Aurora ( There Is Nothing Left To Lose, 1999)Ĭlean chords echo with delay to open the song, then the bass looms into view, and then Dave Grohl brings the vocals while the second guitar weaves around that opening refrain.
The only other person, apart from Grohl and Dulli, to appear on the first Foo Fighters album is producer Barrett Jones, who provided occasional backing vocals. He just handed me a guitar.” Did you know? “I was just watching him record, and he asked me if I wanted to play,” Dulli told Rolling Stone in 1995. A second guitar part is then layered on top to provide melody, and the extra guitar on this track was played by Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs, one of the few people to hang out with Grohl in Barrett Jones’ Seattle studio while recording was taking place. That guitar squall continues throughout the song, augmented by a restrained vocal performance, giving the song an almost shoegazey feel quite unlike the band’s later work. Notable as the only song on Foo Fighters’ debut album to feature a musician other than Dave Grohl, X-Static opens with 45 seconds of squalling guitars before the drums kick in and then the vocals begin. It was unlike anything we’d ever done.” 18. Did you know?ĭave Grohl said of Low: “It sounds like a machine roaring… some of it reminds me of older Soundgarden, and some of it reminds me of weird Black Flag. Inspired by Grohl’s stint with QOTSA, Low is, guitar-wise, about as heavy as Foo Fighters get and the duelling riffs here don’t let up for the whole song. When they did regroup, however, they produced one of the heaviest albums of their career. Chris Shiflett admitted to that he thought his ride with the band was over before it had really begun. The band recorded and then shelved an entire album’s worth of material before seeing Dave Grohl head off to play drums with desert rockers Queens Of The Stone Age. The making of the Foos’ fourth album, One By One, was beset with difficulties. Grohl has claimed in the past that the song is about certain carnal pleasures, though we wouldn’t wish to comment: “It’s a little dirty, just use your imagination.” 19. Dave Grohl has described it as one of the most aggressive songs in the band’s catalogue, and it certainly has a dissonance that is atypical of the Foos, but it is the conviction of the playing here, rather than what is being played, that leaves its mark. All My Life ( One By One, 2002)Ĭhugging into life with a repeated G power chord motif that fuels the whole song, All My Life follows a tried and tested formula for Foo Fighters, exploding into a catchy chorus built around a D♯, D, C and A chord progression.
In the same regard, let’s acknowledge Petra Haden’s extraordinary violin solo on the live version of Marigold on Skin And Bones – the best ever guitar solo not played on guitar?īut what of the best of Grohl, Smear and Shiflett? On with the show… 20.
And yes, Brian May’s contribution to Tired Of You is amazing, but he’s not actually in the Foo Fighters. We’ve cast an eye over that extensive back catalogue and attempted to identify not only our standout moments but also the songs where everything has come together to deliver some of the band’s best and biggest anthems.