Song Interpretation- Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls

Loneliness. A phase we all pass through, sometimes multiple times in our lives. I am a lonely guy and when I am most lonely, I turn to music. Songs by Simon and Garfunkel are about loneliness. "I am leaving, I am leaving but the fighter still remains" as the last line of The Boxer goes. Simon and Garfunkel take me back to my schooldays. We had  a lot of fun, learnt some stuff, made friends but at the end of the day that loneliness remained.

This is a post about a song by the band The Goo Goo Dolls. It's called Iris and it's one of their best songs in my humble opinion. It is that humble opinion and insomnia that compels me to write a few lines about this song. It has been playing on loop on my phone for the past two days and I have never grown fed up of it. Why is that? It's because it's a fantastic song.

Let's analyse it.

"And I don't want the world to see me

'coz I don't think they'd understand"

These two lines of the chorus hit you gently, while an acoustic guitar strums in the background. There are many of us who feel we don't fit in, that we are doomed to survive in a world full of fake people. A world where finding something real is like finding oil in your backyard. The next two lines are even more symbolic of this

"When everything's meant to  be broken

I just want you to know who I am"

Here we see loneliness shining through like a beacon. The guy singing the song or rather the guy the song is about is disillusioned. He wants to find someone he can connect with so that he can lay down the burden he has been carrying for so long and just rest with that person at his side. He's an introvert. He cannot make friends easily and maybe at this point in time his friends have let him down. He wants to move on from this state to a happier, more secure one.

This is when the second verse hits you

"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"

Self harm. Our protagonist has had it with this world full of fake people. He has lost hope. He is in a dark place and he doesn't know how to come out or if at all he wants to come out. Perhaps the singer is subtly hinting that he is indulging in self harm-cutting himself so that the pain can take away the numbness in his heart.

The protagonist has found someone who he likes and she likes him too maybe. He wants to tell her his story. At this point in the song we have the chorus repeating thrice. The protagonist seems to be ushering in this person into his life and wants to tell the person the truth. He is fed to the back teeth with lies and false people. He feels he has found someone genuine. Let us now look at the first verse of the song, bearing in mind all that we know now

"And I'd give up forever to touch you

'coz 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 its over

I just don't wanna miss you tonight"

This verse is about the person he has met. He doesn't know the person well enough so he is holding back. At the same time, the person is a genuine soul, someone our protagonist never thought he would meet. When that person is not with him, he misses the person.

And finally the outro

"I just want you to know who I am"

This line sans the chorus repeated thrice. He wants to be accepted for what he is. He doesn't want any secrets to exist between this person and himself. He wants to shout out from the rooftops that his loneliness has finally gone away.

Although the general tone of this song is sad, it ends on a note of hope. It tells all of us lonely people not to give up, but to keep looking. Somewhere out there is someone with whom we can share our true identity. We will not be rejected by that person. That person will accept us, with all our flaws and scars plainly visible.

Iris  is more than an alternative rock song. It's like TS Eliot's poem The Love Song of J Alfred Prufrock. The poem has a line in it that goes

"There will be time, there will be time

To prepare a face for the faces that you meet"

These two lines are Iris in a nutshell. The song is summed up very aptly here. Iris is the love song of a lonely man, fed up with lies and fake promises who finds someone who accepts him for what he is. That is all. The song speaks to me on more than one level, because I have been fortunate enough to find real people amongst fake friends.

I would love to hear your interpretation of Iris. Until next time.

The Bilge Master