Hello,
I don't know about the "Dave got a vision of of how he wanted the drumming to
go Will didn't really fill the spot well." comment. I've got a couple
recordings from the first Foo's tour where they played some of The Color and
The Shape tunes (My Hero, My Poor Brain, Hey Johnny Park) and the drums are
pretty much identical as Dave recorded them for the album. So it wasn't a
matter of Dave not liking what Will was playing, as he (Dave) recorded them
fill-for-fill as Will played them live prior to recording TCATS, which I'm sure
was very close to the way Will recorded them for that album. From everything
I've gathered, it came down to an ego thing, and yes, Dave being very
controlling about his band. There's very little doubt that Will can play
circles around Dave, and I don't think Grohl wanted that to be heard on one of
"his" albums. It's fine on a SDRE album, but not a Foo's album. He doesn't want
the whole world to know that not only is there a better drummer out there
somewhere, there's one in "his" band.
As sort of a side note, if anyone has heard the Foo's BBC version of How I Miss
You (with Will on drums) compared to the studio version on the I'll Stick
Around single (with Dave on drums), the BBC version is a million miles better
than the single version, because there is so much more feeling in the drumming
- it brings out the rest of the song.
Dave Grohl is a great drummer in his own right, he's just not Will. And the Foo
Fighters are Dave's band, so he can do whatever the hell he wants, even if he
makes himself look like a musical doofus when he does something as assinine as
re-recording the drum tracks just to save his own ego.
Have a good day,
Mike Z
Rob Holmes wrote:
> hi
>
> yeah, i've followed foo fighters and sdre for a while, so i guess i kinda
> know the answer. will wasn't really putting the effort into playing on the
> album, from what i heard. dave is a very controlling musician, but thats
> because he knows exactly what he wants. they were writing stuff as a band,
> from what i understood, but when dave got a vision of how he wanted the
> drumming to go will didn't really fill the spot well. i don't remember who
> told me this, but dave would go into the studio late at night to listen to
> the day's work, and he was just so disappointed with will's drumming
> because he knew it could be better. on top of that, dave was paying for
> the recording studio time out of his own pocket (the record company
> wouldn't fund such a huge project, i guess). so dave decided to try
> drumming himself. he didn't actually erase will's work, he just tracked it
> differently. when will found out about this, he went out to a bar and got
> really drunk and told everyone that dave grohl could fuck off, or something
> to that extent. thats when he was kicked out / left the band.
>
> again, i can't verify that info 100% because no one has really spoken about
> the whole situation, but thats what i gathered. if you read TCATS booklet,
> you'll see will still plays drums on one song and on part of another. in
> case you're wondering where i got the info, its from a pretty good
> source. read the booklet where it says "hand claps on see you" and you'll
> see the name lance bangs. i know him very well. he does a lot of
> videotaping of big bands, and actually he directed a days of the new music
> video.
>
> rholmes
> http://www.fairskin.net
