My dad loves the Goo Goo Dolls because he says that they managed to be very successful without being very good. I’m not sure that makes sense, but I can see how he feels. All the band members (as of 1998, when the video for Iris was made [Can you believe that 1998 was 15 years ago? Man, now I sound like a YouTube commenter.]) the band members were in their mid-50s. I think the lead singer might even have been 60, but he is the best looking of the bunch. So the band has no appeal to youth. The song Iris only has one melody, the chorus is the same as the verse but an octave up. So how was it such a smash hit?

(Note: Have you noticed that it is really difficult to say “smash hit” without sounding like you are saying “sma-shit” or “smash it”? Really makes you think.)

Iris by Goo Goo Dolls:

This video gives no clues as to why people like the song. Also, this song was in the excellent Meg Ryan/Nick Cage vehicle, City of Angels, about a woman hounded by spirits, ultimately resulting in her death. I can’t distinctly remember why Iris fit in with that terrifying movie, but I feel like the video had a bunch of shots of Meg Ryan in the sunshine. Right? Is my memory failing me? Are the spirits that haunt me gaslighting me? Apparently they are, because there is no Meg Ryan to be seen.

The deplorable genre of movie tie-in music videos is a theme we have not yet explored here on Another Flavor. I definitely plan to tackle it once I coat all of my furniture with plastic to protect it from my vomit. I’m not joking. I’ll need to eat several large meals so I have enough in my stomach to throw up.

Anyways, the video mostly features the singer of Goo Goo Dolls being a creepy voyeur. I’m going to assume that this video does have something to do with City of Angels, Meg Ryan or no Meg Ryan. So I think he is supposed to represent god, or an evil spirit, or an angel, or something.

Note that he is neither happy nor unhappy with what he sees. He does not enjoy his voyeurism but is compelled to do it.

We get a decent number of shots of the band playing live.

This song is a ballad with acoustic guitar and a ton of strings on it. Why does he have his guitar so low? Are we supposed to think that he is a cool rocker? Is he trying to look like Jimmy Page? It’s not working. I don’t care if the guitar is around his ankles, he is not a rocker.

I love the bass player.

He really doesn’t fit in with the video. He looks like a middle-aged guy in a Misfits cover band.

The director of the video gets bored with the band-playing-on-a-road interspliced with singer-leering-through-telescopes.

He decides to switch to binoculars for a while.

We get some forced perspective. I think I screwed up this screenshot but if you look closely you can see two circle thingies as if we are looking through the binoculars.

It seems like the singer is looking at himself. Is the singer in the tower supposed to be a different person from the singer playing? Does this mean that god is one of us, a stranger on the bus? Or are we all god? Or was this video poorly planned?

The drummer and bass player are looking up. What could they be looking at?

The singer is standing on the ledge. Is he going to kill himself?

Unfortunately not. Also, notice that the weather is gloomy and bleak down on the ground where the band is, but quite sunny where the singer is in his tower. What does this mean? Is the singer in heaven? Or is it just a continuity error?

In the end, nothing happens in the video. Having the singer jump off the tower, seemingly to his death, but then flying away might have been cool-ish. No, it would have been stupid, but at least it would have been something. Maybe a scene where he kisses Meg Ryan on the mouth while winking at the camera. That would be decent. I think we are just supposed to look at the singer and think he is super cute.

Look at him:

They made everything look super washed out/put pancake make-up on the singer. They also tried to hide his face with his hair. They are really trying to hide how old the singer is. According to Wookieepedia, the singer died of old age seconds after they finished shooting this video, but still a generation of women are in love with him.

R.I.P., dude. We’ll remember you.

-PTD