ve approached music from the 1990s gingerly because it was the period of my adolescence.” I think twenty-eight years is long enough to clear the decks of any lingering nostalgia, and I couldn’t care less that Dizzy Up the Girl went 5x platinum.

Though it may seem a bit selfish on my part, I wanted to listen to music that reminded me that I once lived in a little slice of the world where optimism reigned for a few precious years.

*****

When I saw the Goo Goo Dolls on a scouting trip to Seattle during the Gutterflower tour in 2002, Johnny Rzeznik talked at length about the origins of the band’s moniker. It turns out that the question, “How did you come up with ‘Goo Goo Dolls?’ was an uncomfortable area of exploration he would have to deal with for years. “In 1999, Rolling Stone reported the trio picked their name from a True Detective ad for a toy called a Goo Goo Doll. In 2022, Rzeznik said he didn’t remember how they picked the name. “We had a gig, and so we had to come up with some kind of a name just to play the show,” Rzeznik said. “It’s kind of a stupid name.” (Wikipedia)

Yes, it is a stupid name for a rock band, but I wasn’t satisfied with the explanation. After researching the phrase “goo-goo doll,” I found that there is such a thing as a Goo Goo Doll, and that its origin can be traced back to the Steve Allen Show of the 1950s. And guess what? The Goo Goo Doll is back at Haunted Studios! Here’s their pitch: “Modern production run of the classic ‘popping eyes, ears and mouth’ doll that was a Steve Allen staple from the 1950s on. Steve always had one on hand on the set of the Westinghouse Steve Allen Show. This incarnation of Steve’s show introduced the Goo Goo Doll to a whole new audience.” And the story gets even better! Steve Allen hired songwriters to come up with a song about the doll . . . and he released it as the A-side of a 45-rpm novelty single!

The name may be silly, but the music and the musicians are not. The Goos (the official abbreviation) began life in Buffalo as a hardcore punk and cover band (you can find their versions of “Sunshine of Your Love” and “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” on their self-titled maiden album). In their early years, bassist Robby Takac served as lead singer and songwriter, but with encouragement from Robby, Rzeznik caught the songwriting bug and began singing his own compositions. Over the years, they dabbled in metal, power pop, and alternative rock, building a cult following while still trying to find their sweet spot—a journey made all the more difficult due to drug and alcohol abuse. After their first four albums failed to chart, they finally clicked with the public with the lead single from A Boy Named Goo (“Name”), and their mix of power pop, acoustic ballads and alternative rock resulted in their first album to reach the Billboard charts.

At this point, the relationship between Johnny and drummer George Tutuska hit a rough spot that led to his dismissal, a painful experience for all involved. Even worse, their naïveté regarding the economics of the music business manifested itself in the shocking news that a hit single and a Billboard charting album left Johnny and Robby in debt to the tune of  $115k. As they prepared for the follow-up album with new drummer Mike Malinin, Johnny contracted a terrible case of writer’s block which morphed into full-blown depression. The break came when Johnny was asked to write a song for the film City of Angels. In the VH1 Behind the Scenes segment on the band, he explained his approach to this once-in-a-lifetime offer: “I was determined to finish a thought, you know, and that’s what ‘Iris’ was about. It was a goal. I’m gonna finish this song, and if it sucks, I don’t care.” He wrote the song that would become a massive international hit in a single night, and said farewell to his writer’s block.

Dizzy Up the Girl was a hit from the get-go, with all five singles charting in the top thirty in countries all over the world, making the Goo Goo Dolls major players in the music scene. It was their most ambitious album to date, a mix of kick-ass rock balanced by acoustic guitar songs, string arrangements, and the appearance of piano and mandolin. Even the rougher songs are balanced by gorgeous melodies, largely in the choruses.

Of course, the fan base of their early years accused them of being sellouts when “Name” became a hit and went totally apeshit over the success of Dizzy Up the Girl. Alas, some people never grow up.

*****

All songs written by John Rzeznik except where noted.

