“Why are we trying?”: the song Dave Grohl said he could never get close to
No one should look at their heroes and be discouraged that they can never get to that point in their lives one day. The purpose of any great rock and roll star is to inspire the next generation of fans to carry on their legacy, so when looking at someone like Paul McCartney put together a melody, it’s important to realise what can be done when putting one’s own spin on that kind of tune. Then again, Dave Grohl had enough sense to realise that certain tunes were well beyond his grasp as a songwriter.
Before he even got the chance to form Foo Fighters, though, Grohl was already a bit hesitant about the kind of music that he wrote. He had some great songs at his disposal, but was there anyone arguing for their spot on the album when they had someone like Kurt Cobain among their ranks writing all the tunes?
It was always going to be much easier to let the frontman do the talking in Nirvana, but Grohl seemed to have greater aspirations when his world crumbled underneath him after Cobain’s death. He had the same values as the punk kid who grew up playing the drums for Scream, but by the time they started playing stadiums around the world, Grohl figured that he needed to make the kind of music that sounded good in those massive venues.
And listening to tunes like ‘The Pretender’, Grohl made sure that every single person felt special when the band got onstage. There isn’t a soul on the planet who has been to a Foo Fighters show and not had the time of their lives singing along to ‘Best of You’ or screamed every word of the bridge of ‘Monkey Wrench’ back at the band but all of that musical training came from Grohl relentlessly watching what Queen could do.
Although Freddie Mercury could string together the most complex tunes of all time, he knew how to devour an audience whenever he played, even if it meant going up against a legend. Because the minute that both Queen and David Bowie joined forces for ‘Under Pressure’, they made the kind of record that could have put any other pop artist to shame, especially when Mercury goes for that high note at the end.
While every member of Foo Fighters was an open Queen fan, Taylor Hawkins remembered Grohl saying that listening to ‘Under Pressure’ made him realise the kind of genius that he would never equal, saying, “I remember one time with the Foo Fighters when we were on our way to a rehearsal studio in Virginia just before we made There Is Nothing Left To Lose. We were driving along, with the radio playing, and ‘Under Pressure’ came on. We sat there, silent, just listening. Then, when it was over, Dave Grohl turned round to the rest of us and just laughed, ‘Why are we even trying? Like we’re going to do anything even close to that song.’”
That didn’t mean that they couldn’t play the song to their heart’s content. Even during the infamous show where Grohl broke his leg mid-set, ‘Under Pressure’ was the tune that he came back out on stage to, joining Hawkins in the duet and having the time of his life trying to equal Mercury’s high notes in his usual goofy demeanour.
So when Grohl says that he can never reach ‘Under Pressure’, you have to understand that it’s not due to getting discouraged. This is the kind of song that is the musical equivalent of staring into the sun; it can be blinding and beautiful at times, but when dwelling on it for too long, it’s much too powerful for human ears.
