Song Composition
The song's unusual guitar tuning, D-A-E-A-E-E is accomplished by replacing the B string with a high E string. In an interview with Guitar World Magazine, the singer and songwriter, Johnny Rzeznik, explained, "Both the top strings are high E strings. Whenever I tried tuning a regular B string up to E, it would pop. It was really tough on the tension. I've seen guys play "Name" with regular tuning. It doesn't sound right." Johnny Rzeznik says the song's unusual composition happened "quite accidentally." In an interview with KFOG he explained, "It was weird, I was just sitting on my couch randomly twisting the tuning pegs, and I couldn't figure out what notes the guitar was tuned to, so I had to grab my tuner to find out, and then I jotted them down on a post it. ... I just sat there and let my fingers play the fretboard openly, and that is what became the progression of 'Name'."
The song's lyrics refer to Rzeznik's sisters who raised him; both his parents died when he was young and his father was an alcoholic. The line, "We're grown up orphans who never knew their names" reflects his past. Rzeznik also stated, "I wrote this song about feeling like I was wasting time, and my life; just wasting everything, and this song is what came out of it."
Read more about this topic: Name (song)
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