Grohl the most accomplished musician of the last 25yrs?

Tawnos

A guy with a bass
Sep 10, 2004
29,334
11,128
Charlotte, NC
I don't understand this. Max Martin certainly is performing in the recordings, working the synthesisers and drum machines.

There is no doubt that a session artist is a musician. Likewise, John Williams is a pretty damn good piano player.

I guess I distinguish between studio performance and live.
 

RedWhiteBlackGold

Veteran User
Feb 22, 2007
11,655
476
Charlottetown, PE
Pfffffttt.

Anselmo worse than Grohl? Yeah ok bud.....:shakehead

Outside of Pantera, Phil had a handful of good songs with Down and SJR. Definitely different genres of music though.

I don't know, Anselmo hasn't been relevant since the mid 2000's whereas Grohl is still producing some good music. The last I heard of Anselmo was him supporting white power and playing it off as an inside joke to a wine he shared with friends.
 

Roo Returns

Skjeikspeare No More
Mar 4, 2010
9,676
5,248
Westchester, NY
It really depends what the definition is. If it's just session work or being heard on records a la James Jamerson then Pino Palladino, Josh Freese, Dave Lombardo, and even Jason Newsted post-Metallica are all in the mix.

Records sold is a an entirely different matter.
 

Captain Bowie

Registered User
Jan 18, 2012
27,139
4,414
Yeah it's shocking to me too. A little biased because the Foo Fighters were my favorite band up until 4-5 years ago but Dave Grohl has always been the man.

Seemingly humble guy making at the very least good, and sometimes great rock music for nearly two decades. He's clearly well-respected in the music world and he's clearly talented/successful.

Exactly. Just look at the acts he's been a part of, it's incredible. And different instruments to boot.
 

Dr Pepper

Registered User
Dec 9, 2005
71,391
17,059
Sunny Etobicoke
I've often felt that Kurt's death was one of the best things to ever happen to Dave Grohl.

I mean, just imagine if he was still stuck as the drummer of an overrated grunge band.

Yes, overrated. Nirvana wouldn't be anywhere near as legendary as they are if Kurt hadn't offed himself.
 

Eisen

Registered User
Sep 30, 2009
16,737
3,104
Duesseldorf
I've often felt that Kurt's death was one of the best things to ever happen to Dave Grohl.

I mean, just imagine if he was still stuck as the drummer of an overrated grunge band.

Yes, overrated. Nirvana wouldn't be anywhere near as legendary as they are if Kurt hadn't offed himself.

I disagree. You underestimate how big Nevermind was. It was one of the big voices of a generation. Like an area defining album.
 

Shareefruck

Registered User
Apr 2, 2005
29,225
3,982
Vancouver, BC
Nobody can deny the noise that it made and impact it had, but pretty lame generation if it's defined by something like Nevermind, IMO. Cobain was a likeable charismatic guy with alot of admirable motivations, but I agree that they're overrated as music.
 

beowulf

Not a nice guy.
Jan 29, 2005
59,652
9,187
Ottawa
Nobody can deny the noise that it made and impact it had, but pretty lame generation if it's defined by something like Nevermind, IMO. Cobain was a likeable charismatic guy with alot of admirable motivations, but I agree that they're overrated as music.

Totally disagree.
 

Roo Returns

Skjeikspeare No More
Mar 4, 2010
9,676
5,248
Westchester, NY
First off, Eminem? He's talented but was over saturated beyond belief for about a decade. His music has no staying power. Every song of his goes "Hey look I'm back, it's been a minute, I'm gonna hurt my ex-wife, my daughter is gonna be messed up" and "curse out celebirty political figure." Not to mention that Aerosmith sample he used made Kid Rock's songs look like John Lennon/Paul McCartney compositions.

Nirvana as a band were just three dudes from Seattle who liked punk, The Pixies, and especially the SST label bands, but at the time culturally and politically the US was coming off almost 11 years of yuppies/conservatism/excess in music where bigger was better and musically everyone wore outrageous outfits and had larger than life personalities. To see three guys were t-shirts, sneakers, and make noisy raw music (yes, Nevermind was slicker than their other albums) was rebellious to the establishment, and bands that would never normally get a shot all of a sudden were hot and got mainstream press. It resonated with the weirdos and changed the scope of music for about 6-7 years before the awful late 90s boy band/pop star revival.
 

Voight

#winning
Feb 8, 2012
42,094
18,638
Mulberry Street
I will always be impressed how he rose from the ashes of Nirvana and started a hugely successful band that remains so today. Especially considering how Krist Novoselic hasn't really done much in the mainstream world of music. I haven't liked the Foo Fighters recent stuff but their albums in the 2000's were all outstanding.
 

weastern bias

worst team in the league
Feb 3, 2012
11,630
8,462
SJ
Dave Grohl is a fine musician who makes boring, repetitive, derivative radio rock and then criticizes other artists not making "real music"; he represents rockism in the modern age, and I'm not at all down with that

Outside of Nirvana he never did anything special, and honestly any good drummer could have done what he did in Nirvana

He's not a hack, but he's overrated as hell and Foo Fighters is total schlock
 

Captain Bowie

Registered User
Jan 18, 2012
27,139
4,414
Dave Grohl is a fine musician who makes boring, repetitive, derivative radio rock and then criticizes other artists not making "real music"; he represents rockism in the modern age, and I'm not at all down with that

Outside of Nirvana he never did anything special, and honestly any good drummer could have done what he did in Nirvana

He's not a hack, but he's overrated as hell and Foo Fighters is total schlock

That seems like a very common criticism of bands that reach major mainstream success. Can you possibly be more specific? I am very familiar with the whole body of work by FF and they have tried a lot of different things and hit almost all aspect of "rock" at different points. Their early stuff sound different from the middle stuff and different again from the recent stuff.
 

Roo Returns

Skjeikspeare No More
Mar 4, 2010
9,676
5,248
Westchester, NY
Grohl is cool. Look, he's not Bill Bufford/Neil Peart/Mike Portnoy and I don't know how good his drumming is in 7/8 or 15/7 etc. but he's a very good rock drummer who has tremendous sound and charisma in his playing.

As a songwriter, he may have been a metal and hardcore fan, but clearly the melodic stuff like Pixies, Sunny Day Real Estate, Glassjaw, also influences how he plays and writes. Jeff Buckley was a giant Bad Brains fan and John Mayer loves SRV but can you really hear either in their songwriting (insert joke with John Mayer)?

His songs might be safe and mainstream, but that's just who he is.

The only and I mean only issue I have with Grohl is the whole "he should have played the London shows with Led Zeppelin" movement. That was a popularity thing/Them Crooked Vultures and it really belonged to Jason Bonham and Jason Bonham only.
 

Pavelski2112

Bold as Boognish
Dec 15, 2011
14,774
9,777
San Jose, California
Dave Grohl is a fine musician who makes boring, repetitive, derivative radio rock and then criticizes other artists not making "real music"; he represents rockism in the modern age, and I'm not at all down with that

Outside of Nirvana he never did anything special, and honestly any good drummer could have done what he did in Nirvana

He's not a hack, but he's overrated as hell and Foo Fighters is total schlock

I like Dave Grohl, but I have to say the best Nirvana album didn't even have Grohl on it
 

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