Rocktober '90s Song #6: "Monkey Wrench" by Foo Fighters (1997)

It would be a disservice to you if I had a '90s Rocktober without featuring a Foo Fighters song, so I'm going with one of my favorites from my favorite of their albums, 1997's The Colour and The Shape.  The album was the first album truly as a band, as the self-titled debut was essentially Dave Grohl playing all the instruments.  He added bassist Nate Mendel and former Germs founder and guitarist Pat Smear (who was also a touring member of Nirvana for a couple years), and then drummer William Goldsmith for a few tracks -- though Grohl handled most of the drumming.

The Colour and The Shape built off of the success of the first album and established the band as more than just a novelty or a Nirvana off-shoot.  This is a fantastic hard rock album, and the songs are inspired by Grohl's break-up with his then-wife Jennifer Youngblood.  Several of the band's signature songs are on this album:  "My Hero," "Everlong," "Monkey Wrench," and "Walking After You" (all Top 12 songs on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart).  It was the band's first Top 10 album in the U.S., starting their current streak of nine consecutive Top 10 albums on the Billboard album chart -- and it went to the Top 10 on nine other international album charts.  It's also the band's best-selling album in the U.S., having gone double platinum.

But anyway, let's get to the song.  "Monkey Wrench" is nearly four minutes of unabashed energy and catharsis, as Grohl wrote the song about how he had caused problems in his marriage and he needed to set his wife free to rid her of the problem (i.e., him).  The climax is the bridge, where Grohl, seemingly in one breath, culminating in his primal scream "freeeeeeeeeee!"  I try to sing it in one breath whenever I hear the song, and I have not yet succeeded.  And as an added bonus, the video is the first appearance of Taylor Hawkins as the band's drummer, even though Grohl drummed on the actual track.