Sadly, I am not as articulate about Dave Grohl as my siblings are. We all make up a passionate Dave Grohl fan club, but they can talk about the intricacies of his drumming in a way I cannot do. Brendan was into Nirvana before anybody else (you know, he was into Bleach and Incesticide) – his story of hearing “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blasting through an enormous Virgin Records store in Paris is one of my favorites of all of his tales.
I’ve always had this weird overly emotional response to Dave Grohl.
All I know is, I watch him thrashing about at the drums, and occasionally I get this weird lump in my throat. Why? Maybe because of the sheer joy in his every movement onstage. That joy is hard-won.
If you listen to the Foo Fighters, one of the overwhelming impressions I get of the music is that of JOY. Joy in making music, sure, but also music that makes you want to get up and dance, thrash about, make out. “The Colour and the Shape” is the kind of record that you must play in the car, in the summer, with the windows cranked down, cups of ice coffee in the holders, hair whipping in your eyes, as you drive to the beach for a long day in the sun and surf. The Foo Fighters are not “heavy”, or “deep”. You might expect Dave Grohl to be harder than that, more reserved because of all the chaos of Nirvana and Cobain’s death. On the contrary. The Foo Fighters burst onto the scene with such exuberance, such exciting melodies, good old LOUD rock and roll, with such a sense of teenage joy and release.
Dave Grohl said, about “Up in Arms” on Colour and the Shape (and I paraphrase, sorry, can’t remember where I first read it): “I just love the image of two teenagers making out on the beach listening to that song.”
No pretensions! No “I am deep and tormented.” Just a flat-out expression of what music can be, and what, essentially, it is. Especially to teenagers.
Dave Grohl was in a different place in his life when he was in Nirvana. Stoner slacker hippie boy suddenly became an enormous rock star. He doesn’t speak of it much, but when he does, the main impression you get is of a whirlwind. White-hot light, insanity, frenzy, everything moving so fast …
It was nuts. They didn’t just hit it huge, they exploded. Nevermind mania, mayhem, chaos, fame … It was CRAZY.
Tori Amos, relatively unknown at the time of the release of Nevermind, but starting to play small clubs with her own brand of weird non-radio-friendly music (at the time) … tells the story of being on tour. She had recorded Little Earthquakes but it hadn’t come out yet. This was pre-Alanis, pre-Fiona Apple. There wasn’t really a place for Tori Amos in the scene yet. She knew that, but she had decided to go for it anyway. She had never fit in anywhere anyway. So anyway, she’s on this little tour, and she’s in Iceland. And she’s listening to the radio, and suddenly, she hears the most extraordinary song. Nirvana didn’t re-invent the wheel, there were a ton of bands starting up this new sound, going back to basics up in the Pacific Northwest. Soundgarden, Mudhoneys, Pearl Jam … I like them all. But … none of them wrote a song that sounds like “Smells Like Teen Spirit”. “Smells like Teen Spirit” LANDED in the populace like a bomb, that sat there for a second at everyone’s feet, before exploding. It’s an interesting phenomenon. It might be partly marketing, but I hesitate to put the entire chaos that erupted at the sound of that particular song onto genius marketing and a kick-ass video. It was the song ITSELF that landed. Anyway, Tori Amos said she was listening to the radio – and she heard “Smells like Teen Spirit” for the first time … and she suddenly knew. She was far away from America, she was far away from “the biz” but she knew, with the sound of that song, that her time had come. It was the kind of song that swept away the 10 years of radio music that had come before. It breathed a life and a freedom into the radio (for a time) and she knew that that new breath of life would open up a space for her as well. (She ended up recording a slow version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, her tribute to that moment.)
Nirvana was THAT kind of band. There can only be ONE of that kind of band, at one moment in time.
Of course, Nirvana culminated with Kurt Cobain blowing his brains out.
After that, nothing was heard of any of them for a while. It was “The day the music died …” Grohl and Novoselic dropped off the face of the earth. Courtney Love took center stage, in her grief-struck in-need-of-anger-management ways. (I actually like her a lot. And Celebrity Skin is a very good album.)
