How the “most underrated American record” became Dave Grohl’s rock bible
Despite being in two of the most successful bands of the last two centuries, for years, Dave Grohl has moulded himself into the musician’s musician.
Outside of fronting Foo Fighters, one of the most successful bands in the world, Grohl’s penchant for waxing poetic about the more underground side of rock and roll has endeared him to millions of fans who would have never thought their favourite acts would get a spotlight. Although Grohl has been known to prop up legends like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin, he still thinks this one band flew under the radar.
In the early days before Foo Fighters or Nirvana, though, Grohl was happy to be a part of the underground punk scene. Rising to prominence in the group Scream, Grohl wasn’t looking to get rich and famous off of his music, being satisfied playing music with his friends as loud as possible.
Although Grohl may have liked playing dissonant punk rock in the vein of Black Flag and Fugazi, he was also a sucker for melody. Throughout his musical upbringing, it wasn’t out of the question for Grohl to switch from listening to Slayer one day and then move on to ABBA the next day, instilling a deep love of melody into his musical psyche.
While punk rock spat in the face of pretty melodies, Hüsker Dü was one of the first bands to fully embrace the melodicism of their favourite acts. Headed by Bob Mould, the band would become legends of the underground alternative scene, paving the way for acts like Nirvana and Pearl Jam to blow up just a few years later.
Despite Kurt Cobain’s infatuation with Hüsker Dü’s contemporaries like R.E.M., Grohl would count the band’s album Zen Arcade as one of his all-time favourites, recalling to Mojo, “I was a huge fan of Hüsker Du. Their album Zen Arcade is one of the most underrated American rock ‘n’ roll records of all time.”
Spread out like a lavish concept album, Zen Arcade brought the bombast of classic rock to the warped sounds of punk. It was this unique dynamic of forging old with new in an unapologetic fashion that would have found its way into the brain of Grohl. Although Mould’s penchant for audio destruction was evident across the band’s first records, this was one of the first times when his knack for melody blended perfectly with his signature intensity, creating a tapestry of sound that sounds like what Nirvana would be doing years later.
Nirvana might have been a grunge outfit and, for many, been seen as an originator of a sound; the truth is, they would happily magpie their way across the musical spectrum, famously nabbing the loud-quiet delivery of the Pixies while Kurt Cobain remained consistent in trying to emulate The Beatles’ knack for songwriting. But it wasn’t just within Grohl’s former band that he would find the inspiration of Mould and turn it into his own work.
“Only recently did I realise how much I’ve ripped Bob off for the last 16 years,” Grohl noted when referring to his time with a guitar in his hand rather than drumsticks. He continued, “I met him for the first time last summer and said, ‘You know that I’d be nowhere and nobody without your music, right?’ and he very politely nodded and said: ‘I know’.”
When Grohl would start writing his original songs, he did slip a few loving nods to one of his favourite bands as well. Although the melodic side of Foo Fighters is indebted to Mould’s work, Grohl would admit that the lyric “I’m a new day rising” from ‘Times Like These’ is a direct homage to Hüsker Du’s album of the same name.
Grohl would even be able to work with Mould later down the line. After moving on to a solo career following Hüsker Du’s breakup, Mould made a name for himself in the underground when he was asked to contribute to the Foo Fighters album Wasting Light, co-writing and contributing backing vocals to the song ‘Dear Rosemary’.
While working on the song, Grohl was in awe of working with Mould, saying, “It sounds like Bob and I wrote a song for Hüsker Dü 20 years ago, and the Foo Fighters are covering it.” Meeting one’s heroes may be hit and miss, but Grohl’s reverence towards Mould has turned him from superfan to close friend.
