Artist: Foo Fighters
Album: The Colour & the Shape
Released: May 1997
The drums kick off the song in stadium rocking fashion. The infectious bass line follows to complete the foundation. The guitar tops off the introduction and it's at this point that you know you are about to behold an all time classic. Dave Grohl's transition from legendary drummer to legitimate song writer and front man become fully realized as he weaves an undeniable melody, shifting from smooth verses to grainy, muscle driven choruses. The song is simple and in my opinion rock at it's very best. My Hero is a song that makes you want to stand up straight, roll your shoulders back, and dive head long into the maw of life to take on anything it dares throw at you.
My Hero makes my list for two reasons; number one, its freakin' awesome and you can't deny it, number two it is the song that I have designated to represent my father.
My first encounter with this song was while watching Varsity Blues in my freshmen year of high school. Some of you who know how old I am may be amazed by this as that was nearly two years after the song was released. Well what can I say I grew up in Greybull Wyoming where there is not a rock radio station within 100 miles. So that means if it didn't come through word of mouth or from a shot in the dark on ordering a cd through BMG music club, it didn't reach my ears. For those of you unfamiliar with Varsity Blues, it is a movie about high school football, which made the song that much cooler. To be introduced to a song as football players come running out of the tunnel and start cracking heads...well it goes without saying doesn't it? So for a while football is what I associated it with, which was great. Then sometime last year my mom said that she was going to be dividing our old family pics among us kids. I started thinking how cool it would be to put a slide show together highlighting each member of the family, sort of like they do at graduations, with the students. This slide show, would need music. My Hero was the first song I thought of to honor my Dad. He would find the song as nothing more than noise (as is the case with most songs that include any kind of electric guitar) but to the rest of us, I think it would be perfect.
My Father is the greatest example of what it is to be a father, husband, business man, and just a good man, that I can think of. He always gave everything he had (and even more after that) to make sure that all of us were taken care of. He made sure to be to all of our sporting and school events, capture them on film, (even the non competitive, annual Haslem "snow bowl", in negative 13 degree weather), make every holiday and family vacation, or any other event that held value to one of us, memorable and special. My Dad made our youth a conglomeration of adventures and lessons. From summer scuba trips to Oka-Bey lake, to developing legendary paintball reputations, to camping, surprise vacations, scavenger hunts, coyote hunts, wood cutting trips, and a laundry list of other things. Beyond that he taught us through his everyday actions. One thing that stands out was how he worked something like 15 hour days 6 days of the week and then what must have been another 8 on sunday after 5 hours of church meetings, for stretches the exceeded a month at a time. All this at a job he couldn't stand, because the job had to be done right, and it was the job that provided our family with the best medical coverage and standard of living. He hated his bosses, but yet he stayed and didn't just do the job of a good employee. There was a certain standard that he set in his work (whether he liked what he was doing or not) and that standard was damn near perfection. Still even during times when his job was the most taxing he always found a way to make time to attend any event his children were participating in. And he always made time for the Lord, and his church callings. Through it all he gave me a road map to being a man, he gave me a name that I will spend the rest of my life trying to live up to. He "bleeds it out, while the rest of them peter out", and "he's ordinary" to those who don't know him, but to me, he's as good as it gets. He's my hero, hands down.
too alarming now to talk about
take your pictures down
and shake it out
truth or consequence, say it aloud
use that evidence race it around
Chorus:
there goes my hero
watch him as he goes
there goes my hero
he's ordinary
don't the best of them bleed it out
while the rest of them peter out
truth or consequence, say it aloud
use that evidence race it around
(chorus)
kudos my hero
leaving all the best
you know my hero
the one that's all
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