Foo Fighters - Lyrics That Camus Would Call The Antidote For Absurdity!

Foo Fighters - Lyrics That Camus Would Call The Antidote Of Absurdity!

Hi, I’m Christy Shriver, and we’re here to discuss books that have changed the world and have changed us. 

And I am Garry Shriver, and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  You have heard Christy say, over dozens of times if you’ve listened to a lot of our episodes that we’re here to discuss books.  Having said that, the word “books”  is being used as a synecdoche- to use a literary word- in other words, books is a word we’re using to symbolize something bigger of which books is just a part- and that something bigger is this concept of words.  Words that have moved the world and have moved us.  And so, in that spirit, this week, we’re pausing from looking at traditional text and looking at music lyrics, specifically rock lyrics, specifically the phenomena that is Foo Fighters and their music.   

And let me just add, for Garry, this is an exciting change of pace.  He’s been a guitar-head since childhood.  He’s a rock and roll and has been since, as a young teenager he saved up his money to buy his first  amp.  Tell us that story, Garry…this is for all the rock-n-roll heads who share a similar experience.   

The story….. 

And if you are like me, until I met Garry I had no idea that playing the guitar is akin to jumping down Alice in Wonderland’s rabbit hole.  To parody Freud, sometimes a guitar is not just a guitar- 

No, for me the guitar was the gateway instrument into a whole new world of Rock and it was the way that I discovered a bigger world other than the small town I grew up in.…and I will add, not just me.  David Grohl, who started the band Foo Fighters, in 1995 talks about hearing the Album The Record by the band Fear and wanting to become a musician.   In fact, if you listen to Grohl’s ac 

 Well, you say ___________, It’s still a bit of a  rabbit hole- I mean just in terms of gear, for those of us who didn’t know, you can be a Gibson person, a telecaster person, a stratacaster person, a Gretch person- just to name a few of the kinds of electric guitars, nevermind the amps, the pedals, the boards, the pick ups, the tones- and that’s not even the music side of it- just the tech of blasting music on an electrical guitar- think of Michael J Fox in Back to the Future.   

But having said that- once you put all those elements together, and if you do so in a genius sort of way, you will get a ticket to transcend into this other realm called Rock and Roll.  Today, and this stat is only an American stat, I don’t have the numbers worldwide, but today Rock is still the preferred genre of 56% of the American population, surpassing pop, country and rap- which I found surprising.  Rock albums still account for the majority of all vinyl music sales- although they do not surpass rap or country when it comes to streaming services- that might tell you something about demographics.  But in a world with so many things that divide us, Foo Fighter unite audiences which range over 4 generations and across all nation-states, rock and roll is a powerful unifier.     

Yes, and the uncontested leading rock band in the world in 2022  is The Foo Fighters.  And how do we determine that?  Well we can look at awards,   they have won 12 grammies for one thing, including Best Album 4 times.  But awards are not an awesome metric to measure human impact- especially for Rock.  But there are others.  Since David Grohl started his one man band in Seattle in 1994, They have released 9 albums, gone on 9 worldwide tours which each lasted over a year-  just the 2017 tour from the album “Concrete and Gold” consisted of 113 shows on five continents grossing $114 million.  They have sold out the famed Wembley stadium in London- not once but twice, oh and it sold out in 24 hours.  That stadium holds 86,000 people.  Another big hint as to the enormity of their impact from that same tour was the performance at Glastonbury, when over 150,000 people were documented singing in unison the lyrics to their song “Best of You”.  Their top five songs, just on Spotify, which is only one and not even the largest of streaming  services have over 2.5 billion downloads- and that is just on Spotify.  They have 16 million monthly listeners on Spotify.  In 2021 they were inducted into the rock and Roll hall of fame, the first year they were eligible.  There is no overstating the influence, the passion, the commitment and connection that this group of men, led by Dave Grohl, has had on over 4 generations of humans of all ages, races, and gender from all over the world these last 25 years.  Literally hundreds of millions have been touched by their music both in person and over the sound ways.   

