Foo Fighters and the Art of Expressing Anger and Sadness

If everything could ever feel this real forever
If anything could ever be this good again

A moving shipwreck, that might be the best term to describe me this past one month. I’m still functioning well enough in life, but dragging some heavy burdens I can’t remove that probably also affect some people around me. Trapped in a condition that generally can be considered as silly, but a big deal for an old boy like yours truly.

But through all that, some presences faithfully stayed to be my muse, and one of them is my Foo Fighters’ playlist.

Long road to ruin there in your eyes
Under the cold streetlights
No tomorrow, no dead end in sight

There is one characteristic I always associated with Foo Fighters’ songs: the raw emotions they showcased through their music. A feeling I found similar whenever I listened to Mono, but enhanced with the verbalization presented through Foo’s beautifully written lyrics.

Reading some lyrics interpretation of their songs blew my mind. But of course, I have my own interpretation of them. Some baseless interpretations I made accordingly to what I’m feeling, and through some misheard lyrics (that turns out not that far off from the real one).

My head is giving me life or death
But I can’t choose

Dave Grohl’s way of singing obviously helped set up the tone for those raw emotions, and in some songs I endlessly replayed this past one month, I felt a mix of anger, sadness, and hope amidst all the chaos.

Take “Long Road to Ruin” for example, through Grohl’s voices and the lyrics, I was forced to admit that things are not right in my life now. A lot of things might be heading to ruin, I might be running through hell and delaying my heaven. But the way the music plays, and the change of tone of his voices during the chorus, it felt as if a friend is telling you that life sucks, but you still need to, and you actually can, enjoy the ride.

Is someone getting the best
The best, the best, the best of you?

There are other songs that affect me personally, but some of them are too personal to be written in a public blog post. Still, most of their songs resonated with the raw feelings I want to let out but failed to do so. A feeling that I’m sure resonates with a lot of people. A feeling, that I hate to admit, sometimes make me feel not “manly” enough, and yet Foo Fighters manages to present it in such a beautiful and fierce way.

I might be a moving shipwreck for the past one month, and probably will stay that way for a while. But Foo Fighters is one of the few entities that helped me going through it, and for that, they definitely got the best of me for many futures to come.

So, thank you Dave Grohl, Chris Shiflett, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins, and Rami Jaffee. You guys are great.

It’s times like these you learn to live again
It’s times like these you give and give again
It’s times like these you learn to love again
It’s times like these time and time again