Origins and Theme
The instrumentals in the song are heavily driven by guitar riffs, mandolin, violins, and cellos, with a steady drum beat beneath. The acoustic guitar in the song gives a distinctive sound as it is in an odd tuning, with 5 of the 6 strings tuned to D. This gives a ringing effect similar to a twelve-string guitar.
John Rzeznik was approached to write a song for the City of Angels soundtrack, and the end product was "Iris". This song propelled the band to stardom, as it stayed on top of Billboard Hot 100 Airplay charts for a record-breaking 18 weeks, and was nominated for three Grammys that year. According to several interviews with Rzeznik, he was experiencing serious bouts of writer's block when he was approached, and was on the verge of quitting the band days before he wrote the song that would launch the band to worldwide fame. Iris is set to re-enter the UK charts at number 1, following performances by two X Factor finalists, which has helped to put the band back into the consciousness of the British public.
The song was named "Iris" by guitarist/vocalist John Rzeznik for ]]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2009}} Rzeznik found an article about her written by Daniel Levitin while flipping through an issue of Billboard, and thought she had a nice name, and thus chose it for the song title. Despite the title, the word 'Iris' is not heard in the lyrics.
Read more about this topic: Iris (Goo Goo Dolls Song)
Famous quotes containing the words origins and, origins and/or theme:
“Lucretius
Sings his great theory of natural origins and of wise conduct; Plato
smiling carves dreams, bright cells
Of incorruptible wax to hive the Greek honey.”
—Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962)
“Compare the history of the novel to that of rock ‘n’ roll. Both started out a minority taste, became a mass taste, and then splintered into several subgenres. Both have been the typical cultural expressions of classes and epochs. Both started out aggressively fighting for their share of attention, novels attacking the drama, the tract, and the poem, rock attacking jazz and pop and rolling over classical music.”
—W. T. Lhamon, U.S. educator, critic. “Material Differences,” Deliberate Speed: The Origins of a Cultural Style in the American 1950s, Smithsonian (1990)
“If a theme or idea is too near the surface, the novel becomes simply a tract illustrating an idea.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)