Saturday, April 19, 2014

Music: "Only One" by the Goo Goo Dolls

I mostly ignore bands when they're not making music. I'm the same way with actors, and with most writers. Their work speaks to me, but I don't feel much of an urge to read up on their personal lives.

That said, I went through a period where I read up on the Goo Goo Dolls. Their music spoke to my soul and broadened my horizons, and my sixteen-year-old self wanted to know more about the people who'd made it.

A big part of this "reading stuff about the Goo Goo Dolls" schtick involved perusing transcripts of radio interviews and poking at commentary on fan sites. I've forgotten almost everything I learned, but the stuff about "Only One" has stuck with me.

"Everyone thinks it's about Kurt Cobain," the band said (and y'all know I'm paraphrasing here), "but it's not. It is about someone in particular, but we'll never, ever tell you who."

Sixteen-year-old me immediately jumped to the conclusion that it was about the Vampire Lestat and they didn't want to say so in case Anne Rice sued them. (The radio interviews made it clear they'd read her, or at least seen the movie.)

I don't care if I'm right or not. So far as I'm concerned, "Only One" is a Lestat song, through and through. Hell, most of A BOY NAMED GOO fits with one or another of Rice's vampires. It's the album that got me into pairing music with fictional characters. I listened to it several times while I reread THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED.

It also remains one of my favourite albums, even after fifteen years of frequent listening, and "Only One" is my favourite song off it.

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