And so today, we would like to look at the history and the music of this powerful force of positivity, and it has been a force of positivity.  How has this group connected and improved the lives of so many?  There are hundreds of millions of personal examples from fans, but here’s a famous one.  In 1995, David Letterman, who at the time was a famous late night comedian on tv, gave the foo fighters their first spotlight on television.  They played a song from their album which I’ll tell you about in a minute called “”This is a Call”.  Letterman was hooked on the Foo Fighters.  In 2000, he had a quintuple heart by-pass surgery and after his recovery, he asked them to come to NY and be on his first show back after his surgery.   For him, them being with him was personal.   He publically stated on the show that night that their song “Everlong” was what got him through his surgery and recovery.  When Letterman retired from television, he asked that they play that song again for the last few minutes of his final show after he said farewell for the last time ending his long career.  How did that song, this band, inspire him to fight off death as his heart struggled to regain strength?  What has been the impact of their music on so many across the globe?  The answer lies in the lyrics, in part.  It lies in the musical talent, in part.  It lies in the energy and passion, in part.  It lies in the showmanship But all of these components are working together to produce a single effect- what is it?  What is the power of Rock and Roll? 

I think we can see the answer by looking at this band and looking at three of our favorite Foo Fighters songs.   

I think we can too.  What we see is that the Foo Fighters in general, and Dave Grohl personal story in particular in every way embody Camus’ idea that life is best lived  fighting the absurd, rebelling against meaningless, rebelling against the constant pressure to commit philosophical suicide.   

 Dave Grohl’s life and music showcase one man’s fight to do this- in spite of pressure to conform, in spite of death, and in spite of the heavy-handed trappings of success, and that is the gift he shares in his lyrics as well as how he plays and how he lives his life on and off the stage.  

We mention Dave Grohl’s story, first, because Foo Fighters really starts with him.   For those who aren’t familiar with that. Name, Dave Grohl was the drummer for the rock band Nirvana.  In 1994, Nirvana was on top of the world with international success and Grohl became famous.  Last week we mentioned the existential song, “Smells Like Teen Spirit”- that’s Nirvana. 

Well, I want to add, Grohl’s story is almost the classic Camus journey.  His mother is a retired public school English teacher from the suburbs of Washington DC, so shout out to mom!!, btw.  His father was a political speech writer- also from that Washington DC area.   One finny thing is that his mom is a democrat and his dad a Republcan- so there you go navigating that as a kid!!   

 He left this kind of suburban highly educated lifestyle at the age of 17 and literally dropped out of high school to play the drums.  He even lied about his age because he was a minor.  But he auditioned and joined this band called Scream.  He lived for four years, sleeping on a sleeping bag, living out of a van with the 4 other band members and a roadie, playing night after night in dives to groups of 20-200 people max.   

That sounds kind of like a rock and roll movie, and, Of course I don’t know, but I can’t image his mother being very excited about those life-choices, especially the dropping out of school one. 

Probably not, especially since there was no guarantee it would work out.  It almost never does.  But as Grohl tells it, stardom wasn’t really the end goal.  He was pursuing music, a community, the life he wanted with nothing to prove really. At one point, Scream was really struggling.  He was in LA and things were at a standstill.  He hears about an opening with this other band called Nirvana.  It wasn’t mainstream, but was popular with the underground community on the West Coast, specially Washington state.  David calls a friend who knows the band to try to get an audition and gets it.  He calls his mom to ask her if he should drop Scream and go to Nirvana, with her encouragement he makes the change that would launch him into a different world. 

Well, Nirvana’s success is pretty well documented, but of course, even people who don’t follow rock music cannot think about Nirvana without thinking about the tragic suicide in 1994 of Nirvana’s singer-guitarist Kurt Cobain.  The famous Neil Young quote from his note, “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” has been controversial itself and unfortunately led to teenage suicides since its release to the public, but for Grohl the loss was personal.   

