The Foo Fighters song Dave Grohl called a step backwards: “We’ve done that already”
There’s a good case to be made that Foo Fighters could just be called ‘The Dave Grohl Experience’. There might be many different people that help fill out the sound of the post-grunge outfit, but the amount of heart and soul Grohl has put into every song has made him the de facto boss of the group throughout every part of their career. So when the band were first looking to reach for the big leagues with their sophomore record, The Colour and the Shape, Grohl knew that there was no room for the title track among the other classics.
At that point, though, there was no one else who knew Foo Fighters better than Grohl. He had already recorded the band’s first album as a goof a few miles away from his house, and it wasn’t like he was looking to make a career out of it. Now that many people were paying attention to ‘that guy from Nirvana’s band, Grohl knew he needed to up the ante a bit when bringing the full band in.
That didn’t exactly result in the best camaraderie once it came time to record. Working with noted Pixies producer Gil Norton, the band did not gel at first, with Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith being called ‘the rhythmless section’ by the producer after only a few weeks. If Goldsmith couldn’t step up to the challenge, Grohl wasn’t going to wait around for everything to get done.
After tracking most of the drums on the album himself, Grohl saw this rich tapestry of songs forming. For all of Foo Fighters’ subsequent releases, this feels like their unintended playbook, featuring songs that hold up as radio classics like ‘Everlong’ and deep cuts that still feel as fresh as ever like ‘See You’ and ‘Hey Johnny Park’.
Since the entire record flowed as one continuous piece, ‘The Colour and the Shape’ started to become less and less possible for the track listing. The album had that anthemic energy that defines most Foo Fighters projects, so bringing in a song that was a hardcore punk detour would have derailed everything.
Grohl also couldn’t help but think that the song was a bit too familiar, saying,“ There is a song called ‘The Colour And The Shape’ we were going to put on the record. It was almost like another ‘Weenie Beenie’ sort of song, just another screaming, fast, hardcore song, but we decided not to put it on because it was a step backwards. We’ve done that already!”
Although the song has been included as a bonus track and counted among the B-sides of the record, it’s not hard to tell what Grohl was talking about. Yes, it’s still a great song, but considering everything else on the record, it would have seemed a bit too redundant. The Foos still had their punk sensibilities, but why would you want another hardcore song when songs like ‘Enough Space’ are already there?
That’s not to say that Grohl suddenly grew out of his punk phase. Just listen to a song like ‘White Limo’ from Wasting Light, which is an unintended love letter to that style of music. Every artist is trying to make the best record, but ‘The Colour and the Shape’ may be a case of the right song at the wrong time.