Goo Goo Dolls: Iris Meaning
Song Released: 1998
Iris Lyrics
'cause I know that you feel me somehow
You’re the closest to heaven that i’ll ever be
And I don’t want to go home right now
And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
’cause...
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I love the song but i only recently found out it was from a film. Im definitely going to watch City Of Angels now! its a beautiful song and to me i always thought it was about loving someone but them not even noticing you half the time.
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The song's name comes from the obvious "watcher"..."guardian" role that an Angel plays. Now, read the many posts on this thread and ask yourself; why an Angel may hide from the world? And, thus you have the lyric "I don't want the world to see me, 'cause I don't think that they'd understand."
Humans that hide their true identies may identify with this line. But, it isn't about them. -
I think you guys are being very judgemental about someones sexuality. I personally feel the song has nothing to do with gay's of any sort. Someone showing their emotions out to the world should not be seen as gay! The song is about someone falling in love with someone they can't have, and that no one see's him or understands him and wants someone to love him for who he is. This is easily relatble to everyday life!
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Iris was written about suicide in my opinion, from the point The protagonist is then troubled by the fact that he killed himself because he just wanted people to know who he was, and the protagonist wished he'd gotten to know him better. A music video idea would be at a funeral, this protagonist singing over the corpse and the corpse every so often coming out of the coffin and singing the chorus with the protagonist
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I have watched the movie this song is based on and it is beautiful. I like to think the song is based on how much someone can love someone else but also it can be interpruted as a cheating husband or wife feelings about the person their cheating with. Just some extra food for thought it can explain the moment of truth in the lies line and a few other lines to. Even you bleed just to no your alive the word bleed being used as a metaphor.
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Even though I know that song was created for the movie, and the song's lyrics make a lot of sense in relation to the movie, I still really enjoy this interpretation of the song.
When you listen to the song again, listen to the lyrics from this perspective: A person has fallen in love with their friend (of the same sex) and the song's whole meaning really takes on this emotional shift. I personally appreciate the song more thinking of it in those terms. The lyrics are very gender neautral and there is no mention that the song pertains to a guy/girl heterosexual relationship and the chorus really helps to strengthen this overall meaning:
And I don't want the world to see me
(Essentially, coming out of the closet)
Cause I don't think that they'd understand
(The kind of prejudices associated with homosexuality)
When everything's made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
(Wanting to come out to their friend but fearing their friend's reaction, especially considering the circumstances and feelings involved)
Even though I know this is just coincidence, I still listen to this song and have a lot more respect for it with that kind of emotional background. -
Iris is part of the eye, and he is constantly saying I don't want the world to see me
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Its funny, this songs is really about how Johnny Resnick is addicted to heroin and can't give it up, but doesn't want people and his family and parents to think how he acts on on drugs is who he really is, and he can't stop and that no one understands him.
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Greetings,
I'm a gentleman who just lost his wife and child...
To me, the song seems soooo accurate on how I feel about my daughter and the lack of seeing her grow up I'm going to experience...
I love my daughter so much.....and ..,. "I just want her to nkow who I am"
Sung it tonight at karaoke...heart breaking but amazing song. -
It's about two soul mates longing to be together, aware of eachother, one who is only spirit and the other who is still living as human. The spirit follows her everywhere on earth rather than "go home" to heaven without her.
He'd give up being able to live in heaven forever if he could be human again and make contact with her physically, especially since he knows that she has somehow realized that he is there beside her even though she cannot see or hear him.
Wierd things have been happening to her: premonitions, dreams, seeing signs through numbers, messages to her from him that he is there with her and telling her who he is. She's become convinced of his existence and that he is her true love. So, when he sings "You can't fight the tears that ain't coming" he is saying that she knows that she is dying soon and that means they can finally be together. Death, to her, isn't the end to her being. Death, she has come to believe, is her way to her true love, to wherever he is. Believing this so strongly, the last thing she feels is sad, so no tears follow.
"When everything feels like the movies" describes what she has been experiencing for quite a while(the signs, premonitions, prophetic dreams, etc, all from him) She "bleeds just to know she's alive" meaning she pinches herself to assure herself she isn't seeing things or dreaming because she wants so badly for this to be true.
