‘Slide’ – Goo Goo Dolls
In 1998 the Goo Goo Dolls’ released their album Dizzy Up the Girl, and “Slide” was the first hit single, which helped catapult them into super-stardom. Whilst on the surface, it’s easy to think that the fast-paced track is a classic rock story about two teenagers finding love and standing up together against the world. Still the lead singer/songwriter Johnny Rzeznik cleared up what the song was really about on an episode of VH1 Storytellers. He explained how the song was really about “these two teenage kids, and the girlfriend gets pregnant and … they’re trying to decide whether she should get an abortion, or they should get married, or what should go on. …”
Slide Goo Goo Dolls
‘One’ – U2
In 1991 U2 released the legendary track “One”, and it fast became one of the band’s signature hits. Fans often identified with the track and believed it was an ode about togetherness, whether romantic, platonic, or fraternal. However, the lead singer Bono later revealed that the song was released at a time when the band was splintered and everyone was questioning the bands’ future. He later revealed that “There was melancholy about it, but there was also strength. ‘One’ is not about oneness, it’s about difference. It’s not the old hippie idea of ‘let’s all live together.’ It is a much more punk rock concept. It’s anti-romantic: ‘We are one but not the same. We get to carry each other.’ It’s a reminder that we have no choice. I’m still disappointed when people hear the chorus line as ‘got to’ rather than ‘we get to carry each other.’ Like it or not, the only way out of here is if I give you a leg up the wall and you pull me after you. There’s something very unromantic about that. The song is a bit twisted, which is why I could never figure out why people wanted it at their weddings. I have certainly met a hundred people who’ve had it at their weddings. I tell them, ‘Are you mad? It’s a song about splitting up.’”
One U2
