by Martin James
So recording a soundtrack represented a fantastic form of escape for Grohl. There were no expectations, no rulebooks and no illusions. Just him, his instruments and his imagination. He would succeed or fail on his abilities, and no one else’s.
There was another aspect of this recording that underlined Grohl’s personality. Where many people talk about doing things, he just does them. So, while musicians whine constantly about wanting to record movie soundtracks, he went ahead and did one. This is very much the pragmatic ethos that drives Grohl in all that he does.
Music From The Motion Picture Touch finally emerged in July 1998 under the name of David Grohl. It proved to be a great album. ‘Bill Hill Theme’ contrasted a staccato guitar riff with chugging rock refrains that built to a huge crescendo motored by Grohl’s powerhouse drumming. On ‘How Do You Do?’ he delivered the finest Foo Fighters track never attributed to the band. A beautifully crafted post-grunge pop masterpiece that married a distorted riffing guitar with pounding drums and a melody that was totally and insanely infectious. ‘Saints in Love’ was a ballad between Grohl and Veruca Salt’s Louise Post, which found honey dipped vocals cooing over swathes of melodic feedback and echoed distortion. Much like the Cocteau Twins playing footsie with Slowdive. It was emotional as it was mesmerising.
Elsewhere, ‘This Loving Thing’ featured John Doe of seminal LA punk outfit X on bass. X had long since turned to country and that was the genre that lay at the heart of this camp-fire classic. Doe also supplied vocals to the gorgeous ‘Lynn’s Theme’. ‘Making Popcorn’ and ‘Remission My Ass’ also wondered through country and western terrain with their picked guitars and tender hearts, while ‘Spinning Newspapers’ offered a surf guitar on the over mellow chords. On ‘Richie Baker’s Miracle’, Grohl explored out-rock through Twin Peaks style ambience.
“Ennio Moricone has little to fear, it’s true, but Touch is strong enough to hammer another nail in the ‘drummer jokes’ coffin,” wrote Guitar magazine. “Hang out with the pop savant at his searing best, while you discover that there’s always been a human being at the heart of your favourite rock beast,” added Melody Maker, while The Sunday Times commented, “Who would have thought that a drummer would turn out to be grunge’s Renaissance man? Grohl’s talents are too diverse for him to establish a Touch sound per se; this is a bitty album, But some of the bits are very good.”
Although reviews of the soundtrack album still referenced Nirvana and were frequently lukewarm, Grohl remained undeterred. Besides, there was a growing sense that the public’s perception of himself and his band was increasingly at odds with the more negative slant many in the media persisted with.
In September 1996, immediately prior to recording Touch, Foo Fighters were given an MTV award for ‘Best Group Video’ for ‘Big Me’ – the first in a long line of famously comic yet revered promo clips. The video had been filmed in Australia at the beginning of the year and was directed by Jesse Peretz who had come up with the concept of using Mentos (the candy sweets) throughout the clip. Fans of the band would subsequently start throwing the hard sweets at the band when they were onstage!
In November 1996, only a couple of weeks after recording Touch, a piece of Grohl’s distant past was released – an album by the strangely monikered Harlingtox Angel Divine. The eponymous album recorded in 1990 featured Grohl on bass, drums and guitar, with contributions from ex-Dischord singer Bruce Merkle on vocals. Barrett Jones played drums and Tos Nieuwenhuizen, from Dutch act God was on guitar. This was the same Tos that had featured along with Skeeter Thompson on the Pocketwatch tape track, ‘Just Another Song About Seeker Thompson’.
Harlingtox Angel Divine was the first release from The Laundry Room record label, formed by Jones and former Sony A&R exec, Justin Goldberg (and of which Grohl is a major shareholder).