"I don't want the world to see me, cause I don't think that they'd understand" means that he doesn't want anyone but her to know that he's present on earth. Not his family, or his friends or anyone who just knew him for his name or celebrity(if he was famous for something). "When everything's made to be broken, I just want you to know who I am" means that he understands that this world is a world of great pain and suffering and her knowing of him may not change her luck or her fate but maybe just knowing she's not alone and that he's next to her, it may be just enough to get her through to her natural end. -
Hey guys.. I love this song and I cry when I hear it (almost every time) its really amazing..
well I always thought that the title "iris" refers to a flower or in camera terminology, an iris is when the lense actually zooms into an object and the object becomes the focus... which is a little mosre romantic to me than some performers name.. Haha forgive me I am a dreamer
i think the song to me is about how that moment is so perfect and how you would give up everything for that person and how you just want them to realise how much they mean to you. The perfect, flawless way the song is written is just wow yeah I wish I wrote it!!
its about how being with the person you love would be better than anything, that they are your heaven they make you feel alive and they show you everything you are and in turn you want them to understand you even if the rest of the world doesn't.. well that's just me:) -
I think it could be about a boyfriend and girlfriend or about friends and the line you bleed just to know your alive it's about he cuts hiself just because he knows they'll never be together and he wants her to see him for who he is and he don't care about the rest of the world
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My interpretation is that the song is simply about forbidden love.
"And I’d give up forever to touch you
’cause I know that you feel me somehow"
They are in love. They're not together.
"You’re the closest to heaven that i’ll
Ever be
And I don’t want to go home right now"
2 ways for this 1) The singer doesn't believe in the afterlife, but has found heaven with their love, or 2) The Bible condemns their love, so they are not going to heaven but the closest they have is each other.
"And all I can taste is this moment
And all I can breathe is your life
’cause sooner or later it’s over
I just don’t want to miss you tonight"
They tease themselves, thinking of being together, but soon enough reality catches up and they go away from ecah other, missing each other.
"And I don’t want the world to see me
’cause I don’t think that they’d
Understand"
Do I have to explain that?
"When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am"
He wants his love to understand how in love he is and what a huge part of him that love is, and if that makes them bad people, who cares becuase everything is bad.
"And you can’t fight the tears that ain’t
Coming
Or the moment of truth in your lies"
Their in love, but they deny it to each other, holding back the tears about their 'wrong' love, and not saying a thing, except that sometimes a hint of how one really feels will slip out whilst they deny, but it will be ignored.
"When everything feels like the movies
Yeah you bleed just to know you’re alive"
It doesn't feel real, it's like tragic controversial story and your a character with an author hovering above you, making you struggle with this moral dilemma.
"And I don’t want the world to see me
’cause I don’t think that they’d
Understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
And I don’t want the world to see me
’cause I don’t think that they’d
Understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
And I don’t want the world to see me
’cause I don’t think that they’d
Understand
When everything’s made to be broken
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am
I just want you to know who I am"
See the first chorus.
I know it was written about City of Angels, but I always think of too doomed, in love people. The lyrics can apply to a lot of things, really. -
Well obviously...anyone can take these lyrics and relate them to whatever they want. This is my favorite song and I know what it means to me, and it is very interesting to hear what it means to everyone else.
"i'd give up forever to touch you"
-this is my favorite line because it is saying that this person would give up forver, which is everything they have done and been through, to be with another person...pretty powerful statement.
i personally have never seen the movie this was written for, and quite honestly, I don't want to, because I don't want it to mess up MY interpretation of the song. I feel like it can be related to a lot of things.
You can also relate it to Christianity, however I don't think that was intended by johnny rzeznik.
TO ME, it is the generic vision of a guy who is in love with a girl and the girl doesn't know, but when he is with that girl, everything is too good to be true. And I DO agree with whoever it was who said that the girl it was intended for may have commitment trouble...i think that is really good and there are definitely lines that support that.
The lines that I have the most trouble with are:
"And you can't fight the tears that aint comin'"
"All the moment of truth in your lies"
The line, "I just want you to know who I am" , should not be taken too literal, because it is apparent that the girl does in fact know who he is, but he wants her to see ALL of him, when no one else does.
I could go on forever...thats how beautiful of a song it is...but hearing everyone else's opinion on this song is great. -
Well, this isn't as much an interpretation as it is a personal feeling, but I feel that this song is about a long distance relationship.
The first verse makes me feel this the strongest. To me, this song is about a man who really loves a woman, but because they live so far away, he would do anything to touch her, see her, kiss her, or spend time with her in any way.
The chorus makes me think that it's about the mans friends that don't understand how and why he feels the way he does, it seems hopeless. But all he wants is for her to understand why he feels the way he does, and for her to accept it.
The second verse I feel is the doubt that they could both have, about each others identities and feelings. Is it real? Is he/ she lying to me? What if he is? This seems to good to be true.
Again, this is more of a personal thing for me, but it's my interpretation of the song.
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