“Dizzy”: The band’s sheer determination to make a great record is on full display in the no-holds-barred opening number. After the dam broke with “Iris,” Johnny found plenty of inspiration in the City of Angels (the city, not the movie) where they completed the album. From Songfacts: “The Buffalo, New York-based Goo Goo Dolls found themselves adjusting to life in Los Angeles’ fast lane. For lead singer Johnny Rzeznik, that meant hanging out with a girl who was a lot of fun, but also ‘toxic and dangerous.’ She inspired him to write ‘Dizzy,’ an affectionate tribute to a girl who has all the wrong qualities.”

The opening passage is both explosive and mesmerizing, the result of painstaking effort: “Rzeznik and bassist Robby Takac said it took them a lot of time and experimentation with different machinery to achieve the square wave tremolo effect on the guitar, which produces a fast-and-choppy effect.” (ibid) The endless possibilities presented by a raft of pedals have turned guitarists into finicky musicians in search of the exact match of the sounds they hear in their heads . . . a good thing indeed. In this case, the choppiness is set to a compatible chord pair of E and Asus2 to avoid messing with its rhythmic purity. This pattern holds steady through the verses, imbuing Johnny’s description of the girl with grit, fascination, and frustration:

You’re cynical and beautiful
You always make a scene
You’re monochrome delirious
You’re nothing that you seem
I’m drowning in your vanity
Your laugh is a disease
You’re dirty and you’re sweet
You know you’re everything to me

The composition features a vocal technique Johnny often employs that bears resemblance to the drama of the soft-loud approach of the Pixies and many a grunge band: he sings the verses in a lower register at normal volume, then leaps a full octave to deliver the chorus with greater volume and intensity. In “Dizzy,” he heightens the drama with a key change from E major to F major, and when he sings the more melodic chorus with wordless background vocals from Robby, it hits me dead square in my emotional center with its soaring beauty:

Everything you are
Falls from the sky like a star
Everything you are
Whatever ever you are

It’s obvious that Johnny finds the wench desirable despite her idiosyncratic personality, but faces several obstacles in his pursuit of this most enigmatic female:

I wanna kick at the machine
That made you piss away your dreams
And tear down your defenses
‘Till there’s nothing there but me
You’re angry when you’re beautiful
Your love is such tease
I’m drowning in your dizzy noise
I wanna feel you scream

Everything you are
Falls from the sky like a star
Everything you are
Whatever ever you are

The band backs off the relentless attack after the second round of the chorus, shifting the mood from intense to reflective with a light electric guitar solo. After a perfectly executed build, Johnny repeats the fabulous chorus three times, a conclusion that tells me he has accepted defeat and will never make sense of this broad. Kudos go to Mike Malinin, whose excellent drumming proved he was the perfect fit for the Goo Goo Dolls, and to producer Rob Cavallo for a clean and powerful sound.

“Slide”: This song was a top ten hit in several countries, but I’m not sure people fully understood what the song was about. The songwriter provided two compatible explanations:

• VH1 Storytellers via Wikipedia: “In a 2002 performance on VH1 Storytellers, John Rzeznik explained that the song refers to a teenage girl in a strict Catholic environment who has become pregnant. She and her boyfriend are debating as to the possibility of abortion or marriage, which is presented in the song as the verse “do you want to get married or run away?”
• Stereogum:”That song is very much East Side Story kind of thing. When I say East Side Story, I just mean I grew up on the east side of Buffalo. That was a not-so-apocryphal tale about some hard choices and dealing with a very rigid culture with a lot of demands put on the people who are part of that community, whether it was religious pressure, family pressure. It was really interesting to me to examine all those things.”

As Neil Johnson noted in his insightful analysis of the album on Riffology, “The lyric, which Rzeznik has discussed in interviews as being about a young Catholic couple weighing up the consequences of an unintended pregnancy, is far darker than the song’s chiming exterior suggests. ‘What you feel is what you are, and what you are is beautiful,’ sung in the chorus, has been used as a wedding song so often that the irony of its origin tends to get lost.”

There’s no denying the dark side of this song, but I get the sense that the song has more to do with unconditional love in a difficult situation. You never really know if your partner has your back until you are faced with a challenge that could destroy the relationship, and if one of the parties chooses to apply conditions in the name of self-protection, it’s game over. The young man who narrates the piece is very supportive and empathetic, willing to support May (the girl’s name) no matter which option she feels is best for both parties: abortion, parenting, and/or running away.

