Why does Dave Grohl...

[Carlos]

... insist on continuing to play drums on some songs on Foo Fighters albums considering he has one of the world's best rock drummers in his band in Taylor Hawkins?

Am i not the only one who thinks this is a bloody massive insult to Taylor and a fair amount of ego and autocracy displayed by Dave?

I remember hearing an interview with him when they last toured with the BDO and he was saying how he and Talyor had to change their drumming styles to try and suit eachother's more so it wasnt as obvious who was playing what song on TINLTL. And its pretty obvious Dave has played on the latest offering. "Disenchanted Lullaby" has to be him.

Seems bloody silly to me. Why not just let Taylor do his job, and play drums on all the songs and let him be the drummer he naturally is?

I'm all for challenging yourself to improve or step outside your comfort zone as a musician, but it just seems silly inthis case considering what a great player Taylor is and how perfect he seems for this kind of music. And he is the drummer of the band. Seems simple to me.

Dont get me wrong, i love Dave Grohl's drumming. I mean i bought Tenacious friggen D just for that fact for heck's sake!!

But i am also a very big fan of Taylor Hawkin's playing. Perfect blend of technique, attitude, energy and character IMO. Perfect power pop/rock drummer. Has all the chops, but knows how to just support good rock songs while also giving them an edge of class that only great drummers can.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents.

 

[the REAL dingo]

Originally posted by Carlos
... insist on continuing to play drums on some songs on Foo Fighters albums considering he has one of the world's best rock drummers in his band in Taylor Hawkins?

Am i not the only one who thinks this is a bloody massive insult to Taylor and a fair amount of ego and autocracy displayed by Dave?

I remember hearing an interview with him when they last toured with the BDO and he was saying how he and Talyor had to change their drumming styles to try and suit eachother's more so it wasnt as obvious who was playing what song on TINLTL. And its pretty obvious Dave has played on the latest offering. "Disenchanted Lullaby" has to be him.

Seems bloody silly to me. Why not just let Taylor do his job, and play drums on all the songs and let him be the drummer he naturally is?

I'm all for challenging yourself to improve or step outside your comfort zone as a musician, but it just seems silly inthis case considering what a great player Taylor is and how perfect he seems for this kind of music. And he is the drummer of the band. Seems simple to me.

Dont get me wrong, i love Dave Grohl's drumming. I mean i bought Tenacious friggen D just for that fact for heck's sake!!

But i am also a very big fan of Taylor Hawkin's playing. Perfect blend of technique, attitude, energy and character IMO. Perfect power pop/rock drummer. Has all the chops, but knows how to just support good rock songs while also giving them an edge of class that only great drummers can.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents.

Because that's just the way it is with the Foo Fighters, ever since the start of the band... On the first album Dave Grohl rerecorded all drums, bass and guitar without the band knowing. Soon after the original drummer left, Pat Smear left... Dave Grohl is just a control freak, but rightly so, the man is so talented and rocks roof off!
I'm sure Taylor Hawkins knew this was the arrangement when he started with the band...
... By the way did you like Taylor Hawkins original work with Alanis Morrisette?

 

[Chris_23]

Well the first drummer (William Goldsmith) left because Dave was too much of a control freak. Dave wanted to do the drumming on TCATS, and William cracked the sh|ts (fair enough) and left.

It's a strange situation. I know that Taylor played on about 5-6 tracks on TNLTL, not sure about this album. I assumed he played on all the tracks, mainly because i hadn't read otherwise.

 

[Carlos]

Taylor never actually recorded with Alaniss, just toured. But yeah, thought he was a gun back then.

The first Foo album was just a glorified demo for Dave's solo work. I was under the impression that at that stage he really didnt have a set line up. hence the reason he did everything.

And William left because he actually recorded all the tracks for Colour and Shape, and then Dave came in after it was finished and re-layed the lot of them except one intro without telling him. Poor form i reckon! So William said stick it! Fair enough too!

Like i said earlier, i reckon he should leave drum duties up to his drummer, who is more than capable. Crazy notion i know!?

 

[GOALden Hawk]

Yeah, it's an interesting one.

I must admit I've listened to TINLTL numerous times, and even though I know Dave Grohl's work better than almost anyone, even I struggle to pick the difference between him and Taylor at times.

Having seen them live Taylor is a truly great drummer, and underrated too. However I guess you have to remember Dave is still a drummer first.

He played drums in Scream, drums in Nirvana, drums in Queens of the Stone Age, drums in Tenancious D and laid down the drum parts before anything else on the debut Foo album.

I guess sometimes he probably has a thought in his head about what the drum pattern should be and Taylor may do it a little differently. Certainly Taylor seems to ride the high-hat a little more than Dave, whilst Dave likes to have his snare drum up higher than just about any other drummer I've ever heard.

In summary, the more of both the better! One of the most incredible things I've seen was on the Colour & the shape tour where they had 2 drum kits and Dave and Taylor drummed together!

