Album of the Day — June 8
Goo Goo Dolls — Hold Me Up
Goo Goo Dolls — Hold Me Up
June.8.2020
Goo Goo Dolls
Hold Me Up
1990
Years before they became Triple-A (Adult Album Alternative) gods Goo Goo Dolls were petulant punks from Buffalo, New York.
After two fairly straight-ahead punk albums, the amusing and anarchistic self-titled debut with songs like “I’m Addicted”, “Hammerin’ Eggs (the metal song), and covers like “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” — all sung by bass player Robby Takac — they followed it with the anemic Jed. On Jed guitarist, Johnny Reznezik sings on only a few songs but you can hear them looking for the off-ramp from the punk highway.
SIDEBAR
It’s a similar off-ramp that The Replacements took when they recorded Let It Be. I’ve never been shy about my love for the ‘mats so I’m often asked what they sound like and this is usually the conversation, verbatim:
Me: You ever heard of the Goo Goo Dolls?
Person: Yea.
Me: That’s The Replacements.
Now, to be clear, that’s not a dig in any way. I like both bands and, in fact, they were friendly at one time (perhaps still are) with Goo Goo Dolls opening for The Replacements on their last official tour in support of All Shook Down.
At some point, both bands realized the limitations of punk and that it’s a pretty hackneyed genre … and both bands had songwriters (Westerberg and Rzeznik) that wouldn’t/couldn’t be constrained by punks simplistic structure.
Here is Paul Westerberg on Goo Goo Dolls in Spin magazine in 1991:
“Yeah, they’re really good, never got sick of them when they played with us. I think they come across dumber than they are, but it’s cool. They’ve got a future. They can write and play and sing. I’d like them to have a producer and shit. That was the best band we had open for us.”
Paul Westerberg even wrote the lyrics for the band on Goo Goo Dolls 1993 album Superstar Car Wash, “We Are the Normal” — the albums first single … and in typical fashion, despite a big push by WB Records and MTV, the song stalled.
END SIDEBAR
By 1990 the Goo trio, Johnny Rzeznik (guitar, vocals), Robby Takac (bass), and original drummer George Tutuska had cycled through the typical punk story. It would be touring in support of their third album, 1990’s Hold Me Up, that the band would become chummy with The Replacements.
For the first time, this third record toggles vocal duties between Rzeznik and Takac. The first track “Laughing” explodes out of the gate and is all Takac. There is nothing great about it … and nothing awful about it. It’s pure and simple.
However, it’s the second song “Just the Way You Are” where Rzeznik takes over lead vocals. I presume this is because the band, at this point, was still splitting songwriting equally (the last album to do so) and applying the old Beatles philosophy of whoever wrote the song sings it.
Musically, this second song is on-brand for Goo Goo Dolls at the time, but it’s on “Just the Way You Are” that you begin to hear the lyrical sensitivity that would ultimately make the band superstars:
JUST THE WAY YOU ARE
I’m in love because I know you
And I’m sorry I don’t show you
And if I find that you ain’t by me
Afraid no one knows the things you see
And then on the third track, it’s back to Takak for “So Outta Line” — again, not a bad song, but it’s not saying much … and it’s not that rock & roll has to say anything at all. It’s a fine song.
Track four is back to Rzeznik for “There You Are”, the albums first single and video. Again, musically on-brand but lyrically, it’s the vulnerability and sweetness that stands out. These are the type of lyrics that were there absent in anything the band had recorded previously:
THERE YOU ARE
Give me a reason now that I can understand
I pick up the pieces now and put ’em in my hand
I’ve been up and down for you
My suffering extreme
I fell on my face for you
Now I know what it means
And I self destruct
I close my eyes and there
There you are
There you are
You are
It’s not that Rzeznik is that much of a better singer than Takak. In that sense it’s a photo finish, but songwriting? Rzeznik has Takak beat by a couple of furlongs.
It goes back and forth like this and the Goos remain musically on point. And then comes a little hiatus with a cover of “I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” . Not uncommone for the band at that point as they usually included a couple of covers on their albums:
Their debut has:
“Sunshine of Your Love” — Cream cover
“(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” — Blue Oyster Cult cover
Jed has:
“Down on the Corner” — Creedence Clearwater Revival cover
“Gimme Shelter” — The Rolling Stones over
Hold Me Up has:
“I Could Never Take the Place of Your Man” — Prince cover
“A Million Miles Away — The Plimsouls cover
That’s right, Goo Goo Dolls cover Prince.
Neither Rzeznik nor Takak takes vocal duties on the song, those are handled by Lance Diamond, a Buffalo singer, and radio personality. And if you’re worried that Goo Goo Dolls goof up the song, they do not. To be clear, it’s not like the original, it’s different. Any comparison is foolish. It’s a solid and fun cover.
The other cover, The Plimsouls “A Million Miles Away” is dutifully handled by Rzeznik. The original, made famous by being part of the Valley Girl movie and soundtrack and then re-emerging on the Speed soundtrack is faithful. It holds up well, even today … I assure you, good songs are timeless regardless of who sings them, this is true in any genre.
The songs that shed the most light on where the direction Goo Goo Dolls were headed, those are the instrumental “Kevin’s Song” and ballad “Two Days in February”. Musically, “Kevin’s Song” is has a strong rock/pop melody and then tosses in some chaotic punk petulance.
That chaotic petulance would pop up now and again on both Superstar Car Wash and A Boy Named Goo. But by Dizzy Up the Girl, co-producer Rob Cavallo had become firmly embedded on the music producers A-list. While Cavallo had co-produced A Boy Named Goo with the band and former Husker Du sound man (and MIT graduate) Lou Giordano, on Dizzy Cavallo was the big cheese and wasn’t having any of it.
I presume whoever Rzeznik is writing about in “Two Days in February” is the same woman that would go on to grind his heart into platinum earworms over the following decade (I feel bad for him, but the songs are fuckin amazing).
If you listen to “Two Days in February”, “Name” and “Iris” in succession … oh yes, I’d bet dollars to donuts he’s singing about the same woman.
In any event, on those two songs specifically, you can hear the beginning of future Goo Goo Dolls. Those next three records — Superstar Car Wash, A Boy Named Goo, and Dizzy Up The Girl — would help the band solidify its sound.
Now, take a beat and consider those album titles.
The only way this band could’ve found mainstream success was with talent … because those album names are just awful.
Critics are mostly flat on Hold Me Up. I’d guess because they didn’t know it existed at the time and if they did, they didn’t care. And by the time they cared, they didn’t want to listen.
Hell, I doubt Goo Goo Dolls fans know about it or if they do care enough to listen to it.
The success the band has is hard-fought and well deserved. Johnny Rzeznik is a very good songwriter. His lyrics and voice have a vulnerability that provides the kind of sweetness women look for and there’s enough “rough around the edges” masculinity there that men can listen without feeling emasculated.
Unless you’re a die-hard fan you can pass on the first two albums and consider Hold Me Up as the origin album for Goo Goo Dolls.