Foo Fighters have released a cult cover of Gerry Rafferty’s Baker Street, almost 30 years after recording the track at a BBC Maida Vale session in April 1997.
Despite resurfacing previously on 10th anniversary editions of the band’s 1997 album The Colour And The Shape, the cover has largely been missing from streaming platforms for almost 30 years. Until now.
“We sorta thought it’d be fun to do four songs that people would probably hate and never expect us to do,” Dave Grohl told Steve Lamacq in an interview held around the original BBC session.
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He added: “I think it’s sort of funny that this album we’ve been tagged as this ‘rock band’ and everyone seems to think there’s this big 70s influence to the band, so we might be taking the piss.”
The Maida Vale recording came just a couple of weeks after Foo Fighters’ iconic late drummer Taylor Hawkins joined the band, and has become a pivotal part of band lore in the years since.
In total, Grohl and co. played five tracks that day: Drive Me Wild by Vanity 6, Requiem by Killing Joke, Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas, Friend Of A Friend (a Grohl solo), and Baker Street — with the latter arguably viewed as the most memorable cover of all.
“You know, it’s like a classic 70s song and a few people need to be reminded just how weird that decade could be,” said bassist Nate Mendel.
The timing of the track’s resurfacing is significant: last night was the climax of Foo Fighters Week on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, a four-night residency in which the band reprised the cult tune, among other classics. It may seem light-hearted, but speaking on Kimmel’s show, Grohl made it clear how special the cover was to him personally.
“I don’t know if anyone remembers Gerry Rafferty,” he said. “Baker Street is one of my favourite songs of all time. It reminds me of being young in the ’70s. And driving around with my mum in the front seat, with AM radio on. It is truly one of my favourite songs of all time. We’ll rock that.”
