Supriya Ghosh (Editor)

This Is a Call

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Released
  
June 19, 1995

Genre
  
Post-grunge

Format
  
CD CD-R Vinyl (7" & 12") Cassette

Recorded
  
October 1994 at Robert Lang Studios in Seattle June 7, 1997 at Downing Stadium in New York City (live at Downing)

Length
  
3:52 3:45 (live at Downing)

Label
  
Roswell/Capitol Capitol (live at Downing)

"This Is a Call" is the first major single released by the Foo Fighters from their self-titled debut album. It was released in 1995.

Contents

Origins

"This Is a Call" is one of the few songs on the Foo Fighters' debut album that does not date from Dave Grohl's days with Nirvana. It was a new song written in the summer of 1994, months after Kurt Cobain's death. Grohl married his long-time girlfriend Jennifer Youngblood and wrote the song while on honeymoon in Ireland, "In that summer of 1994 I'd travelled a lot; I think I wrote 'This Is A Call' in Ireland. When I got back I booked five days in a recording studio, which seemed like an eternity, and I did the whole first Foo Fighters album in five days".

Release and reception

The song debuted at number 12 on the Modern Rock Tracks chart and quickly rose to a peak of number 2, held off the top by Alanis Morissette's hit "You Oughta Know". The song also charted at number 5 on the UK Singles Chart.

No music video was made for the song however the band played the song live on the Late Show with David Letterman toward the end of the summer in 1995. It was the band's first national television performance. Since this performance David Letterman has become an avid fan of the band and Foo Fighters have played on the show 11 times.

In other media

"This Is a Call" was released as a downloadable content for the Rock Band series of video games on December 23, 2008.

Lyrics

Dave Grohl said about the song: "The chorus says 'This is a call to all my past resignation'. It's just sort of like a little wave to all the people I ever played music with, people I've been friends with, all my relationships, my family. It's a hello, and in a way a thank you."

"'This Is A Call' just seemed like a nice way to open the album, y'know, 'This is a call to all my past resignations...' I felt like I had nothing to lose, and I didn't necessarily want to be the drummer of Nirvana for the rest of my life without Nirvana. I thought I should try something I'd never done before and I'd never stood up in front of a band and been the lead singer, which was fucking horrifying and still is!"

Other versions

  • A live version recorded on June 15, 1996 at the Golden Gate Park as part of the Tibetan Freedom Concert was released on the "Free Tibet" DVD.
  • Another version recorded at the following year's version of the festival on June 7, 1997 at the Downing Stadium was released on the Tibetan Freedom Concert live album.

    • Personnel on record

    Dave Grohl - guitars, vocals, bass, drums

    Singles

    7" Vinyl single Stamped Label / French CD single / Japan CD single / 7" single
    1. "This Is a Call"
    2. "Winnebago" (Grohl, Turner)
    7" One-sided vinyl single / Promo CD
    1. "This Is a Call"
    12" luminous vinyl single / 12" UK vinyl Promo single / UK CD single / Radio promo CD
    1. "This Is a Call"
    2. "Winnebago"
    3. "Podunk"
    Cassette tape single / Australian CD single / Dutch CD single
    1. "This Is a Call"
    2. "Winnebago"
    3. "Podunk (Cement Mix)"
  • "Podunk (Cement Mix)" is seemingly exactly the same mix and version as the standard version of "Podunk". The reason for this is unknown.

    • References

    This Is a Call Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA