Editor's note: Today we discovered that Christian the News Intern, a graduate journalism student at UNT, once played in a grunge band and hasn't really updated his tastes, making him, we figure, one of about nine people alive to take offense to the politicization of a Foo Fighters song. Here's his take:
Last night, like any upstanding tattooed extremist, I found myself sitting in front of my TV, watching the Democratic National Convention and strumming by guitar, feeling brain dead by the sameness of it all, when a welcome sound suddenly poured from the speakers: the Foo Fighters.
"It's an honor to be here," Dave Grohl said, strumming the intro to "My Hero" on his guitar, "and I think this song makes perfect sense tonight."
What the fuck? How dare he defame the name of his dead friend by dedicating that song to President Obama.
Before I could smash my guitar and write inflammatory remarks about the Fighters of Foo all over the nearest Walmart's bathroom walls, Kurt Cobain's voice echoed through my mind: "The song's not about me, asshole."
And maybe he's right. Or maybe not.
"My Hero" first appeared on the Foo Fighter's second album The Colour and the Shape in 1998, but Grohl has been playing the song since 1995, a year after Cobain committed suicide. Despite the numerous "My Hero" Kurt Cobain video tributes that litter YouTube, it's almost impossible to find the meaning behind the song.
Several blogs claim that Grohl said the song was about ordinary people who are real heroes. President Obama ain't that.
But in a 2009 interview with Mojo, Grohl said: "I don't see what's wrong with someone not knowing the specific inspirations to a song. There's a wonderful part of songwriting that perhaps everyone could relate to a lyric for their own reason so that when go out and play, say 'Best Of You' for 80,000 people, maybe they're singing along for 80,00 different reasons. You're going to sing a song a lot fucking louder for your reasons than for mine."
So, with his words empowering my anger, I stalk the aisles of Walmart, searching for a perfect marker.
*It's just me, isn't it?
