“It doesn’t really count”: Dave Grohl’s “least favourite” Foo Fighters song
Not every track an artist writes can be a winner. While it’s important to exercise that creative muscle whenever you can, it’s anyone’s guess whether you will write your answer to ‘Stairway to Heaven’ or something that would get you laughed out of the room in a local writing school.
Dave Grohl may not have had a lot of expectations going into creating the first Foo Fighters record, but he admitted that the band’s debut record had one of his least favourite songs.
When Grohl arrived at those first sessions, it wasn’t done with the purpose of making a classic album. If anything, Grohl just wanted to make an album just to say that he had done it, finally wanting to break out of the funk that was lingering after Kurt Cobain’s passing. Considering how well he worked in Nirvana, Foo Fighters proved Grohl could be a kickass songwriter in his own right.
Taking the basis of the sounds he loved as a kid, Grohl combined melody, punk rock energy, and an alternative edge into every song, making tracks that were angry when they wanted to be and optimistic at the same time. That’s not to say that Grohl didn’t learn anything from his old Nirvana bandmate.
Throughout the album, songs like ‘X-Static’ feel like they could been included as B-sides to In Utero, especially with its blown-out production and hazy atmosphere. Outside of the production aesthetic, Grohl was still ready to show his skills as a songwriter… with the exception of ‘Oh George’.
Compared to the rest of the songs on the record, Grohl thought that this was on the bottom tier of his original material, saying, “My least favourite song is probably ‘Oh, George’, which is off the first record. That album was made so quickly that it doesn’t really count.” If this was the bottom of the barrel, Grohl didn’t have to worry about a thing.
Part of Grohl’s frustration may have come from how quickly the debut record took shape. The Foo Fighters album was largely recorded by Grohl himself in a matter of days, with little time to second-guess ideas once they were committed to tape. In that environment, songs were captured in the moment, which meant some tracks inevitably felt rougher or less considered than others once the dust had settled.
Still, that loose approach was also part of what gave the record its charm. The debut thrives on spontaneity, with Grohl jumping between instruments and trusting his instincts rather than labouring over every detail. Even a track he later dismissed like ‘Oh George’ fits into that spirit, sounding less like a misstep and more like a snapshot of a songwriter rediscovering his footing.
Discounting a few scatterbrain lyrics throughout the tune, the song is a great slice of 1970s-style pop rock, influenced by Grohl’s love for The Beatles. Grohl even plays a token guitar solo in tribute to his inspiration, George Harrison, using a slide guitar style that feels like a lackadaisical version of what Harrison may have done on post-Beatles albums like ‘How Do You Sleep’.
Even if it’s not the most profound song in the world, it sits nicely among the other tracks on the band’s debut, working as a comedown from the punk-leaning tracks like ‘Weenie Beenie’ while not being as bonkers as a piece like ‘For All The Cows’. If Grohl didn’t like the song that much, he was going to have to get used to it, playing his first tours with Foo Fighters playing the album in its entirety.
By the time Grohl got around to making works like ‘My Hero’, ‘Oh George’ would be left in the dust, practically fading into obscurity as one of the few duds on the band’s debut record. ‘Oh, George’ was never made because of its single potential. Foo Fighters was about Grohl picking himself up again, and every song was one step closer to healing the wounds left over from Nirvana’s fallout.
