“I'm not used to getting good reviews.”
- Pauly Shore
Does anyone remember Pauly Shore? He came to prominence in the early 90s as an MTV VJ and then parlayed his toasted stoner, SO-CAL surfer dude persona into stardom. He was everywhere back then. He made a handful of films in the early years of that decade that were beloved by young males and reviled by critics - think Adam Sandler movies. He went on to do a bunch of other quirky things, mockumentaries and such, but his cultural relevance was all early-mid 90s.
In 1993, his movie Son in Law came out. It was one of those fish-out-of-water, culture clash set ups. Kind of a Green Acres meets Jeff Spicoli situation. Pauly plays himself through the main character named Crawl. He goes to meet his girlfriend's family who reside somewhere in rural America on a farm. Goofiness ensues and Pauly eventually wins everyone over in the end. I'm not embarrassed that I've seen it more than once.
Why do I bring this up? Because the soundtrack had a song on it that got my attention back then but I didn't know who it was. This, of course, was before every single piece of information that has ever existed in the history of the world was available in my palm. I had to wait for the closing credits to get the title and the band…Fallin' Down by Goo Goo Dolls. It was a rocker and I liked it, but I'd never heard of them. By the end of the decade, though, everybody had heard of them.
In those days it was not street cool to be a fan of Goo Goo Dolls. Here are some reasons: First off, their name's dumb. I don't know its origin and I don't care, it's dumb. You feel dumb when you say it. Second, their frontman, singer, guitarist, songwriter, John Rzeznik, was a little too pretty for the early 90s zeitgeist. Grunge was in full bloom. To be taken seriously the prescription was to be flanneled, scroungy and brooding. To be part of what was happenin', your music had to be heavy with angst and thick with tuned-down guitars. Don't get me wrong, I loved all of that myself, but I can like different things at the same time.
The thing is, regardless of your tastes, I think it's fair to say that Goo Goo Dolls, because of Rezeznik, wrote and recorded some incredible songs. Speaking strictly about their technical aspects, the writing, the arrangements and the musicianship on songs like Iris, Slide, Black Balloon and Name are damn near flawless. Any soundtrack of the 90s that didn't include them would be a bogus presentation.
That's how I feel about it. Please weigh in, pro or con, if you like.
As usual, many of their lesser-known songs are some of my favorites. (Give a Little Bit is Supertramp's song from 1977, but I think this is one's a fine cover).