5. All My Life
So.... how can I not like a song about.... cunnilingus? To those of you who have a more limited sexual vocabulary, this means when a guy goes down on a girl. Yup. Among other things, this is what Dave's singing about. Now read over the lyrics again and see if you can make sense of them.. Dave quote: "It's one of the most aggressive songs we've ever written - it's kinda dark and dissonant but really in your face. It begins with a vocal and a guitar then it explodes and gets even bigger and just keeps on going and going. It's fucking great. It's a little dirty. Use your imagination!"
Awesome things aside, this song is amazing. It makes you want to karaoke all night long. Which I did, a little while ago, and it was a raging success. Not because of my singing ability, but because everyone on the floor started jumping around like crazy people, and from a nice little Korean Karaoke bar, I suddenly felt I was in a music festival in London. Every single person in the room knew the words, and even the bar tenders were swishing their hair around. Either I was being punked, or this song is so f*cking catchy, powerful and resonates so much that this actually happened. I just can't get enough of Dave's screaming. It's so good.
4. Everlong
Dave wrote this song during one of the lowest points in his life in 1996. He was newly divorced and homeless, had no access to his own bank account, was sleeping in a sleeping bag on a friend's floor and both his drummer, William Goldsmith, and guitarist, Pat Smear, were on the verge of quitting his band. Alone, in about 45 minutes, he wrote a love song. To me, this is one of the purest love songs Dave has written. There is no hidden agenda, no dark undercurrents, it is a simple tale of a man in love, wanting to be with the object of his affections. Also, and perhaps this is only my interpretation, this is one of the only times we hear something from his partner's perspective. It sounds like the chorus, or its last two sentences, are spoken by her, "she sang".
It's part of why it's so stunning in its simplicity. He's singing to her. She's singing to him. The song also feels drowsy, almost like a dream. I love that it is not upbeat. Like many of the "sweetest" FF songs, it's slow, quiet, almost spoken under his breathe. A raging rocker he might be, but he still knows how to romance... Even the video was adorable. He saved Taylor!