“Here Is Gone” by The Goo Goo Dolls, Wednesday, September 8, 2021

 

Speaking of massive hits of the late’90s, The Goo Goo Dolls’ 1998 album Dizzy Up the Girl also encapsulates that acoustic alt-rock sound that listeners can instantly identify the era. The follow up to their massive 4x platinum record released four years later, Gutterflower charted higher than their previous records, but ultimately sold much less than Dizzy. The band continues to release music from time to time, but their heyday remains in 1998. Gutterflower is a fine record and “Here Is Gone” is a fine song. But the acoustic rock band from Buffalo, NY had been there and done that, and the 2002 music scene was moving past pop rock aimed at adult contemporary radio.

I WAS NOT THE ANSWER SO FORGET IT WAS EVER ME. Johnny Rzeznik has said that the music video for "Here Is Gone," which features some of the time film tricks, sped up footage of several scenes, cost more to produce than the entire album. The video at youth counterculture in what looks like urban decay. The youth show aggression toward symbols of cultural establishment. It's a rather bizarre video for a an adult contemporary band to make. The song itself is about a break up, about "want[ing] to be free." The idea that "somehow here is gone" recalls the end of a relationship when a partner is simply going through the motions, often before even realizing that he or she is unhappy. The other partner may be happy and savoring the moments, living in the here and now. However, when faced with the reality of the relationship's demise, what the other thought was here is actually not real. The moment passed. "Here Is Gone" could apply to any passing trend. It could apply to the world we live in now, which is rapidly changing. How the standard of living you thought you can and should achieve when you were young is seemingly out of reach and perhaps the wrong goal. It could be the pulse of a political trend, one side is grasping for power in what seems to be effective, but it turns out that that ideology is actually in the minority and the people will not tolerate it in the long term. Somehow we hit the target, but the arrow stuck only for a minute before falling onto the ground. This is what became of the Goo Goo Dolls post-Dizzy Up the Girl.

SOMEHOW HERE IS GONE. "Music videos are such a waste of time," His mother pulled the satellite  remote from Allan's hand change the channel from MTV2 to Leave It to Beaver on TV Land. Allan had been home from school for about an hour and his mother just returned from her afternoon classes. This encouraged Allan to learn to hide his channel surfing. The TV couldn't turn on to MTV, VH1, TVU, or Fuse, nor could the recall button take you to one of those channels. So The Weather Channel and Discovery were safe bets. Some of his friends could watch whatever they liked. He especially liked going over to his friend Nick's house. Nick's mother was dating a musician and his older brother had a band, so when no one was playing, Allan got to go downstairs in Nick's basement and play with some nice gear. He played a wooden Telecaster, a five-string Ibanez bass, a Taylor acoustic, and a loaded effects pedal. Sometimes other friends came over--Johnny Barrett keeping an inconsistent beat on the drums, Caleb Thompson on keys--but mostly it was Nick and Allan playing simple Tom Petty or '90s rock tracks. When they weren't playing music, there was MTV2 on upstairs or they'd play Grand Theft Auto or other games his mother wouldn't approve of. Going to Nick's house was entering a world without parental supervision. His mother was at work until late, his brother was usually working or drunk or stoned in his room, his mother's boyfriend would check in once in a while. But other than that, teenage boys were left to do whatever they wanted. All was good until Nick started dating Allan's sister Jess. 

Read the lyrics on Genius.