this hurts me...
The second single off the Foo Fighters’ second album The Colour and the Shape is “Everlong.” In the song, the guitars wax dramatic as Dave Grohl sings of a relationship he wants to cling to, a bit obsessively. These dark tones underlie the freakish nightmare occupied by Grohl and his wife (played by drummer Taylor Hawkins in drag). The video’s main theme focuses on the connections between reality (filmed in black-and-white) and dreams (filmed in color) - two dreams, in fact.
As two thugs approach their house, Grohl dreams of being at an 80’s party dressed as a punk. After entering the room, he notices the two thugs (Pat Smear and Nate Mendel looking like brats from Archie comics) picking on his girlfriend. Grohl gets seriously angry and his hand grows extra large, Incredible Hulk-style. He then slaps Smear and Mendel with his monstrosity. They fall to the floor, die, and their bodies vaporize into the carpet.
Grohl and his girlfriend then move into the next room, which houses a giant, ringing telephone. Dave Grohl snaps awake and finds his phone ringing. On the other line he hears his sleeping wife plead for help. He realizes her nightmare is quite real, and he must save her. So he forces himself back to sleep.
Grohl winds up in her dream, where she’s trapped in a log cabin. The two thugs transported to her dream, and are now fighting their way into the cabin. This is when she makes the distress call. When Grohl enters her dream, he goes to the cabin and finds her captured. Angry again, his hand grows super-huge, and he knocks the goons dead. They haul their bodies out and dump them in the lake.
But back in the bedroom stand the thugs. No matter, because they open wide their mouths, and out come the real Pat Smear and Nate Mendel. This requires some nifty morphing shots performed in post-production. Backwards music is added for effect. Then off flies Hawkins’ wig and the Foo Fighters play the rest of the song. For the final sequence Gondry continuously super-imposed the shots onto the lens to add the psychedelic effect.
As two thugs approach their house, Grohl dreams of being at an 80’s party dressed as a punk. After entering the room, he notices the two thugs (Pat Smear and Nate Mendel looking like brats from Archie comics) picking on his girlfriend. Grohl gets seriously angry and his hand grows extra large, Incredible Hulk-style. He then slaps Smear and Mendel with his monstrosity. They fall to the floor, die, and their bodies vaporize into the carpet.
Grohl and his girlfriend then move into the next room, which houses a giant, ringing telephone. Dave Grohl snaps awake and finds his phone ringing. On the other line he hears his sleeping wife plead for help. He realizes her nightmare is quite real, and he must save her. So he forces himself back to sleep.
Grohl winds up in her dream, where she’s trapped in a log cabin. The two thugs transported to her dream, and are now fighting their way into the cabin. This is when she makes the distress call. When Grohl enters her dream, he goes to the cabin and finds her captured. Angry again, his hand grows super-huge, and he knocks the goons dead. They haul their bodies out and dump them in the lake.
But back in the bedroom stand the thugs. No matter, because they open wide their mouths, and out come the real Pat Smear and Nate Mendel. This requires some nifty morphing shots performed in post-production. Backwards music is added for effect. Then off flies Hawkins’ wig and the Foo Fighters play the rest of the song. For the final sequence Gondry continuously super-imposed the shots onto the lens to add the psychedelic effect.