Could you whisper in my ear
The things you wanna feel?
I’d give you anything
To feel it comin’
Do you wake up on your own
And wonder where you are?
You live with all your faults

I wanna wake up where you are
I won’t say anything at all
So why don’t you slide?
Yeah, I’m gonna let it slide

When he argues that both of them should “let it slide,” he’s expressing confidence that they will get through this difficult situation and remain fully committed to one another.  From that perspective, the dominance of bright acoustic guitars, soft reflective pauses, and an upbeat rhythm convey deep caring and certainty that the bonds between them are so strong that nothing can break them.

Some might interpret his optimism as an attempt to downplay the difficulty of the situation, but he is actually quite insistent about having his partner face reality by presenting the likely scenarios.

Don’t you love the life you killed?
The priest is on the phone
Your father hit the wall
Your ma’ disowned you

And bless his heart, he’s a man who understands that the abortion option is entirely up to the woman:

Don’t suppose I’ll ever know
What it means to be a man
It’s something I can’t change

And I’ll do anything you ever dreamed to be complete
Little pieces of the nothing that fall
Oh, May
Put your arms around me
What you feel is what you are
And what you are is beautiful
Oh, May
Do you wanna get married?
Or run away?

Nancy Bardawil directed the video for the song, and her decision to insert repeated shots of May staring into space as Johnny tries to comfort her captured the complex emotions that only a woman could feel in response to an unplanned pregnancy: guilt, self-loathing, fears about her future and worries about how her parents will react. Fortunately for her, she has a partner who loves her unconditionally and will stay with her through thick or thin.

“Broadway”: Most people hear the opening line “Broadway’s dark tonight” and assume that Con Edison is on the fritz. Not quite!

“The song refers to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood of Buffalo, New York, a lower-income, working-class neighborhood in which songwriter John Rzeznik grew up. It also describes Rzeznik’s difficult relationship with his alcoholic father, who died when Rzeznik was 15, and the “cycle of destruction” that he witnessed in the neighborhood. The lyrics “See the young man sittin’ in the old man’s bar/Waitin’ for his turn to die” specifically refers to a common occurrence he saw in the bar he and his father frequented: ‘When I was young, my dad used to take me down to the local bar, prop me up on the barstool, order a drink for himself, and a soda and chips for me. He’d give me a quarter for the pinball machine and sit there and drink. I’d look around and see all these kids who just turned 18, and they were hanging out there, sitting in the same chairs as their fathers. When they were old enough to drink with their dads, they took his place at the bar, carrying on the tradition. I decided I didn’t want to be like that.'” (Wikipedia)

That’s one helluva legacy to leave for one’s children, but many of those who belong to the working classes believe there is no way out of their misery and can’t afford to send their kids to college to give them a chance to escape tradition. The endless ennui of unsatisfying, repetitive work—whether in the factory or in the office—triggers the need for something to help you forget about your shitty circumstances, and booze is the traditional choice. As Ray Davies put it in “When Work Is Over” on Soap Opera, “Drinking helps us to forget what we are/We leave the office and walk straight to the bar/Don’t stop and think/Have another drink.”

While the song is set in Buffalo, I think Johnny’s choice to open the song with “Broadway’s dark tonight” was designed to encourage comparison to the more glamorous Broadway in New York. In this case, Broadway is dark tonight—and every night.

Broadway’s dark tonight
A little bit weaker than you used to be
Broadway is dark tonight
See the young man sittin’ in the old man’s bar
Waitin’ for his turn to die

The cowboy kills the rock star
And Friday night’s gone too far
The dim light hides the years on all the faded girls
Forgotten but not gone
You drink it off your mind
You talk about the world like it’s someplace that you’ve been

The upbeat, electric guitar-driven rock powered by seriously hot performances from Robby and Mike may seem like an odd choice for a setting drenched in misery, but it serves to confirm Johnny’s status as an outsider who wants no part of the tradition. In the Songfacts entry for the song, Johnny recalled that Broadway “had a church and a bar on every corner,” and he uses that image to increase the distance between himself and his loser father who often came home drunk and beat the shit out of everyone in the family:

You choke down all your anger
Forget your only son
You pray to statues when you sober up for fun

Your anger don’t impress me
The world slapped in your face
It always rains like hell on the loser’s day parade

The band makes excellent use of the loud-soft dynamic in the shift to the bridges where they it down to allow Johnny to reflect on his upbringing:

You see you’d love to run home but you know you ain’t got one
‘Cause you’re livin’ in a world that you’re best forgotten
When you’re thinkin’ of a joke
And nobody’s gonna listen to one small point
I know they’ve been missin’ round here

While he would have problems controlling his own alcohol intake, Johnny always pulled himself out of it and became one of the many who suffered through tough childhoods and found a way out through rock ‘n’ roll.

