Step back to the kit: The two Foo Fighters songs Dave Grohl doesn’t sing
The Foo Fighters are responsible for defining a major part of modern American rock music, and so much of that enduring legacy can be attributed to the fact that they don’t tend to stray from their tried and tested formula. Despite their share of tragedies and tribulations over the years, there is truly nothing that can prise this band of brothers apart, and of course, always with Dave Grohl at the front and centre, captaining the ship.
While not to diminish the other members’ genuinely seismic role within the band, it’s in total certainty that there would be no Foo Fighters without Grohl, just in the same way there was no Nirvana without Kurt Cobain. In this sense, his rock and roll lineage, as well as his own track record, is what makes him one of the genre’s greatest heroes – and is the justifiable reason why he doesn’t often pass over the reins.
In all the Foo Fighters’ more than three decades’ worth of hits, there are only limited examples of songs where Grohl doesn’t take the lead vocal. It’s not because his bandmates aren’t capable of holding a tune – after all, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, and Chris Shiflett have each released their own solo albums – but it just seems that Grohl’s screaming match tone became too much of a trademark for the band to shake, and so a foray into the different and unknown for the fans is more than a rare occurrence.
That said, there are two songs out of the hundreds the band have produced that break the mould. Both are where the late, great Hawkins assumes the prime position – firstly on ‘Cold Day in the Sun’, and later on ‘Sunday Rain’.
‘Cold Day in the Sun’ was taken from the 2006 album In Your Honor. It was the first time any band member other than Grohl had taken the lead role, with the drummer and the frontman switching positions for the occasion. As much of a huge moment as it might have seemed initially for Hawkins, in reality, the drumming maestro was less impressed with the outcome. Although he had come up with the music for ‘Cold Day in the Sun’ four years prior to its release, the lyrics were more of a rush job, only written the night before it was due to be recorded. As a result, he hardly thought it was his finest work – and anytime Grohl claimed to still like it, his response was, “Yeah, bull.”
But he seemed to claw his self-reputation back when it came to ‘Sunday Rain’, taken from 2017’s Concrete and Gold. In fact, this is the only song that doesn’t feature Grohl at all in the recording – although he penned the track, it was Paul McCartney who took over the drumming and Hawkins who commanded the vocals, marking a significant moment not only for the band but their Liverpudlian legend collaborator. It was hardly as if Grohl minded – this was his best friend and his hero together, after all, and he said Macca made the recording “amazing”.
Dave Grohl may be the sonic glue of the Foo Fighters, but it’s a testament to the power of Taylor Hawkins that he was the only person the band’s prime position – occasionally – got passed over to. Not that we ever didn’t appreciate him, of course, but it proves that we just need to look to the back of the stage to find who’s really stealing the show.