Cobain’s death left David heartbroken.  He lived with Cobain, slept on his sofa during the early days.  He had watched Cobain struggle with depression.  He says he saw him have lows and he would go to his room and not come out, but Cobain also could be incredibly fun and alive.  They traveled together, played together, worked together.   He had grown to love his friend.  Beyond just losing a friend, With Cobain’s death, Nirvana was over, and Dave had to decide what to do.  Tom Petty, famous in his own right, invited him to play the drums for him, but he decided he didn’t want that.  He didn’t know if he even wanted to play the drums anymore. 

What he wanted was to carve out a new thing- make his own reality- and for him that meant recording an album all by himself.  So, that’s what he did.  In 1995, for five days he sat with the engineers in a studio by himself.  He recorded the vocals, recorded the guitar parts, recorded the drum parts and then the engineers put it all on top of each other.  He wanted to make it look like it was actually a band so he used this pseudonym Foo Fighters,  He’d been reading some stuff about UFOs and kind of just used the name.  Later when he was inducted into the hall of fame he said this, “had I actually considered this a career, I probably would have called it something else, because it’s the stupidest _________ band name in the world,”  BTW, if you listen to Grohl talk on platforms meant for educational purposes, you will have to get used to a bleeping.  Grohl is passionate and very colorful, it’s funny, but there are a lot of bleeps.   

The point I want to make by bringing up David’s personal history is because it’s here we see Grohl, like Camus, choosing to fight the absurd and choosing also to fight philosophical suicide.  He did not conform to th suburbs just because it certainly was an easy thing to do growing up in DC.  He didn’t say, “it doesn’t matter” when his friend died, because it does matter.  No where in this story can you find someone taking the easy way out- or lying to themselves. This is the story of a child growing into a man determined to be as completely honest as possible and committed to creating meaning- his own meaning- in this world. 

And so the Foo Fighters are born.  This very first album was a success and they even got on David Letterman, but it is on the second album The Colour and the Shape that we find one of their most endearing hits,  Everlong, the one Letterman had them perform when he retired. 

Which I find so interesting because the song isn’t really about anything I would think Letterman would like on the surface, in terms of lyrics.  Grohl wrote it in 1996 after going through an ugly divorce.  He had met another girl, Louise Post, and they just connected.  It’s such a funny story.  He originally recorded at a friend’s studio in DC, again playing all the parts himself, but it was rough.  When it came time to record the album the The Colour and the Shape, the producer wanted to include Everlong.  He raelly thought it brought the album together thematically.  Grohl was cool with this but he wanted Post to sing the real back up vocals for it because it was about her.  Post recalls, and this is from her Instagram post and I quote, “I sang these back-ups over the phone at 2am after being woken up from a deep sleep in Chicago by David Grohl who was tracking the vocals for “EverLong” in LA.    

Again- and this is why a song is not just words - lyrics are VOICE plus words.  And the voice, if it is good, functions to enshrine language – elevate it beyond just the content of the words.  In Grohl’s case, he doesn’t have the range of someone like Mariah Carey or even Steve Perry from Journey.  But the voice is action and it’s that movement that Grohl and all the Foo Fighters communicate.  Grohl screams at times, but his voice is communicating something beyond the words on the page.   What do you hear? 

There’s just an authenticity there.  I heard him talking about the origins of the song, Everlong and I was shocked when I learned that he doesn’t even know how to read music.  He never studied formally.  He just strummed a new combination and heard a song.  I don’t want to use the word innocence because that’s not the right word, but it’s this raw pursuit of wanting life and bringing people along and it has captivated the world- obviously only an authentic genius could ever do what he does, especially self-taught.  But, when you think about how songs, and this song in particular lives in the hearts of so many, we know that the human voice holds a special place.   It is a human instrument, where the soul, to sound mystical- unifies with the lungs, the diaphragm, the abs- to do something different.  But Let’s look at those famous lyrics and talk about them.  

Hello I've waited here for you Everlong 

Tonight, I throw myself into And out of the red Out of her head, she sang 

Come down and waste away with me Down with me Slow, how you wanted it to be I'm over my head Out of her head, she sang 

And I wonder When I sing along with you 

If everything could ever be 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 

Breathe out So I can breathe you in Hold you in And now I know you've always been Out of your head Out of my head, I sang 

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 

And I wonder 

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 

The words are simple- which is why they work as lyrics.  No one has time to explicate poetry while they’re at a rock concert.  You have to understand the idea in a instant.  

