Dec 14

Dave Grohl

Greatly Appreciated

DAVE GROHL

 
Dave Grohl  (born January 14, 1969) is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer who first gained recognition and fame as the drummer for the grunge band Nirvana.  He is also the lead vocalist, rhythm guitarist, main songwriter and founder of the band Foo Fighters.  He is also the drummer and co-founder of the rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures.  Grohl has additionally written all the music and performed all the instruments for his short-lived side projects Late! and Probot, as well as being involved with Queens of the Stone Age numerous times throughout the past decade.  He has performed session work (as a drummer) for a variety of musicians.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
Finally, I have a recommendation to go with my confession earlier.  If any of you are still signed up with Netflix, you should add the 1994 film Backbeat to your queue.  It is the early history of the Beatles mostly when they were in Hamburg, Germany and primarily follows Stu Sutcliffe (played by Stephen Dorff), an old friend of John Lennon who was in an early incarnation of the band.   Along the way, you meet Paul McCartney (the two actors who play John and Paul are dead ringers), George Harrison, and even Ringo Starr, who was hanging around the group even though he wasn’t in the band yet.  Actually the words “the Beatles” were only spoken once during the entire movie; John Lennon mostly just called them “the band”. 
 
The idea is that, in those days, the Beatles were the world’s greatest punk rock group, so the band that they lined up to play the music was drawn from the top American alternative rock bands of the day, like the Afghan Whigs,Soul Asylum, R.E.M., and Sonic Youth.  The drummer was Nirvana’s Dave Grohl, who later became the front man for Foo Fighters (sadly, I believe that I read that they have gone on a hiatus).  However, he still hits the skins from time to time for bands like Queens of the Stone Age.  Highly recommended. 
  
(September 2012)
 
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Back when MTV and VH1 used to play music videos, and when I wasn’t watching anything else, I would often have one of those channels on, with my videocassette recorder at the ready, in case a video came on of a song that I really liked.  Particularly when there was a song in “heavy rotation” that I really wanted, I would often have the VCR already cued up, on “hold”, so that I would miss as little of the video as possible.  Sometimes I would get lucky, and I would already be recording a song when another one came on that I wanted as well. 
 
That happened one time with “No One Knows” by Queens of the Stone Age.  The time was back in the Garage Rock Revival period of the early 2000’s, when the White Stripes, the Hives, the Strokes, and several other great retro bands were really getting established.  I hadn’t heard the song before, but the beat sounded good, so I left the recorder running.  That song got to be a real favorite of mine, and I was particularly thrilled when I later recognized Dave Grohl – former drummer for Nirvana and front man for Foo Fighters – on drums in the video (that’s a video cap from the “No One Knows” music video above). 
 
(December 2012)
 
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On October 7, 2014, a remarkable assemblage of musicians came together under the name “The Impossible Orchestra” to perform the Beach Boys song “God Only Knows”.  The event was simulcast on BBC Television and BBC Radio stations in order to herald the launch of BBC Music, and the event also made national news in this country.  A recording of the song was released on a single the following day as a fund-raising effort for Children in Need 2014.  The musicians span the spectrum of popular music and included Brian Wilson, Pharrell Williams, One Direction, Lorde, Chrissie Hynde, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Chris Martin, Kylie Minogue, Dave Grohl, Brian May, and many others.  

 

(October 2014)

 

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Dave Grohl and Foo Fighters have been traveling to music meccas across the country, making short films of their stays there and writing and performing a song to mark the occasion.  They are now playing on HBO, and 60 Minutes also had a piece on their efforts a week or so back.  Their sojourn to New Orleans is particularly enjoyable; they tell the history of Preservation Hall and how it is now fulfilling its mission of preserving jazz in the city.  Highly recommended.  

 

(June 2015)

 

Last edited: March 22, 2021