And then an amazing thing happened. Grohl emerged a couple of years later, with this new band called The Foo Fighters. But here was the really incredible thing (in lieu of the fact that Nirvana was all about the songs of Kurt Cobain – songs which are undeniably great): Dave Grohl was the songwriter for FF. AND – he played the guitar, not the drums. Those of us who loved and missed Nirvana were like, What?? And his singing! Listen to that singing!
My favorite thing about Dave Grohl is how he screams ON KEY. Nobody screams like Dave Grohl. Okay, maybe Paul McCartney can. I have probably listened to “Monkey Wrench” well over 1000 times. And I never get over the thrill of hearing Dave Grohl scream the way he does at the end.
He’s screaming, sure, but you don’t miss one. single. word (and he does the following phrase all in one breath):
“One last thing before I quit
I never wanted any more than I could fit
Into my head I still remember every single word
You said and all the shit that somehow came along with it
Still theres one thing that comforts me since I was
Always caged and now Im freeeeeee…..”
It’s some of the most exciting music made in the last 15 years.
I don’t know how Dave Grohl looks at his years in Nirvana now. I don’t know what his feelings are about the whole thing. I’m sure they’re very mixed. But what is extraordinary about Nirvana ending is that it gave Dave Grohl the chance to step into the light.
Where he undeniably belongs.
I hate it that Kurt Cobain killed himself. I love Nirvana, and still am kind of bummed that there won’t be any more new Nirvana songs. Those albums are what we have now. There’s an end-date. That’s it.
But as long as Grohl was in Nirvana, there would be no way he could compete. Kurt Cobain was too strong a presence. Nirvana was a band, sure, but it was really all about Cobain. The Foo Fighters let us get to know Dave Grohl.
I love their first self-titled album, the one they recorded in three days. It’s pretty much all Dave Grohl. He plays a ton of instruments. It’s rough, it’s raw, and it has these moments of such excitement that you jump out of your skin. It took me a couple of weeks to even really be able to HEAR the songs, because I couldn’t get over the fact that Dave Grohl had written this stuff, and that he was playing the guitar and singing lead.
Additionally, I have listened to Nirvana songs, and Foo Fighter songs (and most recently, Queens of the Stone Age songs) – and zoomed in ONLY on what is going on with Dave Grohl’s drumming. I suppose a drummer would do this naturally when he listens to other people’s music. His ears are trained that way, to hear the percussion specifically, but I’m not a drummer. I do it with The Beatles sometimes, too. So, what’s going on with Ringo back there?
There are times, on certain songs, when you become aware of Dave Growl, and suddenly you can’t hear anything else. A perfect and well-known example is Smells like Teen Spirit. It’s hard (at least for me) to focus on anything BUT Kurt Cobain in that song, but when you block out Cobain, and hear what’s going on with Grohl in the background …
I remember at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, they had those nightly outdoor performances, and there was Dave Grohl, all bundled up in the cold, playing “The One,” the song that was on the Orange County soundtrack (of all things). A great song. Another great example of Dave Grohl screaming. There’s just something ABOUT him when he sings. He holds nothing back. You feel like everything’s going to be okay. You feel strong. His energy is so outward, so SUNNY. Even his anger is positive.
After three wildly successful Foo Fighters albums, Dave Grohl suddenly decided: Okay. Now I need to join up with Queens of the Stone Age, and be their drummer for a while, and go on tour with them.
He said of his work with Queens of the Stone Age: “This is, by far, the most challenging drumming I have ever done.”
Listen to him in the background on the Songs for the Deaf album. Tune out everybody else. Grohl is back there, going absolutely nuts. It’s intricate, unexpected, and so so fast. The music itself is really really dense, hard hard metal music. One of the reveiws on Amazon made me laugh:
Homme-powered tracks dominate–the lurching, weirdly springy “No One Knows” is a kind of “Monster Mash” for grownups
haha!! That is so right on.
The music is thick, churlish, loud, violent, specific … It doesn’t have the raging joy of Foo Fighters, and so I find it not as universal. But I love it anyway. And listen to the album, and focus only in on Grohl. You’ll start laughing out loud at how NUTS he is going in the background.
