May 20, 2022

Breathe Out So I Can Breathe You In



The Colour And The Shape
Foo Fighters (1997)
It doesn't feel like this album came out a quarter of a century ago, but it's true.  I was 16 years old when The Colour And The Shape was released 25 years ago today.  Man, that really makes me feel my age!

Guitar World (1997)

Although it's the second Foo Fighters studio album, in many ways, The Colour And The Shape really is their first as an actual band.  The self-titled 1995 Foo Fighters album was more of a Dave Grohl solo project.  He wrote the lyrics and music of every song and he sang the lead and accompanying vocals.  Also, with the exception of one part of the guitar on X-Static that was played by The Afghan Whigs frontman Greg Dulli, Grohl played every instrument on every song on the first Foo Fighters album.

In contrast, The Colour And The Shape was a collaborative effort by Grohl, guitarist Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, and drummer Taylor Hawkins.  The result was an incredible album of 13 songs, three of which became massive hits in the late 90's: Monkey Wrench, My Hero and Everlong.

My favorite song on the album, and my favorite Foo Fighters song ever recorded, is its second single - Everlong.  Here, Dave Grohl talks about the process of writing the song before playing it acoustically:
March 20, 2021 acoustic recording from Studio 606 in Northridge, CA 
Hello, I've waited here for you
Everlong
Tonight, I throw myself into
And out of the red
Out of her head, she sang

Come down, and waste away with me
Down with me
Slow, how you wanted it to be
I'm over my head
Out of her head, she sang

And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when
She sang

Breathe out, so I can breathe you in
Hold you in
And now I know you've always been
Out of your head, out of my head I sang

And I wonder
When I sing along with you
If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again
The only thing I'll ever ask of you
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when
She sang

And I wonder 
If everything could ever feel this real forever 
If anything could ever be this good again 
The only thing I'll ever ask of you 
You've got to promise not to stop when I say when