“January Friend” (Takac): After scanning various music forums,  I noticed a great divide regarding Robby’s songs. Some argue that they are a poor fit for the album while others defend Robby’s contributions as essential. Once again, I will turn to Neil Johnson, who managed to facilitate a workable resolution: “Takac’s four songs sit at tracks four, seven, nine and twelve, a clean every-third-song pattern that suggests Cavallo or the band did some deliberate sequencing work. “January Friend,” “Amigone,” Full Forever and “Extra Pale” are all sung by Takac in his rougher, higher voice and lean back toward the band’s earlier punk sound. “Amigone” in particular, with its yelped chorus and short running time, sounds like it could have come from a different album entirely. Their inclusion is one of the things that prevents Dizzy Up the Girl from slipping into the same trap that swallowed several of its 1998 contemporaries, where every track is a potential single, and the album as a whole becomes airless.”

That’s fair. An album with only Johnny songs would have been overkill. There is no question in my mind that Johnny is the more versatile singer and songwriter, and I too used to skip the Robby songs until I saw the Goos live and in-person. The guy just reeks of positive energy in a live format, with his voice and body language clearly indicating how much he loves to play music and connect with the fans.

Befitting his punk origins, “January Friend” is a fast-paced rocker that deals with a topic I am intimately familiar with: “situationships.” If you’re not familiar with the term, “A situationship is a romantic or sexual relationship that is not formally defined or committed, often characterized by ambiguity and a lack of clear boundaries or labels. It typically exists between friendship and a committed relationship, allowing for intimacy without the obligations of a traditional partnership.” A one-night stand is not a situationship until it becomes a three-or-four-night stand. In Robby’s case, he apparently hooks up with this broad on a yearly basis, most likely in a warmer location than Buffalo in winter (one commentator insisted that the location for Robby’s annual sex vacation was Hawaii, but I was unable to verify that bit of information). Here are the lyrics that confirm that the relationship is situational:

Mine
Just like the last time
It’s all the same to me
She said
Let’s pretend

My January friend
I’m wanting you again
I wanna touch ya
Every single heart that beats pretend

Yeah, you do have to pretend a little bit when you know that your sex partner is not “the one,” and the key to situationship success is that both parties must buy into the pretense. Later in the song, Robby seems to indicate that the situationship is in trouble (“It’s not the way I thought it to be”), so he may have to look elsewhere to get his rocks off next January.

I found a live performance of the song in a 2004 Fourth of July performance in Buffalo so you can get a sense of Robby’s off-the-charts energy.

“Black Balloon”: My modus operandi involves listening to the music as I write, playing a song over and over, and placing certain passages on repeat mode to fully grasp what the musicians are up to. Having listened to this album frequently over the years, I knew I had to remove my mascara before delving into “Black Balloon.” I find this song so moving that even when someone mentions the title, I tear up in seconds.

On the Goo Goo Dolls’ VH1 Storytellers special, Johnny Rzeznik said that the inspiration for “Black Balloon” came from a friend’s addiction to heroin and the chaotic impact it had on friends and family. I have never known anyone suffering from heroin addiction (or had an unwanted pregnancy for that matter), but you don’t need personal experience to feel empathy for a person who is suffering. We all know that music is an emotional experience and a great singer or a musical passage can evoke emotions in the listener that often trigger an empathetic response. The emotional power in “Black Balloon” comes from Johnny’s passionate vocals, the moving string arrangement, and the strength of the composition.

