Dave Grohl packs a lot of history, sentiment and personality into his HBO music series — and the huge project almost gets away from him.
The documentary, timed to coincide with the Foo Fighters’ next album, tells several stories at once: the history of American rock music, the history of particular music studios, the memories of certain music legends, the history of Grohl’s biggest bands (Nirvana and the Foo Fighters), the story of his life in and around Washington, D.C., and the changing nature of the music industry.
Mainly, though, itap about “pulling back the curtain on the inspiration to write a lyric,” says Grohl, who founded the Foo Fighters and was the drummer for Nirvana.
He’s best when he narrows the focus, deconstructing a line of a single song.
“It all comes from somewhere,” says at the start of his ambitious multidimensional rock travelogue. His goal is to visit key cities where American music traces its roots and learn how these places inspired those who worked and played there.
premieres Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. on HBO.
At times he delivers more than enough information about the specific hole-in-the-wall studio and not enough about the legends who played there.
He surveys eight studios in eight cities — Austin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville, New Orleans, New York, Seattle and Washington, D.C. — places he regards as “hallowed ground.”
Wonderful vintage footage of early blues clubs and recording equipment is accompanied by an explanatory shot of a button reverberating on a string. It all comes from somewhere, as the man said.
Bonnie Raitt talks about the blues of , Guy talks about meeting . “I was lookin’ for a dime and I found a quarter,” Guy says. The line resurfaces in a Grohl/Foo Fighters lyric.
And thatap the gimmick. Grohl explained to critics: “The challenge of the whole process is that, as you’re seeing these people talk about these cities, you see our band in the studio writing and putting a song together. And on the very last day of the session, I take my transcripts with all the interviews, and I get a bottle of wine, and I sit in my hotel room.
“And I read through the transcripts and take words and ideas and thoughts, and I put them on this side of the page. And on this side of the page, I have the outline of the song. And I write the song from the episode.
“So the finale of each episode is a performance of the song, where you realize all of these lyrical references are from the show that you just watched.”
He swears it was so tough he’ll never attempt it again.
Geeks will love the remembrances of early punk rockers, the stories of studio engineers, the funky beginnings of Chicago’s Chess Records and Washington’s 9:30 club.
Talking to critics this summer, Grohl recalled how, after his first film, “Sound City,” about a single studio, “I started to realize the power of music and documentary together, because a lot of the times, music can seem really one- dimensional.”
While still mastering the form, he plays cultural anthropologist with the same enthusiasm with which he plays the drums.
“There’s a reason why jazz came from New Orleans. There’s a reason why country went to Nashville and why the blues went to Chicago,” he said. “And I get to interview all of these people and talk to them about that. And it goes back a hundred years, you know.”
The series sometimes meanders, but only because Grohl’s goals are lofty.
Follow our news and updates on , our relationship status on and our search history on . Or send us a telegram.
Joanne Ostrow is the Denver Post Television Critic. For more
