Long Way Down

Album: A Boy Named Goo (1995)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Goo Goo Dolls haven't explained the meaning of this energetic rock tune but it seems the narrator is simultaneously afraid of reconnecting with an ex (who has been cast aside by her latest lover) and of being alone. "I don't think I'll make it on my own," frontman John Rzeznik sings.
  • The album's fifth and final single, "Long Way Down" peaked at #25 on the Modern Rock chart. Unlike their breakthrough song, the mellow acoustic ballad "Name," the aggressive track was more in line with the band's harder sound. The disparity caused confusion for new fans, who showed up to gigs expecting soft rock and were blasted by this tune instead.
  • This was featured on the soundtrack to the 1996 disaster flick Twister (in the film, it blares on the storm chasers' car radio). The band filmed a dizzying video for the movie, which featured them performing on a revolving stage. Goo bassist Robby Takac told Tulsa World: "We had to stop like every 15 minutes and take a break because everybody was getting vertigo. It was crazy."
  • Lots of '90s bands, including The Cardigans and The Flaming Lips, appeared on Beverly Hills, 90210 to rock out at the fictional nightclub Peach Pit After Dark. But the Goo Goo Dolls landed a different gig on the teen soap: They played "Long Way Down" aboard a ship for rich boy Steve Sanders' birthday bash in the 1996 episode "You Say It's Your Birthday: Part 2."

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