The unusual sounds in the intro came from another burst of creativity. From Songfacts: “For the unique intro, Rzenzik detuned a baritone guitar and started playing harmonics. ‘Then we ran it through a bunch of pedals and outboard gear and just kept playing with it and messing with it and layering it up,’ he explained in a behind-the-track interview. The band wanted to come up with something more complex to contrast the simplistic body of the song, which is mainly two chords.” The two chords mentioned are the C#and F#add9 chords you hear on the acoustic guitar that close the intro and appear in the verses. Nearly all the chord diagram sites miss the fact that the guitarists had tuned up a notch and present the chords as C and Fadd9, so if you don’t want to mess with the tuning, slap a capo on the first fret, and you’re good to go.

Johnny changed his approach to the vocal by singing the first three lines of each verse in his lower register and employing his octave leap in the closing line of each verse, a move that engages your emotions early in the proceedings. The opening verse uses the image of the black balloon in two ways: the high that “makes her fly” and the darkness of self-destructive addiction. Apparently, the couple had a bright future until she became a slave to smack. (octave leaps in italics):

Baby’s black balloon makes her fly
I almost fell into that hole in your life
You’re not thinking about tomorrow
‘Cause you were the same as me but on your knees

Following a crashing guitar chord, the string section enters with equal punch before toning things down and allowing Mike and Robby to lead us to the second verse and chorus:

A thousand other boys could never reach you
How could I have been the one?
I saw the world spin beneath you
And scatter like ice from the spoon
That was your womb

Coming down, the world turned over
And angels fall without you there
And I go on as you get colder
Or are you someone’s prayer?

The metaphors in the verses tell us that her addiction has become her womb and that the spoon she uses to heat the heroin has ironically turned her into a cold, unreachable person. The rough comedown that follows a fix pulls her out of an angelic heaven and into a personal hell. We still don’t know what led her to use heroin, but Johnny enlightens us in the third verse:

You know the lies they always told you
And the love you never knew
Was it things they never showed you?
That swallowed the light from the sun
Inside your room, yeah

According to Addiction Resource, “Heroin relieves both emotional and physical pain. This potent drug has pain-killer properties that reduce discomfort from chronic injuries and mental distress.” Her pain was the result of having been born to incompetent, uncaring parents who never taught her anything or showed her any love. They “swallowed the light from the sun” and never gave her any encouragement. We have to remember that this is a true story about a real human being, and Johnny’s experience with his father would have made him empathetic to her plight. Better still, Johnny’s mother was a good mother who inspired his interest in music and in doing so, gave him hope for the future—hope he tried to transfer to his friend.

What follows is a majestic passage featuring strings and piano at full emotive power. Of course, Johnny had nothing to do with the arrangement, but he deeply appreciated David Campbell’s masterful approach. “In the bridge, piano and strings converge in a powerful crescendo and drop back down. Rzeznik sees this as a symbolic moment. “It was a musical analogy of what this person was going through because it just rises so high and then the bottom drops out,” he explained. “And then you start the long trip back to being yourself ’til the end of the song. ‘I’ll become what you became to me.’ It just sort of ends where it began.” (Songfacts, ibid)

After a brief moment of silence, Johnny delivers a message of encouragement to his friend, singing at the top of his range to convey the urgency of the moment and implying that he will refuse to let her ruin her life.

And there’s no time left for losing
When you stand, they fall, yeah

After two rousing performances of the chorus, Johnny works his way to the closing lines, having trouble finding the right words until the very end: words that convey a wish for a deep and lasting friendship:

And I’ll go on and I’ll lead you home and
All because I’m . . .
All because I’m . . .
And I’ll become what you became to me

There is a lot of speculation about the girl’s identity and whether or not she recovered, and none of it is confirmed by reliable sources. What matters is the song’s fundamental message: when in a friend is in trouble, do all you can to help—and maybe someday, they’ll repay the favor when you hit a rough patch.

“Bullet Proof”: I’m not particularly moved by the lyrics, which remind me of the silly shit that people did in high school. If you’re interested in reading a full interpretation of the lyrics, head over to  What Does That Song Mean? where a guy named Matt posted a blow-by-blow interpretation.

As for the music . . . fuck yeah! Robby’s bass runs knock me for a loop, I love Johnny’s punk-metal guitar sound, and I really love it when Johnny and Robby engage in call-and-response during the chorus.