 

[Chris_23]

Originally posted by GOALden Hawk
In summary, the more of both the better! One of the most incredible things I've seen was on the Colour & the shape tour where they had 2 drum kits and Dave and Taylor drummed together!

Yeah, Festival Hall, that was incredible!

 

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

Taylor was in drug rehab for a bit maybe he wasn't up to drumming on all of the tracks so Dave just helped him along a bit to get the album out on time or somethin i dunno does seem a bit farken pig headish by Grohl tho who in typical style wants to always take over everything as if he's better than the others just coz he was 'once' in the best grunge band in the world.

 

[Stealth bomber]

Take it from a drummer himself.....once drummers start playing other instruments and writing songs, things can get ugly

I've learned to play other instruments, and have done some 8-track recordings where I played everything - drums, bass, guitar, keyboards...no vocals, that would be unbearable for all who listen, including myself.

It is fun to have that "control", and I suppose that if you had a certain vision of a song that you would want everything done exactly the way you had thought it up.

Ben Folds did it on his last album, and Stevie Wonder used to do it all the time in the 70s.

 

[pedrothelioness]

i give dave grohl crudos only for the fact that he was the drummer in one of the best early dc h/c bands ever.

 

[Carlos]

Originally posted by Stealth bomber
Ben Folds did it on his last album, and Stevie Wonder used to do it all the time in the 70s.

Lenny Kravitz is an example of another who plays pretty much everything on his albums. Difference with all these artists is that they are solo artists. Their names are the ones on the finished product and therefore have the right to be completely autocratic.

The Foo Fighters are a band. 4 members, yet Taylor is relegated to a bit part player, inspite of being a fully fledged member of the band and a bloody talented drummer!!

I just think its a bit rough and a bit of an ego trip on Dave's behalf.

 

[bragg]

As a Sunny Day Real Estate fan I was more than happy for William Goldsmith to leave F.F and return to S.D.R.E. ....they recorded 2 more albums ...Nate Mendel also uummed and arred about leaving to record " How it feels to be something on "...they waited and waited but eventually recorded with an ex-posies bassist...Nate was interveiwed by the very wonderful Karen Lang on 3RRR about it when he was doing a F.F tour and he said then he regretted not recording with them again......

 

[ozzult]

Only reason Foo Fighters are popular is because of Nirvana.

Personally their songs are of an immature nature, not in the lyrical sense, but in the musically developing sense.

Foo Fighters - Dave Grohl = Support band.

 

[the REAL dingo]

Originally posted by ozzult
Only reason Foo Fighters are popular is because of Nirvana.

Personally their songs are of an immature nature, not in the lyrical sense, but in the musically developing sense.

Foo Fighters - Dave Grohl = Support band.

They shouldn't be headlining the Big Day Out...

 

[gPhonque]

Originally posted by ozzult
Personally their songs are of an immature nature, not in the lyrical sense, but in the musically developing sense.

Foo Fighters - Dave Grohl = Support band.

Sadly, I agree. That is exactly what they have turned into.

It's just another case of a band releasing albums with 2 or 3 great songs that dare to be a little different, while filling the rest of the album with radio-friendly and safe crap.

The entire first album rocked. Since then, there's really only been a handful of great Foo Fighters songs.

Christ, their albums now even have that safe radio-friendly "sounds like every other band in the top40" production.

I'm still a Dave Grohl fan, but not a Foo Fighters fan anymore.

 

[Spidergirl~RiCkChiCk]

Originally posted by gPhonque


Sadly, I agree. That is exactly what they have turned into.

It's just another case of a band releasing albums with 2 or 3 great songs that dare to be a little different, while filling the rest of the album with radio-friendly and safe crap.

The entire first album rocked. Since then, there's really only been a handful of great Foo Fighters songs.

Christ, their albums now even have that safe radio-friendly "sounds like every other band in the top40" production.

I'm still a Dave Grohl fan, but not a Foo Fighters fan anymore.

Thats exactly how i feel. Foo Fighters USED TO BE my third favorite band after Nirvana ended. The first album is mad i even bought the tshirt with the album cover on the front and bought most of the singles. Pretty much gave up on them after The Colour and The Shape as the songs from then on started to sh1t me coz they got way too much airplay and i felt this was turning The Foos into a teeny boppers band. Their only real good songs are from the earlier years i reckon.....'This Is A Call', 'Alone + Easy Target', 'I'll Stick Around', 'Everlong' and my fave coz it was written about Kurt...'My Hero'. Like most of my fave bands who initially started out as 'grunge' now they've just turned into teeny sh1t through too much airplay heck THAT!!! they're hardly wot they were years ago! (the band went down the drain when Dave Grohl's long hair did )

 

[morpheus]

Originally posted by GOALden Hawk


In summary, the more of both the better! One of the most incredible things I've seen was on the Colour & the shape tour where they had 2 drum kits and Dave and Taylor drummed together!

Thats when they played at Festival Hall, back in 98 that was incredible, how good was it when they play Wattershed, that song kicked ass live.