Michael's Number Ones: "Best of You" by Foo Fighters

DATE	WEEKS
May 21, 2005	10

It's no secret that the 2000s were some fertile ground for political songs from across the ideological spectrum. A few of the more notable examples have showed up in this column, and they've always been critical of the Bush administration that was in power at the time. It's pretty stark to look back on this time and compare it to today. Granted, artists haven't all decided to go silent on urgent issues facing the world today, they're just using different methods to register their protest. Just look at the alliance of artist and labels that announced this week they were geo-blocking their music from Israel. But when making work to criticize the current administration might mean losing your job, it's understandable that someone would think twice about it.

No one's making Foo Fighters for, say, Green Day. And it could be a stretch to say that "Best of You", the first single from their fifth album In Your Honor, is a political song. In the sense that it is, it's a lot more tangential than something like "Megalomaniac". It's a song about placing your faith in something bigger than you, only to not have it rewarded. That's a familiar story to most Americans, and not just any time we show up to a ballot box. It's true when we worry about paying the rent or mortgage each month, or going to the doctor. Those worries usually lead people toward anyone doing a convincing job of telling them they'll fix your problems. But more often than not they're just getting the best of you.

Even after touring hard behind their fourth album One by One, the Foos were not entirely satisfied with the record. Chris Shiflett was quoted in SPIN magazine saying, "There are great songs there, and then there are parts of great songs." As much as I loved the album, you can make a solid case that it's a very paint-by-numbers rock album. The songs that stand out, such as lead single "All My Life", do so because the band isn't trying to play it safe, at least not that much. When the fourth single from the album, "Have It All", flopped on radio, it was because programmers were more interested in the B-side instead, a cover of Prince's Purple Rain deep cut "Darling Nikki". That's the one that Tipper Gore and the PMBC raised a fuss about because Prince sang about female masturbation, leading to those "Parental Advisory" labels that appeared on album covers ever since. Tackling a song such as that feels straight out of Grohl's early playbook when he essentially recorded Foo Fighters songs by himself in his garage. On my top 40, the Foos' "Darling Nikki" peaked at #16.

So it was understandable that Grohl wanted to do something different with the Foos' next record. Inspired by Ry Cooder's score to the Wim Wenders masterpiece Paris, Texas, Grohl wrote several acoustic songs, thinking they could be pitched one day for a future film. Eventually, it occurred to him that those songs could be Foo Fighters songs without needing to change the acoustic nature of the songs. But since Grohl couldn't bring himself to make just an acoustic Foo Fighters album, the band decided to make a double album for their next album - one disc hard rock, the other acoustic.

The two halves that make up In Your Honor, the Foo Fighters' fifth album could not sound more different. Grohl described the two halves as "the bottle and the hangover". The first half is loud and intense; the second half is spare and vulnerable. It's a great idea for when CDs were the dominant way to consume music. You could put the electric disc on when you want something aggressive or uplifting, or you could put the acoustic disc on when you need something quieter or relaxing. When you listen to the album on streaming, the transition from "End Over End" to "Still" is kinda jarring.

On the acoustic disc, Grohl feels like he's releasing years of exhaustion. One of the songs on the acoustic side is "Friend of a Friend", which Grohl actually wrote in 1990 as an ode to Kurt Cobain. Grohl brought in some brand name collaborators for the acoustic side, including John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin and Norah Jones, not far removed from her Grammy-winning debut Come Away With Me. (Norah Jones' only song to make my chart, that album's title track, peaked at #9.)

Prior to recording the album, Grohl learned that George W. Bush's re-election campaign had been using the Foo Fighters' "My Hero" at campaign rallies. Rather than have lawyers draw up a cease-and-desist letter, Grohl decided instead to openly support Senator John Kerry's campaign and appeared with Kerry at rallies. Grohl described how he felt at the rallies to British radio station XFM: "And I got to see how all these people came together, really strong people, passionate and devoted to this one honorable cause. The strength of community and human will, it was inspiring." Grohl would later say that Kerry was the one whose honor In Your Honor was decided to.

"Best of You" was one of the first songs Grohl wrote for the heavy side of the album. Grohl described the song as refusing to be taken advantage of by something bigger than you. Interestingly, Grohl's lyrics are mostly written in the second person, as if he speaking directly to the listener. "Were you born to resist or be abused?/Is someone getting the best, the best, the best, the best of you?"

Grohl may have been inspired by his time campaigning with John Kerry, but the song doesn't make any overtly political references. Instead, it sounds like someone whose faith in the people and systems around them has been shattered. While this has never felt more appropriate to the political moment we're in now, this could apply to anyone from a spouse or family member or friend. It's hard for me to pick a favorite lyric in the song, but it's probably this one: "I needed somewhere to hang my head/without your noose/you gave me something that I didn't have/but had no use." We all need support after feeling like we fucked up, or even just feeling like the world has gone to shit. But sometimes who you turn to can put the blame back on you or make your feelings about themselves. Anyone who doesn't know what it's like to go through that is leading a charmed and blissful existence.