“Amigone” (Takac): When I listened to this song back in the 90s, I thought that the song was about a failed romance. Imagine my surprise when I read the opening sentence of the Songfacts piece on the song: “Amigone is the name of a chain of funeral homes in Buffalo, New York, where the band is from.” I thought, “Is this a joke? Do they only bury or cremate people who can give an affirmative answer to the question, ‘Am I gone?’ How is that possible?” It turns out that Amigone is the name of the family that has been providing funeral services for 100 years, now in the hands of 3rd and 4th generation family members. All very well and good, but what does it have to do with the song? I read further and . . . oh, boy.

Songfacts claimed that the song “addresses feelings of guilt after the death of a loved one.” Huh? If that’s true, why am I hearing upbeat power pop? I can’t believe that Robby could be so insensitive! It turns out that Songfacts blew it on this one, as confirmed by my new best friend Matt on What Does That Song Mean?  “It’s about those moments when everything feels like it’s falling apart: relationships, emotions, even your sense of who you are. The song talks about blame, regret, love that’s changed, and that weird mix of wanting to fix things and knowing it might be too late.” Robby uses death as a metaphor for a relationship gone to shit:

Are you alive?
Am I gone?
Is it too late to call and tell you to be strong?
Are you alive?
Am I gone?
Was the poison in our love there all along?
Am I gone?

Shame on me for not trusting my instincts. “Amigone” is one of the best rockers on the album, and Robby’s vocal is one of his best.

“All Eyes on Me” (Music: Rzeznik; Lyrics: Goo Goo Dolls): This is the first in a string of songs involving the struggles faced by young people as they try to navigate their way through life. The struggle in “All Eyes on Me” involves dealing with parental expectations and the excess scrutiny that block the young from discovering what they truly want to do in life.

Johnny told American Songwriter that “All Eyes on Me” was the easiest song he ever wrote, adding, “It’s a big jam. It’s my “Who” song. That’s what I was thinking when I wrote it.” I don’t get much of a Who hit when I listen to the song, and I think they made a mistake by adding a string section, but the soft-loud arrangement is quite exciting, especially in a live setting. The group-composed lyrics are one of several examples that explain why the Goos were extremely popular with the younger set—Johnny and Robby had gone through the same shit they were going through.

Daylight burns your sleepy eyes
It’s hard to see you dreaming
You hide inside yourself and
I wonder what you’re thinkin’
And everything you’re chasing
It seems to leave you empty

And it won’t take long to burn
All eyes on me
Through the nothing that you’ve learned
All eyes on me
And the things you choose to be
All eyes on me

Putting aside the fact that most people consider me a pervert, I think I would have been a great mother because I don’t believe in telling anyone how to live their lives, no matter how old they are.

“Full Forever” (Takac): Robby had a much happier childhood than Johnny, living in the burbs with supportive and non-abusive parents. That doesn’t mean that the struggle to find himself was any easier, because everyone has to go through Jung’s process of individuation, “the journey of becoming your true, integrated self. Individuation isn’t about becoming perfect or “self-improved” in a superficial sense. It’s about discovering who you really are beneath social masks, habits, thoughts, and fears, and bringing hidden parts of yourself into harmony.” Very few people make it all the way through, one more reason why our world is so fucked up.

Robby’s journey has to do with the search for stability, a state that will likely elude him for years. You can try this, and you can try that, but finding your place in the world can be tricky because change is a constant. That said, I empathize with his struggle and commend him for finding the perfect metaphor for a forever-changing universe.

And I’ve gone underground
Never hangin’ round
Should have made it back again

Why can’t the moon stay full forever?
Wednesday’s bad but Friday’s ain’t much better

Why can’t the moon stay full forever?
Right now she’s got nothin’ on her mind

The music is a delightful mix of short guitar arpeggios over a steady beat that set a reflective mood, and long blasts of power punk that scream, “Dammit, get it together, moon!”

