Let's Try a New Gimmick- The Shuffle Conversation- Foo Fighters Everlong

Since the well isn't exactly overflowing with fresh ideas (the well of course being my brain. I am so void I cant even write a solid metaphor) I have decided to try a new gimmick to help me. I am going to put my ipod on shuffle and use the first song that pops up as a springboard. I may write about the song, I may write about the band, I may use the idea of the song to write some fiction, I may write more about my love affair with Tim Tebow. But regardless, I'm going to write dammit. I will try this daily until I stop doing it daily. These have the potential to be even more terrible than my usual offerings, just be forewarned. Today's song is: Foo Fighters-Everlong. Oh boy, this should get interesting.



I speak frequently in hyperbole. I am constantly overrating things. It's just something I do. When I'm drunk, I do it in a way that makes it seem like what I'm saying is the most important thing I've ever said, and then defend it until my throat is sore or until I think of something else even more earth-shattering. In this case, though, I think I can defend my hyperbole sober. And its going to be some hyperbole, boy howdy.

Everlong is the greatest song ever.

Hang on let me try that again.

Everlong is the greatest song ever.

It sounds wrong to say that. I look at that sentence, and if someone else wrote it, it would seem painfully awkward. I think I would question it blindly and dismiss the author with a wave a my hand and move on to something else. The more I think about it, though, the more correct it seems. Please don't dismiss me with a wave of the hand.

Lets get the facts out of the way. It contains one of the best riffs of the 90's, the drumming is absolutely insane, and the lyrics, with its subtle ambiguity, are some of the most touching and interesting ever written. But the actual technical merits of the song aren't what makes this song so important.

Everlong is the greatest song ever because while it means so much to so many people, it doesnt mean more to anyone than it means to Dave Grohl. I refuse to believe that there is a more open and personal song than this one. It feels like sitting in a psychiatrists office as Dave Grohl bares his soul, his pain and his triumph all in one four minute session.

I once had a conversation with a singer/songwriter in a metal band who said he refuses to write lyrics based on personal situations because those are his situations, and his band is something greater than himself. I think that's bullshit. A singer, a frontman, whatever, shouldnt be an actor, playing out scenarios and pretending like these are his thoughts. I want passion, I want depth, I want to know that person, and there isn't a single song that you feel a person more than Everlong. You feel every emotion through every word, every note and every tempo change. Even the part where Dave is muttering nonsense, you understand it.

And to me, that's what makes this song so amazing. It's not a song written about somebody else or telling a story about somebody else (which can be fun). It's not a song where they try too hard to show they're an emotional person (like every Staind song ever). And it's not a song where they pretend like they are speaking to the world around them (which can be done well, like Green Day, or can be done poorly, like every country song about America). Its simply a four minute show of personal emotion. You don't have to decide whether you agree with it, you don't have to decide if he wrote it to make a quick buck, you don't have to try and guess what he was trying to say. You just have to feel it. And this song makes you feel.