“Harlingtox was just me, Dave and Tos recording some music in one day, literally,” Jones told NME. “Then we had a vocalist come in who took some time writing lyrics. This really is the band that never was! This is a scathing, mental voyage of an album,” explained Jones. “The reason these tapes sat on the shelf for six years was because I didn’t want someone else putting them out.” (3)
Just as this skeleton was emerging from the cupboard, however, Foo Fighters started on a project that was to have huge repercussions within the band. They embarked on the process of recording their second album, the first as a band unit. On paper this exercise should have seen a near-cathartic rush as the four band members explored everything they had learned while intensively gigging. Unfortunately, it turned out to be something of a traumatic time.
Producer for the album was Gil Norton, who had been chosen for his work with The Pixies (among others). Barrett Jones had decided to devote his energies to his own recordings. The band also opted to use neither The Laundry Room for demos, nor Bob Lang’s for the main session. The recordings subsequently took place at Bear Creek Studios, Woodinville, Washington. Recording started on November 18.
The circumstances surrounding the recording weren’t very positive. The band had been almost constantly on the road or promoting records since they first formed. For Grohl, there had been the build up of recording the album, getting Roswell signed and even putting together the rest of the band. But for the others it had been a case of straight in at the deep end of mixing an album that had already been recorded.
The all-consuming nature of Foo Fighters started to take its toll on personal relationships. Grohl had split from his wife and was later rumoured to be dating Louise Post from Veruca Salt. They had also recorded together late in 1995 for the Touch Soundtrack.
Another problem that surfaced surrounded Grohl’s apparent dictatorial qualities. Despite his admiration for each member of the band, reports started to surface that he had become quite dogmatic in his approach to arranging the songs. He would, allegedly, tell people what parts he envisaged and so on.
If this was the case, for a guitarist like Pat Smear this would have come as quite a shock. In fact he would often improve upon the ideas supplied to him simply by adapting them to his swashbuckling guitar style.
Much in the same way that Cobain had dictated some drum parts to Grohl in his early days with Nirvana, Grohl became insistent on how he wanted the drums for each Foo Fighters track. The process caused huge problems for William Goldsmith who, naturally, had his own ideas.
The final problem lay in the band’s choice of producer. Gil Norton had a reputation for working bands hard to get the right performance. This would mean numerous takes just to get one section sorted. It was a process which flew in the face of the way Grohl had always recorded in the past (nothing was completed in only forty five minutes as with the previous album) but it also brought with it feelings of frustration from the entire band.
As Christmas loomed, the band abandoned the recording sessions completely. The tracks that had been recorded so far were, ‘Monkey Wrench’, ‘Hey, Johnny Park’, ‘Chicken Derby’, ‘Wind Up’, ‘Up In Arms’, ‘See You’, ‘February Stars’, ‘Everlong’, ‘Walking After You’ and ‘New Way Home’.
1997 opened with Foo Fighters playing live at Madison Square Garden with David Bowie for his fiftieth birthday Party. Grohl joined Bowie onstage for a run through of ‘Hallo Spaceboy’ and ‘Seven Years In Tibet’. He would later appear on Bowie’s acclaimed Heathen album, playing guitar on the Neil Young cover, ‘I’ve Been Waiting For You’.
Any jubilation at playing the Bowie birthday bash was short-lived however. No one in the band had been happy with the end results from the November album sessions, so they decided to rearrange and re-record some of the songs in a different studio. They subsequently booked time in the renowned Hollywood studio, Grand Master Recordings. The reasons for using these studios – as opposed to one in Seattle or Washington DC – was simple. Grohl had moved to Los Angeles during 1996 following his split from Jennifer Youngblood.
The band started work on the new versions of tracks for the second album in February. However,
there was one notable omission from the sessions – William Goldsmith. He had, apparently, opted to remain at home in Seattle with his family, but would be joining the band to record his drum parts when required. That call never came however. Grohl had played drums on every track on the LA sessions.
The events that occurred around the recording of the album would lead to some observers making accusations that Grohl had cynically manoeuvred Goldsmith out of the drum seat for the recording sessions. Grohl himself has said that he doesn’t like confrontation and will try to avoid it wherever possible.