There is also a lot of repetition, when you just read it, like we did it feels redundant, but when you add the voice the repetition plays a different role.  It signifies hooks and choruses and gives us a sense of excitement and anticipation for the next drum riff or energetic pulse.   

Well, the ear is listening for something different in music than it is in poetry.  Then you add the signature guitar riffs to that- you have a different emotional experience.  And I want to point out that all good music that people love is emotional. The song Everlong has two versions- the version with the whole band as well as just the acoustic version- both are powerful, but really two different experiences.  The emotions are different.   

 For sure, but Everlong, like all rock ballads is meant to be sung.  The contrasting anaphors of If everything, if anything, rhyme with the following line- the only thing----are drawn together in your ear because of that rhyme and they create this tension that leads you to the climatic line of feeling real.  In fact, that’s the central idea- whether it be in the acoustic or the band version-  they both convey a universal feeling of holding on to one single moment- and making it feel eternal- holding on -look at the word he chooses- what is real.  It’s really a paradox- eternity felt in a moment- on the surface it doesn’t make sense, but it’s a feeling we all have or at least want to have- and he expresses it so simply, with simple words- but the drums, the bass, the guitars plus the screaming vocals- make the idea completely alive.   

 “And I Wonder when I sing along with you” you feel the power of the line that “If everything could ever feel this real forever” whether your heart pounds with that overpowering electrical guitar or with just the strumming of the acoustic one- you’re inspired to hold on- to feel the moment again- just like that repeating riff. 

YOu know, Everlong is an interesting example of a hit song that grows into its success overtime.  People liked it when it came out, but over time it’s just grown and grown to the point that it’s the song everyone most wants to hear when they go to a Foo Fighters concert- and they end their concerts with it., but it wasn’t that way at the first.  If you want their first hit that entered the BillBoard hop 100, you have to go to the next album they recorded called Echoes and the song from there that we all remember is Learn to Fly.   

I want to ask a question, what is the BillBoards or the Billboard Hot 100- that is a term everyone uses to determine success. 

Sure, Billboard is a magazine, Billboard biz is the online extension.  Billboard tabulates the popularity of songs on a weekly basis.  Sometimes the charts are genre specific, for example you have the country chart or the rock chart, but they cover all genres.  They are ranked according to sales, streams, airplay, thst sort of thing.  The Billboard Hot 100 combines all aspecits of a single’s performance (sales, radio airplay and streaming activity) and ranks how successful any one song is, it has to be a single.   The top rated songs on Billboard will be the songs featured on radio because they draw the audience that leads to higher advertising rates.  

The Song Learn to Fly actually won a grammy for its music video.  The lyrics were written, not just by David Grohl, but Taylor Hawkins the drummer and Nate Mendel.  By this point in the history of the Foo Fighters, What we have seen evolve is the vision of one man, Dave Grohl, into a collective- a brotherhood.  Foo Fighters by 1997 is no longer a one-man band.  “Learn to Fly” has three co-writers.  There have been a couple of entrances and exits over the years, but not many really.  Today Foo Fighters is David Grohl, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Franz Stahl, Rami Jafee, Pat Smear, and until his untimely passing Tayler Hawkins. 

Let’s read this famous anthem. “Learn to Fly” 

Run and tell all of the angels This could take all night Think I need a devil to help me get things right Hook me up a new revolution Cause this one is a lie We sat around laughin' and watched the last one die 

Now, I'm lookin' to the sky to save me Lookin' for a sign of life Lookin' for somethin' to help me burn out bright And I'm lookin' for a complication Lookin' cause I'm tired of lyin' Make my way back home when I learn to fly high 

I think I'm dyin' nursing patience It can wait one night I'd give it all away if you give me one last try We'll live happily ever trapped if you just save my life Run and tell the angels that everything's alright 

Now I'm lookin' to the sky to save me Lookin' for a sign of life Lookin' for somethin' to help me burn out bright I'm lookin' for a complication Lookin' cause I'm tired of tryin' Make my way back home when I learn to fly high Make my way back home when I learn to 