“Acoustic #3”: Some commentators have pigeon-holed this song as “just a guy and an acoustic guitar.” Hello? There’s a string section, too, you morons! Sheesh! Others claim Johnny employed an alternate tuning, which is also bullshit. Nonetheless, the main chord pattern of G-Csus2 in the verses is a bit tricky because of muscle-tendon memory. The Csus2 involves an open D string, and my left hand kept forcing me to play the E note in the standard C chord, so I gave up and played it on my piano. That D note strengthens the unity of the composition because the chorus opens with a Dsus4 chord.

This beautiful song contains lyrics that are reminiscent of the lyrics to “Black Balloon,” and though both songs deal with toxic family dynamics, no one is suffering from heroin addiction here, so the lyrics must be interpreted in the larger context.

Johnny may be talking to himself, engaging with a friend, or both, but either way, the meaning comes through loud and clear—living in a broken family is a hard load to bear, and it’s easy to turn inward and give up the struggle to become who you truly are:

They painted up your secrets
With the lies they told to you
And the least they ever gave you
Was the most you ever knew

And I wonder where these dreams go
When the world gets in your way
What’s the point in all this screaming?
No one’s listening anyway

It is also true that adolescents are not the only ones who suffer in a toxic environment, and it’s usually the mother who accepts hopelessness because she believes her life task is to hold the family together:

Your voice is small and fading
And you hide in here unknown
And your mother loves your father
‘Cause she’s got nowhere to go

And she wonders where these dreams go
‘Cause the world got in her way
What’s the point in ever trying?
Nothing’s changing anyway

Trying to help someone in this situation is often a thankless, frustrating task, and unlike the stick-to-it-iveness he displayed in “Black Balloon,” Johnny decides it’s time to move on.

They press their lips against you
And you love the lies they say
And I tried so hard to reach you
But you’re falling anyway

And you know I see right through you
‘Cause the world gets in your way
What’s the point in all this screaming?
You’re not listening anyway

Few songs capture the meaning of “sad but true” more effectively than this one.

“Iris” 4:51: Sigh. A great song wasted on a Nicolas Cage movie. I will never understand how that guy became a star, and the same goes for Kevin Spacey.

The aforementioned offer to write a song for a major movie was only one step in breaking Johnny’s writers’ block. The truly big step came when he broke some strings on his acoustic guitar. From American Songwriter: “Rzeznik has a long history of using alternate tunings to spur creativity, and ‘Iris’ is no exception. ‘The tuning for this was B D D D D — I took the top E string off,’ he explains. ‘I originally wrote it on a guitar with four strings, because I was trying to drop the notes in pitch, and I didn’t really know what I was doing.'” The tuning places the key in either D major or B minor, and it’s actually both: D major in the verses and B minor in the chorus. Most of the chord diagrams on the internet use standard tuning, which doesn’t sound right to me. I did find a tab set to the original tuning on Songsterr, but as I told you before, tabs are largely gibberish to me, so good luck. Contrary to the time signature shown in the tabs, the song is not in 6/8 time, but classic waltz time of 3/4.

The lyrics came much easier after Johnny read the script: “In a 2013 Songfacts interview with Rzeznik, he explained how the film influenced the song. “I was thinking about the situation of the Nicolas Cage character in the movie,” he said. “This guy is completely willing to give up his own immortality, just to be able to feel something very human. And I think, ‘Wow! What an amazing thing it must be like to love someone so much that you give up everything to be with them.’ That’s a pretty heavy thought.”

In other words, “Iris” was all about unconditional love, and to reach that state, you have to hold nothing back and present your true self, warts and all.

Thankfully, the lyrics are more about the concept than the script, and much of the song’s appeal involves Johnny’s display of vulnerability in the words and in his voice. The song opens with acoustic guitar backed by mandolin, the latter played by Tim Pierce, an in-demand session guitarist who recorded with such luminaries as Michael Jackson, Joe Cocker, Alice Cooper and Phil Collins. Johnny begins his vocal in his low voice, his tone somewhere between intimate and uncertain. Cellos enter the scene during the second verse, strengthening the emotive backdrop.

And I’d give up forever to touch you
‘Cause I know that you feel me somehow
You’re the closest to Heaven that I’ll ever be
And I don’t wanna go home right now

And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
And sooner or later, it’s over
I just don’t wanna miss you tonight

In the chorus, Johnny makes his classic octave leap over a background of strings, guitar and heavily punctuated drums, his tone switching to desperation. He sounds like he’s about to shed tears, and I’m already there.