There was another problem at the heart of the recording of this second Foo Fighters album. Grohl had to justify his choice of musicians. He was well aware that this album would be analysed in the same way that Foo Fighters was. However, the lo-fi, under-produced nature of that recording was in direct contrast to the effect he was now aiming for. That album had been almost apologetic in its lack of sheen and as a result the drummer’s musical prowess was never called into question. This time round though, each and every musician would be under the magnifying glass. If the drums weren’t to Grohl’s liking, the resulting drum track would have been glaringly obvious. Not something you would expect from the band fronted by the man who was once hailed as the finest drummer of his generation.
It is possible that Grohl had intended for Goldsmith to overdub drums on the Hollywood session. The intention was that he would absolutely still be a part of the band’s live show. Perhaps not surprisingly, Goldsmith left Foo Fighters on March 4. An official statement read: “We are all very sad that William is leaving. It’s like losing a family member. Plus he’s such an amazing drummer. It is my sincerest hope that he will continue to rock the universe in all his future endeavours.”
“We started recording in November,” explained Grohl when asked directly about Goldsmith’s departure by Melody Maker. “We got into the studio, and it was really tough. William, Nate and Pat had never worked with a producer like Gil before. He really works you hard to get the best performance, and that’s why he’s such an amazing fuckin’ producer.
It didn’t really work out as we wished. So we decided to come down to Los Angeles and do it differently. We re-arranged the songs, I played drums on things, and we went at it from another direction.
At the end, we immediately started doing promotion and got ready for touring. It’s another two years of your life, and I think that was why William decided that he wanted to stay at home and play with other people, and the other three of us should keep moving and find another drummer.” (4)
Whatever the reasons for Goldsmith leaving Foo Fighters, the fall out from the affair would see Grohl being tarnished with accusations by outsiders of him being a dictator within the band – a fact that he would strenuously deny.
Fortunately, Goldsmith’s replacement was only a tentative phone call away. Grohl had met Taylor Hawkins while he was drumming for Alanis Morrisette’s band. When Goldsmith left, Grohl phoned the drummer to find out if he knew of anyone available to sit on the Foo Fighters’ drum seat. Hawkins, it turned out, was up for the job. “(I) called him up in LA to ask if he knew any drummers, thinking he wouldn’t want to join my band in a million years. When he said, ‘Yeah, me’, I jumped at it!”
That Hawkins had come from Alanis Morrisette’s band wasn’t as strange as it sounded. Morrisette’s live show revolved around heavy rock versions of her poppier hits, many of which were transformed into Led Zeppelin-esque epics. Furthermore, a huge amount of emphasis was placed on the drumming, Hawkins’ powerful style pushed the band even in the dreariest moments. With Hawkins, Grohl had found a drummer who could match him for power and volume, and surpass him with technique. “He’s fuckin’ incredible, totally capable of doing anything under the sun,” enthused Grohl.
It was often argued that drumming for Grohl’s band was the most unenviable position for any drummer to accept. Grohl had gained the reputation for being a hard taskmaster, so alongside claims that he was – and is – one of the best drummers in the world, it was a daunting job. Both these complimentary aspects of his reputation are strongly disputed by Grohl, who sees himself as a simple drummer, rather than a technical one. Modesty again, surely.
“I’ve taken one drumming lesson in my life, and quit because I had to relearn everything I knew,” he said. “I had really stupid bad habits. I don’t know… I’m just not the drummer that everyone seems to think I am and I do not understand a lot of what’s said about me for one minute. Taylor’s just unbelievable – he knows how to do fancy rolls and shit! It’s weird, if Taylor does an interview, and whenever William did an interview, everyone’s first question is always, ‘What’s it like being drummer with Dave Grohl?’ – as if I’m some fucking drumming institution or something! It makes no sense ‘cos Taylor is a way better drummer than I will ever be. I’m a completely minimalistic drummer.” (5)
With Hawkins in the band and a new album eventually finished to the satisfaction of the entire group, morale within the Foo Fighters’ camp was at an all-time high. The experience of recording the second album had been a draining one, but now they were ready to move on.