Fly along with me, I can't quite make it alone Try to make this life my own Fly along with me, I can't quite make it alone Try to make this life my own 

I'm lookin' to the sky to save me Lookin' for a sign of life Lookin' for somethin' to help me burn out bright And I'm lookin' for a complication Lookin' cause I'm tired of tryin' Make my way back home when I learn to 

I'm lookin' to the sky to save me Lookin' for a sign of life Lookin' for somethin' to help me burn out bright And I'm lookin' for a complication Lookin' cause I'm tired of tryin' Make my way back home when I learn to fly high Make my way back home when I learn to fly Make my way back home when I learn to 

Again when you read the song, you see the repetition that characterizes a lot of great music.  You see the anaphoras 

Now what is an anaphora 

It’s when you read the beginning of a phrase but you change the ending 

Make my way back home when I learn to fly high 

Make my way bak home when I learn to fly 

Make my way back home when I learn to 

In that case, the phrase starts the same, but the ending is different- in this case, it drifts off and is shortened each time.  The effect only works when you sing and play it.  The power is lost when you read it.  Song lyrics are just not the same as poetry for that reason- their power is different.   

the rhythm bends the lyrics into different shapes or patterns that aren’t the natural flow of conversation or even in reading poetry.  The percussive breaks the lines on the page, the rhyme and repetition springs out in different places than in normal poetry- for example the word “lookin’” it’s all over the song and your ear catches it when we sing it, but if you just look at it on the page, it looks random.  I heard it said once that song lyrics exist in the air, and that is a good way of thinking about them. 

When you watch a video of people watching the performance of this song, all you see are arms raised, everyone singing in unison, Everyone identifying something personal in those words.  They’re looking for something honest- looking for something to help push through the absurd and in this song it’s represented in the sky the sky.  This is a great example of how music and poetry for that matter  take a life of their own.  It’s symbolic.  It’s universal-  looking to the sky- but what does the sky represent?  Should we look up the archetype?  Is it something unattainable?  Is it something spiritual?  For each person, it’s something totally different thing and you can see it in the eyes of every person in the stadium or in the field of the festival.  Kelly Clarkson asked the band, one time on her show, what it was the song was about- at least what it was for then when they originally wrote it,  Grohl revealed the secret.  At the time I wanted to become a pilot! I wanted to learn to fly.  

Well, I can tell you, and I’ve seen that interview, too, the Foo Fighters absolutely know this song is about more than being a pilot.  And if you ever had any doubt, those doubts were laid to rest with the Rockin 1000. 

Oh yes.  Tell us what that is.   

So, in 2014, a man by the name of Fabio Zaffagnini had a vision to get Foo Fighters to come to Italy.  His plan was insane.  He wanted to unite 1000 musicians: drummers, guitarists, , bassists, vocalists, everything- and he did it.  In July of 2015, over 1000 musicisns gathered in a field in a little town in north east Italy called Cesena and together- in unison- all 1000 played this song “Learn to Fly”.  It’s an amazing YouTube video, everyone should watch it.  At the end of their performance, Fabio appeals to the band and asks them to come play in their little town of Cesena.  Of course the band soon tweeted, “Ci Vediamo a presto, Cesena”- or See you soon, Cesena.   

Well, I’ve watched that YouTube, and it almost makes you cry.  It’s so beautiful, so passionate, how could they possibly say no.  Those musicians of every age- both men and women jumped, waved in the air, sang with their hearts.   

Well, exactly and why would they. Three months after the Rockin 1000 video went viral, the Foo Fighters played in Cesena, on the night of the concert, Dave Grohl admitted to the audience that their video made him cry.  This group of musicians represent everything Foo Fighters is giving to the world: energy, passion, the fight and will to live and live well.  It’s who the Foo Fighters are.  And there are endless examples of this band doing just that. On their tour of Iceland, the night before the concert they were out in the country having dinner when they drove past a barn where a group of local punk rockers were practicing.  The Foos stopped and went in and jammed with this little local band called Nilfisk AND invited them to play their original song “Jacking Around” as an opening act for the Foos.  The front man for this band at the time was 16 years old.    

