Foo Fighters

A few years ago my sister in law somehow came up with tickets for the Black Keys, Foo Fighters and Neil Young in Central Park. I also saw Olivia Wilde in person and ate at Shake Shack. It was a glorious day.

 

That's a nice slate. Saw Grohl and Them Crooked Vultures (John Paul jones of Led Zeppelin and a guy from queens of the Stone Age) play with Jay Z at Coachella in 2010. They ripped. Seen black keys a few times. Love them. Never seen Neil Diamond. How was he?

 

Neil Young still absolutely shredded on the guitar. He didn't play a lot of his biggest hits, but closed it with Rockin' in the Free World with Dave Grohl and Dan Auerbach, which was awesome.

 

If you think about it, Grohl and the Foos is kind of like if ...

The Beatles started to get big in 1962 as in real life.

With a lineup of John Lennon, lead guitar, vocals; George Harrison, second guitar, backup vocals; Stu Sutcliffe, bass, and Paul McCartney, drums.

They became a worldwide sensation in 1963-64 and broke through artistic barriers. Kids start wearing long hair. Except the music is overwhelmingly written and produced by John Lennon. Drummer McCartney is given an occasional novelty vocal turn. He's given writing credit on a handful of songs, mostly single B-sides. Lennon mostly discounts McCartney's writing; when McCartney offers co-writing credit, he just laughs it off.

In summer 1965 one day, Lennon blows off a recording session, spending the day smoking pot with new pal Bob Dylan, one of a number of new drug diversions Lennon dips into. In the studio with the other band members, McCartney offers a song he calls "Scrambled Eggs."

Producer George Martin suggests some new lyrics and a string quartet backing. The next day, Lennon returns to the studio and dismisses the song, now called, "I Believe In Yesterday," as "Paul's granny music." The track is shelved.

The Beatles continued through the groundbreaking "Revolver" in 1966, in which the music takes a turn toward a raw and punky style called 'grunge.' One of the notable tracks is a weird send-up of Fifties doo-wop, "Happiness Is A Warm Gun." Lennon takes the Beatles in a direction toward rough and raw hard rock in reaction/rivalry with contemporary Brian Wilson. Lennon makes a remark the Beatles are "bigger than Jesus."

In August 1966, following riots sparked by his "Jesus" remarks, Lennon is killed by a deranged gunman at a Memphis concert. At about the same time Wilson goes borderline crazy. The Beatles break up after four classic albums.

Harrison joins his friend Eric Clapton in Cream; one of their biggest hits is 1968's "My Guitar Can't Stop Crying," about Lennon's murder, from the album "Creamy Cream," which features an all-white cover. In 1969 Harrison replaces the late Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones. Sutcliffe retires to a 30-year career as an artist, painting dozens of huge hit album covers.

In 1974, McCartney forms Wings with old school pal Ringo Starr on drums. McCartney switches off between lead guitar, bass and keyboard. They start pumping out a chain of hits never recorded under the Beatles' banner.

The first single, a pair of songs McCartney had in the can for years, is "She Loves You"/"Helter Skelter."

In 1992, the surviving Beatles reunite for an "Anthology" project. McCartney takes a boxful of unfinished Lennon demo tapes and adds lyrics and new instrumentation, in several cases largely rewriting the song. The first three-song CD, the first three songs ever credited to "Lennon-McCartney," includes "Let Me Take You Down," "Penny Lane" and a strange hybrid merging of two songs, entitled "I'd Love To Turn You On."

 

I can't believe the guy who writes about the Beatles and NASA like this, is the same guy who's so unhinged when he talks about politics.

 

Be careful.

 

The closing number from the show. There are lots of videos from the whole day on YouTube.

 

One thing that has happened in the last 10-15 years is that generational snobbery between top-level performers has pretty much evaporated.

The punks of the late Seventies and Eighties would have retched at the idea of appearing on stage with a band like Led Zeppelin or Pink Floyd. They didn't want to be associated with those old farts.

In 1975, the Stones would have guffawed at the idea of allowing Steven Tyler and Joe Perry on stage. They wouldn't have lowered themselves to mingle with the young whipper-snappers.

I kinda wonder, if Bruce Springsteen had wanted to jump onstage with McCartney or the Stones in 1975, how agreeable they would have been. Of course in the 2010s, Bruce has been BRUUUUCE for 40 years, so they're all over it.

Guys like Grohl and Eddie Vedder, who will jump on stage with about anybody, have a lot to do with it. Yeah, some of it is pandering, but a lot is also that those guys are big rock fans themselves. And the legendary old guys are taking them seriously as members of the "club."


Of course, the young punks like Grohl and Vedder are also pushing 50, too.

 

At that show, FF played for about an hour I think. Dave told the crowd, "Usually we'd do more songs, but I'd rather listen to fucking Neil Young."

 

Hopefully his wording was more precise. I get the idea, but ...

 

Had no idea who or what the Foo Fighters are, so I spent an hour listening to more than a dozen You Tube clips (needed to catch up to the national average!).

 

And I was blown away that my 11-year-old niece had never heard of the Foo Fighters ...

So I take it you liked what you heard?