Classic Rock

August ’01

THE GOO GOO DOLLS
'Ego, Opinion, Art & Commerce'
(Edel 0127112HWR)

Compilation of the best bits so far from long-struggling US trio who finally struck gold with their fifth album.

OVERNIGHT SUCCESS STORIES DON'T evolve much slower than that of the Goo Goo Dolls. By the time the band finally broke through in the US with the 1995 hit 'Name', they'd already released four albums, and been on the road since, it seemed from the inside of the tour van, every day for the last 10 years.

The band formed in their home town of Buffalo, New York, in 1985. The trio - John Rzeznik (guitar, vocals), bassist Robby Takac and drummer George Lutusaka (who would later to be replaced by Mike Malinin) - followed the club circuit around New York and into Canada until bar owners actually started paying them to show up. Two years later they'd finally scraped enough cash together to record their self-titled debut. A scratchy, rough-house album, spiky and punk inasmuch as three kids from Buffalo can be, it put you in mind of The Replacements' bruised 'Let It Be', but, quite frankly, without that album's heart or tenderness.

They'd signed to LA-based Metal Blade label for 1988's 'Jed', and while its frenzied 'Up Yours' hinted at their ability to combine fuzzy punk and pop, it was their furious cover of the Rolling Stones' 'Gimme Shelter' that really helped get them noticed.

The interminable slog of the road started playing dividends, and by the time of 1991 's 'Hold Me Up' they were showing admirable maturity, with a collection of songs that combined elegant pop phrasing set among bloody-minded guitars. 'Just The Way You Are' showed their broken-hearted ire, while the lingering 'Two Days In February' hinted at the new-found subtly in their writing.

It was with 1993's 'SuperstarCarWash, though, that Rzeznik came into his own as a writer. The band scored a minor radio hit with the violin-filled 'We Are The Normal', which they'd written with The Replacements' Paul Westerberg after the Goos had supported them on tour. Elsewhere, 'Girl Right Next To Me' and 'On The Lie' combined a fierce ethic of crushed love, heady melody and a distant, distorted fury that sounded as good on FM as it did through your neighbour's wall.

'A Boy Named Goo' (1995) had been out for eight months before radio, MTV and VH1 fell heavily for the haunting 'Name' (recently reissued as a single in the United Kingdom). The success - an overnight one to a lot of people - would eventually propel the excellent 'Boy...' album to sales of more than three million.

After touring the album for 22 months, Rzeznik's writer's block, which had him holed up at the La Parc hotel in Los Angeles, was finally dislodged when he was asked to write a song for the soundtrack to the Nicholas Cage/Meg Ryan romance movie City Of Angels.

Rzeznik came up with the elegant 'Iris' and the creative floodgates opened up for Rzeznik with 1998's 'Dizzy Up The Girl'. Four million copies later it's still selling quietly here and there.

The Goo Goo Dolls are currently in the studio in New York recording what will become their eighth album. For now, 'Ego, Opinion, Art...' is an unconstrained collection by a band who somehow eventually dawdled from the garage to stadiums around the world, and kept their integrity - not to mention their heads - while they were doing it. Theirs is a great story. Listen to it.

4/5
Philip Wilding