In May of 2005, they released one most of the most recognizable and highly regarded of all Foo Fighters, “Best of You.”  Prince even performed it during the half time show at SuperBowl.  Let’s read these lyrics and talk about why this song has resonated around the world.  

've got another confession to make I'm your fool Everyone's got their chains to break Holding you 

Were you born to resist or be abused 

 Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you 

Are you gone and on to someone new? I needed somewhere to hang my head Without your noose You gave me something that I didn't have But had no use 

I was too weak to give in Too strong to lose My heart is under arrest again But I break loose My head is giving me life or death But I can't choose I swear I'll never give in, I refuse 

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the pain you feel Your trust, you must confess Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Oh 

Oh, ho-oh, oh, oh-oh, oh, oh-oh, oh Has someone taken your faith? It's real, the pain you feel The life, the love you'd die to heal The hope that starts the broken hearts Your trust, you must confess 

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you 

I've got another confession my friend I'm no fool I'm getting tired of starting again Somewhere new 

Were you born to resist or be abused? I swear I'll never give in, I refuse 

Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Has someone taken your faith It's real, the pain you feel Your trust, you must confess Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you Oh 

Well, first of all the word “best” is repeated 40 times.  And repetition is emphasis.  We know that.  This song is about that.  We all have secrets in their heads about themselves.  We all fight something inside to overcome the worst in us.  This song is a personal fight song, an anthem of recovery from brokenness.  

It’s also a lot about the drums.  Taylor Hawkins inspired the millions who watched him lead the band with this anthem.  His drumming was raw.  He pounds these eighth-note accents that you can hear from the back of a stadium.  There’s so much power and energy- it’s driving- it builds.    

In an interview during that 2005 tour a journalist from the Globe and Mail asked Hawkins what kept his work interesting.  He said this,  

“I'm scared to death every time I get on stage. I have insane stage fright. If Nate screws up, the beat goes on. If Dave screws up, everyone laughs. But if I drop the beat, we can all go down in flames. It's like jumping off a cliff every time.” 

I don’t know how you could NOT be.  So much is at stake.  10s of thousands of people have spent hundreds of dollars and come with astronomically high expectations to have their lives changed and to be inspired.  

 I can’t imagine the weight of it.  But I think I understand, at least in part, the heart of it.  In 2011, the band released their 7th studio album.  Wasting Light would eventually win four grammies including Best Rock Album.  I think how they created that album really captures who they are as a band, what they represent and why their essence reverberates around the world.  Tell is the story, Garry, 

Well, they decided to record in in Grohl’s garage with no computers.  The album is messy, distorted, over the top and they had to rehearse for three weeks to even do it because they used old fashioned editing techniques that didn’t allow for mistakes to be fixed in post-production. 

And why do it? 

Well, they wanted it to be real.  Grohl speaks to that at the Grammy’s after they won Best Album of the year, and his words became highly controversial almost immediately.  He said this, ““This is a great honour, because this record was a special record for our band. Rather than go to the best studio in the world down the street in Hollywood and rather than use all of the fanciest computers that money can buy, we made this one in my garage with some microphones and a tape machine...It’s not about being perfect, it’s not about sounding absolutely correct, it’s not about what goes on in a computer.” 

So, what’s controversial about that.   

Well, it was taken to insult everyone else in the industry who is using auto-tune to fix their voices so they never go off key, or any number of editing tricks that could make someone like you or me sound like Rihanna with the right computer. Pro tools is the recording software that can make anyone sound like they are good.  

The next day Grohl released a statement clarifying his comment.  This is what he said,  

I love music. Electronic or acoustic, it doesn’t matter to me. The simple act of creating music is a beautiful gift that ALL human beings are blessed with. And the diversity of one musician’s personality to the next is what makes music so exciting and … human.” 