Following an acoustic set for Japanese radio on which they played ‘For All The Cows’, ‘Big Me’ and ‘Up In Arms’, the band played a one-off ‘secret’ show at the Alligator Lounge in Santa Monica on April 4. The show was intended as a run-through of the recently recorded tracks and also a debut run out for Hawkins. The set was mainly made up of new songs, with a few favourites from the previous album.
On April 28, ‘Monkey Wrench’ the first single from the forthcoming album was released as a two CD set. The single was exclusive to the UK. ‘Monkey Wrench’ had all of the hallmarks of the best tracks from Foo Fighters, but with two major differences – the recording quality was about a million times better and any association with the grunge sound had been wiped away. This was a shiny new rock beast that boasted a classic Grohl sing-a-long chorus and chugging guitar dynamics that could have come straight from Metallica.
The overall atmosphere was less 1990s alt-rocker, more 1980s power punk. The opening guitar riff could have come from bands like The Dickies (or worse The Cars) while the verse had all of the ambience of Joan Jett and the Blackhearts (or worse Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids of America’). If the band were after a 1980s Brat Pack rock pastiche then they had succeeded. ‘Monkey Wrench’ wouldn’t have sounded out of place on movies like The Breakfast Club, or Pretty In Pink. Indeed, if one band’s sound echoed through the new recordings, it was the Psychedelic Furs in their US-dominating Pretty In Pink-era.
Yet, this was no bad thing, as ‘Monkey Wrench’ retained enough of the dirt factor to avoid turning retro. Grohl’s vocals especially sounded more powerful than ever before, displaying a relaxed maturity that simply hadn’t been present in any of his previous recordings. The climactic final verse particularly found Grohl’s screamed melody imbued with a hitherto unheard depth.
“I think my voice sounds good on record,” reluctantly admitted Grohl in Kerrang! when questioned about his initial insecurity about his vocal abilities. “It works in the studio. And I feel a lot more comfortable singing now, because I’ve had it blaring out at me from monitors for the last year. But no, I still hate it.” (6)
As a part of their promotional tour for the single, Foo Fighters dropped into Radio 1 to record a special set of cover versions at the Maida Vale studios. One of the songs recorded was ‘Drive Me Wild’ a cover of a song by Vanity 6, but originally penned by Prince. Foo Fighters have over the years attempted on numerous occasions to cover Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’, but have never managed to get past the first verse. Other songs recorded for the session were ‘Baker Street’ (without the famous sax intro), ‘Friend Of A Friend’ and ‘Requiem’. While ‘Baker Street’ was originally by Gerry Rafferty and ‘Requiem’ by Killing Joke, ‘Friend Of A Friend’ wasn’t strictly speaking a cover version. It was, in fact, one of the songs by the aforementioned Late!, whose cassette album Pocketwatch ha
d provided the impetus for Foo Fighters all those years ago.
The band had opted to do ‘Friend Of A Friend’ instead of covering ‘Carry On My Wayward Son’ by Kansas – but only because Grohl had forgotten the words! The versions were rarely as good as the originals, with Grohl occasionally slipping into cheesy cabaret delivery. On ‘Requiem’, one of the few chances the band had to let rip, they watered the song down. Grohl’s vocals paled into insignificance next to the magnificent original version. Only ‘Drive Me Wild’ really worked because the band were able to infect it with enough of the Foo Fighters’ sound so as to make it their own.
The second Foo Fighters album, The Colour And The Shape appeared early in May. Arguably, this represented the first album by the band rather than a solo Grohl project – even though the band had been present for the mix of Foo Fighters and Grohl had rather generously included his band mates in a share of royalties for a record they had never actually appeared on – taking Grohl’s reputation for being generous to a new high.
However, the added input of the entire band turned out to be one of the album’s failings. Quite simply, it lacked the focus of its predecessor. Where Foo Fighters had used the axis of simple, yet bold, grungy rock songs as its core, The Colour And The Shape was almost self-conscious in its desire to break out of the previous album’s mould. Which meant embracing everyone from Metallica to The Velvet Underground, from Journey to The Dickies; and that was, in rock terms, some distance to travel.