TWENTY THREE YEARS AGO THE FOO FIGHTERS RELEASED ‘THE COLOUR AND THE SHAPE.’ EVEN THOUGH IT IS OFFICIALLY THE SECOND FOO FIGHTERS ALBUM, IT’S ACTUALLY THE FIRST FOO’S ALBUM TO FEATURE AN ACTUAL BAND. THE DEBUT FOO FIGHTERS ALBUM WAS A GLORIFIED DAVE GROHL SOLO PROJECT. ‘THE COLOUR AND THE SHAPE’ SOLD OVER 2 MILLION COPIES, AND WAS DRIVEN BY TRACKS LIKE ‘EVERLONG’ ‘MY HERO’ AND ‘MONKEY WRENCH.’ IT WAS ALSO NOMINATED FOR A GRAMMY AWARD IN 1998 FOR ‘THE BEST ROCK ALBUM.’
HERE ARE 10 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ‘THE COLOUR AND THE SHAPE.’
1. The Colour and the Shape has old more more than any other album in the band’s extensive catalog.
2. “My Hero,” the first of the album’s songs to be played live, debuted in concert nearly two years before album was released.
3. “Enough Space” was written because the band needed a good set-opener for their 1995 European tour.
4. Gil Norton pushed Grohl to write more meaningful songs than those he’d written for the first album.
5. The initial sessions for the album were “a bad experience” – especially for drummer William Goldsmith – and produced little in the way of usable material.
6. “Everlong” began life as “a Sonic Youth rip-off.”
7. Most of the finished tracks were re-recorded at a Grandmaster Recorders, a Hollywood studio that previously birthed massive albums by the Black Crowes, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stevie Wonder.
8. Goldsmith left the band after learning that Grohl had re-recorded most of his drum parts behind his back.
9. The album’s title was inspired by a bowling pin that the band’s tour manager purchased at a thrift shop.
10. Pat Smear wanted to leave the band before the album was even released – though he eventually stuck around until they could find a suitable replacement.
THIS IS ONE OF THE TRULY GREAT SONGS ON THE CD
FIVE YEARS AGO IT WAS DAVID LETTERMAN’S LAST “LATE SHOW”. THE SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST? YOU GUESSED IT, THE FOO FIGHTERS. THE FOO FIGHTERS PLAYED THE SONG ‘EVERLONG’ OVER A TOUCHING MONTAGE OF OLD LETTERMAN CLIPS. THE LATE-NITE LEGEND AND THE BAND MIGHT SEEM LIKE AN UNLIKELY PAIR, BUT THEY SHARE A LONG HISTORY TOGETHER. EVER SINCE LETTERMAN GAVE THEM THEIR TV DEBUT BACK IN 1995,HE AND THE “FIGHTERS OF FOO”AS HE CALLS THEM, HAVE BEEN CLOSE FRIENDS. HERE ARE THE FOO FIGHTERS WITH THE LAST SONG PLAYED ON THE LATE SHOW
SEVEN YEARS AGO THE KEYBOARDIST FOR THE DOORS RAY MANZAREK DIED AT THE AGE OF 74. MANZAREK AND JIM MORRISON CO-FOUNDED THE GROUP, AND RECORDED ON EVERY TRACK OF ALL EIGHT DOORS ALBUMS. BOTH MET IN FILM SCHOOL AT UCLA BUT DIDN’T FORM A BAND WHILE IN SCHOOL. FORTY DAYS AFTER FINISHING SCHOOL, AND THINKING THEY HAD GONE THEIR SEPARATE WAYS, MANZAREK AND MORRISON MET BY CHANCE AT VENICE BEACH. MORRISON SAID HE HAD WRITTEN SOME SONGS AND MANZAREK WANTED TO HEAR THEM. MORRISON SANG ROUGH VERSIONS OF 3 SONGS AND THE TWO CO-FOUNDED THE DOORS ON THE SPOT. HERE ARE THE DOORS PERFORMING GLORIA