That’s exactly what I was referring to. The ‘human element.’ That thing that happens when a song speeds up slightly, or a vocal goes a little sharp. That thing that makes people sound like PEOPLE. Somewhere along the line those things became “bad” things, and with the great advances in digital recording technology over the years they became easily ‘fixed.’ The end result? I my humble opinion…..a lot of music that sounds perfect, but lacks personality. The one thing that makes music so exciting in the first place.And, unfortunately, some of these great advances have taken the focus off of the actual craft of performance. Look, I am not Yngwie Malmsteen. I am not John Bonham. Hell…I’m not even Josh Groban, for that matter. But I try really f—ing hard so that I don’t have to rely on anything but my hands and my heart to play a song. I do the best that I possibly can within my limitations, and accept that it sounds like me. Because that’s what I think is most important. It should be real, right? Everybody wants something real. 

An interesting aside – live orchestra music actually prefers when the concert attendees cough and make noise. It proved the recording is a live take and the orchestra truly is as good as it sounds. 

Everybody wants something real…there’s that word again that brings us back to Camus…we do want real, we want honest, we want someone with the courage to show us what it looks like.  The history of the Foo Fighters is just one crazy example of this after another.   In Sweden in June of 2015.  They were in the second song of a show that consisted of 26 songs in front of 53,000 people, Grohl landed wrong from a jump and his ankle collapsed and he fell.  He had broken his leg.  The band didn’t know what had happened and they just played.    Grohl grabbed the microphone, and said this, ““You have my promise right now that the Foo Fighters, we’re gonna come back and finish this show,” he said. “But right now, ladies and gentlemen, I’m gonna go to the hospital, I’m gonna fix my leg. But then I’m gonna come back, and we’re gonna play for you again! I’m so sorry!” 

He handed over the show to Taylor Hawkins who led the band til Grohl came back an hour later.  They had to cancel a few dates, but by the fourth of July they had the problem solved.  They built a giant throne made just the occasion the Foo Fighters came out for their 20th anniversary Fourth of July blowout at RFK, and Grohl who screams and jumps lead the band sitting down.  That tour continued with 60 more shows.    

And that’s what I mean about fighting the absurd.  Taylor, Nate, Chris, Pat, Rami, Chris, Franz, Will and Dave lead with their lyrics, their beat, their riffs, but also their example.  This is what “not surrendering either to the absurd or to philosophical suicide can look like”.  This is what not giving in looks like.  This is what finding the best in yourself looks like.  Dave Grohl spoke about what it felt like when Cobain died.  He said at one point he didn’t know if he ever wanted to play music again, but then he realized that music was the one that had healed him over the course of his entire life.  It had saved his life more than once.   

I can absolutely understand and agree with this 100%.  Music absolutely been there for me personally and  has kept me sane in the worst moments of my own life.    

Unfortunately, Dave and the rest of the band are going to have to face the full force and pain of absurd in a very personal way yet again.  On March 20th, Foo Fighters played at Lollapalooza in Argentina.  They ended their set with Everlong, as they usually do with Hawkins on the drum.  At the end of the song, Hawkins tossed his drum sticks to the audience, threw his arm over Grohl’s shoulder, and took a bow with the rest of the band.  Although no one had any idea, this would be his last performance.  

That night Dave Grohl ended the show with these ironic words, “I don’t say goodbye,” Dave Grohl told the crowd before kicking it off. “I don’t like to say goodbye. I know that we’ll always come back. If you come back, we’ll come back. Will you come back? If you come back, we’ll come back, so then I won’t have to say goodbye.” 

Hawkins said goodbye, but the music he made, the energy he emitted does. not  And so, we end this episode saying, thank you, Foo Fighters.  Thank you for pushing forward, encouraging the world to not let the world get the best of us, for inspiring us to look to the sky, learn to fly and holding on to the moments of eternity when they come. 

Thank you for sharing with us in this episode on a different sort of book- the music of the Foo Fighters.  As always please feel free to connect with us on any of our social media: FB, Insta, Twitter, LinkedIn.  Email us, tweet us, if you are a teacher, visit our website for educational support, if you are a friend, check out our merch on the website as well.  In any case, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with a friend, when you share about us, we grow.   

Peace out…. 

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