I look forward to many years ahead. I’ll follow this guy anywhere. You want to do a polka album? I will buy it. You want to do an album of children’s lullabies? Dude, sign me up.
Whatever you want to do … I’ll buy it.
I don’t mean to snark, really, and it may be that when the whole Seattle/grunge thing burst onto the music scene, I was too occupied with diaper changes and day care to think about popular music (I’m serious! From 1993 to when I got the internet in 1998, it’s like those five years are just GONE. I couldn’t tell you what happened in movies or TV or any pop culture. And that’s weird for me.), but I have never understood the allure, the icon status, if you will, of “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.
It’s not just a dislike of the whole grunge genre. I can appreciate music I don’t personally like, and there are some Nirvana songs that don’t make my teeth itch. But Smells? I don’t get it. You can’t understand ONE WORD he’s saying, so how can this song be “moving”? How can it be an anthem for a generation if the generation has to go look up the lyrics (and even then they don’t make sense)?
I know how you hate it when people rag on your obsessions, so I’ll stop here, but I just want to know if I’m missing something with that song.
Here’s a site I think you’ll enjoy:
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Surf/2134/davelust.html
Well, like I kept saying in the post: I can’t put it into words. At least not in a way that anyone could get, if they don’t get it already. I’m not even gonna attempt to try to explain it to you. It would be like trying to convince a non-opera fan why it is the most important artistic innovation since … cave drawings or whatever. haha
That website is absolutely hilarious. It’s like something I would have done as a 13 year older, about, oh, Blackie Parrish or something. “And here, is Blackie staring lovingly at me.”
I love Dave too!!!!
you know who Queens of the Stone Age remind me of?
Cream. the whole psychedelicness of their music blows my mind.
mere –
I’ve been listening to Queens of the Stone Age in a bit of a loop today, mere – yeah, totally psychedelic! Monster-Mash for grownups! But really DARK.
I know FF have a new one out … haven’t had a chance to get it yet!
i’ve heard the first release. he’s amazing as always.
Weird – I was disappointed in Foo Fighter’s 3rd release. The one after Color and the Shape. I listened to it a couple of times, and then thought: Bah. Oh well. Not very good.
OVER A YEAR WENT BY and then, randomly, I picked it up again, popped it in – and was absolutely blown away. LIke – what?? Same record, totally different response. I LOVE that album – but for whatever reason, it just didn’t “hit me” the first time I heard it.
“Stacked Dead Actors”?? I mean, come on!
You’ve got to see the Foo Fighters live! Before they started this european tour they played a set at this little bar out in Tarzana – one of those surprise, unbilled gigs.
Oh.
My.
God.
I LOVE Dave Grohl.
susie: ha!! My sister saw the Foo Fighters in Providence and said the same thing – that they were unbelievable live.
Sheila, I REALLY enjoyed that.
I remember the first time I watched a Foo Fighter video. I was like…HOLY SHIT…that looks like the guy…nah, he’s a drummer…but…
Same thing when I first saw QOTSA. I remember doing a huge double-take and then I just started laughing. This guy is amazing.
I used to love to focus on the drumming in BOC’s Don’t Fear the Reaper. Now all I can hear is cowbell.
I don’t get the whole grunge thing either. Like Lisa, I think that whole era bypassed me somehow. But… your enthusiasm is so infectious, Shiela, I’ve got to assume I’m really missing out on something.
And about the drumming thing? Totally agree. There’s nothing more boring than an unimaginative drummer. But gosh, every now and again you come across something that, no matter how many times you hear it, no matter how well you think you can anticipate what’s next, still somehow manages to surprise you every time. (As to your mention of Ringo, I’m thinking specifically here of his short solo on Abbey Road.)
So maybe I should check out this Grohl guy, huh?
I think Ringo is HIGHLY under-rated as a drummer. Yes – the solo on Abbey Road. So true!!
Dave Grohl is one of my favorite musicians – and if you want to check him out, I literally can’t recommend Foo Fighter’s Color and the Shape highly enough.
When it first came out, it was one of those albums that I just could not take out of my CD player. I listened to it every day. I still listen to it all the time.
Color and the Shape, man, Color and the Shape. :)
Noted in Passing
At the end of Sheila O’Malley’s unauthorized biography of Dave Grohl, someone left a comment that prompted me to think… …It’s true. It’s been years since I’ve listened to “Don’t Fear the Reaper” by Blue Oyster Cult and noticed anything…
You mentioned you are a Soundgarden fan. Listen to the drumming in Pretty Noose. on the Down on the Upside album. Same kind of crazyness especially as the song progresses. Some cool hi-hat stuff and great fills.
Zep’s Misty Moutain Hop and In My time of Dying are fantastic also.
Kurt and Krist were probably the first to be surprised by Dave. Supposedly, while on tour, Nirvana finished their soundcheck, and while the guys prepared to bail, Dave picked up a guitar and started wailing a song out for the empty stadium to hear, and completely blew them away.
Who knows, maybe having somebody that talented, but hiding behind the drumkit, may have contributed to the intercine tension of their last months together,
I was in a car with a bunch of friends (all Metallica/Slayer fans) when Smells Like Teen Spirit came on for the first time. All of us just sat there and listened silently from beginning to end.
That’s what it did for everyone, brought disparate audiences together. Punkers got their high energy chords and metal heads got their hard sonic assault. And those two audiences NEVER mixed. Ever. Or they wouldn’t admit out loud that they liked stuff from the rival camps.
But the best thing ever was, yes, how it changed the rules of the music business. Up until the moment that song came out, the only way to be a rock star was to wear spandex and hair spray, reuse the same blues riffs as everyone else, sing about “Girls, Girls, Girls”, and have lots of Z’s, X’s, and repeating consonants in your band name. They hung out on Sunset Boulevard and the pay to play clubs like Gazzari’s. That’s what you had to do to sell 500,000 units. And that’s what the record company guys looked for.
Teen Spirit came out, and it all STOPPED. Sunset Boulevard STOPPED. The record company guys, all of them, tooks their jets to Seattle, and all those rockers looked like they were hit by a truck. Nobody was giving them contracts, blow, limos, or strippers. They knew their girlfriends would only support them for so long too. The resourceful ones learned the drop-D tuning, bought some flannel, and moved north.
And that was just for the up and comers. Established acts were left high and dry. Promotion money dried up, radio play disappeared, record sales tanked. Motley Crue is only beginning to recover.
The whole thing was just amazing to watch down here in L. A..
Scotter – wow. really cool perspective – thanks!
I read this post, and all I can think is, “Damn, I really am OLD.”
I’m with Lisa on this thing… Raising babies during that era… I didn’t get the whole Nirvana thing. (One has to be careful saying that in public as I have been verbally and very nearly physically assaulted for saying Nirvana sucks) But the Foo Fighters I did get. It was almost hard for me to to link Nirvana and the Foo Fighters in my mind. It just goes to show you that music appreciation is very, very personal.
Bye.
I honestly don’t think this is a generational thing. You say you were raising babies. Well, I was of baby-raising age at the time. I’m old!! I wasn’t a teenager, or even in my early 20s – like their core demographic. I was late 20s, early 30s – I was a good 10 years older than most Nirvana hard-core fans … but it’s just that I love loud aggressive music made by loud aggressive men. hahaha
Oh but I totally agree: this is really personal stuff. Some people hate rap so much that they can’t hear one good thing about it. The artform is LOST on them. I love rap … but that’s just my personal taste.
OH MY GOD SHEILA!
DO you have any idea how much I love Dave Grohl?
I met the man…MET HIM…twice.
Everything about him is beautiful. I love his honest, I-don’t-give-a-shit attitude. I love his beautiful face. I love the intensity he plays the drums, the guitar and sings. I love LOVE LOVE his scream. No one screams like Dave.
On stage he owns. He knows how to entertain an audience because he’s never lost his role as a fan of music.
He still remembers what it’s like to be a fan down in that pit because in essence, he still is.
Dave doesn’t always talk about what his songs mean and I love that. He says that you should interpret it for yourself. Make the song mean whatever you want it to mean.
He is asked all the time about the song February Stars. Is it about Kurt? Is it about Nirvana? What does it mean?
He never tells and I’m happy because it means something to me and I don’t want to know that it’s really about his pet turtle from the 5th grade, you know?
