There’s no real way to put Dave Grohl in any particular genre of music. Even though he may fit squarely in the category of hard rock for most of his recorded career, Grohl has prided himself on loving a variety of different genres of music throughout his life, working with everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Queens of the Stone Age to Boygenius in recent years. Although Grohl still has his favourites from the rock category, his book The Storyteller highlighted his love for the music of the 1970s.
Growing up learning from a Beatles songbook, many of Grohl’s early years saw him trying to piece together different songs from the Fab Four. By the time he entered his adolescence, he had started gravitating towards the sounds of heavier music, loving the hard rock of bands as varied as AC/DC and Rush.
While countless rock bands were living the classic cliche rock lifestyle, Grohl’s perception of music was turned on its head when he heard punk rock for the first time. After hearing bands like Sex Pistols and the Runaways for the first time, Grohl knew that he had found his calling as a musician, thinking that anyone could play music as long as they had a song in their heart and the courage to play it.
Then again, the drummer was still insistent on honing his chops. Outside of his love for the rudimentary sounds of artists like Patti Smith, new wave artists were also coming to the forefront to bring strange sounds to the masses, with Grohl listing artists like The Police and The B-52s among some of his favourites.
Above everything else, though, Grohl never forgot the power of a great melody to make him love a song. Throughout his youth, Grohl was willing to throw on anything as long as it could speak to you on a purely instinctual level, loving the sounds of Tom Petty just as much as he did the fierce sounds of Iggy Pop.
Once Grohl was finally put through his paces as a member of the band Scream, though, it was a chance call from Kurt Cobain that allowed him to play with Seattle hopeful Nirvana. Bringing his signature swing to Cobain’s tunes, Grohl made the entire band feel like a well-oiled machine, turning a song like ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ into an alternative anthem from the first time he hit the drums.
Even when Cobain died by his own hand in 1994, Grohl knew that his love for music would bring him back from the brink. Looking to make music on his own, Grohl would rise like a phoenix from the ashes to create Foo Fighters, putting together that signature brand of grunge rock with the bulletproof choruses he inherited from his years of listening to anything under the sun.
While Grohl’s love for music can vary by the type of mood he’s in every day. His eclectic taste is something that any passive music fan can take a few cues from. Even though there might be one style of music you gravitate towards, there is always more to explore if you’re willing to dig deeper.
Dave Grohl’s favourite songs of the 1970s:
1.‘Smoke on the Water’ – Deep Purple
2.‘Stay With Me’ – Faces
3.‘Tom Sawyer’ – Rush
4.‘Search and Destroy’ – The Stooges
5.‘Lust For Life’ – Iggy Pop
6.‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ – Paul McCartney
7.‘Sheena is a Punk Rocker’ – Ramones
8.‘See No Evil’ – Television
9.‘Gloria’ – Patti Smith
10.‘Ooh La La’ – Faces
11.‘God Save the Queen’ – Sex Pistols
12.‘Holidays in the Sun’ – Sex Pistols
13.‘Rock Lobster’ – The B-52s
14.‘Breakdown’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
15.‘American Girl’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
16.‘Refugee’ – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
17.‘So Lonely’ – The Police
18.‘Band on the Run’ – Paul McCartney and Wings
19.‘Let There Be Rock’ – AC/DC
20.‘Whole Lotta Rosie’ – AC/DC
21.‘Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap’ – AC/DC
22.‘Highway to Hell’ – AC/DC
23.‘2112’ – Rush
24.‘Still In Love With You’ – Thin Lizzy
25.‘Sailing’ – Christopher Cross
26.‘Cherry Bomb’ – The Runaways
27.‘Super Freak’ – Rick James
