Back in 2002, the Foo Fighters released their fourth studio album, "One By One". What a lot of people don’t know is that the band spent four months and a million dollars in a L.A studio in the year prior, working on an album that would never see the light of day. The band ultimately scrapped the "Million Dollar Demo" recordings because they "didn't sound right", recording what would become "One By One" at Dave Grohl’s home studio instead. Now, as both KROQ and AntiQuiet are reporting, those demos have started to surface.
Two tracks from these sessions, "Have It All" and "Come Back", have found their way onto YouTube. And while Foos fans, will be familiar with the songs from "One By One", the way they sound in these demos (which sound near-finished) is quite different from how they turned out on the final album. As AntiQuiet notes:
"It’s arguable that the demos above pack a harder punch than the versions that ended up on 'One By One', an album that’s widely considered (both by fans and the band) to be the Foos’ least-impressive, packed with watered-down filler tracks. One can only wonder whether the rest of the 'Million Dollar Demo' would sound this good."
The Foo Fighters will be headlining this year’s Reading and Leeds festivals in the UK this summer. Back in March, the band posted a stream of their classic 1995 Reading Festival set as a teaser. The stream is still online at the following location.
Whether any more of the "Million Dollar Demos" will appear online remains to be seen. In the meantime, you can enjoy the alternative versions of "Have It All" and "Come Back" below:
Am I the only one who really liked 'One By One'? It has some killer tracks. Very underrated IMO.
I agree. Though I think it's in part due to first-album-bias. Where everyone thinks a bands first album is their best? One By One was the first album I heard by them so it will always have a special place in my heart. The way One By One is described in the article is how I'd describe There Is Nothing Left To Lose. But the first 4 songs on that are great.
The demos that he should be releasing are his Laundry Room Demos from when he was in NIRVANA, THOSE are the best Foo Fighters recordings ever. But now he's too busy churning out commercialized, embarrassing garbage.
This version of Come Back is way better than the album version. I wonder if they changed it though because of all the turmoil in the band at the time. These lyrics definitely seem pointed at the band, whereas the final cut is more of a love song. I like this angry version much better.
One by One, while not their best album, is not their worst either. I'd still put it above Echos Silence Patience and Grace. I still can't listen to that album.
Am I the only one who thinks a million dollars is a HELL of a lot of cash to toss on a record? You could buy new instruments and top-notch gear you'd want, and self-produce for a dramatically small percent of that.
Am I the only one who thinks a million dollars is a HELL of a lot of cash to toss on a record? You could buy new instruments and top-notch gear you'd want, and self-produce for a dramatically small percent of that.
They already have great gear, and to be honest, a million bucks really isn't a lot for them.
The album version of "have it all" is better in my opinion, and come back is completely different. I like this one better, but I still like the album version!
IMO most of the foo fighter's stuff from pretender, in your honour, colour and shape and one by one is filler. each album has a few gems, but the rest is average.
Obviously wasting light is the odd one out, the whole of that record kicks ass!!!
Am I the only one who thinks a million dollars is a HELL of a lot of cash to toss on a record? You could buy new instruments and top-notch gear you'd want, and self-produce for a dramatically small percent of that.
They already have great gear, and to be honest, a million bucks really isn't a lot for them.
I think the point was that it still seems unnecessary. Just because they can doesn't mean they need to. Not that I'm judging or anything, they can do what they want.
They played the demo version of Come Back live at least once. Think I have the bootleg somewhere. Remember any the end Dave saying something about how it knocked the ****ing breath outta him.
Vendettagainst wrote on 05/10/2012 - 12:30 pm / quote |
The demos that he should be releasing are his Laundry Room Demos from when he was in NIRVANA, THOSE are the best Foo Fighters recordings ever. But now he's too busy churning out commercialized, embarrassing garbage.
Anyone else really wish the Nirvana fan boys would take a day off for once?
Definately with ashers69 on this, One by One was the Foos album I got into, so it'll seem like a good one to me!
I'm shocked to hear that One By One was considered their weakest album, especially if the band feels that way too. In the Back and Forth documentary, they all said that their favorite song to play live is All My Life and Times Like These became one of their greatest hits--arguably the one that launched them in the new, more acoustic-oriented direction that they took for awhile. Granted, the ENTIRE album isn't their best work, start to finish, but I'd rather listen to One By One than the first album and the bulk of There Is Nothing Left To Lose.
Have It All sounds quite the same as on the album version, just another mix. I'm actually really happy they redid Come Back for the album, because that's still my fav Foo Fighters track. It's so raw, it's hard yet emotional, it's passionate yet grinding someone's teeth over the asphalt. It's definitely best of both worlds. K, I'm finished with my fanboy rant x)
any band has just masterpieces, but as a Foo Fighters fan, I find every single song by them amazing, cool or just fun or good to ear (that's why I consider I'm a Foo's fan)
The demos that he should be releasing are his Laundry Room Demos from when he was in NIRVANA, THOSE are the best Foo Fighters recordings ever. But now he's too busy churning out commercialized, embarrassing garbage.
Because White Limo was insanely commercialized. Right
Foo Fighters have some good tracks... however i have to say Wasting Light was probably one of the most overrated albums i'v heard in a while.... it was so bland and emotionless
On average, each FF song on One By One is roughly 4:45. If the Foo Fighters had condensed these songs it would have been better. These songs were too repeative, have both the choruses and verses too similar, and don't have those big solos that would make this time frame noteworthy.
^Please don't get me wrong. I absolutely love the Foo Fighters and enjoy everyone of their songs. Obviously some more than others, but still, the FF's are my favorite band of all time.
Wow, these are awesome. have it all was basically the same, but I liked the guitar tones much much better...didn't like the end where they're just noodling around though. Come Back was completely different and awesome in it's own way.
These versions sound awesome! Come Back sounds so awesome! I don't know why people don't like One by One as much, I thought it was an awesome album, probably in my top 3 foo albums! The only song I didn't really like was Tired of You, but the other songs definitely made up for it!
I like how you can actually hear the distortion of the guitar and the crack of snare drum in these demos. The loudness war has ruined a lot of good albums.
chhang wrote:
these are great i wouldnt mind if they reissued the pocketwatch demos
Theres no "they", Pocketwatch was all Grohl, while in NIRVANA. (Back when Grohl wrote awesome songs)
He still writes awesome songs but I liked the Late! "Pocketwatch" demo as much as I like Wasting Light or the first album. That's a ****ing awesome demo. The original version of "Marigold" is deep.
These are good, but I can definitely hear why they decided to take another shot at these songs. Something about it reminds me of those awful demo tracks from The Colour and the Shape that were on the deluxe edition they released a couple years ago. Just unpolished and almost unfinished sounding as a song.
Personally, i think the finished article is much better, especially Have It All, and too be honest not a huge fan of that song anyway. But still very good versions of these songs i think :
Oh wow. You can actually hear the guitar tone and the the snare tone in the demos. The studio version sounds like overly tracked, overly produced commercial crap.
I thought Lonely as You was a good track. Easily could have fit on Colour and the Shape. Low could have fit on the first album.
Speaking of which, is any of the material really that worse than some of the 'filler' from other albums? My Poor Brain, Wind Up, Alone+Easy Target, plenty of tracks from In Your Honor. The fact that every track can't be My Hero or Headwires is not a revelation.
As a guitar player I have to say that One by One is my favourite album. Nice groovy riffs all over the place. These two demos are great to hear, I love alternate versions/takes of songs. Keeps them fresh.