I’ve been a member of the Foo Fighter community since 1999 when I joined the postboard on their website and met so many other people like us who just LOVE this man.
Then one day, at a concert in Houston, some girl recognized me from my pictures on the website when I presented the band with a scrapbook made by the fans and she told her friend that I was the “president of the website”.
I loved that!
Oh girl, I could go on and on about Dave Grohl but I won’t. I will say that there was a time in my life when I wasn’t sure if I should get out of bed every morning much less continue to live each day but then I listened to The Colour and the Shape and heard Everlong for the first time. Finding out about these songs and the self titled album before it gave me a reason to get up and get involved. Discovering that community of other Foo Fighter fans gave me a reason to get out of my house and start living again and as overly dramatic as it sounds, I sometimes feel that they saved my life.
I sort of told Dave this when I met him the first time, trying very hard not to sound like a 13 yr old gushing geek and he hugged me so tight and then we took a picture. God, I wished I had it scanned because that man has such a death grip on me in the picture! I will remember that moment my entire life.
Thank you thank you thank you for posting this. I can’t wait to read it over and over again!
Oh, I almost forgot.
I’m a huge QOTSA fan and have been listening to them since before anyone know who in the hell they were.
I suggest picking up all of their previous albums. They are all amazing, even before Dave drummed on Songs For the Deaf!
DeAnna – your passion is infectious. I love how you talk about him … that’s what I mean: I feel like others can explain it better, and you explain it perfectly. Please: FEEL FREE TO GO ON AND ON AND ON as much as you like!!
I am not surprised at all that that album would help you through a difficult time. It is one of the most positive energetic LIFE FORCE albums I’ve ever heard.
I am jealous that he hugged you, but please let me live it vicariously.
And I’m sorry – but there really can be no argument that the beginning of Color and the Shape is one of the most exciting album-beginnings EVER.
Starting slow … you get sucked in …
“You know in all of the time that we shared …
I’ve never been so scared …”
Brief pause. And then the MANIA of Monkey Wrench with him screaming about how once he was caged and now he’s FREEEEEEEE
The contrast with the little small voice singing about being scared is … I mean, that’s what that whole album seems to me to be about.
I know! I mean it’s like he talks about being scared and I know what that’s like. I was so afraid to live back then. Then suddenly, he bursts out and starts screaming Monkey Wrench (or as some people call it “I don’t wanna be your funky friend” LOL).
When I heard Monkey Wrench live for the first time, I freaking flipped out. I was jumping up and down like a teenager instead of the 29 yr old that I was.
There is SUCH a huge life force in the album. I’m so glad you said that!
Sometimes, I can’t listen to it because it’s so powerful to me. Sometimes I don’t want that much intensity and feeling but when things start to get bad and I start to slip a little…IN goes TCATS.
Oh and yes…you should be jealous. He hugged me! It was awesome. His hair smelled really good!
I could tell you some stories, girl. I met and hung out with their sound tech who was also the sound tech for Nirvana.
I don’t want to use up your bandwidth, however! :)
Yeah – the album Color and the Shape comes from such a personal place, it’s so exuberant, and also such a “Fuck you” almost … that I can see how it could be sometimes too intense. There is absolutely NOTHING casual about Dave Grohl, even though he seems so laid-back.
What was really surprising to me about that particular album is its JOY. I mean, it brings tears to my eyes.
You just feel like you can SURVIVE when you hear it … because so much of it comes out of Dave Grohl having made it out of the Nirvana maelstrom alive. With his heart and joy of music still intact.
I know I’m totally reading into him right now – but that’s what I get. He really just LOVES what he does.
Oh, it’s totally obvious that he loves what he does. He has an almost child-like enthusiasm that doesn’t go away.
I love that Dave is not a fan of his own music, he is a fan of MUSIC. He will gush about Lemmy from Motorhead like we’re gushing about Dave. I love that. He’s a screaming teenage girl just like we are!
Hey sheila, don’t forget to check out Dave’s brief appearance with Tenacious D (Jack Black’s band). Fucking out of control!
Jean –
I love that he and Jack Black are best friends. Now, dammit, I would love to hang out with those two together! Insane!