Toward the end, Grohl validates what the listener is feeling and asks them not to give up hope. "Has someone taken your faith?/It's real, the pain you feel/The life, the love you'd die to heal/The hope that starts the broken hearts/Your trust, you must confess." The whole song feels visceral, like someone screaming into a pillow because there's no other way to release whatever they're feeling. Grohl actually didn't think the song fit on the album and was ready to leave it on the cutting room floor. The Foos' manager John Silva convinced them to included after he listened to a version of the album without "Best of You".

The only way a song like "Best of You" can work is as intensely as possible. It doesn't sound like any other Foo Fighters song before or since. Grohl does everything he can with his voice to make the song feel urgent and primal, and the rest of the band is more than up to the task. Grohl said he was more interested in a strong performance than "an interesting melody", which makes total sense. If they tried to write that song to maximize radio play, the message would never have come through as clearly.

The video does an excellent job capturing this urgency. Mark Pellington, the music video auteur who did Pearl Jam's "Jeremy" and one of the videos for U2's "One", was hired to direct the clip. Pellington channeled the pain he was feeling from his wife's death a few months earlier. The band is recorded on somewhat grainy film playing on the roof of an abandoned hospital, as well as inside a dark hallway. Interspersed are clips of violence (car crashes, animals attacking prey in the wild) and serenity (children playing, a mother and child cuddling each other).

I don't know if I'd go as far to say that "Best of You" is my favorite Foo Fighters song. There's quite a few that could compete for that title, and they'd likely all lose to "Everlong". But of all the 21st century Foo Fighters songs, "Best of You" was the one that came along at the absolute right moment for me. I was 19 years old, living with my dad and stepmom in Bremerton, Washington, and had to stop going to college because I had no money. I got a job in the Naval Shipyard and felt like my life was going to shape up very differently than what I imagined and not for the better. Hearing this particular song didn't do anything to make me turn a corner, but it gave me an outlet to feel like my problems weren't unique and weren't inescapable.

All of that aside, "Best of You" made its mark on me. The song debuted at #39 the first week I heard it and climbed 30 spots to #9 the next week, still the biggest one-week climb in chart history. Three weeks later, it reached #1 and stayed there for 10 consecutive weeks, only the fourth song to break the 10-week barrier at #1. It would be almost 15 years before another song spent that many weeks at the top of my chart. (It's possible, though unlikely, that a song currently on my chart could become the sixth song to reach that milestone, though it wouldn't be consecutive. "Best of You" is still that last song to claim that feat.)

Nationally, "Best of You" topped the Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts. Even though it didn't get any significant pop airplay, thanks to iTunes downloads it became the Foo Fighters' biggest hit on the Hot 100, peaking at #18. The Foos followed it up with another kick-ass song, "DOA". That one was especially memorable for me because of the video, which used one of those rotating rooms that Sugar Ray used in their video for "Fly". "DOA" was another alternative #1 for the Foo Fighters, but on my chart it stalled at #2. One other single, "No Way Back", made my chart; it peaked at #6 in March 2006.

The Foo Fighters were arguably at the peak of their powers in the mid-2000s. In Your Honor became yet another platinum album for the band. "Best of You" may have been the best of the Foo Fighters on my chart, but weren't going to slow down. They'll be back many more times in this column.

EXTRAS

As if to imitate life, the Foo Fighters cameoed on a 2006 two-part episode of The West Wing, performing at the Election Night rally for the show's Democratic presidential candidate, Matthew Santos. They didn't play "Best of You" on the show, but two other In Your Honor tracks made the show. Here they are in Part One performing "Resolve" while Josh Lyman and a campaign aide quibble on whether it's "Foo Fighters" or "The Foo Fighters".

And here they are in Part Two performing "Miracle":

Remember how I mentioned that the Foo Fighters covered "Darling Nikki" earlier? Well, when Prince played Super Bowl XLI in Miami in 2007, he apparently decided to return the favor by playing "Best of You" during his set. Unfortunately, the NFL are a bunch of dicks and I can't embed the video of the performance on this website. Here it is if you want to watch the halftime show in full. Instead, here's Corey Taylor covering "Best of You" at a 2016 acoustic concert:

(Corey Taylor's band Slipknot's biggest hit on my chart, 2004's "Vermilion", peaked at #38. As a member of Stone Sour, his biggest hit is 2006's "Through Glass", which peaked at #5.)

THE NUMBER TWOS

System of a Down's bugged-out anti-war screed "B.Y.O.B." peaked at #2 behind "Best of You".

Coldplay's lush and ethereal "Speed of Sound" also peaked at #2 behind "Best of You". If you could see it then you'd understand: I absolutely love this song.

THE BEST OF THE REST

Hawthorne Heights' immortal screamo classic "Ohio Is for Lovers" peaked at #5 behind "Best of You". You like it too and I can tell.

My Chemical Romance's "Helena", an intense elegy to Gerard and Mikey Way's late grandmother, peaked at #6 behind "Best of You". What's the worst that I can say?