And I don’t want the world to see me
‘Cause I don’t think that they’d understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am

In addition to the beautiful music, superb arrangement and solid musicianship, “Iris” touched the hearts and minds of millions living all across the globe who are afraid to reveal their true selves to anyone. We all put up façades in the workplace; our leaders hide behind carefully crafted images and spin; and many parents have no idea who their children truly are. Religious dogma promotes shame; hatred of people who are “not like us” ignites waves of repression. If you are lucky enough to be able to reveal your true self to a partner or a close friend, good for you, but you will still spend a good chunk of your life hiding from people who wouldn’t approve of the real you. Johnny was completely right to believe “I don’t think that they’d understand,” because most people can’t get past their personal or religiously induced judgments.

The second verse reinforces the façade theme in a more intimate context. We tend to “put on our best face” when engaging with a partner in a lame attempt to impress them, which is the polar opposite of what we should be doing: allowing ourselves to display genuine vulnerability. We play a part—just like in the movies.

And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies
When everything feels like the movies
Yeah, you bleed just to know you’re alive

Another round of the chorus follows, leading to the extended instrumental passage that begins smoothly before a segment of stutter-stop figures and crescendos from the orchestra that increase the drama tenfold. The passage closes with a slide guitar solo played by Tim Pierce, adding a touch of rock in the process. The song ends with two renditions of the chorus backed by dramatic thrusts from the orchestra. Johnny extends the closing version of the chorus by singing the key line “I just want you to know who I am” four times with all his heart. The song ends with a return to the opening instrumental passage to allow listeners a moment to reflect on that all-important message.

In an interview with Guitar Player, Johnny talked about the song’s impact on their career and gave us a lesson on how to respond when people refuse to allow you be your true self:

“The scale of the success of this marked a major career shift for us as a band,” he says. “This was the one that really took everything up another level in terms of recognition and success, and it definitely shut the door on the portion of our career before that. I remember Robby and I looked at each other when the strings were being recorded, and we asked ourselves, Should we really be doing this?’ “Then we both kind of agreed: Yeah, definitely. It was cool, you know? I’m glad we did it. Like anything in life, we took some shit for it, you know, but who cares? No matter what you do, you’re wrong I guess, but the rewards outweighed the crap we took from certain quarters.”

The woman in the song is nameless, which led to some confusion regarding the title. Here’s the scoop: “The name ‘Iris’ was inspired by a country singer named Iris DeMent, whose name Rzeznik came across while reading a magazine.” (Songfacts). That’s two reviews in a row where magazines inspired a song, so I recommend that producers keep a stack of magazines handy at all times. You never know when you’re going to need them.

“Extra Pale” (Takac): Nothing can follow a song like “Iris,” and I wish Rob Cavallo had made “Iris” the closer. “Extra Pale” is a non-stop rocker, and I would have preferred something more middle-of-the-road to gather my emotions after “Iris.” Oh, well.

“Hate This Place”: Hmm. Another song where the title does not make an appearance. I rather like the music, but I really didn’t want to hear another song about a poisonous relationship. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the song isn’t called “Dreamaway,” the keyword in the chorus that is my favorite part of the song. I suppose the Goos felt the need to remind their fans that they can still rock with the best of them by closing with two hot numbers, but the title bugs the shit out of me.

*****

My act of self-indulgence was well worth it, as reviewing Dizzy Up the Girl not only allowed me to re-live a happy time but it reminded me that the Goo Goo Dolls are one of my favorite American bands. After giving it some thought, I’ve decided not to go back and review A Boy Named Goo, but move forward in time and review Gutterflower someday. That album includes one of my favorite Johnny songs and one of my favorite Robby songs, so I’m sure I’ll have a good time writing about it.

My next publication date falls on my birthday, and I’m torn between another round of self-indulgence or taking a week off to celebrate. I will warn you that the album I’ve chosen as a birthday present to myself is rated somewhere between R and X, so if you’re squeamish about frank and open explorations of eroticism, you may want to skip it and wait for my review of Kirsty MacColl’s Tropical Brainstorm on August 9.

Bless you all . . . and please don’t be afraid to be who you really are.