Album: The Colour and The Shape
Year: 1997
Two decades down the road, Dave Grohl has remained so consistent and so successful at what he does — the honorable profession of providing radio-friendly punk-pop to the masses — that he is overexposed and underrated at the same time.
And two decades after the suicide that may or may not have launched his solo career — he probably would have done a solo record anyways — but certainly solidified, it’s tempting to forget how weird it seemed at the time that Nirvana’s drummer also had songwriting ability.
Which means that somewhere in the multiverse, Nirvana is getting ready to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Nevermind because during the sessions for the album following In Utero, a newly sober Kurt Cobain heard songs like “Monkey Wrench” and “Everlong” and insisted they go on that album.
And from then to now, Grohl was the Dave Davies of Nirvana, contributing a couple of songs per album. BTW, this is the same universe where Paul Westerberg & Tommy Stinson came to the same agreement and Hüsker Dü never broke up. It’s a helluva place.
Of course, we don’t live there, but we do live in a universe with “Everlong,” the greatest song Dave Grohl will ever write, and a post-punk tragic love song along the lines of “Just Like Heaven”
And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I’ll ever ask of you
You’ve got to promise not to stop when I say when
She sang
On of the things about “Everlong” — beyond the galloping riff and drums by the greatest rock drummer of my generation — is that Grohl never uses his usual trick of screaming. He keeps his vocals relatively low-key, and I think that’s part of what makes “Everlong” so powerful: the restraint. All of the usual desperation is buried deep between the surface.
Because of the cool job I had then, I got to see Foo Fighters in a small club last year. And, of course, they played all of the hits, plus covers like “Miss You,” “Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love,” “Under Pressure,” and “Breakdown.”
But the best of all was “Everlong,” the climax to a great great show.
Official Video for “Everlong”
Every Certain Song Ever
A filterable, searchable & sortable database with links to every “Certain Song” post I’ve ever written.
Certain Songs Spotify playlist
(It’s recommended that you listen to this on Spotify as their embed only has 200 songs.)
Support “Certain Songs” with a donation on Patreon
Go to my Patreon page